Do you have a npc guild

evi1r0n

evi1r0n

Exemplar
A topic that was brought up recently got us Seattle folk talking about our NPC guild. If you aren't aware, (in Seattle and OR) NPC guild members commit to at least a year of events as NPCs and become psuedo-staff. They are given more prominent roles and have input on how their NPCs develop. They get a heads up at an online meeting about the goings on at each event about a week before. This allows them to give some input and ask questions.

In order to join guild one must show competency in the rules, roleplaying ability, fighting ability, and generally get along well in MC. Guild members are compensated slightly better than walk-in NPCs but they have to do some homework and have to be at every full event. Guild members are also expected to be able to lead new NPCs and run modules/lair cards without plot having to hold their hands.

I have only ever played in OR and Seattle so I do not know much about how the rest of Alliance does things. Does your chapter have a NPC Guild? How does it differ from ours? What things does your guild do that works? How do you think a guild could be improved upon?
 
Most of the chapters on the east coast don't have the same kind of setup you're talking about. Many people choose to play one chapter and NPC in another, or are on staff in another. There are usually 3 or 4 plot members running a given event in NH, CT and Crossroads (where I've done most of my playing and NPCing). There are other staff members on hand who've read the writeup, and can help the Monster Desk person stat and treasure encounters, or send out some crunchies, or get the next mod/encounter/wave battle prepped.

What I remember when I first started playing (and I NPCed my first 2 years) that everyone seemed to know everyone else's approximate OOG skill level. Everyone knows that Will is impossible to hit with a weapon, Craig can incant incredibly well, Mike's fast, etc. Some people end up getting a little typecast, usually because the type of card is their strength. Major plot roles are given to people who agree that they'll be available to play them for the duration of the plotline, whether it's jumping fence to NPC for an encounter or afternoon, or it's a weekend written around that BBG. It's just sort of understood that if you've got a significant role in a plotline, your PC finds something else to do if other parts of it come up, so you can't metagame anything inadvertently. If they're very plot-centric roles, often the plot members will play them, because they won't get stuck with the "Uhhhh...?" look when asked about something all the PCs might not be in the know for. It's also a great way for the plot people to understand how the plot that's being run is being received.

I think some chapters, rather than have an NPC guild, make people staff members under various different titles (plot, props, monster desk, weapons, customer service, encounter head) or just general "Staff."
 
Robb Graves said:
I am confused. You don't have PC guilds then?
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Not what he meant, he used some terms that are very common on the WC that simply aren't used in other places. (Such as "NPC Guild," "Lair Card," "Job Board," etc. Conversely, he would be just as lost if you used the term "Fishbowl," which isn't a term we ever use out here.)
NPC Guild is an OOG group, like Logistics or Plot or Rules Marshals. We have things like an Earth Guild and a Celestial Guild that are IG, but that's not what he's talking about. Our Plot team is 4 people, who write for every event and show up and run that aspect of the game. Our NPC guild is about 8-10 people who show up to every game and are informed ahead of time what they'll be doing, roles that they'll have, what modules that they'll be running, etc. They don't do (much) writing, but they're in a 'mini plot' position, where they're likely to be playing important NPCs, BBGs, running modules, and using their judgement to resolve small plot issues. For example, I (as Head of Plot) haven't dropped a module hook in months; that's something that I can write up ahead of time, give to one of my NPC 'Guildies,' and assume will happen basically how I wrote it. I can post a schedule on the wall, talk to the NPC ahead of time, and make sure the other NPCs are prepped for when the mod is hooked, and trust that I'll have PCs on my doorstep about when I expect them. Similarly, I never see half of the modules I write run. I give them to NPC Guild members and talk to them about them ahead of time, and assume that they happen.

All of our Guildies get 'permanent' NPCs that we write for them, but then give most of the control of those NPCs to the Guildie. Assuming that they're playing true to the character concept, I can then use those NPCs as hooks, to drop information, whatever, without having to do it myself. After a couple of games, the Guildies know their roles and how they interact with the PCs better than I do, so if I write something up and hand it to one of those Guildies and they say to me "This doesn't make any sense for this character because of encounters X, Y, and Z," I'll trust their judgement and re-write the hook. It's more work ahead of time to make sure everything is organized, and you've got to be pretty willing to flex on some stuff when something gets totally warped ("I know this is supposed to be a Lowbie mod, but they don't like my guy and told me to go F myself, and Highbies X and Y overheard me talking about it and want to do it now"), and it takes giving a lot of plot information over to non-Plot members, and a fairly significant amount of trust in your Guildies, but it saves a lot of time at events and makes the NPCs in the local area much more dynamic.
 
phedre said:
Most of the chapters on the east coast don't have the same kind of setup you're talking about. Many people choose to play one chapter and NPC in another, or are on staff in another. There are usually 3 or 4 plot members running a given event in NH, CT and Crossroads (where I've done most of my playing and NPCing). There are other staff members on hand who've read the writeup, and can help the Monster Desk person stat and treasure encounters, or send out some crunchies, or get the next mod/encounter/wave battle prepped.

What I remember when I first started playing (and I NPCed my first 2 years) that everyone seemed to know everyone else's approximate OOG skill level. Everyone knows that Will is impossible to hit with a weapon, Craig can incant incredibly well, Mike's fast, etc. Some people end up getting a little typecast, usually because the type of card is their strength. Major plot roles are given to people who agree that they'll be available to play them for the duration of the plotline, whether it's jumping fence to NPC for an encounter or afternoon, or it's a weekend written around that BBG. It's just sort of understood that if you've got a significant role in a plotline, your PC finds something else to do if other parts of it come up, so you can't metagame anything inadvertently. If they're very plot-centric roles, often the plot members will play them, because they won't get stuck with the "Uhhhh...?" look when asked about something all the PCs might not be in the know for. It's also a great way for the plot people to understand how the plot that's being run is being received.

