How many Player-related NPCs?

[Steve]

In your average TTRPG group, even with just a handful of players, if each of them takes DNPCs, Hunteds, Contacts and Followers, that can quickly become a cast size that could overwhelm a GM.

 

So, how many NPCs is too many? Should a limit exist on the number of NPCs a group can bring to the table as their supporting cast?

 

How about an individual player? What if one player’s supporting cast is significantly larger than those of other players? Should a limit be imposed to keep their NPCs from taking over the campaign?

[drunkonduty]

I like when a player adds to the campaign world. If that's in the form of NPCs I'm cool with that. 

 

But yes, it's possible for someone to oversaturate the campaign with their NPCs. I don't think there's a hard and fast rule as to how many is too many. But I'll know it when I see it.

 

I do think there's a difference between Hunteds and DNPCs on the one hand, and general supporting cast on the other. All characters should have supporting cast. These are the NPCs who ground them in the game world. They are the depth and richness that comes from having known and (somewhat) developed characters in the game world. 

 

I wouldn't want to see more than 1 DNPC per character. I mean, I could be talked into allowing it, but generally 1 is enough. That one may be a group, say the orphans of St. Mary's, but they always come as a single group.

 

Hunteds can come in larger numbers. But if a player chooses to have a bunch of hunteds they have to accept that sometimes this will lead to a Sinister 6 scenario - all the hunteds showing up at once.

 

Other times I'll skip a hunted showing up if a single character's background has been coming up more than others. All the players should get equal chance to have their time in the limelight.

 

[LoneWolf]

DNPC’s and Hunteds are usually used as plot devices by the GM and are not under the players control.  Unless the DNPC’s are combat worthy they should not be an issue.  Contact for the most part will also not be involved in combat.  So the only real concern is going to be followers.  Those should always be carefully scrutinized by the GM.   

 

The other thing to consider is how often they become involved in the game.  If all the complication based NPCS show up too often it can be a problem.  If they are only occasionally showing up it will not be a problem.

 

Running the night everyone showed up can be fun as long as it does not happen too often.   
 

[GDShore]

It has been a long time since I ran a champions game. I never allowed more than 1 DNPC per character or more than 2 hunteds. Two of my players created interesting hunteds One a young lady played a character called Waterbug, with an ability to control water including walking on it. Her hunted was a biologist studying insects, she described him exceptionally well but did not name him. I created him and everyone else's hunters and frequently used them in game situations, don't use them to often, about 1 in 4/5 sessions. The problem of too many DNPC's / Hunters is it can swamp the GM very quickly and very easily, especially with a high involvement level. If the GM is smart they do all the involvement checks before the session begins and then incorporates them into the planned session, done this way you are not just winging it. You can also directly involve a characters hunters or dnpc's and then not do the checks on them for a while. note: try to get to know your players as well as you can, they may have actual phobias or issues that you may trigger without much warning. I think setting max's on how many is up to the GM and the newer they are the fewer the better.

[Asperion]

Something to consider  - just like a movie/play, not all characters will be on stage at the same time.  There will be times when only one cast member is on stage other (more common) when the full party is present, times in between.  Party might be dealing with one npc or more. 

[Hermit]

You can argue it's very 'in genre' for superheroes to have few relations, to be orphans or so on; but I've found most Characters my players present appear to be single children and often with parents who died young. So Family NPCs are rarer than co workers or friends in my games. There have been exceptions, and now and then there is the 'Hunted by Relation' routine. Psychological complications/ disads fill up fast, DNPCs are skirted away from. Which is odd, as I have never killed one to my knowledge.

 

 

[BoloOfEarth]

At the start of each of my Champions campaigns, I offer my players 5 free XP if they provide me with 5 NPCs (note:  *not* DNPCs) to flesh out their personal world.  They can be family, friends, coworkers, neighbors, acquaintances, what have you.  I promise them that they won't be used as DNPCs, nor can they really be used as Contacts (unless the PC want to pay for them), though I've been known to use them to move the story along or help the PC in small ways.  That doesn't mean that nothing bad ever happens to them - hey, life can get messy sometimes - it's just that it's stuff that doesn't involve the PC.  (I don't kill any of them off, though they might have been witness to a bank robbery or get in a car accident or something similar.)  But mostly, they're just there for day-to-day stuff.  

 

 

Without fail, one or two players go overboard - for example, the player of Eddy / Escudar (the PC martial artist in my current game) gave me a list of 20 people - most are family members, though some are neighbors and friends.  In those cases, I generally concentrate on a handful of them, and maybe bring in other individuals at odd points along the way, or just mention them in passing.  Last time I ran, Eddy's great-grandmother had her 93rd birthday, and Eddy's mom decided to throw a big party for her.  A few individuals got mentioned in passing (one of Eddy's cousins was flirting with a friend / bandmate of Eddy's, and Eddy's sister was crushing on Escudar's teammate Jack Frost, who was at the party in secret ID playing in Eddy's band.

 

I've found such NPCs can really add depth to the game world and be a lot of fun for the players.

 

I do have a few players who take the 5 free XP bu fail to provide me with NPCs, or only give me one or two - out of laziness, rather than malice.  In those cases, I create NPCs for them... and mine aren't always as easygoing as those the players come up with.  These might be the nosy neighbor, or the obnoxious coworker, or the cop with an attitude who keeps pulling the PC over for piddly stuff.  You'd think they'd learn...

 

[BoloOfEarth]

On 2/13/2023 at 1:42 PM, Hermit said:

You can argue it's very 'in genre' for superheroes to have few relations, to be orphans or so on; but I've found most Characters my players present appear to be single children and often with parents who died young. 

