Running NPCs as a long-term party/team member

[Wolf1066]

• There's a tacit understanding among the players and myself that the PCs are the heroes

I think that's got to be a given. Even when I've made it clear to the characters that there are "no good guys and bad guys" outside of personal perception (even the characters the players view as "baddies" think they are doing The Right Thing according to their own priorities and probably think the player characters and their allies are "the baddies" for attempting to upset their plans). The players are definitely the prime characters and they must not be upstaged by the help.

It goes without saying that they all have names and at least a broad-brush description and personality. Even the horses, for the most part.

Likewise goes without saying.

I also have pictures of key (and, to prevent the players from making assumptions about NPCs, not so key) NPCs to aid the characters in visualising those with whom they are interacting.

So far, they have a boss, a land lady, a fixer and a netrunner and have met two of their new neighbours who have taken them out to a club where they've met a rather weird trio - all of whom are going to become regular NPCs that help out the players from time to time (provided the team does nothing that would jeopardise the relationships and result in assistance being withdrawn).

In the case of the fixer and netrunner, they will be where the characters can reach them when they need their services, working in the team's interests for that most understandable of reasons - money. Other than that, they won't be around.

 

[Barastrondo]

I think it also really depends on knowing your group and what they want to get out of it. For instance, I've got several players for whom one of the big joys of gaming is "interact with interesting people." Not to knock on their fellow players, but these folks don't want to have interesting conversations with only the same three other people in the game. So if they need an extra body along to smooth out fights, that someone should be worth talking to. It's definitely possible with my group to err too far on the side of "don't let the NPC be too interesting."

Of course, that also depends on the dynamic of the game. In combat it's fine if the NPC doesn't do too much that's interesting as long as he doesn't actively detract from a fight scene with aching dullness. Out-of-combat, if the PCs want to talk to the guy, damn straight he's going to have a personality, and he's probably going to have a few surprises in his background or ambitions that reward the PCs for taking the time. Hell, last time I threw an NPC into a game because the two PCs needed a defender, the guy was stoic to the point of uncommunicative, and seemingly with no ambitions whatsoever. Perfect "don't overshadow the PCs" personality, right? For my players, it was like catnip: the PCs spent a lot of time trying to figure out what had got him that way, and how to light the fire of ambition in his chest once more.

 

[Wolf1066]

I think it also really depends on knowing your group and what they want to get out of it.

Very true. And part of any good writing for any medium is to know your target audience and pitch your work accordingly.

For instance, I've got several players for whom one of the big joys of gaming is "interact with interesting people." Not to knock on their fellow players, but these folks don't want to have interesting conversations with only the same three other people in the game. So if they need an extra body along to smooth out fights, that someone should be worth talking to.

My players are definitely in that camp. They enjoy interacting with the NPCs as well as each other.

Out-of-combat, if the PCs want to talk to the guy, damn straight he's going to have a personality, and he's probably going to have a few surprises in his background or ambitions that reward the PCs for taking the time.

I've always tended to ensure that NPCs that are going to interact with the team on even a semi-regular basis have backgrounds, motivations and personality quirks. And if one that was designed to be a one-off encounter unexpectedly becomes more "regular" than previously planned - perhaps (s)he was helpful and the players decide to actively track down him/her time and again - and role playing dictates that the NPC become more three dimensional than the initial sack of stats I drafted, anything that comes out of the resultant ad-libbing gets noted down and the character is expanded.

NPC charts I've drawn up aren't quite as full-featured as the PC sheets, but they do have scope for a lot of stuff should I need it.

As I'm running as near to "Real-life Cyberpunk" as I can, I feel I owe it to my players to provide my NPCs with realistic motivations and - if required by repeated contact - human quirks etc.

Fortunately, I love creating character concepts and can do it on the fly. I actually think my characterisation skills are better than my plot-building skills.

And my players certainly do enjoy interacting with characters and nutting out what makes them tick - motivations and goals seem to be the big thing the players are concerned with (hardly surprising, I suppose, in a Cyberpunk game where the questions are "why would (s)he want to help me? Are they on the level or just trying to win my trust long enough to get me into a secluded, dark alley?")

I also like throwing in little bits from NPCs to keep the game interesting or teach the players valuable lessons like "don't make assumptions".

For example, I came up with what I thought would be a fun little quirk for their fixer that would make her more of a 3D human than a stat sack - after all, she's going to be a regular contact whenever they want to buy something - and also teach them the "dangers" of assuming things in a fairly safe manner.

They met the fixer - female, friendly demeanor, pink hair - and order some stuff. When they come to collect it, a bloke brings the stuff out from the storage area, fixer says "thanks, babe". Team assumes - as I had intended - he's her sexual partner and comment. She says, rather offhand, "no, he's Amber and Mona's husband". When they recover from the idea that he has two wives, one asks, "who are Amber and Mona?" and the fixer replies "Amber's my wife." Hilarity ensued while the team tried to sort out the marital arrangements.

