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Message: <blockquote data-quote="rstivers1989" data-source="post: 9563851" data-attributes="member: 7049572">Thank you for your thoughtful reply (and ideas). When I'm referring to a MacGuffin, I'm saying the characters who exist largely to act as a vehicle to move the plot forward only but then kind of lose their value. Typically a MacGuffin is an object, so that may be where the confusion lies. It's more commentary that their presence almost feels like an unnecessary DMNPC/Narrator to push the party along. I do think there is some real utility to Torrent being that if you are doing this as a campaign insert and just using Sourcebook #1. I can also totally see the benefit for this for a brand new party of players to a system, but for an experienced party there is actually a bit of a downside to having ever-present NPC's that can answer all your world building / narrative questions or vice versa, are just empty bags the DM has to fill.As a DM, I just think it can also be frustrating mechanically and narratively. Based on what I've read, it's "possible" (albeit unlikely) to have 4 NPCs tagging along with the party by the end of #2, correct? Tiljann, Haddin, Crystin, Torrent. That's a quite large ensemble. On a practical level, that's a DM running 4 NPCs every single session for a minimum of 5-7 weeks and doing a lot of talking with themselves if they are meant to be living breathing members of the PC's party.Even if you get rid of Haddin, which its likely a party would, you still have 3 solid NPCs in combat and story situations that you have to manage. That's just a lot of back end management for a DM to do for characters that really feel like they have "moments" to shine as opposed to a need to be everpresent. I'm guessing most tables handwave out the mechanics at an absolute minimum, or do what I am planning and "sideline" NPCs as needed (e.g. i'm Sidelining Torrent until they get to the point of leaving the City).To your point, one of my absolute favorite things about the adventurers I have read thus far is the versatility and depth of "bit" characters within the plot. I think Haddin and Crystin are a spectacular example of this - it's a powerful example of the dangers of magic and provides some "moral greyness" to the Ragesian position in the same way I really appreciated the subtlety of choosing to have the Shahesti have Celestials to implicit suggest they are not evil without shoving it in your face. Haddin and Crystin also deals with a very real and serious social problem of familial abuse. In addition, it serves as an early entry point to Trillith, whose plotline I think overall could benefit from some expansion and these early sessions feel rife with opportunity for that.That said, I don't know that Crystin provides a lot of story utility after that initial encounter to warrant her being attached to the party's hip. For example, giving the premonitions in Book 2 to the PC's seems like a more interesting way to convey that information, even if Crystin is in the party, stuff happening to PCs is always going to be baseline more interesting then stuff happening to NPCs who are being dragged along. Having Crystin, Haddin, and Torrent all weigh-in on the major moral decision the party is facing seems to me to potentially take away player agency to really "sit" with that decision. The story here has some incredible layers, and I feel like the NPCs that are specifically tied with the party sometimes don't allow those layers to breathe.Sidenote - I really like your idea for Haddin. I am going to think about ways to use that idea more deliberately!</blockquote>

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