Comments on: Former PCs as NPCs

By: Ravenous Role Playing » Blog Archive » Friday Five: 2010-05-07

Ravenous Role Playing » Blog Archive » Friday Five: 2010-05-07 — Fri, 07 May 2010 23:13:09 +0000

[...] Former PCs as NPCs I love this concept! I’ve used it quite a bit in the past, and I’m about to do it again in a campaign that starts this weekend. I’m taking PCs from a past campaign, turning them into NPCs for this game and running with them. I can’t wait to do it to see how it goes. The PCs were from a very long running campaign, so I know them well. This should help add more life to the game. [...]

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 06 May 2010 13:18:19 +0000

Thanks for the heads-up, Charisma. Different tools suit different people, so the more options we can give people, the better.

By: Charisma

Charisma — Wed, 05 May 2010 10:26:04 +0000

“If you know of others, drop us a comment:”

Absolutley, the Stuffer Shack is made specifically for this purpose. We have PCs to steal, NPCs to steal, Enemies, Monsters, etc.

Check it out!

I especially love turning PCs into NPCs (more so than into villains). It’s just so believable and familiar.
.-= Charisma´s last blog ..Screw Combat! Why sometimes the best fights aren’t even about fighting at all =-.

By: Johnn

Johnn — Wed, 05 May 2010 00:14:31 +0000

@Robert – good call on 4E. I forgot about that. We house-ruled from the start that NPCs built with the PC rules were allowed. We house ruled a lot actually, and still ended up switching to PFRPG.

However, PC personalities should be portable even between genres and systems.

By: Noumenon

Noumenon — Tue, 04 May 2010 20:41:36 +0000

I never had much luck crossing over between PCs and NPCs anyway. PCs have giant piles of magic items and abilities and animal companion stats — imagine looking through a four-page character sheet for each NPC in a combat.

Meanwhile, I run Goodman Games modules and they tend to have really wild NPCs like werebadger ranger/rogue or zombie grigs, so even though I have the statblocks on 3×5 cards I never seem to pull one out.

By: Robert

Robert — Tue, 04 May 2010 20:04:50 +0000

4th edition builds NPC’s much differently than PC’s. The system is not designed to handle NPC’s build like PC’s, probably due to things like daily powers (which the PC’s routinely expend, and the NPC’s would always have in full supply if they didn’t fight that day).

That is one of the big complaints about 4e, PC’s and NPC’s are different, so what one has cannot be given to the other without homebrewing. PC’s cannot become werewolves, vampires, etc. Basically anything that is an acquired template and/or would give an LA in 3.5 is no longer available to the PC’s. And in the few cases when a PC becomes a vampire for example, it specifies that the character becomes an NPC. On the other hand, NPC’s don’t get daily powers and have much fewer powers in general.

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 04 May 2010 18:32:35 +0000

I'm not clear on why it wouldn't work as written for 4e. But I've never used the system. So this question really should wait for Johnn, who at least has.

By: Robert

Robert — Tue, 04 May 2010 13:14:48 +0000

This is in fact great advice.

Do you know of any way to make it work with D&D 4e? Short of just keeping the fluff and changing all the mechanics, anyway.

By: Tweets that mention Former PCs as NPCs | Campaign Mastery -- Topsy.com

Tweets that mention Former PCs as NPCs | Campaign Mastery -- Topsy.com — Tue, 04 May 2010 02:26:38 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by JohnnFour. JohnnFour said: Campaign Mastery – Former PCs as NPCs http://bit.ly/bSrtkK #rpg [...]