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Old 10-15-2014, 11:17 AM   #31
whswhs
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
Default Re: Needing GM advice for Improvising

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Originally Posted by hal View Post
You gotta love your NPCs enough to care about them. If you don't, why would the players through their player characters even care?

You gotta remember that the PC's are to be in the limelight, not you running your NPC's to the point where the PC's are superflourus (sp?).
Yes, I agree. On one hand, you know an NPC deserves some time in the spotlight when the players react favorably to their lines; that's a good sign for you to bring them forward. For example, in my fantasy campaign Manse, the sorcerous aristocrats of the castle held a large dance for their children, the younger soldiers, and the children of the village upper classes, with the aim of helping their children find suitable matches (there were four unmarried young men and seven young women, so there was an imbalance). One of the PCs escorted his cousin to the dance, and I rolled the dice for her ability to make an effective entrance and got a total failure—so I said that she had panicked (it was her first formal dance) and started to run away. This led not only to her cousin persuading her to master her fears, but to another PC, a young woman soldier, asking her to dance—which was a bit outré but not actually prohibited. And this led to an ongoing storyline about the two young women's courtship.

On the other hand, sometimes you have to visualize what the NPCs are like and what their relationships are and not drag it on stage. In my alternative Middle-Earth campaign, where Sauron won the War of the Ring and had killed a bunch of Tolkien's characters, I had the persistent thought that during the Rohirrim's flight to the borderlands of the Shire, Meriadoc and Eowyn had fallen in love—but I don't think my players ever suspected.

You can't know what a person will say if you don't know the person. And a lot of that knowledge will be like the submerged part of the iceberg.

Bill Stoddard
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Old 10-15-2014, 07:43 PM   #32
Hrothgar
 
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Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Greenville, SC
Default Re: Needing GM advice for Improvising

Well, I definitely think I have some good resources now. I'll check out that RP podcast, and look over those fundamentals to improv. I think my planning should be focused on mapping out the character as much as I can. I might try to practice improve at home with my girlfriend.
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Old 10-15-2014, 10:12 PM   #33
Icelander
 
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Join Date: Mar 2006
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Default Re: Needing GM advice for Improvising

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Originally Posted by johndallman View Post
The way I try to deal with these points is to regard NPCs as PCs belonging to players who aren't around at present, so I'm running the PCs for their players. It's a good reminder that NPCs want to stay alive, and will be reasonable to that end.
On the other hand, that's the most common flaw I encounter with my NPCs. PCs are always able to find some logical goal they are gunning for, some way to ensure that both PCs and NPCs share and share alike.

I'm bad at coming up with NPCs that don't have rational goals and can't be reasoned with. Or, at least, if I can come up with them, I'm bad at fitting them into a world. It never feels quite natural when a character is realistic enough to work alongside their criminal allies, but cartoonish enough to pursue a vendetta against the PCs even beyond any reasonable goals.

Either the NPCs feel insane enough so that the PCs ought to legitimately be able to turn any previous 'criminal' foes into allies into this particular madman or they feel sane enough so that some modus vivendi ought to be attainable.

In a fantasy campaign, a lot of emnities have ended up as being more or less a misunderstanding, with the PCs able to reach an accomodation with nearly anything that didn't aim to destroy the world.
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