PDA

View Full Version : Making movers and shakers



nrg89
2016-08-12, 09:48 AM
You want respected kings, feared warlords, powerful sorcerers, charismatic priests, rich merchants and other movers and shakers in your campaign setting but you don't want a metaplot.
You want likable, consistent personalities but you also want to show, not tell, how your NPCs are so that your players are still interested and don't face a barrage of lore when someone talks about him or her.

How do you start? When do you feel like you've done enough for your PCs to meet interact with her? Is your process different depending on if you want her to be a villain or ally later on?

The normal tips for creating NPC feels too limited, in my opinion, because they don't deal with how these powerful individuals would affect the setting. Again, this isn't Gunther the Inn Keeper, this is King John III so meeting him means business and his decisions can have huge impacts on the world. News about him would spread very quickly and his word could be law in any given moment. What's your process when creating powerful individuals in your setting and you want the players to understand that this individual's name carries weight?

Now, I know this is a gross misrepresentation of history, economics always wins in the end so it doesn't matter what the rulers want in the long run if it's more profitable for the population to do something else, and even the most powerful dictators needed good allies to uphold their power, but this is a gaming setting and they work much simpler than real life does.

RazorChain
2016-08-12, 11:37 PM
Gunther the inn keeper is mostly interested in keeping his inn running at a profit, have a happy life and go fishing once in a while.


King Otto might not be so different but he might have bigger goals. Just because Otto is king dosen't mean he is personally more powerful than Gunther but he has much more resources and influence.


I usually don't use statsblocks for npc's, I use descriptions and 4 stats.
Those stats are Personal Power, Cunning, Influence and Resources.

Personal Power is how essentially how good the individual is in a fight or other abilities he has on a personal level. Personal Power can be the basis for Influence or Resources as well like a Orc Warlord that fought his way to the top and now commands a tribe of orcs.

Cunning Is the ability to plan, manipulate and outsmart. Cunning can aslo be the basis for Influence and Resources like a good business man who played the market or even engineered shortage to make a profit. Can also be a general who uses strategy to win battles.

Influence This is how much leverage you have in society. This may be through contacts, allies or just your social rank, charisma, fame or good reputation. A famous bard could have a lot of influence through his ballads. He might slander people's good names or make a laughing stock out of them with his compositions.

Resources This is money, magic, army of clones etc.

I usually stat only my major NPC's and often list what resources, what influence to further define the NPC. I use the scale from 1-10 but that's just me...just make your own damn scale :)

For example

King Otto
Personal Power: 2 (trained to fight with a sword)
Cunning: 2 (more interested in his hobbies than ruling a kingdom)
Influence 5 (king of a tiny kingdom)
Resources 5 (Small army, moderate wealth)

50 years old with a paunch, blonde hair, grey in the sides. King Otto is the ruler of Happy Valley, he has little interest in ruling his kingdom, he spends most of his time in one of the towers of his castle playing his organ. Recently made a new law for his kindom that everybody should be happy, those who aren't will be hanged by the neck until they cheer up. He is not interested to see his daughter and only child married. If someone asks for her hand he will send them on a impossible quest, like jumping from the highest tower of the palace.


As for the question for how players should know what individuals are prominent or not I usually just let them roll a skill roll, current affairs, history, streetwise, heraldry or even a craft skill if the individual is a master craftsman. Then I give them a brief info, rumours or whatnot on the Npc.

RickAllison
2016-08-13, 12:30 AM
I usually build up my important NPCs using a set of ideas that build of each other. I'll use those with a major NPC from my Star Wars campaign. Such as:

1) Concept. What do I want this NPC to feel like, who is he, and why does he do what he does? Start vague and then get more specific as future decisions shape the character. I decided to start with the Heretic, an outcast with diverging views. As for what those views are or from what organization, that comes later.

2) Power. When you create an NPC, you should generally have an idea of where you want to challenge your players. The NPC could be personally powerful, have powerful allies, have a position/magic that is keeping a greater danger at bay, however you decide that your players should have to work through to get to him. I decided that my Heretic would be personally powerful (someone the PCs don't want to suddenly see), but also have shadowy connections so the PCs are never safe.