In that little exchange I established the fixer as a person with a life and a personality, conveyed the idea that the laws of this future are significantly different from the here and now (nice "we're not in Kansas any more" moment for the players) and showed them that making assumptions in my game is a silly thing to do - that knowledge may save their characters' lives some day...

Also provided a light moment and some enjoyable role playing. All in all, my little off-the-cuff idea that occurred to me a few days before proved quite successful.

Hell, last time I threw an NPC into a game because the two PCs needed a defender, the guy was stoic to the point of uncommunicative, and seemingly with no ambitions whatsoever. Perfect "don't overshadow the PCs" personality, right? For my players, it was like catnip: the PCs spent a lot of time trying to figure out what had got him that way, and how to light the fire of ambition in his chest once more.

Hehe, I can imagine that would be my players' reaction, too - sometimes it's best to give the NPC a quick and easy personality and motivations that the players can get a handle on in a couple of minutes and then get on with the adventure...

Thankfully, the character I need to run with this team was designed for an actual player to run - and has the same level of background info as any of the other player characters. This means that however far the players decide to drive the interaction, I have the info on hand.

I'm not going to play the NPC as someone who keeps volunteering all sorts of details to the party and interrupting game play/overshadowing what they're doing, but if they ask a question of him, there's going to be an answer in keeping with the character.

 

[howandwhy99]

NPCs often accompany the party for a number of reasons. But it's largely up to them how long any one of them is around.

 

[TarionzCousin]

Make sure that the NPC who accompanies the party is of the opposite gender, has a Charisma of at least 17, and is single.

It's really the quickest way to earn your Rat Bastard DM Merit Badge.

 

[an_idol_mind]

My current campaign features a group of seven with four of those adventurers being NPCs. There's one apprentice, a torchbearer-turned-rogue, a sorcerer love interest, and a kidnapping victim seeking revenge. It's a bit unwieldy when it comes to combat, so I've broken it down to each player controlling two characters - their PC and one NPC - during combat, while the NPCs remain under my control out of battle.

That's probably the most extreme example I have of teaming up NPCs and PCs, but I've often used one or two NPCs to aid the party. I think the key to making it work is to make sure the players like the NPCs before putting them in the group long-term. I've read through several old modules lately that hoist an NPC on the group, and I can't see it working because the character is either insufferable or so good at everything that he outshines the PCs. If the players like the NPC, it's easy to incorporate him. If not, forcing him into the adventure can kill a game.

 

[Mark]

Make sure that the NPC who accompanies the party is of the opposite gender, has a Charisma of at least 17, and is single.

It's really the quickest way to earn your Rat Bastard DM Merit Badge.

You must spread some XP . . .

 

[Wolf1066]

Make sure that the NPC who accompanies the party is of the opposite gender, has a Charisma of at least 17, and is single.

It's really the quickest way to earn your Rat Bastard DM Merit Badge.

What do you do if you have both male and female players?

In a previous game, I got the Rat Bastard DM Merit Badge by melding a PC (and the car he was driving) with the pavement with a 30mm chain gun while he was driving to meet up with the other PCs - less than 2 minutes into the game session...

 

[Lanefan]

Generally - well, at least in all the games I've played or GM'ed to date where this situation has arisen, YMMV, of course - the new player fronts up for gaming night armed with brand spanking new character sheet and sits down and the GM then usually indulges in some shameless railroading to get the player characters into the right place/situation to meet the new character and then they role-play meeting and then the players decide that the new character can join them on their adventure.

The trouble is: the players already know that the newcomer is a player character. They are practically honour-bound to trust and accept the newcomer and let them join the group. There is no suspense - can this person be trusted, what are his/her motives - and no reason at all to examine whether party/team and newcomer have reasonable grounds for joining forces - if any grounds are given at all... "Where're you going?" "I'm off to get lots of treasure." "Really? So are we." "Cool, can I join your team?" "Sure." "Thanks."

[...]

But it does rather illustrate the point that players tend to trust characters they know are also player characters - and therefore their characters trust, also.

In your game, maybe. In mine the players have learned from hard experience that sometimes the most dangerous thing they'll encounter is another PC; thus whenever someone tries to join they risk bring subjected to all sorts of cross-checks and detection spells provided someone in the party remembers to do 'em.*

They usually take in any NPC I throw at 'em pretty much without question unless it drips Evil from every pore; and even then it's 50-50.

* - then again, to give an idea of what I'm running here, my Friday night group last session threw out their sweetness-and-light Aphrodite Cleric while keeping their not-so-sweet Hobbit Assassin (run by the same player!), and then in tonight's game took great pains to save said Assassin's life after he got clobbered in a major combat. Their criteria for inclusion no longer goes "is it evil?" but "is it useful?"...

Lan-"at all times be wary of any party that would have me as a member"-efan

 

[TarionzCousin]

What do you do if you have both male and female players?

Cull the weak. Look around the table: you know who will succumb. Choose accordingly.

I like to think of it as "providing an opportunity to roleplay, to stretch beyond the everyday 'I'm an elf so I'm better than you' behavior."