Improving Incentives for NPCs

A

Alex319

Artisan
As Jesse has mentioned, one thing Alliance always needs more of are NPCs. As a player, I am often interested in doing NPC stints but I am sometimes deterred by the current incentive structure. Thus, I have been thinking about ways in which the incentives can be improved to encourage players to NPC more.

A significant part of the issue is that while rewards for PCing (i.e. treasure) scale with player level (i.e. as the playerbase gets higher level, treasure policy gives out more treasure) the rewards for NPCing is static at 60 GS. (The same applies to magic items - as player level increases there is more chance to get magic items as a PC.) So as you get higher level, the GS and magic item picks you get give less of an incentive to NPC - you could get much more treasure PCing.

Another think that may be helpful is to have the option to "NPC for the whole event with a PC stint." Right now, if I want to be an NPC, I have to either NPC the whole event (and not get a chance to PC at all) or do an NPC stint (and not get any of the NPC incentives except for some GS). Sometimes I may want to participate as a PC for a few hours (say to resolve some plotline my PC is involved in) but would be willing to NPC the rest of the time. So perhaps you could have something where "if you sign up as an NPC, you can choose to play your PC for X number of hours over the course of the weekend and still get the full NPC benefits).

A third idea is to give out mod hooks as rewards for doing an NPC stint. The IG explanation would be that when a PC goes to NPC camp to do a stint, the PC is "out scouting", and then at the end of the stint they can be given a mod card saying what they found while out scouting, which they could go get a group of PCs to do just like a normal mod card. This has a couple advantages:

(1) it creates a feedback mechanism to help balance the number of PCs and NPCs, because if there aren't as many NPCs, people will have trouble finding mods, which increases the incentive for players to NPC so they can get the mod card, and

(2) it makes sense, that since being an NPC enables Plot to run more mods, that you could be rewarded by having a better chance to get a spot in a mod.
 
These are some great ideas! I agree about all of it and appreciate your care and thoughtfulness in laying it out.

I definitely enjoy NPCing and want to contribute in that way, but the incentives are definitely not lined up all that well.
 
Thx again for the post Alex. You're on a roll today!
Some things I like to add just for clarification purposes: In addition to the minimum 60GS (yes you can earn more), you also get to play for free, we feed you, AND you get the same XP as if you had PCed!! There's also the GS for gasoline reward when you carpool w/ an NPC too. And after 5 events NPCing, you get to PC one for free. The magic item pick is literally a pick from a list instead of finding the random one that may or may not be good during the event. Want that ward or life item? Go for it! If you're a paid player PC, I generally give 10GS per hour you volunteer. Want to earn even more? Write for us. :-) We love guest writers!
There is another added benefit: It's fun playing multiple roles all weekend long and peeking behind the curtain! lol
 
Right now the primary incentives to NPC are OOG financial advantages. GS can be "purchased" through donations and feeding, playing for free, and getting XP as if you attended are all covered if you have the money to pay for the event. The thing I really like about Alex's ideas here are they they provide incentive to those that have the costs of game covered to NPC. The downside to stepping out of game can be big since you are missing opportunities to RP, mod etc, so having those balanced by a Mod would be really nice. Not everything needs to be about loot either. Magic items and GS are nice, but I think a lot of players in the game crave opportunities for in game accomplishment. I don't know how you can tie that to NPCing, but if you can find a way to give your volunteers those opportunities I bet you will see more PC-NPC participation. I really enjoyed NPCing the two times I did it at an event and always have a good time volunteering for our plot team outside of events.
 
I also agree about the opportunities for in game accomplishment and participating in story. As my character likes to say, "A good story is more valuable than gold, because gold can only be spent once, while a story can be told over and over." (And, of course, if you're an NPC on a mod you can't tell anyone IG afterward what you saw.) Maybe one way to tie that to NPCing is to say that if you do an NPC stint or NPC for an event, then IG your character can be doing something else, and get benefits from that. For instance let's say that I find a Mysterious Magical Artifact and I want to go do research in the library to find out the history of the Mysterious Magical Artifact. Maybe Plot could say something like "It will take you about 4 hours to do a thorough search for information. If you NPC for 4 hours, then at the end I'll tell you what you found." and that could give you a clue to help you go forward with the plotline. (The idea about getting mod cards through "scouting" by NPCing is just a special case of this.)

Another advantage of this is it might help mitigate some of the concerns about players having difficulty getting plot. If players can "buy" plot hooks by NPCing, then they never need to worry about completely locked out of the plotline. There are definitely events where there weren't many mods running and I really wanted to go on mods, and I definitely would have NPCed if it gave me a chance at a mod (and that would have also helped others get mods as well, since more mods could be run.) And also, when you NPC you by definition get to be in the physical presence of Plot members, which might lead to more conversations aboutt what your character wants, which could help bring new players into the plot.
 
And also, if you do give 10 GS per hour you volunteer as an NPC, you might want to update the web site. The web site still says that doing an NPC stint as a PC is only worth 30 GS for any amount of time up to 15 hours, and 60 GS for 15-18 hours.
 
Alex,
That list isn't for NPC stints as a PC. It is for people who can ONLY NPC a partial bit of the event.
From the site:
Partial Weekend NPC

  • 15-18 Hours 60 GS
  • Less than 15 Hours: 30 GS
 
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