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hymer
2013-08-22, 02:34 PM
I'd like to offer my players a series of NPCs for recruitment, to stay on the ship while they're away, state the obvious, die to show this is serious, provide exposition, give roleplaying opportunities, get sick and need a cure, and generally serve as background friends and crew. Maybe some of these can later grow into something more important if the players take an interest in them.
Which got me thinking... What sort of archetypes do you think belongs in space opera RPG? Or non-types, for that matter? What sort of people can be competent but not overshadow the PCs? What are your thoughts, experiences, etc.? All replies appreciated, ideas in particular.

Ravens_cry
2013-08-22, 02:43 PM
Hmm the grungy old asteroid miner in a well patched spacesuit and tin-can spaceship with so many modifications and jury rigged repairs it bears little, if any, resemblance to the original type.
The alien who simply loves humanity because it has a thing for "ugly little bags of water".
The suave, exotic interstellar trader.
The naive cadet fresh from the academy, who perhaps knows the official rules but with little understanding of the unspoken ones.
The unintelligible one (alien or human) that only one character understands and is a savant in some area.
The human raised by aliens.
The alien raised by humans.
The snarky robot.
The loyal robot.
The snarky, loyal robot.
The sexy robot.
The sexy, snarky, robot.
The sexy, snarky, loyal robot.

Jaycemonde
2013-08-22, 03:05 PM
The snarky robot.
The loyal robot.
The snarky, loyal robot.
The sexy robot.
The sexy, snarky, robot.
The sexy, snarky, loyal robot.

That's pretty much all you need for a successful campaign right there.
Also, the sexy, snarky, rebellious, anthropomorphized fighter jet robot.

Ravens_cry
2013-08-22, 04:02 PM
That's pretty much all you need for a successful campaign right there.
Also, the sexy, snarky, rebellious, anthropomorphized fighter jet robot.
You don't need the rebellious adjective. It seems to be assumed among AI.:smalltongue:

Jaycemonde
2013-08-22, 04:09 PM
You don't need the rebellious adjective. It seems to be assumed among AI.:smalltongue:

dat tru. Still, I've always wanted to see a Robot Joe-style robot in a game, be it tabletop or video.

BRC
2013-08-22, 04:13 PM
When it comes to NPC crewmen, what you want is entertaining personalities and memorable quirks. If the Players like them enough you can start giving them their own agendas, but for the most part they should be able to get out of the way and do what they're told.


One (Somewhat elaborate) idea that might be fun a "clone" of some famous historical/fictional character, let's go with Shakespere as an example.

Basically, some eccentric rich guy and/or mad scientist wanted a collection of famous people, so he grew cloned bodies, surgically modified them to look like the figure in question, and then uploaded an artifical personality of the person in question (Possibly a human-level AI on a cyborg brain).

At some point this particular "Clone" of Shakespere escaped/was released/ the rich guy who owned him was arrested for keeping a clone zoo. He KNOWS he is not William Shakespere, just a vat-grown body with a brain designed to think and act like Shakespere, but he's got the memories and personality of Shakespere (or at least the programmer's version). Depending on your roleplaying capabilities/how well the personality was constructed, "Will" may actually be a talented playwright, or he may just enjoy dirty puns and occasionally spout out shakespere lines.

What might be fun is if you have them be a clone of, say, Napoleon, when asked to recall details of Napoleon's life they just start reciting the Wikipedia entry because a lazy programmer decided to dump in a text file full of information rather than actually build fake memories.


"Tom 12", a member of a batch of clone soldiers created at the end of some war. Discharged after the war, Tom 12 considers himself highly expendible. When he dies, as soon as the PC's return to a major spaceport Tom 13 will show up asking for his brothers body, and mentioning that he heard they might have a spot open on their crew.

When Tom 13 dies, Tom 14 will show up. When he dies, Tom 16 will arrive. All later Toms will refuse to discuss what happened to Tom 15.

The Glyphstone
2013-08-22, 04:20 PM
The cynical, galaxy-weary traveler who's explored the stars, seen it all, and gotten sick of it.

The starry-eyed, idealistic explorer who dreams of traveling across the stars and seeing it all.

The grizzled old retired/disabled space war veteran.

