DNPC twists

[Trebuchet]

I was wondering if anyone had come up with unusual twists for their character's DNPC's. I don't mean "My DNPC maintains my Invincible Powered Armorâ„¢ for me!", but more personal stuff.

 

As an example, my character Zl'f lives with a foster family of four that she's taken collectively as DNPCs. In this family there is a boy a few years younger than she is who has developed a serious crush on her. Naturally she tries to hide her superheroic identity from him and his parents (The girl in the family is her best friend and so knows already.), but the kid already knows because he spends so much time spying on her (including a peephole into the girls' room.). So she's hiding her superhero ID from somebody that actually knows, and he's hiding the fact that he knows because he doesn't want her to know that he knows.

 

Admittedly that's not a real weird DNPC relationship, but I'm certain Herodom Assembled can come up with stranger ones.

[Hermit]

Sometimes I have a weakness for getting some DNPCs super powers later in the campaign. It comes of often running one on one sessions for a friend. Less risk of overshadowing. Besides, I rarely get to play

 

 

"You are NOT Turning my character's mother into a supervillain" -One spoilsport of a player I GM for *Sulk*

[DrSavant]

DNPC's- Friend or Foe??

 

Here are some DNPC plotlines you might enjoy. ( I have actually used these before)

#1 - Player has a DNPC mother. Unknown to the PC this character was actually a retired member of a top secret government organization. (she was in her 60's )

Well when the 'agency' found out that her son had superpowers -he bungled into a situation that they were involved in- they returned her to "active status" (with the help of a "Super-Soldier" serum). Fun time!!!

 

# 2- A PC had a teenage son (DNPC), who fainted in gym class one day. Tests were run and they found out that the PC's son was a mutant. It launched the PC into the world of mutants, and another PC in the group became a mutant hunter - by government request. Some tense moments there.

[winterhawk]

I made one of my player's DNPC mother not only a WWII superheroine, but the one considered quite the 'tomato' back in the day. "Mom, how could you dress like that?!?!"

 

One thing I really like about 5th is the multiple DNPCs of the same category. My namesake, Winterhawk, has DNPC: Employees (x4) which has led to some really cool sessions, one of which was my arch enemy kidnapping the "only guy that works there that could be Winterhawk".

[KA.]

Mmmm! Mmmm!

My favorite GM snack.

 

DNPC Twists

 

Ingredients:

2 Large (or 3 Medium) DNPC's

16 Cups Parmesean Cheese

100 Gallons of Peanut Oil

 

1) Place DNPC's feet in large vice.

2) Have Brutish Hulking Assistant grab DNPC's shoulders, and twist until they take on a corkscrew shape

(or until rescued )

3) Coat liberally in Parmesean Cheese, shaking off excess.

4) Deep Fry in Peanut Oil, until crispy.

 

I can't personally vouch for this recipe, they always seem to get rescued during Step 2.

 

KA

[Guest cubist]

One character idea that I had with this sort of twist was my RoadFlare character- his mother is an active superviallainess and his father is a poklice officer that once arrested her. After he was born, he was given to his father to raise, as she knew her life was too dangerous to subject her son to. RoadFlare has more typical speedster powers while his mother does not- she can control speed and use this control to grant superspeed to others, such as her followers, the "Marathon Men'- trained agents specially taught to work and fight at super speed. She is the Speed Queen and they are her henchmen. So now, She has one arch nemesis as a DNPC, a cop that's trying to re-arrest her as a DNPC and her eight maraton men followers as DNPC group as well, Roadflare has his mother as a watched and his father as a DNPC and the dad- well he's just messed up!

[Trebuchet]

Man, that's complicated!

 

You should make all the Marathon Men cousins so you can keep it all in the family!

[Trebuchet]

Originally posted by winterhawk

One thing I really like about 5th is the multiple DNPCs of the same category. My namesake, Winterhawk, has DNPC: Employees (x4) which has led to some really cool sessions, one of which was my arch enemy kidnapping the "only guy that works there that could be Winterhawk".

 

I used to run a powered-armor character named Ranger whose powers were magnetics-based, his Secret ID was a UC-Berkeley physics professor, Dr. Kevin Green, who was the world's greatest expert on magnetism. Once a supervillain attempted to capture Dr. Green because he assumed Dr. Green must have helped build Ranger's powered armor and therefore who must know who Ranger really was (Which of course was true.). So my character was attacked not because someone had figured out his Secret Id, but because someone thought he must be one of Ranger's DNPCs. Oh, the irony!

 

So I had this "fun" adventure as Dr. Green raced through the corridors, stairwells and basement in the Physics Department building with the briefcase containing his armor dodging students, colleagues and occasional energy blasts while desperately searching for a private place he could stop in long enough to put on his armor, which was difficult considering the villain got to take shortcuts by blowing holes in walls. Good thing Dr. Green was in good shape physically.

