Roleplaying Crunchies

FrankManic

Artisan
How do you like to play NPC's and Crunchies? is it all about gunho rushing into the waiting blades of the PCs, or do you try to give a little more depth to the NPCs you play? How do some of the basic crunchies differ in their outlooks on life? How do you roleplay animals, or golems, or the dead? How do you roleplay big ugly monsters to get the best effect on the players?
 
One of the largest differences I've found when dealing with crunchies is whether or not they are intelligent, and whether or not they want to rush in, or wait to be rushed at by PC's. But more role playing is always good IMO...
 
Some undead are mindless, so you just sort of shamble toward the PCs and attack when close enough. As an animal you have to think like the animal would. Golems (without a spirit stored in them) are basically mindlessly following the orders of whoever controls them. Kobalds and Goblins are somewhat intelligent but their priorites are more along the lines of causing mischief or getting food or "shinies". Bottom line: Anything you play as an NPC will be different. The monster card will tell you how intelligent it is and the encounter head will give you any motivation you might need to determine how to play the character.

Another thing to remember is that a player who is a really good fighter probably needs to tone down his skills when playing a character who sucks. That's the role of an NPC. There are also things like playing a big bad and at least trying to find the heavier hitters among the PCs instead of just rolling the the 5 newbs who try to attack you first.

There is art and skill to NPCing well.
 
Indeed what Mike said is true.

I might add, it is also fun if you are ever playing more of a sort of a "mini-boss" part it can be cool also to try and seek out and fight the more middle or lower end players that can actually take you one while the most powerful fight the "real-boss" and let them feel effective dealing with you. ;)
 
Absolutely! The bottom line is to make it fun. And "fun" means roleplaying it appropriately and trying to find appropriate players to attack. (Read the new Rule Book chapter on How to be an NPC for more!)
 
I think the point on not playeing every crunchy to your fullest is an important one. Too often it is tempting for a skilled bofferist to turn an encounter with a minor zombie in to march of the undead ninja.

RPing the npc even when its a crunchy is fun for npc and pc alike and adds alot to the game, I remember at the last game I was at we went to fight a group of trolls with a good sized group of us. There was apause for banter at the opening of hostilities with insults thrown back and forth a bit but the thing that really stuck out was the Trolls saying "Get da stunties" before charging at us. Now we had I think 3 dwarves amongs the party but our average dwarf height was still over 6 foot. Was really pretty funny.

In the end some RP to your crunchies even if its just moaning and doing zombie pantomime adds alot to the atmoshpere and personally I found it really breaks up the monotony of playing wave after wave of crunchy on a long weekend.
 
lol that sounds hilarious. :) But yea, if you are a really good stick jock, or just quite skilled at the game it can be very important to remember not to necessarily make every monster an x ninja...
 
At the same time, there will be really skillful goblins just like there are really skillful humans... When the goblin hits you, it may only be for a few points, but you could say "Wow, the dexterity of this particular goblin is amazing! If I can just hit him once though, he's down..."

The point being that NPCs shouldn't necessarily fight poorly just because they are little crunchies any more than a 1st level PC should fight poorly merely because they are first level. The stats cards are meant to balance out things.

The bottom line is that NPCs should always do what will give the PCs the most fun. If Steve Babin the NPC goblin goes up against Scott Kondrk as a 1st level fighter PC, I don't think Steve should just allow Scott to defeat him easily simply because he's a goblin. Scott will have a lot more fun with a challenge, wouldn't he?
 
Fearless Leader said:
At the same time, there will be really skillful goblins just like there are really skillful humans... When the goblin hits you, it may only be for a few points, but you could say "Wow, the dexterity of this particular goblin is amazing! If I can just hit him once though, he's down..."

The point being that NPCs shouldn't necessarily fight poorly just because they are little crunchies any more than a 1st level PC should fight poorly merely because they are first level. The stats cards are meant to balance out things.

The bottom line is that NPCs should always do what will give the PCs the most fun. If Steve Babin the NPC goblin goes up against Scott Kondrk as a 1st level fighter PC, I don't think Steve should just allow Scott to defeat him easily simply because he's a goblin. Scott will have a lot more fun with a challenge, wouldn't he?

Depending on who the NPC is going up against, yes, that's true. However, as a general rule I'd say a single low-level goblin shouldn't really be able to take on the entire town for a lenghty period of time. This happened at an event at Lindenmere and a lot of people did NOT have fun with it. If it's designed as a time-sink to allow another encounter to be set up or a situation like Scott v. Steve then I'd say it's okay.
 
