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View Full Version : How do I make an NPC sympathetic to a bunch of muderhobos?



FabulousFizban
2014-09-19, 01:21 AM
I want my players to become attached to an NPC, but they are suspicious superstitious murderhobos. How do I have him gain their trust and become a beloved character in their story?

BeerMug Paladin
2014-09-19, 01:50 AM
Have the PCs learn of his past as a retired murderhobo. Who maybe hires them or gives them valuable gear. Or maybe clue them into a great place to get their murderhoboin' on.

"Those goblins collect a lot of refuse. You might want to search through the pile of trash they live in, because sometimes they get ahold of a valuable gem or two. If you kill a dozen of them or so and let some escape, you'll likely scare the rest of them away for a little while, so it's not like you'll have to fight hundreds of them to search the whole place."

Of course, if they see him as competition, that might not work out.

It also helps if you give him an affectation of some sort. My own player group seemed to inexplicably like the character whose only actual character trait was that he had just been running around at full speed to deliver a message, so he was gasping and out of breath when delivering that message. Then he always runs off before he's fully recovered.

Might not work for a group of murderhobos, but having even one (silly, but) immediately identifiable character trait can do a lot for immersion and likability.

LokiRagnarok
2014-09-19, 03:04 AM
A way of avoiding them seeing him as competition is to make him frail and/or old. Maybe he is missing a leg, a hand, has bad eyesight or a smoker's lung.

viking vince
2014-09-19, 09:42 AM
Have the NPC be a trustworthy source of information.

aspi
2014-09-19, 10:01 AM
A way of avoiding them seeing him as competition is to make him frail and/or old. Maybe he is missing a leg, a hand, has bad eyesight or a smoker's lung.

Have the NPC be a trustworthy source of information.
Hold on... an old, frail looking NPC with valuable information? I've seen that movie, I've read that book. He's gonna turn out to be the BBEG in disguise who fed us half-truths and used us for his personal gain the entiry time, isn't he? :smallconfused: :smallamused:

In my experience, you can't make a group of murderhobos trust anyone. Which isn't the same as stating that they would never trust an NPC though. You just can't tell who it'll be. The easiest approach might be to introduce a few new NPCs with rivalries of their own and see who the party ends up liking, then gradually transform that one into the "one" important NPC. The other NPCs probably won't live to tell the tale though... so it's a bit of work.

ElenionAncalima
2014-09-19, 10:44 AM
Generally I find flaws are the key to the party's heart.

The more wonderful you try to make your character, the higher the chance they will view him (either conciously or unconciously) as a DMPC here to railroad everything that they love.

However, I find when I include characters with flaws, especially amusing ones (ie. excessive drinker, nervous personality, gets worked up when teased ect.) the player are much more inclined to interact with them...and far more likely to remember them.

Nobot
2014-09-19, 10:52 AM
Generally I find flaws are the key to the party's heart.

The more wonderful you try to make your character, the higher the chance they will view him (either conciously or unconciously) as a DMPC here to railroad everything that they love.

However, I find when I include characters with flaws, especially amusing ones (ie. excessive drinker, nervous personality, gets worked up when teased ect.) the player are much more inclined to interact with them...and far more likely to remember them.

I second this!

A great example of a way too powerful NPC that the players end up hating: Gandalf in DM of the Rings (http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=665).

Aliquid
2014-09-19, 11:05 AM
I want my players to become attached to an NPC, but they are suspicious superstitious murderhobos. How do I have him gain they're trust and become a beloved character in their story?Create an enemy NPC that they will hate, but can’t touch (way too powerful, influential, and surrounded by guards etc)

Make your friendly NPC someone the players have a reason to interact with (merchant, healer, etc). Get the enemy to regularly pick on and openly mock your NPC and allow the players to witness this.

Seward
2014-09-19, 01:08 PM
Communicate with the PCs by mail and message only. D&D has plenty of spells to help with this, most other systems have similar (eg, mail, telephone for 20th century games, texting/etc for modern games)

Be helpful. Earn their respect

Seriously. Never, ever get in arm's reach until and unless the character has become actually liked and valued by the PCs.

Of course the time I did this, it was a bad guy who was making sure all his rivals got killed by the PC's first, by helpfully cluing them into their plans, defenses and similar.

He died well and I'm sure the chaotic evil afterlife rewarded him accordingly. But the principle works for good guys as well as frenemies.

Flashy
2014-09-19, 03:05 PM
Generally I find flaws are the key to the party's heart.

The more wonderful you try to make your character, the higher the chance they will view him (either conciously or unconciously) as a DMPC here to railroad everything that they love.

However, I find when I include characters with flaws, especially amusing ones (ie. excessive drinker, nervous personality, gets worked up when teased ect.) the player are much more inclined to interact with them...and far more likely to remember them.

Thirded. Flaws or quirks are definitely the way to go.