I think some chapters, rather than have an NPC guild, make people staff members under various different titles (plot, props, monster desk, weapons, customer service, encounter head) or just general "Staff."
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Wow there are some neat differences in how our games are run vs. yours. It's really cool to see that a game with the same rules can be run so different chapter to chapter. I would really like to attend an East Coast game someday.

So I don't know some of the jobs you used, would someone mind translating for me? Props, monster desk, weapons, customer service, encounter head? I have a general idea of them from their titles but what do they do in terms of your game? Do they NPC as well?

We have a bit of cross chapter play with San Francisco but Oregon is where we get the most. Our plot team and (most) guild members play in their chapter and vice versa. The WC does kind of feel like it's own little bubble sometimes but it is always really cool to get to meet traveling players from the EC.

Wow look at me learning.
 
In short, yes. Everyone in monster camp NPCs. Some don't get out as much, other people are out so much it's a challenge to get them to sit down and drink some water.

Props and weapons are the people who coordinate donations. They'll usually post up a list of things they need, with gobby rewards for it. (I've usually seen it split up when the person doing general props needs to hand off some of the list of needed things.) The plot people will get them a list of things that are needed, like any specialty clothing, obelisks, nifty reps; they'll reach out to the player base that's good at making or finding those things. They also make sure that there's makeup, q-tips, sponges, baby wipes, snacks and drinks for NPC camp, and other basic supplies.

"Monster Desk" refers to the person who maintains your monster card files and stats your encounters based on the APL of the mod.

An encounter head is someone who's not on plot, but is usually a rules marshal and is in charge of making sure the encounter they're in charge of goes smoothly. Hand them the writeup for the encounter and they'll round up the NPCs they need, fill them in on what the purpose of the mod is, let the Desk person know what kind of mod it is (fighter cards? Casters? Goblins? Specialty monster?) and make sure everyone gets to the mod location and the PCs get any necessary descriptions/info.

Customer service is... customer service. They'll do anything from cabin arrangements to dealing with complaints. Some chapters have surveys that they ask people to fill out online, and they compile the surveys and give the info to the rest of the staff.
 
So what on earth is a Fishbowl? I am intrigued by this term...Last time i heard it (and there weren't fish involved), a friend of mine got pretty sick, and the gameday the next day was pretty painful for a few other people.... ;D
 
prashka said:
So what on earth is a Fishbowl? I am intrigued by this term...Last time i heard it (and there weren't fish involved), a friend of mine got pretty sick, and the gameday the next day was pretty painful for a few other people.... ;D
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PDF Rule Book said:
Fishbowl: When random weekend NPCs
need a reason to be out there, pre-written encounters
can be pulled from a “fishbowl” to fill
the need.
Click to expand...
 
Fishbowls are generally encounters that don't necessarily tie in with the weekend plot. They are generally random, though we've had dozens and dozens of fishbowl encounters that are well received, and lead to re-occurring npc roles and ongoing personal, group and town plot.

I like the idea of an NPC guild. It would be great to have a dependable number of npcs each event. So far, we’ve been lucky this season due to a couple new staff members and few players who have been regularly npcing for a change.
 
Ah, I see. Fish bowl to you is what Lair Card is to us, sort of. We put brightly colored, laminated signs up in the woods with a general encounter description. When a PC encounters one, they read the card and follow the instructions. Most lead to some sort of brief module, like a RP or combat encounter. Most of them are optional, some are not. Most end with go to monster camp for your encounter.

We are structured very differently with similar ideas.

I can kind of lay out how we work on the WC (at least Seattle and OR).

We have an owner, he keeps the chapter running. We have a general manager who deals with all the money and paperwork (booking sites, keeping us insured, keeping our finances balanced).

We have a plot team of four that runs the show. We are props, weapons, writing, monster desk, encounter heads, and customer service. It is a big but rewarding job. Matt acts as "head of plot" but never "pulls rank" or overrides the other plot members. We act in comity and Matt keeps us organized.

We have a Monster Camp master who stores monster camp at home, washes the clothes, and drives monster van to games. We have a NPC guild master that keeps the NPC guild organized (he is also a marshal). Each of our NPC guild members can run encounters and lead story hooks, they are all encouraged to be marshals (some of them are).

We have a lot of other staff behind the scenes, head of rules, marshals, logistics team, but I am pretty sure you all have people in those jobs too.
 
evi1r0n said:
Ah, I see. Fish bowl to you is what Lair Card is to us, sort of.
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Kinda. A Fishbowl is more like the Crunchy Board, but angled towards a higher RP percentage.
(Our Crunchy Board is a big whiteboard, separated into 3 hour day and time slots, with a variety of codes in each box, "SMRP1" for Saturday Morning RP encounter 1, etc. These codes correspond to a zip lock bag with the code on it, which has a 1-2 line motivation, character cards, and loot. More often then not they're "Crunchies" meant to keep people entertained through little combats, but sometimes they're minor merchants, card sharks, or other RP roles.)
 
Yep, sounds more like your Crunchie Board. The term originated from the idea that they would be written on cards and tossed in a fishbowl, so you could pull one out randomly when you had NPCs available and wanted to run a minor encounter that wasn't really tied to anything. They can be monsters with a specific motivation (like goblins looking for a particular flower) or a merchant, or somebody looking to be taught a certain skill... anything really.
 
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