{"id":20720,"date":"2017-06-13T00:55:22","date_gmt":"2017-06-12T14:55:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/?p=20720"},"modified":"2017-06-14T22:14:11","modified_gmt":"2017-06-14T12:14:11","slug":"aero-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/aero-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Ally, Enemy, Resource, and Opportunist: The four major NPC Roles (Part 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_20721\" style=\"width: 420px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-20721\" src=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/paper-stack-1241478.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" style=\"border: 2px solid black\" class=\"size-full wp-image-20721\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/paper-stack-1241478.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/paper-stack-1241478-120x90.jpg 120w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-20721\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Based on &#8216;paper stack 1241478&#8217; courtesy freeimages.com \/ Sarah Williams<\/p><\/div>\n<p>In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/aero-part-1\/\" target=\"_blank\">part 1<\/a>, I identified AERO, four roles that the majority of <em>significant<\/em> NPCs occupy in most adventures or encounters:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Ally<\/li>\n<li>Enemy<\/li>\n<li>Resource, and<\/li>\n<li>Opportunist<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8230;and then considered the combinations, demonstrating how rich the in-game plot functions of characters became when one of these roles adopted one of the other roles as a secondary function.<\/p>\n<p>We had allies working at cross-purposes to the PCs, and mercenary resources, and, well it&#8217;s quite a lengthy list, so go and read <a href=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/aero-part-1\/\" target=\"_blank\">Part 1<\/a> if you haven&#8217;t done so already.<\/p>\n<p>Everybody all caught up? Good! Then let&#8217;s dive right in, there&#8217;s only a little more to be said&#8230;<\/p>\n<h3>Everybody gets 5 minutes of fame<\/h3>\n<p>The goal of defining these roles is to make the NPCs more vibrant, more interesting, more rich in characterization, and to give them greater depth so that they can sustain repeated appearances within the campaign.<\/p>\n<p>It might seem, at first, that it&#8217;s a waste of the GMs time to think about this for characters that are intended to be disposable, or to have one-off appearances. But that&#8217;s not the case; by making such characters more interesting, it facilitates them being the right-shaped &#8220;peg&#8221; to fill a plot need at a future time, and adds to their credibility and verisimilitude <em>right now,<\/em>.in their only scheduled appearance.<\/p>\n<p>Enriching them in this way has to be done in advance, and can be enough to turn a one-off character into a recurring part of the campaign. The four plot functions (and their secondary combinations) are a way of synopsizing the characterization, enabling you to hone in on ways to make the character more interesting with minimal effort.<\/p>\n<p>It can also be argued that its these one-night-only characters who are most in need of additional depth. More significant characters have generally been the recipients of additional care and design efforts lavished on them by the GM, anyway, so this analytic tool is less useful for them &#8211; though it can help cut through the fog of confusion to identify the most significant plot functions of even those characters.<\/p>\n<p>The upshot is that there should be no NPCs who are exempt from this process of characterization. The benefits may vary, but every character will benefit. In general, if you are going to refer to a character by name or title, he deserves his five minutes of fame, and these role combinations give the character enough depth to withstand that level of scrutiny.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/combinations.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"410\" height=\"296\" style=\"border: 2px solid black\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-20722\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/combinations.jpg 410w, https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/combinations-120x87.jpg 120w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 410px) 100vw, 410px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>Avoiding The Mud<\/h3>\n<p>It might seem that if combinations of two are good, combinations of three would be even better. To some extent, this is true; but it&#8217;s easy to mistake complication for complexity. The more you add, the more you turn the characterization into a muddy mess.<\/p>\n<p>You can see this illustrated in the image to the left. Note that I have enhanced the images to exaggerate the differences in color! Or, to put it another way &#8211; there&#8217;s only one way to combine the letters A, B, C and D four at a time. The only nuance comes from the sequence. A+B+C+D = D + B + A + C and any other permutation of the sequence that you can name. How many people remember in art class mixing so many colors together that what ended up with was this slightly grayish brown that wasn&#8217;t much use for anything, because it turned every color that was added to it into a minor variation of the same muddy color?