How do I do combat between NPCs? Specifically, what do I do when the PCs are present (and fully able to get involved if they want) when adult heroes and villains are fighting?
How do I do combat between NPCs?
How do I do combat between NPCs?
9 thoughts on “How do I do combat between NPCs?”
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A fight between NPCs? I would say you simply narrate what happens.
But I would really try to keep NPC fights to a minimum. If what’s happening doesn’t involve the PCs, don’t put a spotlight on it. Just handle it off screen.
Chris Stone-Bush I mean when the PCs are present and involved, like if they’re fighting alongside NPC heroes against a really powerful threat.
Obviously if the PCs aren’t there it happens off-screen, and if they’re helplessly watching (which I’ll try to avoid anyway) it should just be narration.
If NPCs are fighting alongside PCs, it’s still just GM narration.
So NPCs can’t give each other conditions? Does that mean that even if the are other, more powerful heroes present, the mechanical battle all comes down to the PCs? I’m not saying that’s wrong, I just want to make sure I understand.
I would say no. When interacting with each other, NPCs are just fictional constructs. Don’t have them give each other Conditions or trigger moves. Otherwise you’re essentially playing by yourself.
You’re meant to be telling the stories of the PC protagonists. Not the secondary and supporting characters.
NPCs can totally give one another conditions if that’s what needs to happen. Consult your GM moves. Set the scene with soft moves, invitations for PCs to step in. If they just sit back and watch, switch to some hard moves and ask what they do.
Sebastian Baker the story is about the PCs, not the NPCs. You can have them do things all day, but in the end, it’s the PCs that will need to end the fight.
If the PCs tell an NPC to do something specific (“go for his left knee, Cap’n Zappin”) then I’d add conditions because ultimately it was the PCs doing it
Ask the players: What do the Intarwebz say, who is stronger?
What asset or flaw does you mentor have, the Intarwebz don’t know about?
What unique feature does the standard assumption not account for?
And so on.
Then say how it actually turns out. You may of course use the public opinion.
Chris Stone-Bush has the base answer we’d give—treat it as making moves, like any other NPC. After all, this lets you make fun moves, like saying an NPC ally is now caught under the paw of the giant monster, so the PCs have to save their butt!
But here’s another tool you could use. If NPCs are basically assisting with the Team, you can let the PCs spend Team out of the pool on their own rolls to represent the NPC helping. It will still drain the pool, and it has to make sense in the fiction still, but those extra NPCs give more opportunity to spend Team and bump up rolls, which can come in real handy.
The base Team rules should still inject a bunch of Team into the pool even with NPCs (and keep them in mind for those questions, like “Who’s the leader” and “Does anyone mistrust the team or the leader”), but if you want to make sure that the PCs have extra Team to spend on those NPCs, just make a custom move like, “For every NPC on your Team, add one additional Team to the pool when you enter battle together.”