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NPC Team Members


Armitage

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How do people feel about a team of PC heroes with an NPC member?  What experiences have you had with the situation?

 

Obviously, there's the risk that the NPC will transform into a GMPC, with the GM trying to run the game and play in it at the same time, and possibly accidentally or intentionally putting more emphasis on the NPC than the PCs.

 

On the other hand, it can help to add extra firepower to the team, or provide the GM with a readily available way to "nudge" the players if they get stuck during an investigation.

That has pitfalls itself though, if the players become too dependant on the NPC when they don't feel like solving a mystery themselves.  Dragon #170 had an article, "The Pitfalls of Gamemastering".  One of them was:

 

 

Oracles

GM: “The kobold porter you hired wants to say something.”
Player: “Okay, we stop arguing and listen to him.”

GM: “He says, ‘Why don’t you pour water on the Talking Rock?’ ”
Player: “Okay, we’ll do that.”
GM: “Suddenly, you hear a voice that says, ‘Good thinking!’ ”

 

This method of manipulation is rather common. All NPCs in this sort of game are oracles of wisdom and knowledge, the mouthpieces of the GM. Sometimes, NPCs may make good guesses because they’re experienced or smart. But if they do it regularly, the players will start trying to get the GM’s hints out of really stupid NPCs.

 

Solution: Play NPCs according to their intelligence. The dumber they are, the less likely they’ll know anything. Even the smartest NPCs should make mistakes. Remember that the three most common responses people make to strange questions are “I don’t know,” “Haven’t the faintest idea,” and “Why are you asking me, of all people?”

 

 

I was once in a game in which the GM had planned to introduce a sapient telepathic sheepdog (the result of a VIPER experiment).  It was intemded that the PCs would think he was just a stray dog that had adopted the team, he would secretly use his powers to help us when he could, and he would eventually reveal his true nature.  Unfortunately, the team mentalist mind blasted the dog the moment he appeared, for no particular reason (he was that type of player), so the secret lasted about 30 seconds.

The dog wasn't as powerful as the PCs and he didn't act publically, since he was in hiding, so his main edge was in stealth operations, since people thought he was a normal dog.  He got along well with the team, except the mentalist PC.  Imagine that.  The PC was a cyborg whose mental powers derived from his brain implants and he had the highly imaginative name "Psi-Borg".  The dog called him "Toaster".

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Long ago I and my cohorts often had one of our PCs as part of the team. We weren't so into the story necessarily that it was a problem of railroading or being an oracle for the players.

 

Decades later, I tend to not play a character on the team. For example, in the game I'm currently in, I normally am a player, but we sometimes switch off GMs for a "guest GM adventure." In those situations, I've had my character off doing something else (hopefully not feeling too contrived). Or, in the last go-round, where my character couldn't just be gone, one of the other players ran my character as well.

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I tend not to have NPCs as party members, though I did so more with my last game, League of Extraordinary Americans  http://www.herogames.com/forums/topic/87773-lxa-league-of-extraordinary-americans/?hl=%22league+of+extraordinary+americans%22

 

NPCs in my games tend to join our party only when invited, if then, or under orders, and often just short term. 

 

As Armitage said, 

 

Pro: NPCs are good for repeating clues, something I should have done sooner in our Arsenal of Democracy game.  They don't have to deduce for us.  Beef up party strength, especially when player attendance is lacking.

 

Con: Potential diffused spotlight for our Player Character heroes.

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I've run a few, usually a support character like a healer or a mage.  They give me some input when the players need a nudge, but mostly they are there to help out when the party is missing a key role or weak in some area.  I always try to build them as reticent, quiet, and introverted types who stay out of the way.  Often, I tie them to one or more of the characters as a servant or in some way under their command.  The trick is to make sure they are background, have little to say, and only give input when directly asked or when you as a GM really need the players to know or do something they haven't thought of.

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We don't have any NPC team members in any of the superteams in the campaign. However, we do have independent heroes (and even supervillains once in a blue moon) show up and help out. Usually, answers are "You got me" but if asked in an area of expertise the person has, the heroes will get a good answer.

