Has anyone had experience with NPC team mates? How have you handled it? Do you build them like PCs with the full playbook or like normal NPCs or villains? What are the pitfalls?
Has anyone had experience with NPC team mates?
Has anyone had experience with NPC team mates?
I’ve had NPCs working with the PCs temporarily before, and I just treat them like any other NPCs on the scene. I.e., have their drives guide their actions and put the PCs in interesting predicaments, threaten them when appropriate, and largely keep them in the background unless PC action highlights them, because it’s not their story.
That’s the main point: they’re not PCs. So don’t treat them in any way like PCs, either mechanically or narratively. They don’t use the team pool, they don’t get the spotlight in the same way PCs do, and they certainly don’t get full character sheets.
I play in a game where we rotate GMs, and when I’m running, I often have the character I play as a PC present as an NPC. He’s mostly there as a mouthpiece, or a way for me to deliver info from adults (he was assigned to the team by the adult team that tries to control them), and sometimes as someone to put in danger as a complication.
When he’s an NPC though, I never use his character sheet. I don’t make moves for him or have him use his influence or anything like that. He is strictly an NPC, and he is always kept on the sidelines. In fights, I have him helping with mooks or saving innocents in the background so that he never becomes a source of solutions for the PCs who are present. I gave the other players a vague custom move where they can use him either as an assist to get a +1 or have him execute one of his playbook moves if they want.
So, yeah, an NPC teammate can be useful, but they should never be the focus, and keep a bunch of ideas in your hip pocket for how to make them fade to the background so you don’t accidentally start making the scenes about them. (Mine generally becomes a kind of comic relief.)
Oh, and by the way, I don’t generally recommend playing your personal PC as an NPC when GMing. Too many people get too excited about their own character. If you start thinking about rolling dice to have them do moves, you’re headed down the path to the dark side.
Never use a playbook for any NPC. Amen.
Cool replies. I was interested in how people handle this in general, as the Masks rulebook specifically mentions that NPC teammates (temporary and permanent) are possible, and contemplates PCs spending team on their behalf. I wanted to get a feel if anyone was incorporating this, and how. Good advice so far.
I am especially interested in how others incorporate the teammate NPC when you have a limited number of Players. Two players makes the drama dynamics difficult, I find. Three is still difficult, but better.
In one of my games, I am in a situation similar to what Adam describes, in that we are starting a game where there will be alternating GMs, so it was necessary (or at least preferred) to build the character via a playbook, so that they would fit into the relationship dynamics and make it easier when the next GM takes over. But it would feel awkward making moves for them in the game. I was already leaning toward the approach of treating them like an NPC, so the advice above helps. As Adam mention, I will perhaps add a relevant custom move that others in the team can engage when relevant (Or maybe let the PCs execute a move from their playbook, still undecided about that). Then employing the fade from the action technique and have them working in the background. And for sure, I don’t pick up the dice. If a roll needs to be made, leave it with the PCs.
Good stuff!
It’s worked out fine for us so far. Incidentally, when the other person GMs, his character has Legacy duties, so he usually has her off doing things related to that and out of the action altogether. I imagine the Legacy, Janus and Protege are very easy to disappear if you wanted to go that route.
I played with a group who had never played this sort of system before so for the first 3 sessions I had an NPC with a full playbook that I used to help teach what could be done. I used the character as a convenient Deus Ex Machina for the first session or two then had him get kidnapped to help drive the plot I wanted along. He eventually got rescued and I brought him back occasionally to help with some enemies still playing him like a PC. I just played him off as younger than the rest and more willing to listen to orders. It gave great character opportunities when someone would spend a team on him so that he would do better. In my opinion it worked great as a teaching tool and if done well can get your players more involved in the roleplaying.