Some say he knows only two facts about ducks and both of them are wrong...

[Natan Linggod 327]

...And that all his potted plants are called "Steve". All we know is he's called the Mysterious NPC!

Did you ever have a strange npc show up in your games that noone knows much about?
One that is surrounded by rumour and supposition?

He may seem powerful, he may not. He may simply show up in the background in the session, do something odd but have no actual effect on the game. Or he may be the one to point the pcs in the right direction when they get stuck.

But the pcs never find out anything about him no matter what they try.

In my games I have one who calls himself a 'facilitator', exhibits strange (but mostly non threatening) abilities who shows up once in a while to give subtle hints to the players. My players come up with all kinds of guesses about him, many of which are hilariously far off the mark.

What about you?

[SwnyNerdgasm]

I genuinely thought you were looking to make The Stig as a character.

[Natan Linggod 327]

Oh that's easy.
Race -unknown possibly some sort of aberration.
Class Rogue (Driver archtype), level minimum 10.
Special qualities :-
Drive Anything. The Stig may use the Ride skill to drive, pilot, ride or otherwise use any form of directable transportation.
Coolheaded Corners.The Stig may take 10 on any Ride skill check regardless of conditions.
Expressive Helmet. The Stig may use Bluff to pass secret messages without actually saying or doing anything other than looking at you and possibly crossing his arms. Language is no barrier. He may pass simple messages with a DC of 10 and complex ones with a DC of 15.
Mystery in White. The Stig registers as all alignments simultaneously. All forms of divination spells or supernatural effects and Diplomacy checks to Info Gather on the Stig always give two seemingly ridiculous results whenever attempted.

Done.

[Natan Linggod 327]

Variant Stigs.
Some believe (or say) that the Stig is in fact a race rather than the name of an individual. This theory is borne out by the fact that several variations of the Stig have apparently been encountered by people in different countries. They are usually referred to as his 'cousins' although whether any actual familial connection exists is unknown.

These Stigs all retain the general abilities of the more well known variety but all show distinct behavioral and visual differences.
While technically a Stig can drive any sort of vehicle, some show a distinct preference for one kind of transport over another. Some, such as Green Stig, even show a preference over the power source of the vehicle.

Some sighted variants are;
Rig Stig (prefers very large caravans),
Attack Stig (very violent, knows martial arts and will attack anyone or thing unless distracted by a fast vehicle),
Bunge-bunga Stig (highly charismatic. has a harem and wears expensive suits. Still wears the helmet and gloves),
Green Stig (Strongly concerned about the impact of vehicles on the natural world. apparently killed while testing an "eco friendly" vehicle).

Female Stigs are exceedingly rare and have only been sighted once in recorded history.

[Natan Linggod 327]

Nobody uses mysterious NPCs as a plot device/logjam clearer? Really? I'm the only one?

I wonder if I could patent it...

[Sissyl]

It's often fun reusing an old NPC for this role. The typical campaign leaves several NPCs behind every few sessions, and this is a good way to reuse them. For some reason, then, the wife of the clockmaker they helped a few months ago, the one who made such delicious cookies, has discovered something that prompted her to seek the heroes out. Due to reasons, she can't tell them directly what it's about, but she needs to know something from them, and wants them to do something. Voila, perfect NPC to "stalk" them for a while, then try to get them to do something for her. The next step is having her get noticed by trouble and having to miss their next meeting with her, and so on.

[Tacticslion]

Natan Linggod 327 wrote:

Nobody uses mysterious NPCs as a plot device/logjam clearer? Really? I'm the only one?

I wonder if I could patent it...

Oh, no. It's just that whenever I have a mysterious NPC, my players usually "unmysterious" it, so it's a bit hard to recall at present which ones were mysterious and which weren't.

However, here are two from a recent (single-player) game:
- an evil eastern assassin stalking the western city's streets
- - - the PC noticed him watching her whenever she stalked the roof tops, but he was always quite some distance away, she was always doing something else, and he was always just as good at stealth as she was at perception; eventually she found him, discovered that he was, in fact, just a kind of boringly evil murderer of moderate skill with grand ambitions and an interesting back-story; she promptly recruited him into her organization with vague promises of wealth or something and installed him in a place where he can feel powerful and independent, but keep him away from civilized folk
- a Halruaan* mage with a quasit familiar, quite some ways from home
- - - the PC was excessively interested in him from the get-go, as she'd already made allies with the local Night Mages* and the local Mage's guild, and his appearance, mystery, and refusal to really interact with either of those groups (as well as his seeming willingness to take inexpensive magical item creation contracts before they even learned there was an opening) was causing a stir among both groups. Eventually, he was revealed to be a ghost that was turned into an eternally young, living version of himself by Polymorph any Object. When he was much younger and evil, he'd created an abyssal pact, and had thus ended up with Shaas, his quasit. As he'd matured, he was no less chaotic, but regretted his evil choices... especially when the mage hounds had discovered his dabbling with evil forces and destroyed him and his cabal of like-minded fellows. The only one with a positive charisma modifier, and the only one with deep-seated regrets about his life, he was the only one to come back as a ghost. Eventually a wandering arcane devotee of Sharess found him, and, empathizing with his plight, used the only spell she had that could "free" him. They wandered for a time, and he adopted Sharess as his patron, moving ever-further-north to escape the eyes and noses of the mage hounds from his home country. He has lots of divinations (augury, divination, commune, as well as all of the detect line) constantly running that he's crafted over the years, and is thus often able to know when the most valuable magical contracts are going to be needed (though it's left him prone to dizziness and headaches if he enters an environment too rich in magical and anti-divination forces). He's become a good friend and solid ally of the PC.

* I'm running a slight variant on Mysteries of the Moonsea, with an emphasis on rules-lite stuff. This is because we're tired and, despite being awake all the time, have little actual time to play. Some elements of Forgotten Realms are used directly as a result. Some elements have been tweaked, either with "rules-lite" rules, or with a new coat of paint to vary it from the standard FR (and keep the player guessing a bit). It is not considered Toril or otherwise Forgotten Realms, however.