On May 19, 7:04 pm, Magister <magis...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> One of the disappointing aspects of my GMing is handling non-combat
> interaction with a number of NPCs simultaneously.
>
> Suggestions (and criticisms) welcome.
>
Hi Magister,
My recommendation is to have a loose script worked out before-hand
(with appropriate branches and sequels) when you know that significant
NPCs are going to be at the same place as the PCs.
In more of a process flow form ...
1) Start with motivations and goals ... what are the goals of the NPCs
involved, and what do they hope to attain in their perfect world from
the interaction?
2) What are the extenuating and mitigating cir***stances ... what do
the various NPCs know that gives them advantages over the other NPCs,
e.g., Fred has poisoned Joe and Fred has the antidote? What aspects
of the environment might influence events, e.g., the meeting takes
place at Joe's castle, and the NPCs are surrounded by 500 heavily
armed, rabid followers of Joe?
3) Script out the interaction between the various NPCs as if the PCs
were not going to be present.
4) Think about the goals/motivations/playing style of of the PCs and
lay out some likely out actions on the part of the PCs.
5) Determine the likely, reasonable responses of the NPCs.
6) Add some spice by having 2-3 items that the NPCs can say or do that
might surprise the PCs and give the initiative back to the NPCs.
You measure success in such a case by how believeable it is that the
meeting would have taken place without the PCs present.
Question for you: if two NPCs meet and the PCs never know about it,
did the meeting actually take place?
;-)
In service,
Rich
More gaming goodness at my RPG WWW site at:
http://www.drgames.org/staats2.htm
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