The NPC: You Name Him, You Keep Him
Written by Harry
August 26, 2008
NPCs are the non-player characters that flesh out the holes in your game. They’re people on the streets and in the stores, the ones that player characters ask for directions and the ones who drop important clues that move the game.
An NPC might have a big role to play or just a little one, depending on the purpose. The NPC might appear long term within the game, or it might show up for only a part of a scene and then disappear into obscurity.
Can I Name Him?
I’m notorious for creating NPCs I end up keeping forever. Some of my most memorable STPCs (Storyteller Player Characters) started out as NPCs. Recently while writing a scene with one of our players, I tossed in a filler NPC to chauffeur a car. Before I knew it I found myself fleshing him out on the fly and actually liking him.
The character just sneaks up and before you know it, he or she has a full name, a history unfolding, a personality, and a few interesting quirks.
One of the many private jokes inside the world of role-playing games is based on the characters who wore red shirts in the old Star Trek series. Characters wearing red shirts almost always died in the episode. If they had a name, well, you could expect them to be around for another episode or two.
A character with a full name just about guaranteed the character would be around even longer.
A Word of Caution
NPCs are addictive to both STs and players. Players have a tendency to rely on the NPCs, sometimes heavily, so create them sparingly.
Also, too many NPCs means you’ll eventually find yourself overwhelmed keeping up with all of them. Trust me, I know. I’ve had as many as 12 NPCs that turned into STPCs at one time. It gets a little out of hand. The little buggers are as addictive as potato chips.
Learn to recognize the ones worth keeping, and give the rest a red shirt.
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Sean’s a brand new NPC? The way he immediately sprand into the story with an entire story of his own, I just asumed he was recycled from your vault. Bravo you!
And I know this blog is less about the writing (wait, is anything not about the writing anymore??) than it is about the content, but I love this post, the analogy and your wrap up. Give the rest a red shirt, indeed.
Uh oh, is my trekkie showing?
Nicoles last blog post..What Comes Around
Oh how I love a good Trek reference! I haven’t had time to partake in the forum, but I still love this post
RL Davids last blog post..A very short hiatus…
@Nicole: Yup, totally done on the fly. Thanks!
@RLD: Good to see you around again. I’m by no means a Trekkie, but it’s so deeply ingrained into our pop culture it’s hard not to make references.
I think there is no Ensign Ricky in TOS. (There is one in Family Guy, but never watched it.) This is probably Ensign O’Herlihy from the Gorn Episode “Arena” (And yes, he died in this episode.) Okay, I used Memory Alpha to check this.
In my slow ST-RPG we have the unwritten rule that if you want that your NPC/Redshirt survive give him life, a picture and a well-written biography. Otherwise he would probably be a casualty of the next attack or explosion. (oh the fun)
And I see I have much to read for my moving time. I totally missed on Sean.
@Martin: TOS (taking a guess, but is that “the old series”)? No, there wasn’t an Ensign Ricky, I think if you go to the Wikipedia link in the post, Ricky was reference to some comedy skit that started the whole Red Shirt theory.
No, TOS is “the original series”. And I don’t think “Family Guy” started this theory. It is only from 1999. (the redshirt skit is probably even newer and in it the red shirt guy survives surprisingly.) The other Star Trek series played just too much with the concept of an unnamed or newly named crewman which had to die just before the first commercial or so. Redshirt was just a name for all these incidents.
Oh yes, I can talk about Star Trek hours and hours.
@Martin — Though you’ll have to admit, TNG was waaaay less lame with the redshirting
RL Davids last blog post..A very short hiatus…
Harry I can completly see where you can get hung up on Sean and want to keep him. And what about Mackay? ( If I spelled that right) Would that charactor fall into that catagory? I remember thinking when that charactor came into the story…oh no..how many can they keep up with! There is only so many hours in a day!
But then again..how exciting is he???
I’ll be sure not to name anyone..IT sounds a lot like taking in stray cats. I learned a long time ago to stop doing that.
Wendi Kellys last blog post..Anniversary Stew
@Wendi LOL! You may have learned it a long time ago, but Selene hasn’t.
Nicoles last blog post..What Comes Around
@RL David:
Isolated from home, no crew supplies and every second episode you saw a redshirt which you never saw before and obviously never again. (And don’t mention Lindsay Ballard, she was only a red shirt off screen before she came into life again.) Voyager was almost comical with all the casualties it had.
But Voyager had enough redshirts for two series.
@Martin —
True that! After a while, you just kind of stop caring who lives and who dies. I’m thinking that DS9 would have actually BENEFITED from some redshirting XD What a crap series….
But anyway, getting back on track… It seems like it’s important to strike a balance w. NPCs. If you red shirt everyone, your story will be predictable and lose its drama. Voyager would have been a lot more dramatic if they didn’t red shirt every new character. Even when the main characters were crushed to lose another comrade, the audience didn’t care - they were a bit too jaded.
Now, this may not apply quite the same way to RPG characters — I just know how I felt watch Star Trek.
RL Davids last blog post..A very short hiatus…
@Wendi: Mackay’s a necessary evil, if you’ll excuse the pun. I don’t have a good grip on him yet because he was a character pulled from Echo’s character background and she couldn’t play him herself. It’s hard stepping into a character someone else has created, there are some aspects she has in her mind and others of my own I have to incorporate.
The thing about Mackay is he’s not one I’ll use often. His scenes are meant to have impact, so I put him in sparingly for the full effect. All of my antagonists are like that, the less you see of them, the more it makes you wonder what they’re up to.
RE: “All of my antagonists are like that, the less you see of them, the more it makes you wonder what they’re up to.”
@Wendi This reminded me… I’ve had a similiar discussion before with Harry, but would you agree that this is where he shines? He has his readers thinking he’s giving them all this intricate detail, when he’s really only giving JUST enough for our imaginations to latch on and take flight. You barely know it’s happening, and I love that balance.
Nicoles last blog post..What Comes Around
I’ll chime into this great discussion… on the name thing.
When you name something, you are, psychologically, establishing ownership. And when you own something and it becomes yours, you really don’t want to trash it much. Unless that’s your thing, but that’s another psychological story for another day.
Race was a fine name and that tumbled about my head for a while. The day that Tobin lit up was it. Hooked. Bingo. Gareth McKinney was another. Ah, now that’s one I miss.
And may I say from blown-apart experience that Harry’s antagonists are forces to be dealt with. Seriously.
You guys just made the Lord of the Underworld in my cackle with sinister pleasure.
@Nicole: It’s all about the Prestige, isn’t it? I’ll have to watch that movie again tonight.
@James: that’s exactly it. I think that’s what I was trying to say when I explained the difference between Mackay and Sean.
@Harry The word ‘tease’ came to mind before that one this time. It’s all about the tease… but sure, prestige will work too.
Somehow I don’t yet own that movie despite having had it in my hands numerous times.
@James I take it you’ve had the “Daddy, can we KEEP him?! His name’s Bob!” conversation before then? Let me guess who won.
Nicoles last blog post..What Comes Around
@ Nicole - I always win.
@James Why does that not surprise me in the least?
Nicoles last blog post..What Comes Around
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