NPC Roster
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@Tinuviel Thats part of what I am debating internally right now. Just how much control to give. I really like the idea of writing up a solid history, influences, motivations etc, make an outline, and just give it to the players, but having a few control points might be a good idea ass well.
@Ghost They will be an Antagonist faction so they are unlikely to just give people things, but if they do, there is definitely a high cost.
But you are right, a lot of folks wanna run PRP's where they always win, and this Family is intended to both lose and win, back and forth. Because a Villian that is used as a constant punching bag is boring. The hope is to set them up in a way that is interesting enough that people might get invested in the villains too. Want to see them win, just for the chance to bring them back down again.
Perhaps invest certain members with 'Plot armor'.
Cops and Clergy and most other organizations in the game are corrupt, it is WoD After all. You mentioned Gotham, and that's about how secure our prisons are... >_>
@Coin I admit I am not great at those 'point systems' like you describe them, coupld you elaborate a bit more? In my head, the Plots, the laws that they might pass, the factions they might seek to undermine and control...
Like I am thinking at the beginning, one of these guys is the Mayor.
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@Wretched said in NPC Roster:
Thats part of what I am debating internally right now. Just how much control to give. I really like the idea of writing up a solid history, influences, motivations etc, make an outline, and just give it to the players, but having a few control points might be a good idea ass well.
It all depends how involved you want the family as a whole to be in whatever metaplot you're crafting. If you want them especially involved, perhaps think about creating an NPC family member-per-sphere so people aren't squabbling over who they want to get involved. That'd take some work given how secretive the factions are, but probably worth it.
He/Him
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@Wretched said in NPC Roster:
@Tinuviel Thats part of what I am debating internally right now. Just how much control to give. I really like the idea of writing up a solid history, influences, motivations etc, make an outline, and just give it to the players, but having a few control points might be a good idea ass well.
@Ghost They will be an Antagonist faction so they are unlikely to just give people things, but if they do, there is definitely a high cost.
But you are right, a lot of folks wanna run PRP's where they always win, and this Family is intended to both lose and win, back and forth. Because a Villian that is used as a constant punching bag is boring. The hope is to set them up in a way that is interesting enough that people might get invested in the villains too. Want to see them win, just for the chance to bring them back down again.
Perhaps invest certain members with 'Plot armor'.
Cops and Clergy and most other organizations in the game are corrupt, it is WoD After all. You mentioned Gotham, and that's about how secure our prisons are... >_>
@Coin I admit I am not great at those 'point systems' like you describe them, coupld you elaborate a bit more? In my head, the Plots, the laws that they might pass, the factions they might seek to undermine and control...
Like I am thinking at the beginning, one of these guys is the Mayor.
I can elaborate more later when I'm not going out, but basically what I mean is: you don't want just plot to dictate what can and can't be done; you want an abstract system of checks and balances and +/- to 'get things done'. Otherwise, you end up being the sole arbiter anyway in the end, because 'plot'. Or you get infighting among Player STs who 'wrote this story a certain way why are they fucking up my rpzzzzz' etc.
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@Tinuviel In my head they are separate from the main plot arcs that we will be running. They are more a 'staple of the setting' with all the other families, just with moar influence. A persistent foil that exists whatever overarching metaplot is happening. Tho they are the type to get involved with things that men should not.
BROAD STROKES: The Price and the Lynch families may squabble for years over who did what to whom, while the Urquharts and Holmes may fight tooth and nail... but everyone hates the Blackwells.
Mayor Blackwell was just seated into power, while his sister is the Police Commissioner. They own businesses, hotels, property, they outright own a couple gangs, included the dread biker gang known as 'The Dead Flamingos'. They Blackwells hunger for power, in all it's forms. Children vanish at the hands of the Gentry as if it were a boarding school, going away for a few years of pre-arranged servitude, to come back home with power, and in the mean time, the Fetches are useful and do as Fetches do. Generations ago they interbred with werewolves and to this day that branch of the family bites every child on their 16th birthday. They seek embrace, vampyric power, and any who have attempted to blood bind a blackwell has met an abrupt end. Power before everything else., except the success of the Family.
@Coin The Infighting can at least be thematic, not everyone in the Family gets along, and they do get in the way of each other from time to time, but this is definitely something that's in the forefront of my mind.
Perhaps each PRP being run by them has certain goals/limits and success/fail consequences can then be worked out with staff? Written in the documentation page of thier wiki, etc? Use some sort of Influence system?
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In relation to this: What are other parts of a games setting that could be open for PC's to influence without much staff oversight? I am notoriously a Thematic Despot, but as long as people stay more or less within the lines of the rules/sphere themes we set out... I don't really care much what they do. Even for the non NPC families, I expect players to have a lot of influence into the respective families they join.
One thing I am poking around with is neighborhoods, and having some sort of influence/investment system there. Ifv yer from Little haiti, and live there, and spend your time there, owning a business there etc. What could we do with that? Social Bonuses? Territorial bonuses (akin to certain woof merits?) The ability to affect and change the vibe?
