What I mean are that there are NPCs who are important but not plot critical – recurring bit players and the like, plot critical characters, people who exist solely to advance the story in some manner and those who are there to serve a specific purpose in an adventure or the campaign. There are also a great many permutations and even overlaps of these types, but they serve as a general umbrella to put them under.
To run with the Rogue Trader example, the bridge/lead crew of their ship has 36 named NPCs plus a variety of nameless extras – 30 odd on the bridge at any one time (serving to be slain by exploding control panels, shout out random cries of terror and such). Even though these crewmembers are named they’re not all going to be important or be terribly fleshed out beyond the most superficial. For instance there are three helmsmen (San Martel, Makeda Nuessen and Idriss Iseri) for the three watches.
As it’s possible one of the players will take over as the ‘primary’ helmsman these guys don’t need much beyond the basic background at first. They exist solely to fulfil a necessary role and have names to give the ship a more solid feel for the players. As the game progresses, depending on how involved the players get in ship-board life, I could start making noticeable differences between the three shifts – one is getting sloppy, rivalries and the like.
Characters such as the 1st Officer, Enginseer Prime and other high ranking roles will require more personality, despite being just as expendable in game terms. Now I don’t mean I’ll just kill them off for a cheap shock (more on that later) but that if they die it’s not going to screw up any of the plot. To this end I can just make them and let them loose in the gameworld, with no more too it.
Some characters, however, will have plot hooks built in even if it is not readily apparent. Extra care needs to be taken with them depending on the nature of the hook. If it’s simply an optional ‘side quest’ such as an old debt that catches them up or some similar personal event there are two ways to go about it. Firstly, if it’s something that will simply spring up don’t worry about it, but think of another character the hook could be transferred to in case of NPC demise. If it won’t fit with anyone, well, file it away for next campaign.
Secondly, if there will be foreshadowing of this side quest and you aren’t prepared to have the NPC cark it and lose all that work, you’ll need to work out why and how they’re invincible. This will depend on the type of game, both in style and system. If you’re running a game where everybody has stats and damage is always rolled for, it can be a lot trickier to do and keep your players from sussing out that they’re invincible. Hidden rolling can help, but there are some times it just won’t happen.
Similarly if the style of the game allows a more cinematic approach where any named NPC is invincible save for dramatic moments, things can be fudged more easily.
Examples I’ve got are one of the Vox operators, Thuy Pribenno, owes the Kasballica Mission for them getting his family out of a contract with some nasty types, and one day he doesn’t come back from shore leave…
This is a very easy backstory to transfer to another NPC should Mr Pribenno meet a sticky end somehow as it’s got a “wouldn’t talk about it” clause practically built into it.
One the more foreshadowing side either the Steward or Carto-Artifex had an affair with the player’s Rogue Trader parental (and possibly be one of the PC’s other parent). This is tied in with the backstory I’ve come up with where all the players, regardless of class, have an equal share in the Warrant of Trade – but that’s a story for another time. The plan to avoid them getting killed in the first place is that they won’t be on the bridge during combat (most of the time), so will be off screen, and thus completely immune to the effects of the ship getting trashed.
Now obviously the PCs are clever folk, so could wind up getting them killed anyway. Hopefully it won’t happen early enough that there’s no foreshadowing whatsoever – but if they know some and have questions it would be easy enough to have another NPC do some Obi-Wan exposition in their place.
The next group are those who may not even have a name but exist only for a brief moment (at least at first). These are the bartenders and shopkeeps who supply tidbits of information that send the player’s bouncing around the game. Now, they do sometimes need to be expanded upon on the fly when the players get fixated on them for some obscure reason (which I covered last time).
Now, sometimes NPCs are created with a specific purpose in mind – they’ll get slain by the bad guy to show how bad and tough he is, they’ll betray the characters when they get to point X, they’ll act as a contemporary whose fortunes will highlight the player’s own successes or failures. Others could serve as antagonists, or allies. This is similar to making an NPC with a plot hook, but as part of the plot rather than kicking it off.
In some ways these are the easiest NPCs to make – they have clear goals that will intersect with the PCs, and the adventure is likely mapped out to some extent. On the other hand they can be the hardest, needing to account for all the crazy things the PCs could do at any given time in the heat of the moment.
Some examples, using the eight rival Rogue Traders from the Fantasy Flight module Lure of the Expanse, which I’ll be running as the third or so adventure. These characters all have a purpose, and specific ways they’ll interact with the players.
Abel Gerrit will prove a potential ally. They won’t know him until the adventure, but he’ll be positively disposed to working with the players and, being the honourable sort, will even help them if they get stuck. As the campaign goes on he’ll be on a steady upwards trajectory, and will occasionally re-appear to work with the players or say hello in port (assuming they get on well and he doesn’t die), serving as a yardstick the players can measure themselves against.
