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So, I only have two players who are long time friends of mine. Since the adventure is balanced for 4 PCs, I decided to add a couple of companion NPCs with full character sheets for them to control and for me to roleplay as. They agreed.
So, since we're not big fans of the Owlcat Game companions and one of my players has played the computer game ad nauseam, I decided to make one NPC per core book class our group was lacking (players are a Fighter and Ranger), and made them NPCs at Jamandi's Residence. The NPCs were a big hit with my players, and they even had to use a "wheel of names" to decide which two would accompany them. That made me feel really happy!
The problem is... they want to keep seeing them in the adventure. Although they showed up during the assault on the mansion, I didn't plan ahead and now I have no idea what I'll do with them. I had them form teams and go explore the Stolen Lands but I didn't think things through and now I'll have to prepare whatever they're supposed to do out there and it's being overwhelming. I don't want to unceremoniously make them go poof, but I don't want to dissapoint my players either. I had a backstory for each NPC but I don't want ANY of that to detract from the main campaign and side plots...
What should I do?
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Let them run the NPCs and have fun.
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| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
So, I only have two players who are long time friends of mine. Since the adventure is balanced for 4 PCs, I decided to add a couple of companion NPCs with full character sheets for them to control and for me to roleplay as. They agreed.
So, since we're not big fans of the Owlcat Game companions and one of my players has played the computer game ad nauseam, I decided to make one NPC per core book class our group was lacking (players are a Fighter and Ranger), and made them NPCs at Jamandi's Residence. The NPCs were a big hit with my players, and they even had to use a "wheel of names" to decide which two would accompany them. That made me feel really happy!
The problem is... they want to keep seeing them in the adventure. Although they showed up during the assault on the mansion, I didn't plan ahead and now I have no idea what I'll do with them. I had them form teams and go explore the Stolen Lands but I didn't think things through and now I'll have to prepare whatever they're supposed to do out there and it's being overwhelming. I don't want to unceremoniously make them go poof, but I don't want to dissapoint my players either. I had a backstory for each NPC but I don't want ANY of that to detract from the main campaign and side plots...
What should I do?
Have some of the extraneous NPCs die ignomious deaths that the players can stumble across in the Stolen Lands, choose 2-3 NPCs that the players like most and have the players run these PCs as "secondary" characters.
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Try to get the players (as a pair) to pick one favorite one that evolved so far, and you pick another one that you feel the most inspired by. Work to integrate those two NPCs more completely, and let the rest slide for now, until/unless you get inspired.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Have some of the extraneous NPCs die ignomious deaths that the players can stumble across in the Stolen Lands, choose 2-3 NPCs that the players like most and have the players run these PCs as "secondary" characters.So, I only have two players who are long time friends of mine. Since the adventure is balanced for 4 PCs, I decided to add a couple of companion NPCs with full character sheets for them to control and for me to roleplay as. They agreed.
So, since we're not big fans of the Owlcat Game companions and one of my players has played the computer game ad nauseam, I decided to make one NPC per core book class our group was lacking (players are a Fighter and Ranger), and made them NPCs at Jamandi's Residence. The NPCs were a big hit with my players, and they even had to use a "wheel of names" to decide which two would accompany them. That made me feel really happy!
The problem is... they want to keep seeing them in the adventure. Although they showed up during the assault on the mansion, I didn't plan ahead and now I have no idea what I'll do with them. I had them form teams and go explore the Stolen Lands but I didn't think things through and now I'll have to prepare whatever they're supposed to do out there and it's being overwhelming. I don't want to unceremoniously make them go poof, but I don't want to dissapoint my players either. I had a backstory for each NPC but I don't want ANY of that to detract from the main campaign and side plots...
What should I do?
Hmmm this actually sounds good. Only a couple of them actually have backstories I, as a GM, got actually interested into. It'll be sad to kill most of them but it's better than having them dissapear and it also helps portraying the danger of the Stolen Lands, maybe even making them hate Stag Lord or Tartuccio even more.
That said, I don't know about my players playing as the NPCs... Once we tried to play this game, Wrath of the Autarch or something like that, where they made their PCs and had to also roleplay the other NPCs and let's say they're not really up to that anymore. Also adding them to the party would inflate the number of adventurers already in.
All in all, solid advice :)
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Stick any of the ones you don't particularly care for into encounters and locations as corpses. The Stolen Lands are dangerous; finding out that friendly Sorcerer you met has been eaten by trolls helps sell that menace. Use these dead bodies to deliver any missed plot hooks, too - they can always be clutching a bloody note with a detail your PCs need.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Let them run the NPCs and have fun.
To expand on this,
Let your players restate the NPCs as full on characters and let the players control multiple characters.
So, I only have two players who are long time friends of mine. Since the adventure is balanced for 4 PCs, I decided to add a couple of companion NPCs with full character sheets for them to control and for me to roleplay as. They agreed.
So, since we're not big fans of the Owlcat Game companions and one of my players has played the computer game ad nauseam, I decided to make one NPC per core book class our group was lacking (players are a Fighter and Ranger), and made them NPCs at Jamandi's Residence. The NPCs were a big hit with my players, and they even had to use a "wheel of names" to decide which two would accompany them. That made me feel really happy!
The problem is... they want to keep seeing them in the adventure. Although they showed up during the assault on the mansion, I didn't plan ahead and now I have no idea what I'll do with them. I had them form teams and go explore the Stolen Lands but I didn't think things through and now I'll have to prepare whatever they're supposed to do out there and it's being overwhelming. I don't want to unceremoniously make them go poof, but I don't want to dissapoint my players either. I had a backstory for each NPC but I don't want ANY of that to detract from the main campaign and side plots...
What should I do?
Friends, rivals, eventual enemies.