I really want to allow people to get invested in the grid and setting, and I think/hope it's large enough to do that.
@Tinuviel I feel like you think i should know who that is?
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@Wretched said in NPC Roster:
@Tinuviel I feel like you think i should know who that is?
If you're making a family called the Urquharts without knowing who that is, you should be ashamed.
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I had to google it to find out that it was from the lesser known version of House of Cards.
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@Wretched said in NPC Roster:
What are other parts of a games setting that could be open for PC's to influence
Okay so lemme think. I think in lists sooooo....
The classic LARP influences are: Bureaucracy, Church, Finance, Health, High Society, Industry, Legal, Media, Occult, Police, Politics, Street, Transportation, Underworld, and University.
Could also add something like "Pop Culture Society" that covers everything vague from the local band scene to street art to LGBTQ+ scene.
I also had another idea I didn't share with you yet. In my experience most players tend to look at that influence list and go I want ALL of those at max, which never really made sense to me. How can both your vampire and 30 other players have the police commissioner in your pocket?
So I thought, what if you simplified it as such: A sphere itself can only have say...2 of these as being their niche?
Then it might create an environment where the vamps might say "We can't fuck with the colleges without the Mages coming down on our heads or the Art Scene without pissing off the Changelings, but if we've got the cops and crime families in our pockets."
Or: "Rumor has it the vamps are keeping a close eye on the universities and both them and the Changelings are gunning to control it"
If you make the influences by sphere where the leadership (not just the prince or NPC leadership, but maybe even primogen, movers and shakers in the courts, etc) directs not only which influence is important to them, but what the sphere needs to protect, then you'll get some RP generated from that.
It could also lead to both negative and positive politics RP between spheres. The vamps who have the police could go head to head with the wolves who own the streets in an explosive arc of cops vs gang violence OR they could work together to use their police and street influence to get a dangerous, new drug out of the city.
Just an idea.
ETA: "A friend of the changeling courts got picked up on a possession charge, but the vampire Prince and the Mages who own legal both owe the Lings a favor. Since it would be in all of our best interest that weird stuff doesn't happen in jail...lets cash in that favor to see if we can fuck with his court date enough that the charges get dropped or limited to community service. We'll owe them a favor, but this is how the peace in the city is kept. With favors."
Delete the Hog Pit. It'll be fun.
I really don't understand He-Man -
@Ghost said in NPC Roster:
Could also add something like "Pop Culture Society" that covers everything vague from the local band scene to street art to LGBTQ+ scene.
Wait. Are you suggesting that the Rainbow Flag scene is “pop culture”?
And they’re all into Banksy?
I know it’s hard to categorize many things but I think grouping these things together isn’t wise. Hell, the idea of “3 dots in Status: LGBTQ+” even by proxy should probably be “nope”ed.
I know they were off the cuff examples, I just wanted to shoot it in the bud before it went anywhere.
But to add something instead of just removing from ideas, if the area’s politics or composition did mean that “LBGEtc.” would make up a community group, perhaps around the Stonewall era, then go for it. Portland might have a “Performance Art” Status, Miami might have a “Bringing Back Neon 80s For Some Reason” Status.
You know, Pop Culture.
The sexuality revolution going on right now just...isn’t Pop Culture.
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@Ghost said in NPC Roster:
How can both your vampire and 30 other players have the police commissioner in your pocket?
I mean, that all depends on just how greedy and corrupt the Commissioner is. Conflicting Donors? Start a bidding war! Whoever gives up the biggest bribe...
But influence is a whole type of thing i usually dont personally play with, so I'll consider what you say as i talk it over with other staffers more familiar with those systems.
@Thenomain Yeah, you seem to be where I am in my head. First, IRL Politics will not be a part of Miami, either Local or National. There's too much of it in my non pretendy fun life, I aint gonna invite it into my pretend fun land.
We are incredibly LBGTQ+ friendly, none of our Families are mono-cultured. There will not be any status/influence/game mechanics based on race, sexuality, etc.
Only eye color. Lavender/purple eyes will be at the bottom of the rung, because they are murants, and.. okay I am being silly,
Miami might have a “Bringing Back Neon 80s For Some Reason” Status.
I was planning on something like that for Fashion Flavor among certain IC youth, but now I am tempted to use those words verbatim. 80's style + modern meme apathy.
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@Ghost said in NPC Roster:
I also had another idea I didn't share with you yet. In my experience most players tend to look at that influence list and go I want ALL of those at max, which never really made sense to me. How can both your vampire and 30 other players have the police commissioner in your pocket?
On RFK Shav solved that by creating a slot pyramid. Only one person could have a sphere at 5, two at 4 and iirc 4 at 3. So only one person could have the police commissioner and you'd either have to steal them or replace them with your own.
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I have suggested such an idea before. Though, it was more of a list of side characters that people may not feel like playing as their main.
