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tauster
Senior Scribe
Germany
399 Posts |
 Posted - 12 Jun 2004 : 18:32:45
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Every Roleplaying-World comes to live through it´s NPC. And while much attention is payed to „stationary“ NPC´s like the lokal mage, clerical temple-staff, weaponsmiths or thieves guilds, i feel that one important group is neglected. it´s the peers of the PC´s: the other adventuring parties.
what i do not mean are their stats or personal descriptions (appearance, character,...). rather, their motivations to be adventuring. of course some of them could have the same motivation than the party you dm: fame, wealth and power, or even saving the world from some evil, but honestly: how many evils are really out there? „as much as a fantasy world needs to have“ is the pragmatic answer, but to me it is not a satisfying one.
some of them just may feel the urge to „go adventuring“, but most of them should stop that soon, as lowlevel-parties in a „real“ fantasy world should have a high mortality rate: in contrary to PC- parties, NPC´s generally do not have a dm who choses encounters of appropriate level for them. they are the ones who, after winning over their first bunch of orcs, have the dubious pleasure of meeting a dragon who very suddenly and very permanently ends their adventuring career.
...that leaves us with people who „adventure for a living“.
what follows are some thoughts on what may motivate and who may employ groups of people like our average adventuring party to traipse around faerun.
hunting and procuring components for spells/ creating magic items:
there are many spellcasters out there, and many spells need exotic components. some of them are traded, while for several reasons, some are not:
- too dangerous to get: parts of powerful monsters or things from other planes for example.
- too exotic: after all it´s not very profitable to research where to find, go after, pay for and transport back something when you do not know someone who actually will buy it from you.
- illegal: ok, doesn´t really count... that´s what black markets are for. :) but you still have to find someone with contacts to the black market, and even those goods need to be found, transported and marketed like legal ones.
some magic components are difficult to come by. what would a mage (or priest) of middle to higher level (say level 8 and above) do? (s)he is busy with magic research or adventuring and can not go after every sodding exotic thing needed for one magic endeavor or the other, so someone trustworthy must be found (and paid) who can do it for him/her.
finding exotic (magic or mundane) weapons and armor:
not every magic platemail fits the ones who found it in the dungeon. what do you do when your party of elves, humans and halflings finds a complete magical set of dwarven platemail? they have to trade it for something other. but how long will it take to find a dwarf who not only wants it (not long, i bet!) but also has something adequate to barter? probably a bit longer... so your party, instead of zigzagging across faerun to find a dwarvish buyer, finds and pays someone trustworthy to do it for them.
knowledge:
so your mage has identified that magic sword or ring, but what is it´s story? what is the meaning of that peculiar symbol? who was „Myngyblyx“, who´s name is mentioned in that old inscription we found in the abandoned temple? who can translate the moldy tomes we pilfered from the liches library?
adventures bring fourth hundreds of such questions, and for every answer found, new mysteries spring up. because mages and clerics and bards (or other characters who fall in the category „adventuring sage“) rarely have the time to travel across faerun from one library to another (that´s something reserved for retirement!), someone other has to procure the lore for solving at least the most urgent mysteries (the ones needed to solve as part of the adventure itself, or those that simply add flavour to the campaign).
victims:
although it very rarely applies to PC´s, evil employers may want or even need victims on a regular basis. instead of hunting themselves and risking death or defeat, they can use conveniently charmed (or paid) pawns to lead the victims to them. by chosing adventuring parties who do not look overly powerful, they can supply their employers with new victims (complete with magic and wealth) without endangering their boss too much.
these and many other tasks often fall to henchmen, and indeed many of the NPC parties that your PC´s should meet are likely to fall in exactly that category. but there are other clients than highlevel-adventurers who need the services of NPC parties (or henchmen, if you like). the point „victims“ gave some foretaste, other ideas follow.
dragons:
dragons are powerful (often more powerful than the adventuring parties come across them).
dragons are intelligent (most of them at least).
dagons are rich.
and dragons crave (like the average adventurer) for more power.