<\/p>\n<p>The practical reality is that combinations of two always work, and since that leaves two other traits to work with, there is usually one acceptable three-part combination for each primary-secondary combination. And yet, there is a way to nuance and finesse more complex combinations.<\/p>\n<h3>Avoiding the mud with clear objectives and motivations<\/h3>\n<p>Characters can be thought of as patchwork quilts, combinations of many different aspects of the central personality. Which aspect assumes dominance in any given situation is actually independent of the combination that <em>usually<\/em> comes to forefront. I have discovered that if you give each character a clear objective or set of objectives and a clear motivation for pursuing them, that combination permits you to sort through the various roles. The closer the result is to the dominant combination, the more comfortable and satisfied with his position on the issue the character will be; the farther removed from that primary combination, the farther from his comfort zone.<\/p>\n<p>Still, it&#8217;s better to keep things a little on the simple side so that you can spare the maximum number of brain cells for other aspects of GMing. So I recommend combinations or two, perhaps with a weak tertiary role, most of the time.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/three-dimensional-profile-space.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"367\" height=\"430\" style=\"border: 2px solid black\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-20723\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/three-dimensional-profile-space.jpeg 367w, https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/three-dimensional-profile-space-102x120.jpeg 102w, https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/three-dimensional-profile-space-307x360.jpeg 307w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 367px) 100vw, 367px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>Defined Profile-spaces<\/h3>\n<p>The next refinement to the concept, at least in theory, is that of extremism, This defines a relative strength for each of the three functions &#8211; for the sake of simplicity, let&#8217;s say that it&#8217;s a score out of ten to indicate how strong each element of the personality is. The result is the start of a characterization profile.<\/p>\n<p>For example, a character might be defined as &#8220;Ally 2, Enemy 8, Resource 4, Opportunist 0.&#8221; This describes a character of strong convictions and personal code of conduct, whose ambitions are usually in conflict with those of the PCs. Under certain very select circumstances, he might ally with the PCs on a short-term basis, but he is more likely to supply needed resources and indirect assistance when the goals of the PCs and his own proclivities align.<\/p>\n<p>Such profiles are useful in any number of ways. Entered into a spreadsheet, they permit sorting of available NPCs by interaction mode, making it simpler to select the NPC who is the best fit for the GM&#8217;s plot needs at the time. You can even think of it as a character sheet for the metagame level. They help ensure that you explore the entire metagame characterization space, rather than having too many characters who are too similar.<\/p>\n<p>An obvious concept is to map the three non-zero elements into a three-dimensional space, something similar to an alignment grid but 3-dimensional and not two, as shown to the right. However, while the numeric profile can be useful, I have strong doubts that such a three-dimensional charting will have any practical value. I could be wrong, and if you come up with a way to make practical value of the idea, more power to you!<\/p>\n<p>Part of the reason that I don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s going to be especially useful is that there&#8217;s more to a useful character profile than just the metrics discussed so far.<\/p>\n<h3>The Fourth Dimension: Eagerness and Reluctance<\/h3>\n<p>I&#8217;ve already said that the numeric score assigned to each profile axiom should represent the relative dominance of each role within the character&#8217;s profile. However, each of them should also have a separate measurement to indicate the character&#8217;s eagerness or reluctance to engage that profile role.<\/p>\n<p>But that&#8217;s unwieldy and not all that practical. Instead, I recommend that a fifth metric be defined to represent the character&#8217;s eagerness or reluctance to engage an interaction mode other than his usual combination. This should <em>only<\/em> be employed when the encounter is not pre-planned and should never take the place of assessments based on the objectives and motivations of the character; if they become relevant to the encounter, they override this fall-back measure.<\/p>\n<h3>The Fifth Dimension: Fear and Courage<\/h3>\n<p>Or perhaps you would prefer &#8220;Caution&#8221; and &#8220;Brazenness&#8221;, as I do. This defines how much of a risk-taker the character is, which clearly influences the character&#8217;s willingness to escalate support or opposition from the resources level to actively supporting either the PCs or their enemies, as well as the demand for remuneration and reward in cases of opportunism. Note that a high degree of caution doesn&#8217;t mean that a character will never take an active role, it simply means that he has to be convinced that the risks have been adequately controlled or managed and that the potential rewards justify those risks. (It also probably means that he has an escape clause or some other way to back out if things take a turn in a unsatisfactory direction. A high level of Brazenness, in comparison, tends to indicate someone who will stick to their guns even in the face of reverses).