Abdul, the Power of the NPC

Allow me to set the scene for you. We are coming to the end of the Apocalypse at the end of a long ran campaign. Things are horrible right now, plagues running rampant and most of the earth is destroyed. The leader of the protagonists is having a meeting with an antagonist cell. Things didn't go the way the charismatic leader wanted them to go.

Things quickly became crazy as a challenge of faith between two opposites, light and dark. The light begins to pray, and his prayer is answered with an earthquake to keep him safe. This was followed by a lightning bolt forcing the dark to leap from a window where an angel was waiting to launch a javelin into this agent of evil and darkness, pinning the dark one to the ground, badly hurt but hanging on by his “supernatural” blessings.

There he was, lining up with his loved rocket launcher in hand, locked and loaded. Blinded by his true love for the cause he was fighting for and the leader he was following. This mass of muscle and heart takes aim on the angel that is trying to strike down his leader. He fires the rocket tried and true and hits his mark. As the smoke clears, he sees the angel is standing there drawing his sword to strike him down.

With a swift and decisive strike, this lovable, noble and loyal man is dead.

Players and GMs alike sometimes underestimate the power of a well developed NPC. The above mentioned character was not a player character, it was a NPC. This character has been in this game since nearly day one, and everyone that interacted with Abdul liked or loved him. He was the hulking mass packing a rocket launcher and believed that everything could be solved with a rocket. He had simple logic and was more than a bit naive.

I find myself after the session realizing now how close to the end of the story that we are. This character was there from the beginning and now he is gone. It is a tone setting death and puts things into perspective. He died doing what he was doing since day one. This one unchanging factor is now gone.

I have ran a lot of games and supporting characters are very important to telling the story that you wish to tell. You can shape the setting, mood and theme of the story or story arc that you are undertaking by the mood and demeanor of the NPCs that the players run across. You can also use them to introduce plot hooks. This can be done with shallow/hollow characters or you can do it with people that are memorable.

So the question with this is, do you want your story to be memorable or hollow? Do you want your game to be one that is set on objectives with a very direct approach from one combat to the next or do you want things to be more deep than that?

A great example is Lord of the Rings. Frodo is the main character of the story ultimately. How different would the story have been if Sam was not so developed? He was just a sidekick that followed Frodo around and pick him up when he was sick and cooked for him all the time? It would have been horrible. The story may have still been powerful and memorable, however it would not be on the level that is Lord of the Rings.

When you are writing, building and developing you are setting the experience of the players. I have been fortunate to have a few characters that people talk about and ask about from time to time. I love hearing players talking about an NPC in a game that they are playing in or have played in. This is because he or she had a personality and had a depth that the players latched onto. They were part of the group, the setting and the world.

Think about your favorite stories. Now who is the main character? Okay now who is your favorite character? If you go through many stories, I know for me at least, a lot of times my favorite character in a story is not the main character. In LotR Frodo is not my favorite character, it's probably Sam or Gimli. They are both supporting characters. Harry Potter, again not my favorite, Snape however is. Again a supporting character.

That is the importance of supporting characters, also known as NPCs. What is a story without a villain. In a long running game, you develop the villain. You have to know how they think and what decisions they would make. So with these supporting characters you really have no excuse not to develop them to the point that your players grow to strongly dislike or feel pity for them. Whatever angle you are working with... if the villain is boring then the story has lost its point.

It is said that a great story will make you laugh; make you cry; make you hope, etc. All of these things boil down to a great story will provoke an emotional reaction that pulls you into the world and lives of the characters within it. To do this you have to do it with many things, but one of the most important, to me, is supporting caste.

If you are a player and have had a GM that attached a song firmly into your head that you still think about the game every time you hear it; or has given you memories of games that have long since gone. This person has done their job as a GM and give you an experience and told a story that you will remember. I would like for you to thank that person, for this person not only has done their job well, but is part of the reason that table top gaming has not died.

I lift my glass in honor of those GMs. Even you who causes a player to shoot her one true love in the final session and causes a tear to stream down the player's cheek. Emotion to memory... May the dice continue to roll and the conversations of great stories of conquests and close scrapes continue!