it is only logical that they have much the same needs as highlevel- characters. some dragons are spellcasters, so they too need exotic components (see above), others crave for knowledge (see above). they are constantly striving to expand their hoard, but imo it is not possible to do that exclusively by force (of which dragons have an ample amount). after all, how many dissapeared caravans are necessary until the king starts a thorough investigation, aided by divination spells? it should come natural to dragons to use human(-oid) pawns because many of them have a hard time to visit cities in person (when was the last time you saw an ancient wyrm peacefully stroll across the marketplace?). every dragon worth his scale should have at least a dozen pawns, none of them knowing each other and many of them not knowing the identity of their employer (the latter is somewhat complicated, because when the dragon can deceive them, he likely should be able to deceive the people at mentioned marketplace- and thus wouldn´t need human pawns to go there for him.). think of the cult of the dragon, only without it´s quasi-religious and evil alignment. each organization firmly lead by the dragon and therefore more competent than the cultists. with the hundreds of scaly ones across faerun, there might be quite a lot of cabals, each working for and aided by... a dragon. *shudder*
come to think of it, every dragon should have a more or less extensive information-network that watches not only over other dragons but also finds caravans that cross through the hunting-ground of their scaly boss. most dragons can´t do this themselves: it is quite complicated to eavesdrop a caravan guard in a tavern when you are bigger than the tavern itself. and likewise, personally spying over other dragons probably get´s yourself discovered, either by the other dragon or by nearby humans. so what do you do? you hire some of those mammals you normally like for dinner, give them some alms from your hoard (what else would you do with those thousands of copperpieces?) and let them watch over the territory of your scaly neighbour and the caravan-ways.
undead:
most of what applies to dragons also applies to powerful undead. while most liches should have access to shapeshifting magic and therefore be able to move among humans (at least long enough to do business), vampires can do so only at night. it can not be wrong to have some charmed humans (or dwarves, gnomes, haflings,...) at hand who care about your business ventures or watch over your coffing by day while you are helplessly slumbering. in my opinion no decent vampire should rest in a crypt or cemetery- that´s the first place those pesky adventurers are coming to search for it! better to buy a shop (or simply charm the owner), dig a second cellar under the first one and let the merchant watch over you and supply you every evening with news, money and perhaps a victim or two. even if not charmed, some unscrupulous merchants may team up with a vampire, because it can very well be mutually beneficial (no thieves to fear, for example).
beholders:
eye tyrants, like vampires, have the ability to charm others, so what was said above in large applies to them too. though they are not as helpless by day as vampires, they too can not show themselves among humans. so what does a beholder do? it spares some of it´s victimes from being eaten and charmes them into servitude. they may also lead a steady stream of victims to the lair of their boss (see „victims“ above).
btw: greedy beholders can generate a steady stream of income by petrifying people, animals or objects and having pawns sell those „statues“ under the cover-identity of a famous sculptor. if you can´t petrify a certain motive and have a bit of artistic ability, use regular stone and your disintegration-beam. in a large city like waterdeep, suzail or calimport, those artworks should sell quite well, but you´ll need some human (dwarven, elven, gnomish,...) pawns. the best scheme would be to let a pawn buy a house in a large city and smuggle you in. after that it may be the safest to kill him. another charmed pawn provides you with victims to petrify (humanoids, monsters, exotic beasts...) or stone to work, while another poses in public as the artist himself. in theory it may be enough to have only a selected few charmed pawns (the posing artist and perhaps the provider of victims); the others (the stone-supplier, the ones advertising your work, etc.) may be handled through the charmed pawns.
what i´d like to know from you:
- what other creatures or professions have need for „adventuring parties“ that fill the world to rub shoulders with our own party of PC´s?
- what other reasons are there to need their services? components for magic (spells or things for magic item-creation), vitims, knowledge & intelligence-informtion,... what else?
ok, at least some NPC-parties your players meet should be like them on a mission to save the world from some evil or another, but that should be very rare. after all, if everyone is saving the world, what is still epic about it?
tauster
:)
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Faraer
Great Reader
3308 Posts |
Posted - 12 Jun 2004 : 19:37:08
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Good thoughts. The adventurer mentality is one of the great running themes of Ed's fiction and campaigns. Though much of his Realms work doesn't focus on them, he sneaks them in wherever he can; the Band of Four is an adventuring company, and the Knights of Myth Drannor novels are on the way.
How many evils are out there? Thousands, ranging from malevolence to greed, cruelty, megalomania, desire to control others' wills. That's the nature of the Realms, which is not, by default, 'epic': the PCs' actions matter because of what they mean in their lives and the lives of their loved ones, not because of externalities like saving the Realms, which should be kept for special occasions.
The urge to go adventuring -- wanderlust, the thrill and excitement and danger -- is what keeps many companies going for years and decades, even drawing them out of retirement. Yes, many do perish, as well see in Spellfire and Elminster: The Making of a Mage. And yes, knowledge and mastery of Art is what motivates many mages. Many joy at the thrill of treasure, but only neutral and evil-tending adventurers find pleasure in the mere possessing of it. And yes, the mighty seek to nudge or manipulate adventurers to carry out their ends, as Khelben did and Elminster does with the Knights of Myth Drannor. While some companies are sponsored by rulers or merchants, and are in effect hireswords, more are self-impelled. |
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NPC motivation
