Have you ever played a roleplaying game where it seemed like just about every non-player character was equal to or even more powerful than the player characters? This is not an unusual phenomenon; many Game Masters are guilty of overpopulating their universes with Mega-Heroic Non-Player Characters. I myself have been guilty of this several times… Be that as it may, the long term results can have dire consequences to a game. Players can find themselves frustrated because they feel second rate or even mediocre compared to the many overly powerful or extra-special NPCs. Furthermore, suspension of disbelief can be threatened because of the lack of roleplaying interaction with normal NPCs.
As a Game Master it can be fun making characters, especially powerful ones. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. But sometimes we as GMs need to focus more on the player characters than our NPCs. They are after all the main protagonists of the story. This means the story focuses on player characters, not the NPCs.
So what should a GM do?
He or she can take a page out of Stan Lee’s creation ideas and focus on what makes the protagonist of the story human or human-like. For example, people have family, friends, rivals, peers, and mentors. And chances are, in the real world, all of these people are normal. Utilizing these people in a game can be just as exciting and appealing in a story as any Mega-Heroic Non-Player Character (probably even more!).
Think about all those Spider-Man comics, cartoons, or movies you’ve read or watched in the past. Uncle Ben, Aunt May, Mary Jane, Gwen Stacy and even J. Jonah Jameson were all normal, but very interesting parts of Peter Parker’s life. Several story hooks came from these characters. For example, Uncle Ben died a tragic death because of Parker’s lack of action.
The television show Smallville portrayed the stresses of Clark’s normal life regularly. He was constantly trying to hide his powers from Lana and several others. How many times did he have to save his friends? And there were countless times that the poor guy was late or missed a date. He may have been invulnerable, but there definitely was more than one way to hurt or stress the guy out!
In Star Wars: A New Hope, Luke Skywalker was surrounded by interesting people, but most of them did not have powers. In fact the tragic death of his aunt and uncle set him on the path to learn the Force. In another Star Wars movie, Luke’s father shared a similar fate which sent him on a dark path. As seen in many stories, normal NPCs can ignite the fire in PCs. There weren’t many normals to interact with in the Star Wars movies, being they are movies (I equate theses to short adventures in RPGs), but there was still time set aside for these normal interactions.
Even the contemporary comic book movie Avengers: Age of Ultron took a moment to reflect on the normal life of one particular superhero. It was no doubt a memorable part of the movie. GMs, I encourage you, don’t be afraid to bring in the drama. Introduce mom, dad, siblings, bullies, and/or a lover into the PCs life.
In my game group (whether the game be D&D, Star Wars, or Mutants and Masterminds) we tend to make up a handful (three to five) of NPCs for our PCs. They don’t have to have stats right away (a name and relation to PC will work); that’s really up to the GM. Sometimes the players are rewarded a few extra experience points for putting out the effort.
As a GM and player for over 30 years, I’ve found most players like to feel like their PCs are extra special (when the GM’s attention is focused on a player they are at their happiest). Strange as it may seem, one of the best ways to do that is bring in their normal human counterparts. It’s amazing how empowering normal people can be! Power to the people!!!
Wait a minute, what did I just say?
Adam Lee
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