NPC guidelines

Overview

Every LRP system has its own idea on what it expects from NPCs, how best to play parts you are given. This is a short guide on what we want from our NPC’s and some hints and tips for making game on Plot’s front line.

Before Hitting the Field

• Make sure that you turn up in plenty of time for make-up / briefings. If you are waiting for a role, wait in the chill out area near Plot Support, rather than outside or in the Crew Welfare hut.
• Before you leave on your role – make sure you have read and understood the brief, if the brief contains anything you don't understand, please ask! We do expect you to know the basics of Empire – make sure you know the basics of magic calls, Anvil’s laws, game rules, etc... Share your knowledge of nations and groups with others it can make a huge differences for fellow NPC’s going out.
• If going out with a group, talk to each other before going out. This allows you to work out characterisation, IC relationships and what your role in the encounter is going to be. This allows a much more cohesive and interesting encounter both for you and the players. Remember their IC names!

On the field

• There are two key things for all NPC’s to remember – stay in character and stick to the brief.
• When on the IC field – stay in character. If you are not sure how something works, get a ref. Even if the players drop character occasionally, we expect you to remain in character for the entire time you are on the field.
• While we want you to improvise emotion, invest in the personality and make your character real - DON'T ‘add’ to the plot, the world, or create information about eternals / other characters – basically “Don't make shit up”!
• When you are asked questions you don't have an answer to - you can say that you ‘don’t know’ – you CAN SAY NO.
• See if your Plot has a ‘get out’ for the character. (i.e. New to Anvil / pigheaded, will only talk to John Smith )
• Never ever give a player the impression they are going to get to do something in downtime unless the brief explicitly tells you to do so. We don’t have a free text downtime at Empire.
• We encourage taking IC notes. Many briefs can be complicated and remembering the names of players met over a long trip to Anvil can be very difficult.
• Make sure you stay IC when you take notes.
• Remember to get the names of characters and groups that you interact with. Make sure they’re spelt correctly!
• Don’t collect OC information like PID’s, if we have the name and group, we can find them.
• Many players are keen to make deals with NPC’s. If that is not part of your brief, don’t make any deals! If it is part of your plot; the numbers involved in a plot that contains elements of buying or selling will be based on a number of factors. When your role involves buying or selling something, look carefully at the requirements for minimum and maximum prices. If in doubt – ask your Plot Writer or Plot Support.

More Hints and Tips

• Don't spoon feed the players - if they don't get it, they don't get it. (Exception - quest hooks)
• Don't offer to return to the field - unless it says so in the brief, assume that you will /never play this role again.
• Don't believe the players. They may be wrong or just lying. Don't let them doubt your brief. (But do make a note in your debrief what you believe they think)
• PCs have the power to send letters to NPCs, but it is *intentionally* expensive. So many of them will try to find any excuse to get round that cost

Returning to Monster

• DEBRIEF! Seriously – please always debrief, and don’t go out on another role until you have.
• Always write the names of the NPC’s that went on the plot.
• Feel free to use bullet points. (You can do this by putting "* " (remember the space) at the start of the line.)

And Finally...

• Have fun! Seriously, you are giving up your time to help this game. If you are not having fun, have a word with the folk on the plot desk and we'll see what else we can do for you.