tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871409676946408069.post1058516686613477403..comments2023-10-14T03:58:59.333-06:00Comments on The Tao of D&D: NPC AgendasAlexis Smolenskhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10539170107563075967noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871409676946408069.post-75467252311944911132012-03-16T09:20:07.437-06:002012-03-16T09:20:07.437-06:00James,
Remember that the only discontinuities you...James,<br /><br />Remember that the only discontinuities you need be concerned about are the players. I recognize why you might want to iron out those NPC inconsistencies, but doing so produces exactly the problem you've stated - so stop worrying.<br /><br />You have to <a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HandWave" rel="nofollow">hand wave</a> those inconsistencies. If you're writing a novel or a screenplay, you might want to worry about such things, but as this is a role playing game, for the players, you must accept your limitations and just let go. If necessary, D&D provides you with every justification for saying <a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AWizardDidIt" rel="nofollow">A Wizard Did It</a>. So say a wizard did, get some of the work off your plate and enjoy yourself more.<br /><br /><br />Not every trope is a bad thing.Alexis Smolenskhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10539170107563075967noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871409676946408069.post-73524335004841865652012-03-16T09:08:06.066-06:002012-03-16T09:08:06.066-06:00Hi Alexis
I strongly agree with your main point h...Hi Alexis<br /><br />I strongly agree with your main point here. The game is far more engaging if NPCs have their own lives that intersect with the PCs' in various ways, than if they do not.<br /><br />When I am running an ongoing campaign/ world, presenting coherent, active, interested NPCs is one of my main principles.<br /><br />A difficulty that I sometimes experience in practice is a tendency to become overloaded with 'plots' as the world grows. As the PCs' knowledge and experience grows, the number of NPCs, issues and parallel activity streams that I need to handle also grows. After a while I find myself spending a lot of time between sessions reviewing the status of NPC-situations which may or may not affect the PCs sometime soon. As my games tend to be sandboxy, I often do not know far in advance what the PCs will do next, or how that will interact with the NPCs' activities. So I find it difficult to narrow down which sets of NPC-issues I need to consider before each session. <br /><br />It can also create challenges during play. During sessions in small, socially complex places - courts, well-known towns etc. - I sometimes find it difficult to keep the motives and knowledge-sets of all of the NPCs alive in my head at the same time. On the one hand, if I try to process them all in parallel this can make my responses to the players slow or tentative. On the other, if I do only piecemeal off-screen processing during the session, I run the risk of creating inconsistencies. <br /><br />Of course the players will never notice some inconsistencies. Frequently this is because I can notice and tidy them up behind the scenes. But tidying up also requires thinking time and increases the likelihood of further confusing myself in mid-session. Confusion can happen because I lose track of which is the current 'version' of off-screen events, or because I have added new factors to account for events. Additional factors also tend to increase the burden of the implausible the world has to carry.<br /><br />I make notes before, during and after my sessions. But during each session I prefer to focus as much of my attention as possible on my players.<br /><br />Do you have any suggestions for how to handle these issues? I am not afraid of work or of practice, but I would like to work and practice as efficiently as possible.James Wintergreenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12347856943026304567noreply@blogger.com