This is especially the case with Pathfinder.
While, yes, I do have the Dungeon Master's Guide and all of the NPCs contained within, I'm not that flash on the rules behind feats and powers so if I want to do it credit I really need to either craft the NPCs myself or re-read all of the feats and powers before game. Unfortunately, the players are kind of in that in-between stage CR-wise so there wasn't going to be too many choices of credible NPC threats within it anyway.
That's one of the benefits of running World of Darkness or Call of Cthulhu games. You can handwavium it a fair bit. It's the rare Storyteller who has a portfolio of NPCs and an even rarer one that frequently refers to them. Oftentimes its just a case of guessing what they might probably have.
Since Pathfinder is, by necessity, a more mathematical game where feats and equipment and racial abilities and attributes all affect even the simplest and most necessary statistics (attack, damage, armor class), then you can't just guesstimate it. This is doubly so because the Pathfinder enemies are more likely to be out to kill the player characters than the average WoD enemy.
So I'm going to space out my prep-work over this week so I'm ready for next session. I have an Inquisitor and some wannabe pirates to write up as well as a cleric they've been meaning to assassinate. Then I also need to update the new World of Darkness conversion rules for Demon: the Fallen for the upcoming campaign.
I think that's my problem. I run A LOT of games and if I'm distracted by other projects - such as my Horrors on the Home Front supplement - than I can find myself fast running out of time.
Oh well, it shouldn't be too often an issue for the Flashpoint campaign now that I have the major plot considerations tucked away.
Since Pathfinder is, by necessity, a more mathematical game where feats and equipment and racial abilities and attributes all affect even the simplest and most necessary statistics (attack, damage, armor class), then you can't just guesstimate it. This is doubly so because the Pathfinder enemies are more likely to be out to kill the player characters than the average WoD enemy.
ReplyDeleteExactly, most NPCs you need any stats for will probably fight the party, so it matters. Games with less of a combat focus are more forgiving there. And Cthulhu, for example, is mostly pretty ordinary people with no special powers, so you can just give them a notable feature if you need one, and ignore everything else. I mean, a shotgun is going to kill them whatever you do...
It's the rare Storyteller who has a portfolio of NPCs and an even rarer one that frequently refers to them.
Actually, I do have a file of Cthulhu NPCs, not that I use it all that much. I rolled up some classic types, like antiquarians, doctors, professors of X and policemen. Basically NPCs that the group might reasonably decide to look for, or encounter during the game, but that aren't necessarily built into my ideas or a prewritten scenario.
The stats are there just in case, and largely to help me flesh out characters or roll crucial skills (like Medicine). It's mostly so that if they go to see a doctor or do something to alert the police, I can drop in a character with a name and description all ready. I can grab the sheet when I see the need coming up and slot it in with my game notes.
From an artistic POV, it means on-the-fly NPCs stand out less and gives a bit more verisimilitude. From a Keeping POV, I'm hoping it makes the players less likely to decide they're irrelevant because I clearly just made them up.
hehe, that's a really good point. Do you run mostly pre-generated scenarios where they have book NPCs to compare them too?
ReplyDeleteI just say 'mostly' because none of the folks who run games around here keep NPC folios as a matter of course for other games - but then they largely run World of Darkness.
I kept NPC files once for a LARP game for the other vampires. That was easy to manage as I'd walk around as that vampire carrying the character sheet about just as the players did.
It depends a bit. I've not actually run much Cthulhu yet; a couple of pregens (The Haunting and Art of Madness), a family one-shot and the first part of what I hope will be a semi-improv campaign. Stuff keeps getting in the way...
DeleteAnyway, if I'm working off a pregen then a couple of players might know the basics, but I do try to play with things enough that it's not all plain sailing. Partly it's just the obviousness factor - if you flick to a sheet and look up a name and description the NPC can slide smoothly into an adventure, whereas if you look like a startled rabbit and name them "Bob... um... Salad-Dressing" some players tend to think "okay, invented on the spur of the moment, so not a major player and probably irrelevant". I do try to go with the players' flow to some extent, so I'm quite happy for a spontaneous NPC to become significant and I don't want to shut down that possibility.
I do tend to overprepare though, which is partly what the improv campaign was supposed to address.
Ahh, fair enough. People can't base those assumptions on me as I tend to improv a lot of even what I've prepped for so Bob Salad-Dressing might just end up the most influential NPC they have ever met if I happen to like his personality (or they do, and they adopt him).
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