The oily, too-charming used-spaceship salesperson.

The smuggler on the run/in hiding from an interstellar crime syndicate that they owe lots of money to.

The secret long-lost heir to a dynasty on the run/in hiding from an interstellar empire that conquered their planet.


Mix and match as desired (the exiled prince turned to a life of crime to survive? The veteran's seen too much war and wants to explore the starts in hope of finding a truly peaceful retirement?)

Mordar
2013-08-22, 05:17 PM
The cynical, galaxy-weary traveler who's explored the stars, seen it all, and gotten sick of it.

The starry-eyed, idealistic explorer who dreams of traveling across the stars and seeing it all.

The grizzled old retired/disabled space war veteran.

The oily, too-charming used-spaceship salesperson.

The smuggler on the run/in hiding from an interstellar crime syndicate that they owe lots of money to.

The secret long-lost heir to a dynasty on the run/in hiding from an interstellar empire that conquered their planet.


I might add the following (depending on 10-penny-space-opera vs. velvet-cushions-for-everyone-space-opera):


The esoteric, perhaps inscrutable expert (be it on alien cultures, transwarp drives or spaceninja combat) who provides Philosophy, But in Space!;
The mad-scientist, Universe-wide edition (ala Space 1999 or similar);
The engineer who loves their ship to pieces (or pieces of their ship) and can keep it going with bubblegum and a single electrospanner (if a small ship) and/or get more out of it than any other engineer in the history of ever (particularly if a large ship).


- M

The Glyphstone
2013-08-22, 05:31 PM
And of course, all humanoids or humans must come from a planet with a Hat of some kind.

Kitten Champion
2013-08-22, 06:53 PM
You'll want an enigmatic alien working as the figurative janitor on the ship, s/he is part of a grand cosmic plan and offers that bit of veiled advice from time to time. I hate this character personally, but it seems popular among my people. This is a good character to add a sort of spiritual element to the story - not Jedi spiritual with telekinesis and whatnot - but more philosophical.

The smug alien. The space elves. The "evolved" a-holes who condescend to your crew because they're clearly doing everything wrong. Think T'pal in the first two seasons of Enterprise. This isn't a good archetype to take wholesale, but it can be thread into an intelligent mini-character arc when done well as it was in Mass Effect.

The alien alien. Not so Inscrutable as to be impossible to communicate with like a space jellyfish or sentient blot of yellow light, but something alien enough that certain elementary concepts are different between your PCS and it. Go wild with it, it's one medium which encourages it to my thinking.

The honourable warrior alien guy. Klingons are the obvious reference point but they crop up lots of places. I think Mass Effect is, yet again, a good example of keeping the thematic overtones of the disciplined military guys with imperialistic mentalities and hyperbolic violent space barbarians while still making them far more than just that. They make for useful default soldier types but will go to more extremes than what the players probably expect.

Then you'll want a pair, maybe an older married couple, maybe just two scientists or engineers with opposing personalities and professional perspectives but are strangely complimentary to one another. Perhaps one dies the other has trouble getting through it, or the player has to serve as mediator between them. Grunt NPCs who routinely take verbal jabs at one another are always fun.

Add that ambitious dude. The one who wants to be the PCs, and pushes him or herself too far. A wannabe space ace, essentially. Might lead to conflict when their ego gets in the way of their work, getting everyone in danger. Could come with an understated sidekick character who's more competent but less outspoken and is easily overshadowed by the faux ace.

The guy atoning for something is a must for me. Perhaps a previous event which got his/her former crew all killed. Maybe they lived a life in an unpleasant line of work like a former mercenary, or were an ex-convict. They can't live down what they've done so they're running from it. Where better to run than throughout space? Maybe they've yet to be caught and are hiding under an assumed identity, but still feel guilt over their past actions.

The Machiavellian scientist is always fun. S/he got his/her own agenda, and pushes the lines of moral behaviour at important moments. S/he might be the logic-guy pressing the consequential side of a morally grey decision, that you might hate even as you admit they're right... from a certain point of view.

Oh, then there's the Doctor. Doctors are a whole bunch of archetype to themselves and depending on the tone of your setting and the balance of your characters you might want to make them either motherly (irrespective of gender) or the type that drinks heavily and wanted a career somewhere legitimate.