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I am strongly opposed to GMPCs, but I've had the occasional NPC as part of a team, and it usually worked well.  I've had:

  • sidekicks for a few of the heroes
  • a guy with amnesia the team rescued from one of Malachite's labs
  • several support characters

In the case of the guy with amnesia (John Doe), I often asked one of the players to run JD during combats.  So when JD got the occasional great attack or damage roll, the players took it more as "one of us" and were perfectly fine with it. 

 

I had two support characters in one campaign (though to be fair, they weren't part of the team so much as recurring solo NPC heroes).  One, Rubicon, was a solo mage they needed for info since none of the PCs had mystic knowledge or magic powers.  The other was a freshly-minted teen hero (Cobalt Kid) with a cosmic VPP.  In both cases, the characters were markedly lower-powered than the PC heroes, so there was no chance of the NPCs overshadowing them. and in the case of CK, several of the players enjoyed playing mentor.

 

Heck, one time the heroes stole a villain's battlesuit to turn a PRIMUS agent one of the heroine PCs was dating into a superhero in his own right. 

 

However, as I noted in another thread, I like making use of normal NPCs.  So if I need an in-game voice to give the players a suggestion, I can use the hero base security chief, or their secretary, or their UNTIL liaison.  They may not all be combat members of the team, but they're still team members.

 

Also, I'm not afraid to have NPCs make the occasional bad suggestion.  The players shouldn't trust what any NPC says as the Word of God.  Two NPCs arguing opposite sides of an issue can help get the PCs involved in a discussion on the pros and cons of a course of action.  And the GM can slip in plenty of clues and reminders along the way without it seeming contrived.

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I've run a few, usually a support character like a healer or a mage.  They give me some input when the players need a nudge, but mostly they are there to help out when the party is missing a key role or weak in some area.  I always try to build them as reticent, quiet, and introverted types who stay out of the way.  Often, I tie them to one or more of the characters as a servant or in some way under their command.  The trick is to make sure they are background, have little to say, and only give input when directly asked or when you as a GM really need the players to know or do something they haven't thought of.

 

I have done this as well, in many other games, and my recent Champions play-test; only to fill in when the party is missing something because no player wanted to fill that role (or short on numbers).  I don't have the NPC contribute usually (outside of their "purpose"), unless I actually roll their skill, and often I'll ask a player to roll it; or the NPC doesn't really know anything.

 

I do have them prompt the players some times, if they need a nudge; but, I usually do it subtle enough it sounds like conversation, and the players seldom pickup that I've handed them something.

 

I too also have had the NPC make bad suggestions based on their character type, though it's usually obvious enough that everyone gets it.

 

So, the NPC usually doesn't overshadow any PC's cause they work more like a henchmen.

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i like to have ally npc's in a  table top rpg game (well in all games). because that way you can have member of the them that act in certain ways or have a certain history/ knowledge that will drive the story forward, which will keep a gm from committing the sin of tell a play about who there character which (at least it is  something that my friends  have never liked). to keep the npc from being the star give them a support role or build them a little on the weak side unless you got maximizes then a solid ncp couldn't steal the show if they tried. in the same way you limit there stats you can also limit there mind making them average intelligence, if its not common sense or in there knowledge forte then they don't need to know it.

 

the last thing that you can do with a struggling group is give them a common sense option. :stupid:

 

this is not something i personally enjoy doing but if you make a world that function even remotely similar to the real world then there will be options that some people will simply miss (especially if they approach table tops like they do video games  :weep: ). that maybe when you may want to give players the common sense option, because there are some players who find a hideout's front door and want to just walk in, some player who will want to stalk or chase random a npc with police and onlookers watching, and some players who will constantly act on assumptions without getting all the facts. of course these are only conclusions that any joe off the street could come up with and they are only suggestions. if some has a better system besides in game neon signs (which would be fun to try  :snicker:) let me know. because i got a shoot first player, a yes ok player, and a guy who can't help but build a frisky character. 

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I've never had that happen but in several games we've had a roving NPC called "Bacis Tira" who was the guy visitors, guests, and one-shot players would sit in with.  He's been in a wide variety of different non-superheroic games and became sort of our term for an NPC that everyone can play.

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