My best advice is before going out on any encounter, ask the Monster Desk Manager or the plot person sending you out what level to take it to. If they specifically are looking for "just go attack em and play very basic types" then give me that, but if they say "go have fun with it and be super goblins" then go with that. While it is all about giving players the most fun, it's also all about helping our plot team put out the world they are envisioning. :D
 
Fighting aside, what is Bob the goblins motivation to go running towards a bunch of well armed tin can suited adventurers that he knows are going to creme him? Why do the Kobolds risk life and limb to go after a shiny bauble they can't eat? What do they use them for? Is it a religious thing? Do they use them to impress mates?

How do undead see the world? Why are vampires such jerks? Is it a natural part of being a vampire, or are there some vampires who just ignore people. What about zombies? Do they eat flesh, or just hate the living? Could you command zombies to, say, dig ditches and build walls, or are they just good for eatin folk?

What about animals? You have to get a bear pretty riled up to attack a group of people. similarly, rats won't generally attack unless cornered. Why do animals decide that big, unfamiliar, noisy humans are good to eat?
 
Honestly, the simple answer to all of these question is; because the NPC's are there to fight the PC's and make the game fun.

Come up with any IG reason you want, there are a million.

However for many crunchies these reasons are superfluous and vary in every single situation. Be careful not to over analyze to a certain degree because at a certain point it looses relevance. At some point you reach a level where its a game, and we enjoy coming up with reasons WHY our fictional character like/do the things they do, but ultimately while we try hard the world is not going to be %100 nit picky proof ever.

I know this is probably not the specific answer you are looking for, but if you keep in mind the point is to come up with reasons why your doing is what you want to be doing. And the point is to have fun these sort of questions can be subsumed into the general background. ;)

And sorry I don't think these are bad questions, this is just a large way I think about things. Its a game that everyone should try to make fun for everyone. OOG. IG characters can be as unhappy as hell... :D
 
Dreamingfurther said:
Honestly, the simple answer to all of these question is; because the NPC's are there to fight the PC's and make the game fun.

I suppose I'm asking because I've always been vaguely disappointed by games where the badguys exist only to die on my sword. I much prefer that the badguys have their own distinct thing going on, their own lives, empires, needs, and so forth. Something as simple as 'The Kobold's last chicken ran away, and they're trying to steal some more because they like eggs.' It's not much, but it gives you some idea of what the critters are, and it gives the critters something to do besides run screaming onto the swords of the 'heroes'.

I suppose... So, slaughtering random piles of Hp is boring, because the only way you can interact with them is to hit them until they go away. But, if they've got a bit more too them they can, say, try to buy the chicken off you, or distract you while Burt steals the chicken and runs like hell, or get scared and decide to come back later with more friends, or shoot some arrows at you and retreat, then come back and hit you again. Or maybe you could work out a time-share deal, or offer to sell them the extra eggs, or hire them to do something for your in exchange for the chicken. Hell, maybe you could decide to go native, help the Kobolds steal the chicken, and return with them to their burrow to reign as king.

I'm asking to discuss the question itself, but I'm also interested in inspiring people to do their own wacky stuff, whatever that may be.
 
fair enough. :)

I guess after playing (a PC) enough and saving things from a more or less seemingly endless series of problems/disasters/endoftheworld it can seem like your just fighting to fight.

Its a good question, and I might just feel a little tired atm from over 10 weeks of games every single weekend... But I have to admit your right, if a plot team is doing a good job I'd hope they try to keep this in mind. What are some of the reasons others have come up with? Part of the difficulty is that the world IS limited by what NPC camp can actually spend its time and resources on, and the game is limited to what we can actually rep. Sometimes I think groups of adventures would not spend the time they do in random places but that is also somewhat limited by the fact we do have stationary camps.

So, its a balancing act. ;)
 
FrankManic said:
Fighting aside, what is Bob the goblins motivation to go running towards a bunch of well armed tin can suited adventurers that he knows are going to creme him? Why do the Kobolds risk life and limb to go after a shiny bauble they can't eat? What do they use them for? Is it a religious thing? Do they use them to impress mates?

How do undead see the world? Why are vampires such jerks? Is it a natural part of being a vampire, or are there some vampires who just ignore people. What about zombies? Do they eat flesh, or just hate the living? Could you command zombies to, say, dig ditches and build walls, or are they just good for eatin folk?

What about animals? You have to get a bear pretty riled up to attack a group of people. similarly, rats won't generally attack unless cornered. Why do animals decide that big, unfamiliar, noisy humans are good to eat?


