Child PCs and NPCs

[tshiggins]

I've included children in my games, in the past, and sometimes they'll even serve as significant plot elements.

For instance, in my second scratch-built fantasy game, which began with the party debarking ship in a large city-state, they were approached by a kid who offered to tell them about the town for a fee.

They soon learned that the inns and taverns he directed them to were owned by members of his family, and that he got a kickback for steering customers their way. However, I played Raphael as a charming young chap of about 11 years old, and they rather liked him.

Eventually, the women in the group decided to adopt him and several other street children, and raised them as apprentices and such. In game time, the campaign lasted for more than 10 years, and by then Raphael had grown up into a fine young man.

Which meant that, when the party's enemies used the Enslave spell to make him into their agent with eyes inside the group's most trusted circle, they were utterly devastated. One of the women who had been in the game from the beginning burst into tears.

In my current game, I haven't included children NPCs, because it just hasn't come up. Bennie Rae's character, Aurelia, started out as a high school teacher, but soon found herself unable to continue in that role by events and eventually chose to leave the profession (which, to be fair, was mostly just a cover for her other activities, anyway).

Probably the closest the campaign came to the inclusion of children came in the person of the PC, Sunmi Jones. Played by my niece, Sunmi was a somewhat spoiled 19-year-old rich girl created when Rebecca was only 16 years old, herself.

That's about as close as we ever got in this particular campaign, though. It has mostly focused on intrigue and subterfuge, punctuated by extreme violence, so there's been no real place for them -- but that's the only reason the group hasn't interacted with any child NPCs.

I include them when it fits, and don't when it doesn't, and whatever happens to them works in the flow of the game.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by tshiggins

I include them when it fits, and don't when it doesn't, and whatever happens to them works in the flow of the game.

That's mostly my theory. I have run a number of games with subadult PCs, but I think always adolescents rather than prepubescent children. I include child NPCs when it's specifically suited to making the plot work. I don't provide plot armor for them, but on the other hand, my campaigns aren't necessarily strongly focused on combat.

[Black Leviathan]

First of all stop putting NPCs in your game that are 50% of the PCs. 90% of the world should be 0pts, highly Pt-focused on just getting through their lives, defaulting a lot of their problems and generally in need of PCs to save them.

I used children a lot in games. They're thematic devices to illustrate a lot of different things. I use them as a shorthand for innocence. I use them to help PCs that are overthinking a problem by having children ask them why they don't just do something a child would think of. I use them to represent the passage of time, since they change very quickly over the years. I enjoy playing children in games but I know that they can get distracting very quickly so I use them sparingly.

I don't encourage child PCs. Despite everyone having been a child folks, seem to really struggle with playing one well. I have one 14 year old character in my current game, his skills started fairly low except for sneaking and filching abilities. A lot of his points went into pricey advantages and racial template.

[AlexanderHowl]

I disagree. Most adults should be 50 points to 100 points when you account for social advantages. In my own life, I have a minimum of one person who would qualify as a 15 CP ally, two people who would qualify as 10 CP allies, four people who would qualify as 5 CP allies, and five people who would qualify as 1 CP allies. I am not that social, but I have 60 points of allies, and we are allies because we are loyal and, when we can, we have helped each other with rent, sleeping arrangements, relationships, etc. I really doubt that I am exceptional, as even my fiance, who is probably as antisocial as you can get and still function in society, qualifies for 50 CP in allies.

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

I disagree. Most adults should be 50 points to 100 points when you account for social advantages. In my own life, I have a minimum of one person who would qualify as a 15 CP ally, two people who would qualify as 10 CP allies, four people who would qualify as 5 CP allies, and five people who would qualify as 1 CP allies. I am not that social, but I have 60 points of allies, and we are allies because we are loyal and, when we can, we have helped each other with rent, sleeping arrangements, relationships, etc. I really doubt that I am exceptional, as even my fiance, who is probably as antisocial as you can get and still function in society, qualifies for 50 CP in allies.

This is probably a GURPS issue, but a bunch of 0 point characters shouldn't become 50 point characters merely by virtue of being friends with each other.

