MORE NPC's=MORE FUN!!!

[Warlok]

SF does run two seperate campaigns at our chapter. I think the secondary one has been going for a little over a year, now. We work on approximately the same schedule as Oregon and Seattle do, and it seems to work out great! Plot/NPCs from one campaign get to play their charatcers in the other campaign, and we have been able to maintain about the same 2:1 ratio recently, too.

I think that trying to force chapters into a 3-campaign split is too much, but either having 2 campaigns or 2 chapters running events at least 2 weeks apart seems to work out just fine.

-Luke

 

[obcidian_bandit]

Some of the sites in New England charge $1K-2k per weekend to rent. It can get mighty costly to run a chapter unless you have a super low-cost site, or can invest in a permanent site up-front.

I'm not really sure how that applies, though. Chapters are expensive to run, sure, but ideally the cost of playing your game soaks that. The site for our last event cost almost exactly $2k, and we covered it, food, props, and the like. No person is making any money, but the chapter is growing it's props, weapons, costuming, etc. We'll always need people to donate things; people want to help to the game and there's always something to do, but we haven't been in the red for years.

Our problem recently has really been NPCs. At one point at our last event we had something like a 6:1 ratio, and that hurts. At the best time we were around 1:3.5, which isn't great, especially when most of them are pretty new. Splitting into multiple 'sub chapters' wouldn't solve our issue. We get a lot of our players from other games because of our awesome reputation, and having several groups running the game would mean a seemingly random game style switch and an inconsistent world to new players, which is exactly opposite of what we want. Besides, having two events a year means having about 6 months between them, and that doesn't sound like a good approach, either. It's hard enough for me to keep straight what happened in a single chapter 3 months ago, keeping three games straight 6 months apart would need a lot of extra leg work to remind people what was happening so the plot can move forward. It would also mean plotlines crawling along at a snail's pace, which I don't care for.

 

[Vryan]

Whenever I PC an event, I always tell the people running the weekend that at any point I am willing to hop fence and take an NPC shift for a few hours, and I tell them to just come get me. I think if more people were willing to do this, you'd see much better ratio for big fights. Every PC that hops fence for a while has a greater impact on the ratio, because the PC number drops and the NPC number rises. Maybe more chapters could reward players who do this, to make it more appealing? I'm not saying that just because I do it; I still won't ask to get compensated, I just want people to have fun. I know Connecticut has a reward system for players who do this, but they're the only chapter I know that does it.

Possibly another way to help the ratio is to have more creative battles. Instead of having one big fight with the whole town, maybe have the majority of the town fight the NPCs like usual, but a small group of them have to do a specific task? For example, you could have six people hunting one big monster out "in the woods", while the town has to fight off the monster's minions. The "mod" only uses up one NPC while it takes away six PC's, resulting in the town fight having a better ratio. Just an idea I think would be cool to have incorporated.

I know these aren't really long-term fixes for events with a low NPC number, but every little bit helps.

 

[mikestrauss]

Whenever I PC an event, I always tell the people running the weekend that at any point I am willing to hop fence and take an NPC shift for a few hours, and I tell them to just come get me.

I can think of half a dozen (probably more) people who do this at every HQ event and it is MASSIVELY appreciated. The one caveat I should point out is that NPC camp gets hectic, especially when it is low on NPCs. Often it isn't possible to search for the people who said they would hop when there is a crunch. Or, by the time the crunch hits, it would take too long to gather fence hoppers.

Fence hoppers are awesome, but if you truly want to help, just pick a time and jump. You basically can't pick poorly (extra bodies are always good). NPC camp / Desk probably just doesn't have the time / won't remember to find you.

-MS

 

[Vryan]

Fence hoppers are awesome, but if you truly want to help, just pick a time and jump. You basically can't pick poorly (extra bodies are always good). NPC camp / Desk probably just doesn't have the time / won't remember to find you.

