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Why oh why do they hate my NPCs?
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<blockquote data-quote="TheAuldGrump" data-source="post: 5501495" data-attributes="member: 6957"><p>Me, I spend more time on the folks I want my players to <em>hate</em>. My favorites are when the guy goes into the 'we trust him, but we don't like him' category. Another favorite is the 'I don't know why, but she scares the crap out of me' category and the 'I am going to watch him like a mouse watches a cat - he's bad, he is, and I <em>know</em> that he's dangerous' category.</p><p></p><p>That said, more important than making an NPC likable is making an NPC sympathetic - liking will follow when the PCs interact with the NPC. Knowing what drives the character, and how far they can trust the person.</p><p></p><p>I have had a party go out of their way to save one of the villains, purely because they could sympathize with him and because he was the devil they knew. (High point - four players bribed him to feed information, accurate information, to a high ranking official... who bribed him for the information. <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devil.png" class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":devil:" title="Devil :devil:" data-shortname=":devil:" /> )</p><p></p><p>On the flip side was a touchy feely sorcerer who scared the crap out of them, even though she smiled and was always so <em>happy</em> to see them. They were right, she was dangerous, not evil, but self centered, amoral, a sensualist, and a trifle depraved. And she <em>liked</em> them. They treated her the way I would treat a poisonous snake. I found a mini for her - the players went 'holy crap, that's <em>her</em>' before I even named who the figure was for:</p><p><img src="http://www.reapermini.com/pages/figure_finder_image.php?sku=02563_w_1.jpg&image=3" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /></p><p></p><p></p><p>The Auld Grump</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="TheAuldGrump, post: 5501495, member: 6957"] Me, I spend more time on the folks I want my players to [i]hate[/i]. My favorites are when the guy goes into the 'we trust him, but we don't like him' category. Another favorite is the 'I don't know why, but she scares the crap out of me' category and the 'I am going to watch him like a mouse watches a cat - he's bad, he is, and I [i]know[/i] that he's dangerous' category. That said, more important than making an NPC likable is making an NPC sympathetic - liking will follow when the PCs interact with the NPC. Knowing what drives the character, and how far they can trust the person. I have had a party go out of their way to save one of the villains, purely because they could sympathize with him and because he was the devil they knew. (High point - four players bribed him to feed information, accurate information, to a high ranking official... who bribed him for the information. :devil: ) On the flip side was a touchy feely sorcerer who scared the crap out of them, even though she smiled and was always so [i]happy[/i] to see them. They were right, she was dangerous, not evil, but self centered, amoral, a sensualist, and a trifle depraved. And she [i]liked[/i] them. They treated her the way I would treat a poisonous snake. I found a mini for her - the players went 'holy crap, that's [i]her[/i]' before I even named who the figure was for: [IMG]http://www.reapermini.com/pages/figure_finder_image.php?sku=02563_w_1.jpg&image=3[/IMG] The Auld Grump [/QUOTE]
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