 

Once he finally got his armor on, the resulting fight was brief. By then Ranger was in a really bad mood, and hey! Look! A supervillain punching bag to take out his frustrations on!

[Acroyear]

I had one DNPC who turned out to be the daughter of a villain (she ended up supplying the bad guy with info. Oops).

 

One player had a DNPC "girl scout troop" (we did the group thing back then as not worth anything more...). But they were bought as competent. Made the Newsboy Legion look like a bunch of mooks (and got into a lot of trouble)

 

One guy had a DNPC who was his own clone, but without powers. I don't remember what that one was all about...but they didn't even pretend to be twin brothers or anything.

[Twilight]

I was in a game once where my character was the DNPC of another character and said other character was the DNPC of my character. The limitations weren't worth very much points of course, but it was fun to roleplay for the amount of time the game ran.

 

The two PCs were brothers you see and thus very protective of each other.

[Doug McCrae]

Re: DNPC's- Friend or Foe??

 

Originally posted by DrSavant

#1 - Player has a DNPC mother. Unknown to the PC this character was actually a retired member of a top secret government organization. (she was in her 60's )

Well when the 'agency' found out that her son had superpowers -he bungled into a situation that they were involved in- they returned her to "active status" (with the help of a "Super-Soldier" serum). Fun time!!!

I always thought Spider-man's comic would've been much improved by giving Aunt May superpowers.

[Blue]

Evil DNPCs can be highly entertaining. I once did that to a player. I had him employed by the local crime lord. The villain was always one step ahead and it took the hero forever to figure out why.

[zornwil]

A character in my current campaign, basically a super-scientist-turning-occultist who can turn into a troll form, has a sentient hand which for now is his DNPC. The troll's body can rip apart in places, for example an eye can rip out and go see something around a corner, and in this case his hand can do that so often goes about on its own. One of the PCs gave it a "toy" (size-wise) little car it could drive.

[Rage]

Re: Re: DNPC's- Friend or Foe??

 

Originally posted by Doug McCrae

I always thought Spider-man's comic would've been much improved by giving Aunt May superpowers.

 

BAD DOUG!!!!!

That sounds like somthing those spider writers from the 90's would havbe thought up

[Vondy]

I have a player who delights in playing bumblers.

 

One of his characters (a merchant in a fantasy game) bought a follower who is basically Andre the Giant. He;s actually more competent, and has more common sense than the guy he's working for....

 

The follower took the PC as HIS D-PC.

[Marchwarden]

Let's see...I've been Hunted by my own DNPCs...always a sprightly occurence.

 

Marchwarden has a Legion of Squealing Fangirls, who always seem to find him and get underfoot. This is a source of great aggravation to his teammate Radar Rider, who can't figure out why he, the Last Defender of Rock and Roll, doesn't even have a girlfriend, while Marchwarden, whom he's quite convinced is as gay as a tree full of parrots, gets swarmed by swoony admirers wherever he goes.

 

Oh, and there was the time we ripped off the plot of Casablanca. The 33-year-old (but still hale) Knighthawk rescued 19-year-old Emily Cross, and she was awestruck by his noble courage and gentle strength. She pursued his affections, and two years later they were married (in secret, for her protection). Three years after that, Knighthawk was caught in a planar rift that "no one could possibly have survived". Emily mourned, and the nation mourned with her. For four years she kept to a solitary life, but then fate brought Freedom Rider across her path. It was a different kind of feeling, smoldering, blazing with passion, but she could not deny her feelings. There was genuine love as well, although the young hero had difficulty showing it sometimes.

 

In time, he made his decision. He invited her to meet him at their favorite restaurant. The ring was in his pocket. The waiter brought a note. It said simply that she could never see him again.

 

That very morning, the planar rift had reopened and Knighthawk had emerged unhurt. Emily was torn, horrified and yet also filled with joy. She decided that it would be least painful for everyone if she broke the affair off quietly.

 

Of course, Knighthawk returned to heroism and set about refounding a superteam. One of the new recruits was Freedom Rider. They battled crime, trained with each other and developed a close bond of trust. Then Freedom Rider got to meet the missus. Hoo boy.

[ProfessorM@ss]

Re: DNPC twists

 

Originally posted by Trebuchet

I was wondering if anyone had come up with unusual twists for their character's DNPC's. I don't mean "My DNPC maintains my Invincible Powered Armorâ„¢ for me!", but more personal stuff.

 

My character, Professor Mass, had a wife and daughter. Well, the wife was wealthy socialite, which is why Mass had money to fuel his experiments. She eventually left him, but by that time, he was making enough money off his inventions to survive.

 

What was amusing was our true-blue hero's reaction to finding his wife in bed with another man. His civilian response was calm and considered. Then he went out in his superheroic ID and berated the guy -- all on the pretext that Mass (a Golden Age character) was involved in top secret work, and didn't need this stress.

