GMs and Players
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@silverfox said in GMs and Players:
How do different people define NPC? It seems like there isn't a commonly accepted definition within the last set of pages.
There are various kinds of NPC, in my reckoning. Your PC's background mother is an NPC of one kind, and the King of Battania is another kind. Your special group's NPC butler is yet another kind. It all depends on what kind of player that usually portrays the NPC and what that NPC's purpose on the game is.
When I'm talking about 'staff NPCs' what I usually mean are those NPCs that have a large impact on the game itself. The Prince in a VTM/VTR game, the King on a L&L game, that kind of deal. NPCs that are often seen to be played by multiple members of staff (on games that have a staff team as opposed to a singular staffer) as the need arises.
Different games do things differently, but the idea of NPCs being 'quasi-PCs' makes me a little grumpy. PCs should drive plot, NPCs should serve it.
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The whole concept of "NPC" is kind of inherently broken when it comes to MUs.
Most know the original definition from TTRPGs, where it referred to characters controlled by the GM. This encompassed everyone who was a part of the world who was not played by one of the other players. Some were important to the plot; some weren't.
You can extend this definition to computer RPGs by substituting AI/computer instead of the GM. Anyone not controlled by a player is a NPC.
The term gets real murky real fast when it comes to MUSHes, because a) there is no single GM, b) regular players can control NPCs in equal measure to staff in many cases, and c) those who GM can also play with their own characters.
We're not going to find a consistent expectation of "what is a NPC" because the term just doesn't quite fit our environment.
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To tell npcs and pcs apart, I go with what staff says they are.
Sometimes staff says this character is an npc or this character is a pc. If staff says it is their pc, I am like the character is a pc. If they say the character is an npc, I am like oh the character is an npc.
I never had staff lie to me about that, but I guess it could happen!
Pcs=Player characters - Characters that have coded a bit and follow the rules of character generation for pcs and who when a staffer is playing them they are not playing as a staffer, but are playing as a player enjoying the game. They are off duty so to speak.
Npcs without coded bits=Whoever we pose into a scene as players or staff who are not coded character bits. All the extras we pose into plot are npcs.
Npcs with coded bits=Are repeat returning characters played by staff (or a player granted control over them by staff) when they are acting as a staffer (or on staff's behalf) rather than as a player.
They may not have followed the rules of standard pc generation and they generally (but not always) are there to promote pcs, advance plot, highlight theme, fill leadership gaps and enhance the over all game story. They are on duty so to speak (but are hopefully still haing a fun time!)
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@misadventure That is covered in "stakes". Sandbox and slice of life games are pretty much where players run the vast majority of plotlines and even staff-run ones have no consequences different from any other scene. See Keys for example. No equipment, no extra XP for being in a staff run scene, most scenes are player run, you gain no advantage by having staff's attention.
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I honestly could not possibly care any less about who's romancing who, as long as both parties are cool with it, in whatever form it takes.
I think it can be a dangerous line to walk to quantify certain types of "Writing a scene for funsies" as inherently better than any other type of RP, and it can come across as extremely dismissive to those who enjoy that sort of scene. When you add sexually-charged content into the mix, it gets even more of a fine line, as these are traditionally (mostly) safe spaces for people to typetypetype about that things they can't necessarily do in real life.
(Note: all examples fictional and not allegory for anyone I know)
Jane the Fite Warrior cutting the heads off of goblins is no more and no less valuable than Dillan the Diplomat, who loves to attend galas and gladhand, and that's no less valuable than Cody the Bard, who loves to romance his paramours and then fade to black, and that's no less valuable than Trudy, the healer who in her downtime is more 'Hello, Nurse', and steps on people for in-game currency.
But the community at large seems to have a tendency to look at these example and quantify, "Okay, Jane's cool, Dillan's like, really impressive, Cody's RP isn't very valuable, and Trudy should just leave, that <perjorative>. She's only that rich because she's a <perjorative>."
The community tends not to care that pTrudy is really nice OOCly, values consent, and constantly drums up plot for others in her role as a healer, or that pDillan is backbiting literally everyone on the game in their Discord server.
Defining the value of the player by the scenes they find valuable is inherently reductionist, and when you bring sex into it, weird and puritanical.
I'm not really going to touch on staff/non-staff interactions here, because I've never been staff and I've never been TSed by staff, but our community needs to put its money where its mouth is when it comes to shaming people just for bumping against one another.
I will take a dozen Trudys in a game over a single Dillan.
At the same time, if necessary.
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@solstice Eff that shit. Make that money, Trudy!
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@bear_necessities said in GMs and Players:
@ganymede said in GMs and Players:
If you are perceived as having bias then you should no longer staff.
So I'm going to disagree with that point, because I'm 110% positive that every staff on every game is at some point perceived as having a bias.
It's true. Run a MU long enough (and in this case, long enough is not long) and somebody will be bound to accuse you of bias.
But I figure Gany really meant 'if it's reasonable for reasonable people to perceive you as biased.' Somewhat like how cops can search your house if they perceive it as a likely crime scene, but said perception has to be something like a trail of blood leading to your door. The way your eyeliner gives Officer Fuckley the creeps won't cut it.
It's certainly a bad idea to dismiss any/all perception of bias. Fuckley being weird about eyeliner and a liar does not mean that Andy and Barney Fife don't really see blood.
Among my year's bumper crop of stupid shit said to me about MUs was that problems on MUs are "almost always just player perception." It wasn't a thanks captain obvious, yes, everything about games is pretty much about player perception, perceiving oneself to be having fun is the point kinda stupid, they meant that player perceptions are wrong and the problems not real.
