Role-Play: Guidelines for NPCs

Role-Play: Guidelines for NPCs Role-Play: Guidelines for NPCs

Don't run with too many players! Things become easily confused: people feel left out, a player or a GM loses track of who is doing what, or conversations get mixed. About one to three players per GM seems reasonable, no more than four or five in a scene at a time -- and even that many is likely to be pushing the limits! Players want to be consistently involved, and too many players at once means some are sidelined.
If you have more than four PCs in a room, they will naturally tend to break off into groups of two to three, following their own little conversations independent of the others. This makes the log that much harder to follow.

When necessary, organize. If you do find there seem to be too many players to manage, then try going roundrobin, or deal with one scene at a time.
Another option -- if there's someone willing to bail you out -- is to shuffle some of the PCs off to another holodeck, then either tend to them in another sign-on (keeping in mind the delay in response time you'll have), or else get another GM to tend to the other PCs for you.

Pace carefully. Sometimes it pays to fast forward over something trivial for instance, walking across miles and miles of countryside. Sometimes it's better to slow down a bit and give someone a chance to do what he or she is good at, e.g. a thief picking a lock on a door. If you decide to fast forward, make sure the players are all right with this ... and that you let them know when you're done setting the scene, and they can start typing again.

Keep the PCs moving. Similarly, it's your job to make sure the players are handling things and are not being spammed with all the activity. Ask people to slow down if you're not seeing things from others, and poke these people to move, if they aren't already.

Don't fix the "script" too heavily. Players tend to veer off at times, beating their heads on obstacles. What may seem "obvious" to you may not be for them. You have all the facts. They don't. Leave room for mistakes.

Have more than one solution to a puzzle or a plot. Riddles in particular tend to halt roleplay as players go OOC to try and figure it out. Remember, what works in a computer game, or at a tabletop role-playing game session doesn't always translate well to online role-play (with slow typists).

Develop a working toolkit. Sinai is a rich world, full of plot items that you can bring into your story, especially if your players seem to be floundering around or you need a boost of the interesting or the strange.

Keep NPCs in their proper place. The PCs should always be the "stars" of the adventure. Avoid becoming too attached to a "cool" NPC. Invincible, infallible villains that the GM obviously loves can be quite frustrating. Ditto the "personal NPC" that serves as an alter-ego of sorts for the GM.

Keep "assistant" NPCs in line. Don't let them steal the spotlight from the PCs. Make it clear that the NPCs remain "plot hooks" for the GM's use, lest their players come to regard them as "alter egoes". Be sure to spell out their abilities and limitations, and their purpose in the plot, lest they develop surprising abilities such as magic or fighting skills. If you are the GM, it is your plot, and if an NPC is not behaving, you have full authority to dismiss the player and take over the NPC yourself.

Keep it clear. When introducing a strange new race, remember that players will be trying to build a mental image of this race while working with them. Be sure to emphasize who is what: for instance, if a Vykarin is in the same room as a Vartan, then it can be confusing if the player doesn't understand that the Vykarin is the armadillo-like wolf-alien creature, or the Vartan is a hippogryph.

Be aware of time constraints. Your players may be in another time zone. They may wish to get to bed at a decent hour. If you are running a plot for a single PC, it may not be such a big deal to cut off the plot when your player has to sign off. If there are multiple players involved, however, coordinating schedules is more important, especially since you'll want to gather up the same PCs for your next session as well.

Keep in contact with other GMs. It helps to be on the same "wavelength" as other GMs, by keeping in regular contact with them, and keeping tabs on how other plots are unfolding. This helps to minimize the chance that you might introduce developments in your plot that may directly contradict what is happening elsewhere. If, during the course of your plot, a country declares war on Rephidim, or a big explosion occurs in the Bazaar ... this might well have an impact on other plots. If you're planning something that could have far-reaching implications, you may want to run this by other GMs first to see if it will cause any problems for them. And if something big happened in your plot, you may want to let other GMs know, in case it will impact theirs.

Don't forget those Disadvantages. If a PC picked "afraid of crowds", don't stick him in a crowd and then let him get away with acting as if nothing is out of the ordinary. If a PC is getting points for a Disadvantage, then it ought to come into play. Someone reading the logs should be able to tell from the logs that the PC has this as a Disadvantage. If the player can't handle playing this Disadvantage, or if he just shrugs off any time you throw a situation at him, then you can insist that the player spend this month's experience point on buying off that Disadvantage.

Don't be overly generous. Neither should you be too stingy, but don't go overboard with giving a PC gobs of gold, tons of influence, magical treasure, to the point where the PC pretty much has everything, and attains god-like status. PC goals are a primary motivator. If you give the PC everything right off, then you could end up having put the PC out of the action, because there's no real reason to adventure anymore. (Of course, you could always have some big disaster take it all away again, but that can be rather frustrating.)
Similarly, if a PC has a life-time goal that defines his motivations, even if it's not a matter of material wealth, you can deprive the player of his "plot hook" if you resolve this issue right off within the first few logs. If the PC's driving concern is to find his long-lost brother, it's a pretty cheap victory if he finds his brother walking down the street in the first log.
Stringing out players can be frustrating, but when a player accomplishes a personal goal (not just something ascribed by the GM), it should be a fairly major event, and should ideally take some time to get to that point.