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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wolf1066" data-source="post: 5181408" data-attributes="member: 88680">Excellent comments with great examples abound - thanks folks.I fully agree with kigmatzomat's concern about a character becoming a GMPC and I fully agree with not letting the character steal the players' thunder.Hence the character needs to be run on skill rolls and the players make the decisions as to how the group proceeds.I had great plans for what I would throw at the team if the character was being run by a player that I cannot use now (like one of the components in their vehicle overheating - something that would be easy to detect using thermographic vision long before it failed completely and left them stranded... if the player thought to check the vehicle with thermograph on) but there are still some areas where they may well need someone with decent technical skills in order to modify something to suit their needs or to fix anything that breaks (I'll be doing random rolls to see if their gear/cyberware breaks down).Similarly, the character is the only one in the team with decent skills in Interview and Persuasion/Fast Talk and, unless the players decide to be totally obnoxious and attempt to intimidate everyone into submission (and I don't see them doing that) they will need those skills to enlist the aid of, or gain information from, various NPCs (the existing players' skill levels in each would actually make it highly unlikely they get anywhere rolling for either, forcing me to adjust various NPC stats/skills just to give them a fighting chance... and the players would not trust info/help so easily won.)It's a useful character - reasonable in a fight (but by no means the best shot or strongest fighter - those honours go to the team's only female PC) and has usable "people skills" for when there's no technical work to be done (otherwise the player would have gotten bored wandering around with the team, doing nothing useful and hoping for something to break down so he could strut his stuff) and it had some interesting backgrounds, strengths and failings - it would have been nice to see it played properly and to throw some curve balls at it out of its past.  The intended player was an experienced gamer and also a real-life technician, so I think it could have been played well.Still, you can't always predict what life throws at you and the player's no longer available, nor are any of the other people I've approached.The good thing is that all the characters are "foreign" to the area and the players have gotten a head start - I'd intended for all four to head off at once but when the 4th player had to pull out I temporised and had the three remaining players head off with their employment broker promising to send their 4th team member when he found someone suitable - to give me time to find another player and still keep the plot open to being able to introduce him/her later.However, the stories that are going on around them are marching on and events will occur soon such as to make it pretty much impossible to introduce that particular character (and I want to avoid illusionism in the form of giving them an "opportunity to choose a companion" that amounts to the exact same set of skills in different wrappings) and I still have no replacement player.As the players will know more about the area than the NPC by the time he "arrives in town", he will be more "ignorant" of what's going on than the players, giving scope for situations such as kigmatzomat describes and firmly establishing him as the "Junior member" of the team, always several paces behind everyone else.Shouldn't be too hard to realistically portray him as just tagging along, doing his job and deferring to the others as more "up with the play" than himself.He'll want his wages and his share of any bonuses, natch, but it'll be down to the players to grab the glory, gain the bigger reps and drive the group.  Leave him for responding to such things as "crap, the AV's broken down, how long will it take you to fix it?" or "we really need a radio transmitter, can you cobble one together from these old stereos?" or "we haven't got enough money to get across on the ferry, can you go over to that bloke, bat your eyes winsomely or whatever it is you do, and convince him to give us a lift in his boat for less than 50 euro?  The more 'less' the better, if you don't mind."Bedrockgames, this character thankfully is more of the "friendly persuasion" nature (and if it weren't, I'd have modified it before running it).  High EMP and ATTR, pleasing voice (Ocelot's Advantages/Disadvantages) and good people skills.  Not a coward - not likely to turn tail and run from a fight (rats, on the other hand...) - but not a gung-ho glory seeker.  Backstory (to explain combat skills) is that he joined the Air Force Engineering Corps to get his technical training and certification paid for.  So he's had basic military weapons training and he's had to use his skills once or twice to protect himself.  He's seen duty - mostly fixing Air Force vehicles in various countries - so he's used to being under fire.  But he's not a "Military Sort" by any stretch of the imagination, he's a Techie, first and foremost, who decided to get paid to learn rather than paying to learn.  Once he got his certs he left the Air Force to get a civilian job.I'm pretty sure he can be plausibly played low key -  prepared to leave the "Thrillin' Heroics" to others but still able to be relied upon no matter what happens - an "I've got your back" sort of guy rather than a "once more into the breach..." type.thecasualoblivion, I can understand your #4.  It would be nice having that one character who's always there and whose motives/aims for helping the team are not tinged with "what's his game?" on the parts of the players.  Sure, they will develop friendships with some of the other NPCs and grow to trust them, but they may only see them at the pub or wherever.  Whether or not they decide to like this character, or he them, they will have to work with him as he is part of the team and they will at least know that he's doing things for the same reasons they are: get paid and live long enough to spend it...</blockquote>

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