Don't forget about the ship. The ship is a character here too, whether you give it a voice or not, it should feel like its a part of the world with its own little history and unique little quirks.

elliott20
2013-08-22, 11:50 PM
you can always start from Good Ol' TVTropes (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ArchetypalCharacter) for starter archetypes. (And just like that, I think just killed over 20,000 hours worth of productivity on this board.)

Easiest way to do it is to just mix and match a couple and go from there.

examples include:
alien princess
space marine
galactic emperor
psychic + any character type
the obi-wan
the farm boy
etc

hymer
2013-08-23, 01:37 AM
@ Ravens_cry & Jaycemonde: Thanks, very useful list. I'm probably gonna go easy on the self-aware robots, but that shouldn't keep me from having some machines with personality.

@ BRC: Good advice, fun ideas. Thanks!

@ The Glyphstone: More good ideas, thanks! And I should definitely have the occasional hat planet, no doubt.

@ Mordar: Good expansion to the lists, thanks!

@ Kitten Champion: Thank you very much for all the details!

@ elliott20: I try to avoid using TVTropes for this sort of thing for that exact reason; I tend to get side-tracked. But you're right. Thanks for the list!

Soylent Dave
2013-08-23, 02:20 AM
And of course, all humanoids or humans must come from a planet with a Hat of some kind.

And important NPCs (/ PCs) from such planets are exception by virtue of the fact that their hats have fallen off.

(plot hooks: help them put their hat back on or help them remove the hat of the rest of their species / civilisation)

hymer
2013-08-23, 02:58 AM
@ Soylent Dave: Yeah, hats are an important characterization tool in space opera, no doubt. Thanks for your thoughts!

The Glyphstone
2013-08-23, 02:59 AM
If you want to get really meta, have one NPC literally be from a Planet of Hats. Everyone wears a hat, and your hat is directly tied to your status/social class. Losing one's hat is an unforgivable shame.

hymer
2013-08-23, 04:22 AM
Having recently recalled a Darkwing Duck instance of a group of creatures who looked like big hats, going extra meta had indeed crossed my mind.
Nice thought/hat, Glyphstone.

genmoose
2013-08-23, 12:38 PM
Here's a few characters to toss out:

Human fanboy/girl. An alien character, perhaps fairly young, who is obsessed with humanity and tries, although often fails, to blend in with the rest of the crew. It gives a good opportunity for comic relief and a nudge back towards good if you need it. "But he is surrendering. Does he not have basic rights? Your....Georgia Convention yes?"

Ridiculously armed/prepared guy. Middle aged, eccentric former Boy Scout type that feels the need to carry anything and everything with him because at one point in time he needed something and didn't have it. The character can serve as comic relief and/or effectively allow the DM to inject critical items to keep the plot moving.
[PC's enter an old space station chasing some crazy criminal. The bad guy dives behind a door and locks it. The PC's defy all odds and fail every open locks, hacking, force door check they have. Ridiculously Armed Guy produces a block of C9 and blows the door.]

Older unrepentant but disposed despot. Could be human but probably easier as an alien. Once ruled a planet/system/etc with an iron fist but was disposed by some method. He isn't a full blown criminal and can be seen in public but there are still those that want to kill him for revenge. He is chock full of wisdom and knowledge although some might be 'tainted'.
[PC: "I'm going to kill that thief"
Despot: "No don't kill; maim him instead. The dead are either forgotten or turned into martyrs. The crippled send a very clear message that says 'don't f$(k with me'."]

Jaycemonde
2013-08-23, 02:19 PM
If you want to get really meta, have one NPC literally be from a Planet of Hats. Everyone wears a hat, and your hat is directly tied to your status/social class. Losing one's hat is an unforgivable shame.

http://gamestudies.org/articleimages/67_Figure6.jpg

hymer
2013-08-24, 02:39 AM
@ genmoose: Good ones, thanks! It could be a little difficult to get the PCs to trust the third one, but worth it.

@ Jaycemonde: LOL. Well, you catch a cold if you don't wear a hat, dontcha?

elliott20
2013-08-27, 03:39 PM
http://gamestudies.org/articleimages/67_Figure6.jpg

truly, this man is of the most majestic of creatures