 

Mass' daughter was another story; she got Mom's good looks and Dad's brains. We had more than one incident of her playing in the lab and causing...problems.

 

Believe me, build a kid DNPC with normal points. Drop their physical stats, and pump their brains and skills through the roof, and you can have a lot of fun.

 

Twenty years later, of course, Mass' daughter became a superheroine in her own right.

 

--->M@ss

[Seraphim]

This is my first ever posting on a web board so bare with me.

 

The last few weeks I have been running an adventure where my group has been caught in books, by the evil of The Book Keeper. Who has the almighty power to force the characters into books and live them out.

 

One of the Characters Dr. Ooki has a lab assistant who carries around equipment for him His Name is Beeker. The worse thing that I have done to this DNPC is turn him into The Walrus Man in Alice in Wonderland, The Scarecrow in Wizard of Oz, Bob Crachitt in A Christmas Carol and 4th Roman Soldier from the left in the bible.

[Trebuchet]

Originally posted by Seraphim

This is my first ever posting on a web board so bare with me.

 

The last few weeks I have been running an adventure where my group has been caught in books, by the evil of The Book Keeper. Who has the almighty power to force the characters into books and live them out.

 

One of the Characters Dr. Ooki has a lab assistant who carries around equipment for him His Name is Beeker. The worse thing that I have done to this DNPC is turn him into The Walrus Man in Alice in Wonderland, The Scarecrow in Wizard of Oz, Bob Crachitt in A Christmas Carol and 4th Roman Soldier from the left in the bible.

 

Well, I suppose those are all better than being the "blood sucking lawyer" from Jurassic Park that gets eaten by the T-Rex.

 

And Welcome to the boards.

[Dr. Anomaly]

Aunt May with superpowers?

 

Assistant Editor's Week at Marvel Comics: Spiderman's Aunt May, while babysitting Franklin Richards, encounters the herald of Galactus, who's come to take Franklin to be the new herald. Aunt May objects and puts up a fight, and SHE ends up becoming the herald of Galactus, instead of Franklin. Aunt May, now a female being of golden light and incredible beauty, known to mortals as...GOLDEN OLDIE!

[ZootSoot]

Well I have a nineteen year old superheroine who has one DNPC who is her boss and her lover (he is in his late fifties) and three other DNPCs who are her lover's wife and twin children (who are her classmates at college)!!!

 

I had a golden age superheroine whose DNPC was a career Marine officer and her husband, he was stationed in China before the American withdrawal and after fighting Mao's forces had taken to describing himself and his men as "gung ho!" He was reckless, terrifyingly over-confident and extremely protective of the "little woman" (without knowing she was "Fury, America's most fearsome femme!").

[Lord Mhoram]

I have an interesting one from a character for a campaign that hasn't started yet.

 

I'm playing a teenage speedster (Terminal Velocity).

 

Mom (the DNPC) is a variation of Shrike from European Enemies (Mutant not meditation). She had an affair with a british superhero (Dad). She went strait when she found out I was on the way, and moved to the States. Gotta love those reformed semiterrorist supervillian relatives.

 

My archrival is my half brother- who is out to kill me and mom. The GM loved the "sone of the the Villian mother ended up Hero, son of the Hero mother ended up Villian" thing.

[altamaros]

I have a PC based on immortality with a interesting DNPC :

 

The PC, a cop who is basically a clone of Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) from the first "Lethal weapons" movies; one day tried to protect a strange chinese girl from a weird asian magician. He killed the guy but was mortally wound. The girl sucked his soul inside her to grant him immortality (self-only healing with limbs restauration and resurrection).

So, the PC is basically able to build himself back from the "sausage meat" state.

The problem is that the PC will die if the girl dies (this is his resurrection weakness from the healing rules and yes, i read 3x3 Eyes). So, he has to protect her but as she thinks she's done a big mistake by granting him immortality (she explained that by panic); she's constantly trying to find a way to "mortal" him back (something he doesn't want of course).

 

usually their encounters turn around "i protect you" and "i confront you".

[death tribble]

Well the Flame had his wife as a DNPC.

She left him after he went off to fight the Destroyer in space. She came back when she found out that he was the Flame.

She became pregnant but lost the child. After that she turned quite bitter, left him and conspired to get him imprisoned.

Eventually she became one of the leaders of the criminal group VILE.

 

And a good time was not had by all.

[Trebuchet]

Originally posted by ZootSoot

Well I have a nineteen year old superheroine who has one DNPC who is her boss and her lover (he is in his late fifties) and three other DNPCs who are her lover's wife and twin children (who are her classmates at college)!!!

 

Not to seem overly critical, but isn't a superpowered homewrecker just a little bit unheroic? Not a lot of "uphold the right" there. Doesn't your character ever have doubts about the morality of that relationship?

 

Hmmm, perhaps a thread about superhero ethics might be interesting...