<\/p>\n<h3>The Sixth Dimension: Preparation<\/h3>\n<p>The final quality that should feature in such a profile is how the character will assess unknowns, and to what extent he will extend himself to resolve them before committing. This is a difficult criterion to adequately label &#8211; I&#8217;ve gone through half-a-dozen variations without finding any that I&#8217;m completely happy with. Ultimately, I&#8217;ve (reluctantly) gone with Preparation, even though Prep usually means something completely different in an RPG context, and hence is susceptible to misinterpretation.<\/p>\n<p>Some characters consider unknowns to magnify risks, a relatively pessimistic &#8220;glass half empty&#8221; perspective, and dislike committing themselves to anything without adequate research; others consider an unknown to be a variable, some of which will go their way and some of which won&#8217;t, and hence not as great a factor in their decision-making.<\/p>\n<h3>Complimentary Attributes<\/h3>\n<p>These are all complimentary attributes. None of them supplant or even guide the normal characteristics on a character sheet; they are all about the character&#8217;s attitudes and philosophies and how he will utilize his abilities, especially intelligence, wisdom, charisma, wealth, and so on.<\/p>\n<h3>Take a step back and assess<\/h3>\n<p>Whenever you create or categorize a character, always take a step back and double-check that the character will perform the plot function that you want in a manner that fits the adventure you have in mind. It&#8217;s very easy when dealing with the metagame level to take your eyes off the ball, and it&#8217;s even easier for your metagame profiling to have a logical disconnect with the actual capabilities described by the character sheet. For the optimum result, everything needs to be in harmony.<\/p>\n<h3>The Complete Metaprofile<\/h3>\n<p>So let&#8217;s recap: in the course of the two parts of this article, a number of qualities have been identified that define the role of an NPC in an adventure, and an approach to life in general.<\/p>\n<p>A complete profile should like like this:<\/p>\n<p><strong><br \/>\nAllies ___\/10<br \/>\nEnemies ___\/10<br \/>\nResource ___\/10<br \/>\nOpportunist ___\/10<br \/>\nInterpretation: ___________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n<p>________________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n<p>________________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n<p>Objectives: _____________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n<p>________________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n<p>________________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n<p>Motivation: _____________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n<p>________________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n<p>________________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n<p>Eagerness(+)\/Reluctance(-): ___\/10<br \/>\nBrazenness(+)\/Caution(-): ___\/10<br \/>\nPreparation Insistence(\u00b1): ___\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Put these ten meta-criteria together and you profile the way the character will function within the adventure. If you can synopsize the three text fields sufficiently briefly, a spreadsheet is the ideal format for tracking your NPCs, one to a line, enabling you to sort them by the different criteria and pick exactly the one that you need.<\/p>\n<p>Used properly, the four roles and supplementary qualities that I have outlined are a great tool for managing your NPCs with the added advantage of giving them additional depth and richness of characterization. Give it a go!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In part 1, I identified AERO, four roles that the majority of significant NPCs occupy in most adventures or encounters: Ally Enemy Resource, and Opportunist &#8230;and then considered the combinations, demonstrating how rich the in-game plot functions of characters became when one of these roles adopted one of the other roles as a secondary function. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[29,70,288,74,89,91,95,96],"tags":[237,100,151,108,172,137,144,165,232],"series":[],"class_list":["post-20720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-campaign-management","category-gm-ing","category-metagame","category-mike","category-npcs-etc","category-plans-and-prep","category-tools","category-write","tag-adventure-creation","tag-adventure-prep","tag-campaign-admin","tag-campaigns","tag-npcs","tag-plausibility","tag-rpg-theory","tag-tools-techniques","tag-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1toiD-5oc","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20720"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20720"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20737,"href":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20720\/revisions\/20737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20720"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=20720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}