What are the most annoying NPC habits?

[Hermit]

Oh, come on, you know what I'm talking about... be you player having to put up with them, or a GM under the mistaken belief that since they're your creations and under your control they'll always behave as you wish... NPCs are honery critters.

 

Examples:

 

- As a GM Ever have a plot, and the NPC suddenly balk in your head and go "I wouldn't do that. Nope nope nope"

 

-Ever have one of the little buggers steal the show from other NPCs? Skunky the vagabond was meant to be a minor character while Earnest Daring, cursading DA was meant to be a major one... suddenly the PCs want to know all about Skunky, and they decide Earnest is, at best, an errand boy.

 

-As a PC, do ALL the NPCs seem to suffer from the delusion that they're your DNPCs? "This is the second time I've caught you falling from a building... do it again, and I'll want at least 5 points from you."

 

(Yes, this is an attempt at humor )

[Caped Crusader]

Yeah, I've got one...

 

I played with a GM whose NPC's couldn't be intimidated. Even the lowliest shopkeeper would stand toe-to-toe with the 6'6" barbarian with the two-handed sword and refuse to back down.

[tkdguy]

My NPCs pretty much stick to their role in the story unless the players give them undue attention. That's when they actually become more important.

[Ghost who Walks]

Things my NPC's have done, that players find annoying:

 

1) Slip from a male voice to a female voice, with me taking a drink inbetween.

 

2) Staring blankly at a hero, while I try and think of a response to a players statement.

 

3) An emergency occuring, and having 5 times as many NPC's show up as players. Each with their own dialog, personalities, and character sheets, of course.

 

4) Basing NPC's on Real Life people, and then having them do exactly what I think they would do if superhero plots occured. Bill Clinton: I'm sorry Colonel X, but we have no choice but to surrender to these aliens. They have the biggest spaceship I have ever seen, and they have threatened to 'beam me aboard' if I try anything!"

[Vondy]

Bit part NPCs who become the players darlings... ugh. There's no logical pattern to who my players do and don't like. Its actually weird on a regular basis.

[austenandrews]

Forgetting or confusing accents is not infrequent among my NPCs. You know, like when one character has an Irish or Australian accent, other NPCs with more difficult accents start sliding toward Irish or Australian. I'm going to send my NPCs a memo about that. If it doesn't change, I'll start docking their paychecks.

 

I also seem to cast the same actor in different NPC roles. This is especially true of minor NPCs, like the Person Who Fetches The PCs Because There's An Emergency. This actor is an amazing physical performer, able to appear as a peasant farmer in one scene and a street urchin in the next; but his acting repertoire is limited to short exclamations.

 

"My lords! Come quickly!"

"What is it, Generic Townsman?"

"There's a monster! It's huge and terrible!"

"What is it?"

"Some sort of dragon or serpent!"

"Where?"

"North of town! Hurry, it's already killed five people!"

"Take us there."

"This way! Follow me!"

 

I hate that actor. He's always available on short notice, though.

 

-AA

[Jhereg]

Originally posted by Caped Crusader

Yeah, I've got one...

 

I played with a GM whose NPC's couldn't be intimidated. Even the lowliest shopkeeper would stand toe-to-toe with the 6'6" barbarian with the two-handed sword and refuse to back down.

 

As a player, that bugs the crap out of me. It seems like the GM doesn't want PC's have any sense of accomplishment at all.

[Mayday]

The NPCs that mindlessly throw themselves at us even though they cant win and have to climb up a hill of their defeated brethren just to get to us, forcing us to spend another hour tediously taking THEM out too. Just panic and RUN for once. Please.

 

As an occasional GM, my biggest problem however is the NPC that wont keep to his place. My method of character generation takes 3 days.

 

On Day 1 I filter trough basic concepts like "I want to play a dried up hag" or "I want to play someone casual." I jot down some basic powers and maybe work up some points and skill lists for a few hours.

