From: [s--m--n] at [orac.office.onechip.co.uk] (Simon Richardson)
Subject: A sort of golden glow (IC script immunity)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.advocacy
Date: 4 Dec 96 07:43:27 GMT

Mary K. Kuhner ([m k kuhner] at [phylo.genetics.washington.edu]) wrote:
: We have strong opinions about not differentiating PCs too much from
: NPCs, so when we used Karma points in Shadowrun we would give the
: major NPCs some too (admittedly, usually not as many).  The GM never
: used them for automatic successes (the player almost never did either;
: we learned early on that auto successes are trouble), but he used
: them freely to save NPCs' lives.
[...]

We have a "destiny-points" system that is cashed in for miraculous escapes,
for special successes and the like.  All player characters get one
automatically, and then additional ones are earned in various ways (I am
about to award my whole Wednesday party with one each, since they managed to
retrieve a to-my-mind hopeless situation.)  These "destiny points" are also
used in the casting and resisting of spells, giving the characters a chance
to get a handle on the rating.  (To quote "Apocalypse Now" "He was
surrounded by a sort of golden glow, and you just *knew* he'd never be hurt
in combat".)

As for NPC's, they are broken into three classes.  The first class is
"extras" - the NPC's made up on the fly in order to man hot-dog stands,
drive taxis, man shops, tell the party the time and so on.  These guys get a
rating of 0.

The second class are the ones who are there for plot-relevent reasons, but
not a main part of the plot.  The "walk-on part" characters, that is.  These
are people who might answer questions, the guard outside the castle, the
publican who directs them at the mighty mage.  Any NPC in the first group
that captures the party's imagination by definition moves into the second
group, and acquires a "destiny point" for being interesting enough.

The third class is for NPC's who are relevent to the plot or to the
background.  The king comes into this category, as does the mighty mage that
assigns them the mission, or the bane that they are assigned to kill. 
Basically, these are the "stars".  These have a number of destiny points
depending entirely on their background, and normally determined by the
amount of history they have made.

Assigning NPC's "destiny" is actually far easier than might be thought. 
Assigning it in play is often done by player interaction, since the players
actually ask me to assign destiny to a character that they like, or whom in
their opinion is heroic.  There is generally agreement in this assignation,
both in games where I play and the games where I referee.  Which leads on to
the notion that major NPC's can actually be created by the players taking an
interest in someone and bringing them on.  It is odd to have NPC's that were
originally intended as "extras" become "stars", but this happens - and as a
referee I have no intention of fighting it.


Very much like this, in fact...


: A detail from the same game which really helped make the point; when
: we introduced the second set of PCs in the African arc, the GM set
: things up so that there would be a lethal fight in an African village,
: and then a sorceror would raise the PCs to be champions for their
: slain.  During the fight, one of the non-PC villagers, a young
: woman, fought extraordinarily well (amazing dice rolls) and killed
: a Dark Spawn of some kind.  We added her to the PC roster on the
: spot.  I find the world feels more real if the PC/NPC distinction
: is de-emphasized as much as possible.

I also try and de-emphasise this: I want both PC's and NPC's to do the
things that "they" want to, and look for reasons why they should do the
things that *I* want them to do.  That makes the interaction of the NPC's
easy to understand, for the most part.

Then comes the related notion of getting guest players to play NPC's for a
session or two.  Provided the guest player can be made aware of the
background and motivations, these things often work very well.   They tend
to play inside the plot, because the plot was written from an IC
perspective.



Simon

---
"This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind"   -Ecclesiastes 4:16 

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