What support DNPCs do GMs make for their games?

[dsatow]

Just wondering what DNPC/NPCs GMs usually have for their games. Note that I am not talking super powered NPCs, just minor side characters the players would see in the game.

 

Some of the more common ones I can see are

 

1. The police detective(s)
   
2. Gumshoe Detective
   
3. The intrepid reporter(s)
   
4. The local mad scientist
   
5. Obnoxious business exec who might need saving despite being not so good
   
6. Girlfriend/Boyfriend potentials
   
7. Weak old Aunt Mary who always seems to be shopping at the place the villains strike
   
8. Doctor or Nurse who helps heal the PCs
   

[Cancer]

Re: What support DNPCs do GMs make for their games?

 

Don't overlook the attorney who's also a love interest.

[Ockham's Spoon]

Re: What support DNPCs do GMs make for their games?

 

I think that some of the best DNPCs are family, parents in particular, which is ironic since many hero backgrounds leave them as orphans. The reason is that blood is thicker than water, so while you might switch love interests, there is always reason for a family member to be in your life, and while they might irritate the bejeezus out of the hero, they are still family and there is still some love there. Family interactions are great for plumbing character depths because there are emotional ties there that you just don't find in most other relationships - the responsibilities are more profound (and betrayals are too).

[Shadow Hawk]

Re: What support DNPCs do GMs make for their games?

 

The annoying tabloid reporter.

The no-nonsense SWAT commander.

"The Bartender".

[Escafarc]

Re: What support DNPCs do GMs make for their games?

 

The Conspiracy Expert

The transvestite hooker informant

[sinanju]

Re: What support DNPCs do GMs make for their games?

 

Personally, I look at NPCs the same way I look at disadvantages Complications. When a characters takes a specific complication, he's telling me as GM that that is important to him, that he wants it to come up in play and create problems for his character. So if two characters in the game nominally have secret identities, but only one takes "Secret ID" as a Complication, what that means to me (and I'd want to make sure the players understand this as well) is that one player wants to deal with maintaining a secret identity in play, and the other doesn't. So the one player will have to deal with nosy (or well-meaning) friends and relatives and overbearing bosses and schedule conflicts that threaten his secret. The other guy doesn't. He has a secret identity, but it simply doesn't come up.

 

So I usually ask the players each to invent two or three NPCs for me. These are people their characters know and interact with regularly, and did even before the game started. They can be DNPCs, but they don't have to be. Either way, the sorts of NPCs the players create give me a solid clue as to what sorts of interactions they want to play out in the game. If Joey has "My Girlfriend du Jour" as one of his NPCs, and Frank has "My Hot Neighbor" and Patrick has "My Obnoxious Rival in the Office", that tells me what sorts of incidental interactions will entertain them. It also gives me hints as to what other NPCs I can add around them.

 

Any NPCs I create on my own are created for a purpose or as throw-aways. If a throw-away NPC is a hit, he may get promoted to recurring or regular NPC. If not, there's always another.

[BoloOfEarth]

Re: What support DNPCs do GMs make for their games?

 

This campaign, I asked each player to provide me with 4-5 NPCs who interact with his or her character. I promised that they would not be used as DNPCs (unless the player took them as such), and for the most part I've kept that promise. I've found it really rounds out the game world, and plan to do the same the next time I switch campaigns and they draw up new characters.

 

One player, whose character owns and runs a bar, gave me a listing of her bar's entire staff, along with a few regular customers (including a PI).

The graduate student / scientist character has a professor, a classmate, female friend, and a girl he didn't know who kept crossing his path (and has since become his girlfriend).

The mother / EMT / med student character's player provided a mother, adopted daughter (also a DNPC), EMT coworker, boyfriend (now husband), a bad-luck fellow med student she helped save from several minor accidents, and an elderly neighbor who used to watch the PC's daughter after school.

The back-from-the-dead government agent character has a former fiance, best friend, former landlord and landlady, and a former fence / pawn shop owner he set on the straight-and-narrow.

 

The last player didn't provide me any NPCs, so for him I created a truly obnoxious coworker, a prying and hateful newspaper reporter, and an unlucky police officer. (It doesn't pay to leave things like this up to the GM...)