Like I said, these are exactly the kinds of questions you should be asking the Plot person or Monster Master who is sending you out to play them, to keep the tone of the encounter they were looking for in the game world they are telling. I know it is extremely frustrating if I send out six goblins just to buy time to get gear/props readied for a major encounter intending them to just go out and get ganked and then the NPC's decide to be goblin merchants trying to lure a single player off alone to eat em, and they're gone for two hours when I needed them back in fifteen minutes.
 
FrankManic said:
I suppose I'm asking because I've always been vaguely disappointed by games where the badguys exist only to die on my sword. I much prefer that the badguys have their own distinct thing going on, their own lives, empires, needs, and so forth. Something as simple as 'The Kobold's last chicken ran away, and they're trying to steal some more because they like eggs.' It's not much, but it gives you some idea of what the critters are, and it gives the critters something to do besides run screaming onto the swords of the 'heroes'.

I agree completely, as I hope I made clear in the "How to be an NPC" chapter. Usually the NPC crunchies have to come up with their own reasons because monster desk is so busy...

PCs also need to take a bit of responsibility as well; too often we've had NPCs out in the woods where they logically would be while the PCs sit around in the tavern bored, or PCs who complain when the NPCs run away as they logically would. (Not ALL PCs, mind you... many PCs love it when they have to go looking for the monsters and when monsters act appropriately.)
 
Fearless Leader said:
PCs also need to take a bit of responsibility as well; too often we've had NPCs out in the woods where they logically would be while the PCs sit around in the tavern bored, or PCs who complain when the NPCs run away as they logically would. (Not ALL PCs, mind you... many PCs love it when they have to go looking for the monsters and when monsters act appropriately.)

From my experience, I have had some fantastic results by chasing away "crunchies" instead of slaughtering them. Ended up a couple of times with them fighting by the town's side against the "big baddie" because I and some other players gave them a bit of food, or something colorful or shiny instead of killing them on sight. I've even had an NPC playing a goblin come up to me several events later with a bit of informatoin that was very useful because I had let him go without killing him.

From a character perspective, don't misunderstand me. Sometimes goblins, kobolds, and the like and simply there to casue whatever trouble they can, but I usually will at least try to talk to them first, point out that their options are to either answer some qustions and get a cracker or die, and it opens up som epretty neat (and often hilarious!) RP opportunities.
 
Well, sometimes encounters don't go as planned either. Last weekend the NPCs left the scene of a fight because they just wanted to go home and the players didn't stop them. The players showed up, figured they were outnumbered and let the NPCs leave with their loot (fresh beef).

One thing that I would find cool is timed events. As an NPC we always end up setting up the field and waiting for the PCs. One time we were even told "The PCs we need just started casting a ritual, so it'll be 10-15 minutes more." Well, if the PCs think their ritual is more important than saving the captain of the guard from being tortured for information, maybe they should find the dead body of the captain tied to a tree. Now the bad guys have information and can use it to their advantage.

As for RP, I typically make up a name for my npc (if the npc is smart enough) and then go with that. Once I was confined right next to a PC who was also confined. We started chatting and I convinced him that I really wasn't such a bad guy (I was a crazy cultist, and according to plot, I was pretty bad). He told me that once we were out that he would take me to the authorities instead of killing me. So he got freed, and tied me up and off we went to town so that he could turn me over to the authorities (who promptly killed me).

Some people who NPC just want to swing a sword at a PC. Others (like myself) prefer to RP. It's really a matter of taste.
 
I'm not sure how to do this, but having something along the lines of every NPC has their own "Bandit". This guy has all the stats and stuff of a regular PC. As he adventures and survives, he gains more abilities and so on. Having a personal bad guy that you invest time into will help not only with the roleplaying but also with the way you fight in a situation. The Bandit still needs to try and rob the PC's but if the tide quickly turns against him, he's not going to stay there and let himself be evicerated. Of course, you can also do the 'bag of chance' as they go down too.
 
I really, really like NPCs to have reasons. Endless crunchies, while a good workout, serve as a sort of pavlovian training for players. Hit the target, get shinies. This leads to an entire culture of 'it isn't a PC, KILL IT FOR STUFF!' that is really, really bad for running an entertaining game, and deeply breaks immersion for me.

As NPCs, put a little thought into it. If you're playing something that might rez, check with your plot team and see if it will. Is there something other than killing you that will neutralize you?

As PCs, remember, we're not just here to kill everything in sight. Well, maybe the High Orks are.. but there are other solutions than wanton slaughter that can have better results, assuming your local plot team isn't dead set on being WoW. :mrgreen:
 
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