[Mark Skarr]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

So what do you do when they violate the ban?

If it's an issue with one player stepping out of the social contract and doing something that was agreed they wouldn't do, I'd have a talk with the player. If the player has a history of doing things like this, well, they wouldn't be playing with me in this game--they wouldn't get invited back.

If that was never part of the social contract, there wouldn't be a ban, and I would simply let the scenario play out and they would deal with the consequences of their actions.

[edk926]

Even if you don't have anyone you could label an Ally, you are theoretically above 0 pts by virtue of having 1-2 pts in miscellaneous skills you've just sort of picked up along the way in life.

[Bengt]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

I disagree. Most adults should be 50 points to 100 points when you account for social advantages. In my own life, I have a minimum of one person who would qualify as a 15 CP ally, two people who would qualify as 10 CP allies, four people who would qualify as 5 CP allies, and five people who would qualify as 1 CP allies. I am not that social, but I have 60 points of allies, and we are allies because we are loyal and, when we can, we have helped each other with rent, sleeping arrangements, relationships, etc. I really doubt that I am exceptional, as even my fiance, who is probably as antisocial as you can get and still function in society, qualifies for 50 CP in allies.

Allies are people "...who accompany them on adventures." If you don't go on adventures (or some other similarly dangerous activity) and have people who help you on said adventures just because they are your friends, you don't have allies. You just have friends, notes in the background section of your character sheet.

Also, even if you do go on adventures with other people, they are only allies if you are a "protagonist" and they are not. If all of you are of similar importance to the adventure you are all PCs, not allies of each other.

Edit: Though I guess some might qualify as contacts.

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by edk926

Even if you don't have anyone you could label an Ally, you are theoretically above 0 pts by virtue of having 1-2 pts in miscellaneous skills you've just sort of picked up along the way in life.

And quite possibly less than 0-points if you've picked up some solid disads along the way. Plenty of people are Unfit and Struggling, and that's -15 points already. Add in Reluctant Killer (which is very common in real world people), and we're at -20. Very Unfit and Poor gets another -10 each, and Cannot Harm Innocents an extra -5. So many very ordinary people will have -20 to -40 points of disads before considering any sort of Sense of Duty, Dependants, or the like.

That means that a lot of normal people will be 0-point or negative-point value characters.

As for children in my games, they turn up when they'd make sense, and usually only when in some way relevant. This does mean that if someone threw a grenade into a crowded market, some of the until now undetailed people in the crowd would probably turn out to be children (and some would be elderly folks, and so on). This wouldn't result in 4000-point gods wearing children-skins would then smite the PCs. Instead they'd have to deal with the local 'law', in whatever form that might take (police, lynch mob, etc.). Some places they've been you'd just shoot your way out of town, and that'd be the end of it, aside from any PC vs PC arguments and shootings over it. In others it would mean getting pinned down by the cops while they brought up snipers and then offered the PCs the choice of "surrender or die" (and possibly just the "die" part).

Now, if the players had their PCs consistently target children for no reason other than to have them be terribly people, I'd tell them to stop it, or find another GM. I'm not interested in run games for that kind of party.

[Black Leviathan]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

I disagree. Most adults should be 50 points to 100 points when you account for social advantages.

I think it's worth heralding that if you have 12 people who you can count on to help you out when you're in trouble, and you don't live in a college dorm, you're probably doing much better for friends than most people. Just my view out the window and the effort to find folks who would help me move between addresses as I grow older. You having those friends is a powerful force in your life that is a real Advantage over other people and valid real-world CP. But if you were an NPC I wouldn't count them. They're loyal to you but not necessarily loyal to a bunch of guys who have way too many weapons that you just met at a truck stop. Mechanically having 60pts in loyal friends just equates to a reaction roll penalty because when you call your loyal friends they're going to tell you to get away from those PCs. If all your friends are at the truck stop maybe you're an ally group, but otherwise they're a lot like your very high level of Connoisseur - Beers, not part of your CP total, just an NPC affectation.