powerful NPCs

From: Andrew Joelson <joelsona_at_cpdmfg.cig.mot.com>
Date: Wed, 8 May 1996 07:32:24 -0500


Ian Gorlick says:

>Martin Laurie:
>> I find that they [powerful NPCs] ... are useful duex ex machina at times.
>
>Which is part of why I don't like them. Deus ex machina (when the protagonists
>are rescued by forces from completely outside the narrative) is a crutch for
>poor plotting. If you allow yourself to use it, then you tempt yourself to be
>sloppy when you create your scenarios. I won't accept it in any fiction I read,

>therefore I won't tolerate using it in my scenarios.

        The care and feeding of powerfull NPCs requires a lot of work, and if you don't do it right you'll know soon enough from your player's reactions. I have two particular examples of this.
1) D&D (shows how long ago this was) group were drafted by the potty old

    wizard to do a job. He tattoo'd them magicaly so that he could always     figure out where they were. If they were going too far from where HE     wanted them to go, the demon L'Lori would show up and give them a tongue     lashing. L'Lori never did anything but act as courier; mostly for     instructions from the wizard, occasionally with some gear the group was     going to need (never in combat). One day the group said "We can take     L'Lori", and found out that she was pretty wimpy.... 2) Rupert von Harl was much more powerfull than the rest of my RQ group, as

    he had been around for eight game years. I asked the judge if he really     wanted me to take him out again? "Yes, if he's along I can do a few more     interesting things without snuffing the party." This was sort of like     the powerfull NPC, since no one else could keep up with Rupert. But we     started running into bands of broos with human shamans leading them, etc.     Suddenly our enemies had leaders, and powerfull ones (as you would expect).     After the broo combat above, the guys gathered around saying "I killed     three broos!", "I killed four Broos", "I killed three broos and rescued     Kalon when he was about to be killed", and Rupert's comment was "puff...     puff..I just finshed off the shaman...puff..puff...anybody need help?"

Balance is the key; it's got to be believable.

                Andrew

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++      I
Andrew Joelson				joelsona_at_cpdmfg.cig.mot.com        -+-
AKA  Rupert von Harl, Seven Mothers/Yanafal Tarnils and Humakt		    |
"Contradiction?  No, I always did tend to kill chaos creatures anyway."     /

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