3) Connections. How does your NPC tie into the world? What organizations is he a part of? Whom does he associate with? What greater beings have ties to him? These shape where the players will go to and the people they will interact with. If you have a cool culture you want to introduce the players to, tie that into the NPC somehow so they venture there. I decided Heretic would be part of a larger order, an elite but ill-defined group who assist each other with their greater goal, but otherwise do not encroach on the business of the others. One of the cultures I really wanted to focus on was the slavery, spice mining, and illegal pod-racing of Mon Gazza, so I created an ally who was a crime lord stationed on that planet. Additionally, I wanted the Heretic to still have contacts from his old order, people who were terrified enough that they believed what he spoke of. Thus any information his order knew, he would also know at a more delayed rate. I figured the best place would be in the galactic government, so I ended up making him an Inquisitor.

So what we have so far is a heretic from the Inquisitorius engaged with a shadowy organization that includes crime rings. He is personally powerful, but it is all-seeing eyes both within the Empire and in the criminal syndicates that make him truly dangerous as he sees almost everything.

4) Hooks. Why should the PCs care? What does it matter if this guy is powerful, they just ignore him. Well hooks exist to drag them back in of their own volition. For the Heretic, I went with time-honored treasure. There were six all-powerful artifacts that gave significant boosts to the wearer. These were both hooks to get the party to address the NPC, but also story points as they were the McGuffins.

nrg89
2016-08-13, 09:27 AM
I usually don't use statsblocks for npc's, I use descriptions and 4 stats.
Those stats are Personal Power, Cunning, Influence and Resources.

Personal Power is how essentially how good the individual is in a fight or other abilities he has on a personal level. Personal Power can be the basis for Influence or Resources as well like a Orc Warlord that fought his way to the top and now commands a tribe of orcs.

Cunning Is the ability to plan, manipulate and outsmart. Cunning can aslo be the basis for Influence and Resources like a good business man who played the market or even engineered shortage to make a profit. Can also be a general who uses strategy to win battles.

Influence This is how much leverage you have in society. This may be through contacts, allies or just your social rank, charisma, fame or good reputation. A famous bard could have a lot of influence through his ballads. He might slander people's good names or make a laughing stock out of them with his compositions.

Resources This is money, magic, army of clones etc.
I like this because it's quick, but I see some overlap between the stats. Would a sorcerer for example have a low personal power stat but a high resources stat?



3) Connections. How does your NPC tie into the world? What organizations is he a part of? Whom does he associate with? What greater beings have ties to him? These shape where the players will go to and the people they will interact with. If you have a cool culture you want to introduce the players to, tie that into the NPC somehow so they venture there. I decided Heretic would be part of a larger order, an elite but ill-defined group who assist each other with their greater goal, but otherwise do not encroach on the business of the others. One of the cultures I really wanted to focus on was the slavery, spice mining, and illegal pod-racing of Mon Gazza, so I created an ally who was a crime lord stationed on that planet. Additionally, I wanted the Heretic to still have contacts from his old order, people who were terrified enough that they believed what he spoke of. Thus any information his order knew, he would also know at a more delayed rate. I figured the best place would be in the galactic government, so I ended up making him an Inquisitor.


This is the part I feel takes a long time because you sort of fill in blanks everywhere or you have to make another NPC for each of his connections.

Other than that I like that you list a sample of hooks for him, that gives the players a reason to meet him. The worst thing in the world is when the players look at your world and can't figure out what to do.

Honest Tiefling
2016-08-14, 03:36 PM
Don't show them at all. Yeah, it's a bit of a cop-out, but I've found that having NPCs talk about and tell stories (or keep records) does a lot more to establish an NPC then them bragging about themselves. Also means the PCs don't tune out during a battle they're not involved in, or try to throw a fireball in the wrong direction.

Now, having the NPCs gush over the king like they're a lovesick puppy isn't a good idea, but having things like people toast the king's health (and virility, should he be so inclined) in an inn or have people have portraits of the guy all over the place does indicate he's well loved. A statue that people give directions by that commemorates a war would also work.

I'm posting an example from the recent movie John Wick, and spoiler-ing cause it is kinda recent (It's not a bad movie if you like action flicks):
To establish John Wick as a very good assassin, the mob boss calls up one of his hirelings to ask why his hireling punched him in the face. Said hireling indicates that he punched the mob boss' son in the face because he attacked John Wick like an idiot. The mob boss then pauses, looking thoughtful and worried says nothing more then 'Oh', in a worried tone and hangs up the phone, continuing to seem in a daze from the news.