-MS

I have, on a few occasions, been asked directly if I could hop fence. I guess it depends on how vocal you are about it. I pop in a few times an event and ask if I'm needed, and if I'm not at the time they usually remember me when they do need me.

Also, half of my experience with this is in New Hampshire. The site is fairly small so it's not hard to send someone to go get me.

 

[Wraith]

Some of the sites in New England charge $1K-2k per weekend to rent. It can get mighty costly to run a chapter unless you have a super low-cost site, or can invest in a permanent site up-front.

I'm not really sure how that applies, though. Chapters are expensive to run, sure, but ideally the cost of playing your game soaks that. The site for our last event cost almost exactly $2k, and we covered it, food, props, and the like. No person is making any money, but the chapter is growing it's props, weapons, costuming, etc. We'll always need people to donate things; people want to help to the game and there's always something to do, but we haven't been in the red for years.

You can do that with an ongoing game with a working budget. Up-front for a new startup, that isn't as practical. Especially in an area without an established playerbase to feed off of.

 

[Lurin]

One thing that I think should be noted is that while more npcs are definitely helpful in general, people need to note that folks have different tolerance levels for NPCing, some folks just don't enjoy it much, usually these folks are very into their specific character they are playing and an interruption might spoil some of that feel. Others are good for short periods, and some can handle full days and even repeat npc events. The point is not everyone makes a good npc (judged by if they can enjoy it or not)

SoMN is lucky to have a great pool of npcs, usually running a 2:1 PC/NPC average which we find to be the 'sweet spot' for both running the event and not having the cost per head get to high on us, each year we tend to ask a few of our log term players to hop the fence for a year or so, which helps dramatically to keep plot lines fresh and to allow most of the staff (with the exception of our great head of plot, and myself so far) to hop the fence and pc one or twice a year, which helps us understand things from the PC perspective and find holes in our system.

 

[EC-JP]

The one caveat I should point out is that NPC camp gets hectic, especially when it is low on NPCs. Often it isn't possible to search for the people who said they would hop when there is a crunch. Or, by the time the crunch hits, it would take too long to gather fence hoppers.

-MS

There is a tool that CT has used recently (last year and change) with amazing sucess that I highly recomend. We created a means of letting all of our PC's know when we would like NPC volunteers that doesn't involve sending people to specifically pull certain PC's. Instead, its a general "Call to Arms" to come NPC if you feel like hopping the fence, where you know that camp has a use for you.

Specifically, we have an NPC walk through the main portion of our site carrying a distinctive (and recognizable) flag. Generally, that NPC wears either the tabard of the local house or some form of armor. The players know OOG that it is an invitation to come down, and IG that the "Supply Lines" need some additional guards, for whatever reason, which creates an IG justification to leave game for a time.

By not pulling (or even approaching) specific PC's, it doesn't push the PC's, interupt any actual encounters, and even gets the word out to more than those people who plot members remember voluneered. It also acts as a convinient plot information tool for rumors, and we've been known to OCCASIONALLY (ie. nowhere near so often as to be the epxectation or norm) use it to hook modules. It also has acted as a good boredom cure, as players that are bored seeing the flag know they can come to NPC camp and find sometihng fun to do (or, just as viable, that something is likely going to happen soon that might entertain them).

All in all, it takes about 5 minutes round trip to "wave the flag" (grab a tabard, the rep, walk through town), adds a minimal amount of environment (the presence of NPC guards being about their business in the adventurer's part of town), and usually brings in 3-12 PC volunteers. We've used it for everything from more bodies for large combat encounters to wanting to have multiple modules and floating encounters that NPC numbers would not support.

The important thing if this tool is going to be used is to bring everyone up to speed beforehand OOG, so that players are aware it is a plot tool, not a module hook or something similar.

 

[RuneBrighteyes]

EC-JP-

I like that idea. It is a good one! More chapters should use it.

(I am also pleased that it is still working for you guys. I hear it is even a guild now).