@Thenomain said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:
So, a staffer playing an NPC versus a staffer playing a PC.
Is there really a difference?
Yes. I play NPCs all the time. I also play PCs all the time. There's definitely a big difference. NPCs typically have access to abilities or information that PCs don't, may have a network of NPCs that support them, and thus have an unfair advantage over PCs.
They're written for a specific niche (e.g., mafia boss, important Lord, librarian with info to disseminate). Almost all the ones I've ever played have had multiple drivers, with different staff members inhabiting them in order to keep story moving along. Even the ones where I solely play them still aren't mine. They belong to the game.
Can an NPC without extensive documentation exist?
I don't quite get this question. NPCs exist all over. They people our pretend worlds. Clarify? 
When does an NPC become a Staff PC?
When that character is being used for ends other than plot.
Personally, I feel incredibly uncomfortable with staffers playing important NPCs that have non-plot RP with PCs. I get that sometimes an NPC may have a relationship with a PC, but there's a line: it's one thing for your NPC King to have a scene with his PC brother about the future of the crown; it's another thing entirely for that NPC King to be out trolling for sex from chamber maids.
All that said, if staff wants to create PCs that are openly played as PCs, I'm all for this. I just feel like the argument "oh, Bob has Badassery-10 even though PCs are capped at 8 because he's an NPC" loses its credibility when Bob is on-camera every day, dropped into non-plot scenes, RPing nothing to do with Badassery.
