Worst Types of NPCs
- Thread starter JoeGKushner
- Start date
Keeper of Secrets
First Post
'NPC Theatre' Actually sums that up nicely and addresses one of the worst possible sins that a GM can committ as far as role playing faux pas goes. Of course this is often tied into 'past GM characters.' To make sure I never fall into this trap, I rarely even mention a past PC of my own and try to avoid every instance of NPC heroes or helpers upstaging the PCs. In fact, it is possible that my players feel the opposite, in that they tend to think my NPCs are useless.
Byrons_Ghost
First Post
As a player, I dislike any kind of tag-along NPCs. Either they're GM PCs who overshadow the PCs (and it doesn't always have to be power level, I've seen games where the PCs had equal power but the NPC had all of the plot hooks, back story, and campaign connections). Or, they're helpless civilians who have no business with an adventuring group and just slow down the campaign. The latter one, I can see for a session or two- a story about getting endangered villagers to a safe haven, etc. But then they should get to the haven and go about their lives.
Oddly enough, the worst abuses of both of these I've seen weren't in D&D games, but in Mage: the Ascension games. Apparently, Tradition mages just collect clueless Sleepers as they go about their merry way. I have no idea why, since the Sleepers should really just be bringing down more paradox, but it's been a part of every M:tA game I've been in. The one I ran even had this- eventually, there were 5-6 helpless mortals associated with the cabal. I tried to keep them in the background, but when the mages are transporting them from the Umbra to Earth, they sort of have to pay attention to what the NPCs are wandering into.
As as DM, I can't really think of a "worst" NPC that I've had. At least, I haven't had any complaints (to my face, that is). I did the "Magic Shoppe" routine in my last game, but I didn't have any problems with the players buying and selling magic items, and I had limits on what the could get. Also, the shop was run by a pair of old ladies with suspicious ties to various dark powers, so after a while the PCs were hesitant to deal with them (but still had to if they wanted that brand-new item... oh, the humanity!!!!)
Oh, as for the indestructible BBEG, I've also seen this in another game more than D&D, and that was Call of Cthulhu. Some of the older CoC modules have patently ridiculous methods of saving their villains for future supplements. In D&D, it did occasionally happen that a villain would have a teleport or contingency or whatever handy, but as a player who does that sort of thing myself I just think of it as part of the game. Also, most of these guys fell into the "super-powerful wizard's council member who we really shouldn't have been messing with in the first place" category, so it was much more understandable.
Oddly enough, the worst abuses of both of these I've seen weren't in D&D games, but in Mage: the Ascension games. Apparently, Tradition mages just collect clueless Sleepers as they go about their merry way. I have no idea why, since the Sleepers should really just be bringing down more paradox, but it's been a part of every M:tA game I've been in. The one I ran even had this- eventually, there were 5-6 helpless mortals associated with the cabal. I tried to keep them in the background, but when the mages are transporting them from the Umbra to Earth, they sort of have to pay attention to what the NPCs are wandering into.
As as DM, I can't really think of a "worst" NPC that I've had. At least, I haven't had any complaints (to my face, that is). I did the "Magic Shoppe" routine in my last game, but I didn't have any problems with the players buying and selling magic items, and I had limits on what the could get. Also, the shop was run by a pair of old ladies with suspicious ties to various dark powers, so after a while the PCs were hesitant to deal with them (but still had to if they wanted that brand-new item... oh, the humanity!!!!)
Oh, as for the indestructible BBEG, I've also seen this in another game more than D&D, and that was Call of Cthulhu. Some of the older CoC modules have patently ridiculous methods of saving their villains for future supplements. In D&D, it did occasionally happen that a villain would have a teleport or contingency or whatever handy, but as a player who does that sort of thing myself I just think of it as part of the game. Also, most of these guys fell into the "super-powerful wizard's council member who we really shouldn't have been messing with in the first place" category, so it was much more understandable.
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Brother MacLaren
Explorer
Yeah. And even worse? DM's former PC and friends, who stop by to kick the PC's around, using SUBDUAL attacks because we are just so beneath them. God, I hate subdual attacks. Kill the PCs and be done with it, but don't humiliate them.Starglim said:
Blue
Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal
My least favorite NPCs are "GMPC"s, or "game master player characters". We have one DM who won't run without them (in D&D or other games). It's funny how magic items happen to be generated to be best for the GMPC, or the GMPC suddenly has a noble history because it's campaign convienent. It's just cheesy and self-agrandizement.
Blue said:
We have the same problem in our group. I don't really mind GMPC's in and of themselves, but there are a couple that I've started to get tired of.
We almost always have at least two of them with us, one is typically male, the other is female, and the system is pretty much irrelevant. The guy is almost always a skilled fighter and specialist in some area, an estranged noble, chivalrous, and has an answer to pretty much everything. Never shakes, never breaks, he's cool under every circumstance. He seems to be able to take a lot of abuse and still stay upright and swinging, compared to the rest of the party at least. Often found in company with the female, though sometimes alone. Always mysterious and vaguely 'better than you'. We are not sure what would happen if we decided to have a go at him, aside from pissing the GM off.
The female is usually little more than a damsel in distress, and appears in nearly every game (session) I've ever played. Typically a healer attached to the party to keep everyone alive (at any cost), this character rarely has any notable personality. She appears either as a young adult or as a child, depending on how weak and dependent the character is supposed to be. Usually attractive and/or important, and the rest of the party can be easily guilt-tripped into staying with her and helping her (I've long since stopped caring much about NPCs in any game; they tend to take care of themselves well enough when put to the test). In other words, she's a very blatant walking plot device that we can't get away from. For added annoyance, this character often ends up attached to one of the PCs, who essentially become's her guardian and servant.
I find the latter NPC to be the most annoying. I can't think of a single game, one-shot or no, where that NPC didn't appear. I can predict when they will show up and how they will act, and I always get this urge now to just walk away from them and their predicament. It was like that in a recent Alternity game, where we ran into an escape vessel in drivespace. Only one life sign aboard, in cryo-stasis, and I was the engineer on hand to fiddle with it. And I was tempted to intentionally screw it up, to throw my character concept to the wind, because I knew exactly what I would find (of course, I actually failed my rolls to get everything working, and we were still successful in getting the pod out and the girl to safety, so...).
Just once, I want to play in a game where the party must rely on itself, rather than the knowledge that something will be provided to save us, because we inevitably get the mysterious fighter and delicate cleric/mage/princess to pull our bacon out of fires that we could have probably dealt with on our own.
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Agamon
Hero
My players are an independant group, they like to do things without relying on NPCs helping them. That, and I have a habit giving NPCs ulterior motives that run contrary to the party's, so they don't much trust them. That said...
Running RttToEE upgraded for 3.5E, it's quite the meatgrinder. The 6 PC party is actually higher than recommended level (or they were), and have gone through 4 PCs and 2 NPCs in the first couple sections of the Crater Ridge Mines. They actually went to Rastor and used the Paladin's huge Diplomacy to talk the local wizard into joining them. That's funny, these players usually don't like NPCs tagging along, and here they are going out of their way to beg one to join the party.
Running RttToEE upgraded for 3.5E, it's quite the meatgrinder. The 6 PC party is actually higher than recommended level (or they were), and have gone through 4 PCs and 2 NPCs in the first couple sections of the Crater Ridge Mines. They actually went to Rastor and used the Paladin's huge Diplomacy to talk the local wizard into joining them. That's funny, these players usually don't like NPCs tagging along, and here they are going out of their way to beg one to join the party.
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