 

Day 2, the character now has siblings and parents, friends, tastes in music and a hobby. Erase about a third of yesterdays work and revise the character accordingly.

 

Day 3, I know EVERYTHING about this character down to his grades in school, and worst of all, I now realize that my dried up bitter hag has become a strong willed architect working for the Greater Goal, or some other thing that wasnt at all what I had had in mind. But its too late because the character is now set in stone and I cant play it any other way.

 

This happens even with NPCs. If they exist long enough they develop all the traits of the PC and I have a hard time keeping that N on them. :-(

[SuperPheemy]

My worst NPC experience EVER

 

I was running a long-term Vampire game (using that game system designed for Tellers to Relate Stories from the compay of Genus Lupus and Pale of Pelt) where every character (7 in all) had developed a close relationship with a different NPC or two or three. As the PCs were a widely vairied lot, the NPCs they interacted with became widely varied as well.

 

We had Spewey-Doo the dog, Jamal the Drug Pusher, Marvin the Club Bartender, Guido the Mob Contact, Moe, Larry, and Curly who were dim muscle for the Sherrif, Ariel the Girlfriend, and a host of others ranging from stuffy English Butlers, to teenage junkies.

 

One evening all seven players did nothing but interact with NPCs, all seperately, all simultaneously. I was literally going from NPC to NPC with each sentance (INCLUDING THE DOG as two of the characters had the ability to speak to animals). For six hours this went on, until the wee hours of the morning when we ended the game for some well-deserved rest.

 

For two days following, I was unable to maintain a single topic of conversation for more than three sentances. My wife thought I'd cracked.

 

I've warned all my players since that if they ever do that to me again, all of their NPCs will become "Bob", and "Bob" will react and act the same way for any given situation.

[Karma]

Originally posted by Caped Crusader

Yeah, I've got one...

 

I played with a GM whose NPC's couldn't be intimidated. Even the lowliest shopkeeper would stand toe-to-toe with the 6'6" barbarian with the two-handed sword and refuse to back down.

 

In defense of said NPCs: they are probably being played by the understudy of the PC that acts totally illogically (like flipping the bird to a dragon) unless you make him do otherwise (by making him fail a roll against Fear, or somesuch, and running like any sensable person would, simply because if you fried him you know the player would sulk and call you a "killer GM" for the rest of the night).

[tkdguy]

The worst kind I know of are in an AD&D game. In any given town, you can meet up with a level 50 fighter or wizard. Even the lowly chambermaid may be able to beat up on your 10th level fighter.

 

Maybe this should belong on the Annoying GM thread.

[nexus]

Originally posted by Von D-Man

Bit part NPCs who become the players darlings... ugh. There's no logical pattern to who my players do and don't like. Its actually weird on a regular basis.

 

I feel your pain. My players seem to fall for the most unlikely NPCs. For example, for one Champions game I created what I thought was the most unlikable, snarky mean spirted witch ever to walk the green earth as their team's laison with UNTIL. And they loved her. Always wanted to talk to her, did what she said and went out of there way to defend her, etc. I finally asked why and the reply was her spirit. They admired the fact a baseline human had the sheer backbone to talk to supers like that. Go fig.....

[CrosshairCollie]

Being too helpful.

 

Sometimes, you ask an NPC for a favor, yeah. But sometimes when you ask the NPC for a small favor, you wind up with a lot more than you wanted, and he never requests that you pay the favor back even if the NPC isn't a good buddy of the PCs.

[AlHazred]

As a GM, I've broken myself of the pigeon-holing habit, where every NPC became a stereotype. I did it by making sure to think of every NPC's personality two ways, positive and negative. Now, they take too long for me to role-play properly, since they've got fully developed personalities.

 

Bah!

[Klytus]

1. The Ever-Escaping NPC: no matter how much he torments the party, the GM like him so much, he is never captured or killed, and alwyas gets away.

 

2. The Idiotically Brave NPCs: You know, the orcs who never run away, even though you've just butchered 50 of them in the past three rounds, and there are just 2 left.

