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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wolf1066" data-source="post: 5181483" data-attributes="member: 88680">NPCs becoming pet characters is a problem that must be avoided whether or not they're running along with the team or just a recurring outsider that you've spent time and effort into building up.Frankly, I'm more likely to be guilty of protecting the player characters in the interests of them carrying on to complete the game.  Especially in Cyberpunk where they can't be brought back to life with a resurrection spell with all memories/skills/personality intact.  Hell, even a serious wounding can put them out of action for a while (I use FNFF2013, not the hollywoodised "heal-one-point-a-day" 2020 rules - you break a leg, expect to be adventuring on crutches or from an arm chair well away from the action for the next six weeks, weakened for a week after that...)Once the players build up a network of friends in their adoptive town, it could be possible to cycle through a variety of NPCs accompanying the group - there's a couple of locals who have not yet won the team's trust who would be just as good at persuasion as the Techie and fulfil that part of his role admirably - they'd just have to wait for a tow truck if something happened to the van.Eating up play time should not be an issue - the occasional quick skill roll when needed and me saying the result should not take any more time than if a player character tried it.  Probably less, as the player would probably want to role-play a bit or have to take time explaining to me what (s)he's attempting to do.  Van breaks down, players want it fixed, I do the techie's rolls and say "the techie locates the problem and improvises a solution that should see you as far as the next town, this took three hours, but you're on your way again."Contrasted with normal game play - [roll] Me: "you've located the problem, the whatnot's burned out"  PC: "Do we have a spare in the back?" [roll] Me: "no." PC: "can I rig something to work?" [roll] Me: "you've managed to determine that you could cannibalise the frimfram and make the whosit fit where the whatnot should be"  PC: "Cool, how long will that last?" Me: "should get you to the next town" PC: "how long did it take?" Me: "about 3 hours"...Of course, different games have different mechanics behind skill resolution.In each case, the vehicle broke down and repairs delayed the team by 3 hours (and possibly more when they get to the next town and have to fix it properly before continuing, no skill rolls needed but time will pass in game), but they play out quite a bit differently.As to "pets":If the team comes under fire, I'll roll a D4 and that'll determine who's being targeted, be it player or NPC.  NPC will of course behave intelligently - attempting to evade, seek cover etc, just as the players should be - and, if targeted, his defense roll will reflect that.  However, if the attackers roll higher than the team, team members are likely to get hit - players and NPC alike - with damage locations and amount rolled accordingly.If the NPC dies, it dies.  Hopefully, enough interaction with the player characters will have occurred by then that they will miss it.It's just fighting the temptation to fudge the dice if the players are targeted that'll be hard...</blockquote>

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