Tag: NPCs

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Hey, Isn’t That My Character: Using Retired PCs As NPCs

A good NPC can make a campaign. A bad one, well bad NPCs are usually forgotten fairly quickly. With this in mind it’s in a DMs best interest to ensure that his key NPCs have detailed stories to accompany them. By providing these NPCs with quirks, strengths and weaknesses it provides the PC with more reason to interact and develop a relationship. This in turn makes it easier for the DM to move the story along, twining the PCs concerns with those of the NPC. Of course this takes a lot of work and as the PCs progress new NPCs are required, with new stories and reason to motivate the PCs.

April’s RPG Blog Carnival focus on NPCs. One way to build a very effective NPC is to use a PC that has for one reason or another retired.

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Campaign Design: Fleshing Out Your NPCs

Every campaign world is made of living, breathing NPCs. All of them have stories and a role to play within the campaign setting. From the lowly farmer to the mighty king, every NPC has a function and a purpose. As the campaign designer, your job is to define that role. Is the king a sinister tyrant? Is the peasant forming a rebellion? These are questions that you need to answer in order to bring your world to life.

This part of our series in Campaign Design picks up where the article on Politics and Groups of Influence left off. Now we look at the names and faces that dominate these political structures. Of course, not every NPC requires a fully fleshed out background, but the generalities are required. We’ll handle our look at NPCs in three sections: Common citizens, major players and villains.

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