Hadarak Fel will appear as a rival from day 1. He’ll be out to vex the players at every opportunity, but is more a dark grey character than darkest evil. He’s out to do the Imperium’s work, but is also out for himself and his House. He won’t kill the PCs unless absolutely necessary, and could even ally with them under the right circumstances. Fitting in with the tropes of the genre if seen to die he’ll likely come back at some later point with a new scar on his face.
He’ll be a smart, cunning and ruthless nemesis who should be really aggravating to the players.
Mademoiselle Charlabelle will appear early on, having offices near the player and start well-disposed to them thanks to a history of friendship between both Houses. Her purpose is to be unlucky. Her House is on the rocks and whenever the players run into her some seeming disaster will have befallen her. This will prove two opportunities: the PCs to absorb her holdings (especially if a PC romances her) to increase their power base, and for a rather sharp hook when a forbidden Ministorum sect leads a mutiny on her ship…
She’ll be there to test the PC’s morals and honour – do they pounce on their family’s long standing ally it its weakest, or help them out at the potential cost of their own fortune and reputation?
Using a plot device of 'beloved NPC is killed/kidnapped/whatever' can be very cheap. Cheap, but effective. RPGs by their very nature are full of this sort of thing, so as long as it fits with the existing gameworld and isn't done too much or too blatantly. One should also be mindful of how the players will react if it is done too often. Like anything in the GM's bag of tricks, it should be used sparingly and with great consideration.
Jeremiah Blitzis a neutral character. He’ll try and screw the PCs if he can get away with it, but will generally keep his word. Thanks to his roguish personality he can be whoever I need him to be. When they first meet him he’ll be on the rise and at full swagger. Later he’ll have been taken down a notch or two by reality. The next time he’ll either be still down, or have bounced back.
In some ways he’ll be the closest thing to a mirror for the players – brash, risk taking and cocksure. He’ll be serving to highlight the potential risks and rewards of what they’re doing. Anytime the players are being too conservative he’ll do something insane and become unfeasibly wealthy to provide some motivation.
Admiral Bastille and Lady Sun Lee are tied together as a joined plot device. The players will have little opportunity to interact with them and they will serve as a method to show how far the PCs have to go in this early stage to reach the heights of power. While the PCs race against them for the prize, the two will be fighting a bitter war that will end with Bastille’s death (spoilers!) by way of his flagship crashing into a planet as it is swallowed by a warp-storm – while the players are nearby! A suitably apocalyptic climax methinks.
But this leads to a great opportunity as the Bastille dynasty is now no more, and its holdings up for grabs! The first three adventures will be fairly tightly scripted to help give the players a handle on the setting and their own characters, and Bastille’s death will give them the first opportunity to go for it sandbox style – all his ships are looking for new masters, his worlds could be re-claimed and his treasures looted. Hooks, hooks, hooks!
They’ll be vying with some of these Rogue Traders and others if they do, and will hopefully be wise after seeing what a powerful House can bring to bear. These two don’t need to be fleshed out as they will never directly speak to the players – their minions will simply refuse an audience, which really gives all the character one could need right there.
Djenko Scourge has one purpose – to be killed by the PCs. A brutish thug, he’ll appear early on, act like a jerk and refuse to talk to the players. Later he’ll attack the PCs on the ground, and not give up until he is dead. Simple, but it’ll give the players a bit of a morale boost to see him wiped from existence, and set up a rivalry with his house for later…
Krawkin Feckward is the last, and most odious of the NPC Rogue Traders. The PCs will have heard of him beforehand via the Koronus Gazetter – a slaver and borderline pirate. While Fel is a ruthless businessman, Feckward is an outright murderer and criminal. If the PCs are foolish enough to make a deal with him he’ll betray them and try to kill them, and will try to kill or cripple them at any other time.
If they don’t do it they’ll see him drowned under a ravenous swarm of ex-slaves… but he’ll be back and will be plaguing the PCs for some time, perhaps right until the end…
So that’s it, how NPCs, despite having superficially similar qualities, can vary greatly. Of course one must be careful when creating plot essential NPCs that the players aren’t railroaded by what ‘should’ happen. Keeping things loose and having a general idea of what will happen is my preferred method.
It also helps to talk out of the game to your players – find out what NPCs they like, ask them what they think is going on, who’s hiding secrets or is about to betray them… don’t change everything based on their answers obviously, but it can be a good tool to quietly do some behind the scenes restructuring and put more work into favourite NPCs who were just one line wonders.
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