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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Krensky" data-source="post: 4450606" data-attributes="member: 30936">When I last ran a Realms game I tended to use the high level NPCs as patrons, administrators (because most of them are described that way in the books) and celebrities. The PCs might get a quick description or glimpse of them, maybe even them showing off, but it's like seeing a star actor in the supermarket.As for play, the solution I had was, quite frankly, the NPCs don't get involved for either of two reasons:1) You (well, one of the PCs) are the tool I (in my role as one of the heads of the Harpers) I am sending to investigate and solve this issue. I've given you all the intelligence we have and some gear and cash. Have at it. I'm not going because I'm busy dealing with things you can not. Generally, what the PCs can not wasn't fighting villians, but either acting as a strategic threat or expending effort and energy to counter the uber villians plots, partly by sending the PCs and others like them to handle elements of those plots appropriate to their power and partly by just being where they were. Please note this happened twice in the game, and only because the players chose to be (or hang around the PC who was a) Harper.2) The powerful NPCs are busy and involved in handling and resisting dozens of things. They are not going to help you with your personal problems. The Players and the PCs knew this so they didn't go whining to Elminster or the Blackstaff or Silverhand that their sister was kidnapped or their room in the inn was burgled.3) The powerful NPCs can not be everywhere. PCs often stumble upon things and they develop fast, so being the men on the spot they should deal with it. Again, they did not go whining to their bosses (or their friend's bosses), they just did it.4) I think I used Elminster (using the tired and slightly insane version) as a deus ex machina once in four years when the players because the players screwed up by the numbers, rolled abysmally, and I completely misjudged the encounter. However, he didn't show up and zap the monster before it killed them, he brought them back from the dead because he needed them to do something for him that he couldn't because, being Elminster, he was being watched. Hence the PCs. After a few sessions on that arc, the PCs jokingly grumbled it might have been better to stay dead since the mission made little sense to them and was not a walk in the park.</blockquote>

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