Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?
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“If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.”
― Carl Sagan, Cosmos -
@Thenomain i could not care less if npcs engage in ts. But it should be in the interest of the plot and the characters, in the way that i think ALL npc rp time should be in the interest/service of the plot/characters of the game.
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@Kanye-Qwest said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:
ALL npc rp time should be in the interest/service of the plot/characters of the game.
:nodding, chinstroke: Interesting.
So, and I'm going to make a conclusion that might make some people angry but...we...aagrrreeeeeeeeee...?????
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How does TS further the interest of the game?
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@bear_necessities I suppose it depends on how good at it you are. <rimshot>
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Some staffers really go above and beyond to keep the playerbase satisfied. <double rimshot>
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@surreality lol I just struggle to think of a situation where I would go... you know what this plot needs? My NPC's dick
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@bear_necessities it really depends on the game and the NPC. Maybe you see an opportunity to seduce a player char and bring a certain child/romance/tension into the story. Maybe you are playing an NPC in order to make the game world more immersive and reinforce an element of theme and that character would have the sex with someone for some reason.
The pearl clutching EGAD an NPC had teh SEX response I think is really a 'this person is not using this NPC for player enjoyment, but for their own" response, which really just means that person probably needs a course correction or not to play NPCs. As long as an NPC action is making story or character development or raw fun for player(s) with their RP time, I got nothing but confetti for them.
ETA I am not saying I think playing an NPC should be an unfun chore 100% of the time. Staffers get to have fun, too. It just needs to be character relevant fun and not 'hey this person has a hot PB i want to see whether they use the word x or x in ts'.
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@bear_necessities Hey now, don't discount the magic vajayjay! Actually, do. Discount it completely. It doesn't exist.
Oh fucking well.
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@surreality said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:
Hey now, don't discount the magic vajayjay!
What is this, a Laurel K. Hamilton book?!
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@Thenomain No, I don't consider someone throwing a bottle and another person getting hit by it in game purposeful in-game direction of the game, sorry.
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I have had a character fart out loud during a scene (hey, I was playing an ogre, so.). Another player posed their PC smelling it and reacting.
I do not think anyone who had two brain cells to rub together would have considered that interaction to be plot advancement, or a meaningful touchstone to the story of the game. Funny? Sure. Livening up a boring as fuck meeting? Yes. Did I get more RP invites after that from people I didn't know before? Yup.
But. Still not advancement for that PrP or even my PC's story. I daresay that NPC farting at someone probably wouldn't be either. Unless it was a giant dragon farting on the king to start a war or something.
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@bear_necessities said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:
What drives me crazy is when a staff has an NPC but that they use to be the star of a plot. No. Stop that. That is for PCs. If you want to be the star of your show, make a PC.
lol, my D&D GM does this. The guy has a fetish for his idiot rogue he played in another campaign and now that he's running one, has turned it into some sort of celebrity hero that the NPCs bring up at every opportunity. It's kind of annoying.
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I think people who run PrPs of their PC getting to be the star of the show should have to disclose that in their PrP first. It's not any more fun when a player storyteller does it!
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@SG said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:
@bear_necessities said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:
What drives me crazy is when a staff has an NPC but that they use to be the star of a plot. No. Stop that. That is for PCs. If you want to be the star of your show, make a PC.
lol, my D&D GM does this. The guy has a fetish for his idiot rogue he played in another campaign and now that he's running one, has turned it into some sort of celebrity hero that the NPCs bring up at every opportunity. It's kind of annoying.
Time to derail the campaign and kill that rogue.
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@mietze said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:
I do not think anyone who had two brain cells to rub together would have considered that interaction to be plot advancement, or a meaningful touchstone to the story of the game. Funny? Sure. Livening up a boring as fuck meeting? Yes. Did I get more RP invites after that from people I didn't know before? Yup.
But. Still not advancement for that PrP or even my PC's story.
Pretty much this. The reason I think people like the description of NPCs as part of the environment is not because a, say, bolt of lightning is a 'character,' but because their best use is similar: it puts meat on the bones of the setting/moment/scene/story/whatever. Sometimes NPCs are plot mcguffins. Sometimes they're plot-givers. Sometimes they're part of what raises the stakes in a situation the PCs have to consider, as victims or hostages or an element that raises questions in a morally grey area. Sometimes they're a source of public opinion or pressure, as in the ubiquitous 'They.' But sometimes they're just flavor, a thing that breathes life into the world, and that is also good. Some of my favorite moments in MU* involve well-crafted NPCs. Almost all of my characters have significant NPCs in their lives, because people know other people. /shrug
I think whether or not they're being used incorrectly has less to do with how important or meaningful they are, or how much you care about them -- it has to do with whether or not they start to take control of a story without the person running them doing that specifically because they're thinking of how that will contribute to the story for real players.
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This isnt a pearl clutch. I will just never understand why staff feels the need to utilize their NPCs to have "romantic plot" or bring a child into the world or fuck somebody (which again, does that benefit the game or at least a certain group of PCs? Because it sounds like it benefits 2. The PC you are boning and the NPC).
If you want those plots, why cant you have a PC that pursues those plots?
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Romance plots are an enormous staple of storytelling and have been since the dawn of storytelling. Sex and romance is an enormous driver of the human species. Much, much, much drama in entertainment revolves around sex for this reason. Bringing it into our pretendy fun-time games as a plot element should not be surprising or weird, considering that it shows up in every other type of entertainment media.
FFS, in video game RPGs now, you do romance/sex with NPCs as part of the story. Dragon Age. Even SWTOR, the MMO, lets you romance an NPC.
Not weird.
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I believe NPCs should be Staff Property - playable by any member of Staff 'as needed' - for a plot scene, for a scene with PCs (a leader discussing disciplinary action, handing out a quest, etc etc), and so on. Their plot, their progress (such as sheets), and major actions should be tracked and shared (potentially discussed depending on scale) with the rest of Staff. Things like GDoc are great for this.
Once an NPC is being played by a Staffer on a regular basis in casual, day-to-day RP and is exclusively played by them (particularly if they are playing in personal, intimate friendships and relationships) they are no longer, IMO, an NPC and become a PC and should then be governed by the same rules as PCs.
Saying the quiet parts out loud since 1996.
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So let's divorce the issue from sex, so we don't have to worry about pearl-clutching.
Should staff NPCs be wandering around, roleplaying random mini-golf games that don't do anything for the story? Setting? Pretty much anything but their own desire to have a mini-golf scene?
IMO, no. If you want to RP mini-golf on a game that's not about mini-golf, do it with a PC, not a staff-run NPC. Otherwise, you're implying that mini-golf is important on some level that it's really not.
