@bored said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:
You're also by necessity devoting huge amounts of time to this person and that alone is a form of favoritism; people who are looking for NPC interaction to move their own plots along are not getting it in that time, and we know that time is precious in our aging hobby.
I am gonna disagree here. For two reasons.
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Not every NPC is so integral to every player that people should be clamoring to see them. I had an NPC for ages, a low level drug dealer, that was important to a very small group. I played him for them. This has nothing to do with favoritism. It had everything to do with creating a specific, useful tool for the story.
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Not every PC has an absolute right to interact with every other NPC. You might want to talk to the Councilor, but they might not want to talk to you. They have Provosts and shit for that sort of affair. Just because one PC gets access and another does not does not imply favoritism, no matter what the activity engaged in. It implies that NPCs are as selective with their time and access as any other person, and can be manipulated like any other in pursuit of their own agendas.