 

During play, I try to throw in lots of NPCs, even if they're just background. Some make repeat appearances, sometimes at the players' request. Sentinel's EMT partner met a nurse who has made a couple of walk-on appearances. Serendipity's rich boyfriend had a secretary who became friends with Serendipity during the course of play. Styx's former landlord and landlady have a grandson who moved into Styx's former apartment, and Styx has tried to keep him out of trouble. Synergy's girlfriend's ex-boyfriend popped in a few times to try to win her back.

 

I've named and given 3- to 4-sentence descriptions to each member of two different PRIMUS assault squads, as well as several investigations agents, a pilot, and other random agents.

 

Not all of those NPCs are support characters, mind you, though they may help out on occasion (some more than others).

 

Waiting in reserve to be introduced one day, I have:

• an information broker with contacts throughout organized crime (including VIPER)
  
• a master mechanic who rebuilt a supervillain's discarded robot that now helps in the mechanic's junkyard.
  
• a cab driver who repeatedly shows up with different names, and can get across the city in almost unbelievable time
  
• a superhero groupie who knows more than might be good for her.
  
• a priest who tries to help and turn around gang members in his parish
  

[Cardinal]

Re: What support DNPCs do GMs make for their games?

 

The Conspiracy Expert

The transvestite hooker informant

 

Ahhh, the classic transvestite hooker conspiracy expert informant. If I've seen it once, I've seen it a million time. It is almost a cliche. LOL

[Greywind]

Re: What support DNPCs do GMs make for their games?

 

I think that some of the best DNPCs are family' date=' parents in particular, which is ironic since many hero backgrounds leave them as orphans. The reason is that blood is thicker than water, so while you might switch love interests, there is always reason for a family member to be in your life, and while they might irritate the bejeezus out of the hero, they are still family and there is still some love there. Family interactions are great for plumbing character depths because there are emotional ties there that you just don't find in most other relationships - the responsibilities are more profound (and betrayals are too).[/quote']Yeah, but the team is also a family.

[Ockham's Spoon]

Re: What support DNPCs do GMs make for their games?

 

Yeah' date=' but the team is also a family.[/quote']

 

You would think so, but I have often had problems with characters antagonizing each other to the point that the cohesiveness of the team becomes a plot contrivance. The team can be a sort of family but it takes work to get there, whereas blood relatives are there by default. You can pick your friends and companions, but you can't pick your family.

[Karmakaze]

Re: What support DNPCs do GMs make for their games?

 

Younger siblings always work, even if the hero has an orphan backstory. Other relatives can show up as well (clones, half-siblings, etc.) After all, Superman's backstory destroyed his entire planet/race, and the writers still found him a cousin.

[dsatow]

Re: What support DNPCs do GMs make for their games?

 

Younger siblings always work' date=' even if the hero has an orphan backstory. Other relatives can show up as well (clones, half-siblings, etc.) After all, Superman's backstory destroyed his entire planet/race, and the writers still found him a cousin.[/quote']

 

You also forget, a cat, dog, monkey, horse(I think), and at least 3 kryptonian criminals.

[assault]

Re: What support DNPCs do GMs make for their games?

 

You also forget' date=' a cat, dog, monkey, horse(I think), and at least 3 kryptonian criminals.[/quote']

 

The cat and the horse weren't Kryptonian. (Comet is one of My Favourite Characters Ever, just out of pure creepiness.)

 

There were lots of Phantom Zone villains. There was an entire city of miniaturised Kryptonians - Kandor. And there was Dev-Em.

[Alverant]

Re: What support DNPCs do GMs make for their games?

 

There's the liaison to the authorities (local or national) or the team patron/organizer/teacher. They should be pretty well developed. Early in a campaign a organizer/teacher should have his/her own story arcs and maybe even be removed from the campaign eventually if the team can get along without them. The mentor archtype in literature is famous for leaving, often dying so the student can proceed on their own. Obi wan is a famous example.

[dsatow]

Re: What support DNPCs do GMs make for their games?

 

I used to add a little obnoxious kid with a stuffed tiger to my games. I stopped because it was just too obvious. I wonder how many people will get the reference today...