 

3. The Stereotypical NPC: every bartender you meet knows everything, all of the hookers like their work, all organized crime thugs dress and talk alike, all the cops have Irish accents, etc.

[Badger]

Your dependent NPCs who always get catured every single session. Look like they would be traumatized from being catured every week. I mean being kidnapped is supposed to be traumatic. That many times and you'll end up in the looney bin. Once or twice is fine but all the time?

 

Another that bothers me a bit of the comic genre (never had to deal with this much in a game mind you) but what I call the Joker Syndrome. You know how the Joker escapes from Arkham every other Tuesday, kills a couple dozen people during lunch hour, gets captured by Batman and put back in. After the 9th or 10th time, if I were Batman, I'd just kill him and be done with it.

[Korvar]

Well, Batman wouldn't, 'cos he used the 20 points from the CAK to buy his Batcave, and he doesn't have anywhere else to park the Batmobile...

 

But quite frankly, after a few goes 'round that particular ride, the good citizens of Gotham would vote for the Death Penalty to be reinstated, and eventually someone would convict him of Murder One, insanity plea or no.

 

Of course, then he'd be constantly escaping from Death Row instead of Arkham...

[DocMan]

One of my pet peeves is the NPC who is only in the campaign to deliver a specific nugget of knowledge to the players, but won't reveal the information unless they are asked for the info in EXACTLY the right way.

 

"What do you mean you didn't know we were interested in the wizard on the hill? We've only been asking you about him for the last TWO HOURS!"

 

 

The other one is the missing NPC. The one person in all the world who can decipher a piece of evidence, except they've completely disappeared without leaving any clues of any kind.

 

Doc

[ChuckB]

I've never been a big fan of the plot-hook NPC who "guides" the PCs through the scenario.

 

As a GM , NPCs in my game often have their own agendas which doesn't necessarily coincide with the adventure.

[The Mind Master]

I despise NPC's who are always, continually uncooperative in spite of PRE, Persuasion, Seduction and even appropriate situation. In one campaign I was in, you automatically knew that NPC cops would be hostile to the heroes, that NPC bartenders would be close-mouthed and suspicious, and that NPC bystanders would be afraid and mistrustful. No matter your reputation, your great deeds of valor, or your characteristics, this was just the tenor of the campain world.

 

And don't even mention NPC reporters...

[Supreme Serpent]

Originally posted by The Mind Master

I despise NPC's who are always, continually uncooperative in spite of PRE, Persuasion, Seduction and even appropriate situation. In one campaign I was in, you automatically knew that NPC cops would be hostile to the heroes, that NPC bartenders would be close-mouthed and suspicious, and that NPC bystanders would be afraid and mistrustful. No matter your reputation, your great deeds of valor, or your characteristics, this was just the tenor of the campain world.

 

And don't even mention NPC reporters...

 

Man...that sounds like all the PC's have some serious "Bad Stuff" Amber RPG points. ("Stuff" is similar to Luck/Unluck, but also affects how you see the world/the world sees you)

 

Fortunately, I don't run into this at this level TOO much, but I do see a lot of thugs, etc. who are immune to PRE and Pre-skills, not to mention role-playing.

[The Mind Master]

Originally posted by Supreme Serpent

Man...that sounds like all the PC's have some serious "Bad Stuff" Amber RPG points. ("Stuff" is similar to Luck/Unluck, but also affects how you see the world/the world sees you)

 

Fortunately, I don't run into this at this level TOO much, but I do see a lot of thugs, etc. who are immune to PRE and Pre-skills, not to mention role-playing.

 

Interrogating thugs in this campaign was not only a useless waste of time, it also engendered more "bad stuff" for the PC's, for in spite of our best efforts to be private some bystander would inevitably happen by and take the thug's side. Usually it would be a reporter who would write up a scathing story about the PC's brutality.

 

This campaign had its very good points, but interaction with NPC's wasn't on the list.