 

Strange, I have the opposite.  Of the 7 players in my current game:

• Four gave me family ranging from close relations (kids, spouse, parents, siblings) to extended (Escudar, above), along with some friends / acquaintances
• One gave me mostly friends / acquaintances
• Two didn't give me any NPCs

[BNakagawa]

I've often found it irritating when a PC collects a gaggle of NPCs that start to infringe on the spotlight, especially when they start crowding out PCs when it comes to specialist knowledge or capabilities.

 

If the stock answer to an esoteric question is: Let me consult with my staff, then you know that you and the other players are guest stars in a solo campaign.

[Hermit]

2 hours ago, BoloOfEarth said:

At the start of each of my Champions campaigns, I offer my players 5 free XP if they provide me with 5 NPCs (note:  *not* DNPCs) to flesh out their personal world.

 

 

2 hours ago, BoloOfEarth said:

 

Strange, I have the opposite.  Of the 7 players in my current game:

 

Maybe I should steal your idea to encourage things. Thanks :)

[assault]

I use Hunteds as the main opposition in the campaign. They're not bolted onto adventures - they are the adventures. Even so, more than one or two per PC is a nuisance. I'll swap them out when they get used up though.

DNPCs are a problem in large quantities, especially when there are a lot of PCs. I generally would restrict them to one per PC, and not on a particularly high frequency of appearance. If there were only 1 or 2 PCs, I would be less strict.

[Sketchpad]

I'm a fan of a full cast kind of game. I tend to at least make notes for people that are important to the player characters and have them pop up here and there. There have even been times where we've staffed their base with fun NPCs that they can interact and create bonds with. Mind you, I also like having sprawling cities with gangs, villains, cops, and all sorts of other NPCs for folks to bump into. Sometimes its just a neighborhood cat that they pet, other times it could be a group of high-tech hoodlums lurking around the local electronics store.

[BoloOfEarth]

On 2/14/2023 at 6:38 PM, BNakagawa said:

I've often found it irritating when a PC collects a gaggle of NPCs that start to infringe on the spotlight, especially when they start crowding out PCs when it comes to specialist knowledge or capabilities.

 

If the stock answer to an esoteric question is: Let me consult with my staff, then you know that you and the other players are guest stars in a solo campaign.

 

You're right there, NPCs (with rare exceptions) shouldn't outshine the PCs in special knowledge / skills the PCs have, unless they're being set up as a distinct rival.  However, having NPCs who cover skills the PCs don't have, can be quite useful.  For example, none of the PCs in my current campaign have any chemistry skills, so a quirky chemist could be useful if a particular plotline calls for it.  But that sort of thing should just be a "guest shot" and not a constant presence, unless one or more of the players feel differently.*

 

* I've introduced NPCs before with the intent of them just being background help or one-shots, but a player sought the NPC out afterward.  For instance, a superheroine was dating the team's rich financier, and one time I had her work with his personal assistant, who was a bureucratics whiz who also acted a bit like the financier's surrogate mother.  The superheroine ended up taking the assistant on a spa day (along with the team's other superheorine), got involved a bit in the assistant's personal life, and so on.  She became a semi-regular in the game, but that was driven by the players so I figured it was fine.

[Duke Bushido]

Well, they stop being worth points after 6, so... 

 

 

Seriously though. Go with what you are comfortable with knowing may happen, etc. 

 

Remind your players of an old school Champions problem for players that often helped a gm fill in a poorly-prepped scenario:

 

A GM would collect everyone's sheets and start rolling against hunters and DNPCS.  It was called 'let' a go Shopping! '. Because for some reason, you were always at the mall... 

 

 

[Tech]

DNPC's are rare nowadays in the campaign. There's enough other characters around to make interesting. Also, the previous DNPC's with a few exceptions were there for the points. The players have learned from that.

[LoneWolf]

Assault has a good point on working hunteds into the story.  If the GM is going to have a particular group show up a lot, he might want to encourage or even require all characters in the campaign to take that group as a hunted.  Many campaigns I have been in almost all the characters have Viper as a hunted.  Other campaigns often have other groups, but there is usually a lot of shared hunteds.

 

For some characters buying a DNPC pool works better than defined DNPCs.  Instead of writing up specific characters the player defines a fairly broad group of characters that will get involved.  This could be anything from the girlfriend of the week to random friends.  Have the character define a number of points for the complication/disadvantage and the GM decides on the details.  One week the DNPC could be an old military buddy, the next week it could be your teenage niece. One thing to keep in mind about DNPCs is they are supposed to create more trouble than they are worth.  So, the competent DNPC is usually going to get into some really dangerous situations.  If the DNPC is providing more help than hindrances, they are not DNPC’s, and the character should be buying them as followers.

 

Followers are the NPC most likely to cause problems. The way I handle followers is that their screen time is taken from the character that purchased them.  If you have a lot of competent followers your only screen time may be giving orders.  
 

[Khymeria]

A solo character sheet for Complications should probably not be a duplicate of a team character sheet of the same hero. In a team environment flush out the supporting cast but DNPCs and Hunters get an 8- and then I’m not under such pressure to explain why your attorney shows up in the Shattered Dimension. I just use them when they make good sense and don’t make things too convoluted. 

[LoneWolf]

If the only complications the entire team has are hunteds that is probably going to be a problem.  That would certainly lead to the problem the OP is asking about.  A well rounded character should have a variety of complications, not just hunteds.  A team should have something to tie it together and a common hunted is as good as anything else.
  

Often when I am running will have the players take an unknown hunted at the beginning of the campaign representing the major villain of the campaign.  The idea that if a complication/disadvantage has no effect does not count cuts both ways.  If the character is going to suffer the negative effects of something it should count.   So, if I don’t allow a hunted for a character because the hunted does not exist in my campaign, I should give the character credit for the hunted I am going to impose because of the campaign.