I think a big part of engaging a party with an NPC is also in the NPC's description. Make their appearance stand out, make it something the player characters want to know more about. An inn-keeper who's a whip thin old lady with a shrill voice, a terrible scar, and who never wears shoes. The all powerful wizard who turns out to be a doddering, well meaning old fool who's as kind as he is incompetent.

The other thing is that it's important to introduce a character as a character before you introduce any kind of power they have. If you introduce a character with their gameplay function you risk the players permanently reducing the character to "that one king with the money" or "the fighter-y guy" which is fine, on the whole, but is death to character likability.

Rainman3769
2014-09-19, 03:40 PM
Generally I find flaws are the key to the party's heart.

The more wonderful you try to make your character, the higher the chance they will view him (either conciously or unconciously) as a DMPC here to railroad everything that they love.

However, I find when I include characters with flaws, especially amusing ones (ie. excessive drinker, nervous personality, gets worked up when teased ect.) the player are much more inclined to interact with them...and far more likely to remember them.

Fourthed! Lol

Another tip: Something I have done in the past is introduce renamed/reskinned versions of beloved characters from Fantasy or Sci-Fi. For example, I had a wise cracking, ass kicking dwarf named Rimli, son of Roin as an NPC in one campaign of 4th edition. Another example was when I introduced the entire cast of Firefly/Serenity (renamed, some with new races and gave them all player classes, but their mannerisms were BLATANTLY obvious so my players knew who they were) and my players loved it. They were recurring NPCs in the whole campaign, and it really hit my players hard when circumstances led to their eventual demise at the hands of the BBEG.

Velaryon
2014-09-19, 06:21 PM
In the long term, the best way to get your players to trust characters that you want them to like is to not have them betray or manipulate the party. Metagame or not, if players know you are trying to set them up for betrayal or for the "we've been doing the BBEG's dirty work all along" plot, they will be less trusting of NPCs in the future.

For an individual character, I agree with giving them flaws (and not in the "get an extra feat" sense of the word). If the NPC has a clear and easily understood motivation that aligns with or at least plays well with your party's goals, that can help a lot too.

LokiRagnarok
2014-09-20, 02:11 AM
Fifthing(?) the quirk part.
I still remember the merchant whose caravan we had to escort for a Savage Worlds one-shot years ago.

He was a a grain merchant and would enthusiastically and with great aplomb tell you *everything* about the finer points of mill architecture, the weights of different models of millstones and so on.

TeChameleon
2014-09-20, 06:48 PM
Another trick is for the NPC to give a small, useful buff to the PCs- for example, maybe it's a cheerful child-bard with a habit of singing Inspire Courage or Inspire Competence (or both, depending on circumstance) when they're around the party. And for quirks, just have them do it like Elan does, except it actually works in your game :smalltongue:

LibraryOgre
2014-09-20, 07:33 PM
I'd second the "make him old and useful", but I would also add "give him a bit of badass". Not the kind that's going to overshadow them, but let them know that he's tough. Something like picking off a goblin with the heavy crossbow he then asks the players to reload.

The Glyphstone
2014-09-20, 08:30 PM
Comedy. Make him fun to keep around, but without any visible gain for killing him.

If he's painted as a badass, they'll assume a big XP payout for defeating him. If he's rich, they'll see him as a loot sack. If he's powerful, they'll assume one of the above, or that he's a disposable quest-giver valuable only for the rewards he dispenses. But if they think he's funny, they'll want him to stay.

Elana
2014-09-21, 12:40 AM
Strangely enough something as simple as a name might be enough.

The brain of Players works in mysterious ways.
But a character with an unusual name, that they can still recognize has a good chance to be liked.

(In one of my old campaigns the dice came up with a dwarf barkeep called "Falco". He was completely unimportant, I had no more description than that. But my players loved him
(By the way I do not recommend using name of pop stars, most of the time that will just feel forced in and that would result in unwanted backlash))

FabulousFizban
2014-09-21, 02:49 AM
The all powerful wizard who turns out to be a doddering, well meaning old fool who's as kind as he is incompetent.

The fabulous Fizban approves of this ;D

The Glyphstone
2014-09-21, 08:39 AM
The fabulous Fizban approves of this ;D

As long as he's not, you know, a god in disguise. That never goes over well.:smallbiggrin:

Segev
2014-09-22, 11:59 PM
The "give some buffs" thing is probably the best way. Have the character be in at least mild awe of the party, be somewhere between a help and in need of help, and give buffs to the party based on his or her adoration. There was a full frontal nerdity comic where Lewis was tricked into caring about an NPC girlfriend for his character by the fact that she gave him secret bonuses for maintaining the relationship. With murderhobo PCs, that kind of mechanical feedback can shape their liking of the person.

But try to keep the character friendly and in need of the party without being frustratingly "always in trouble" and without them getting the party into MORE trouble.

Knaight
2014-09-23, 12:23 AM
Quirks help a lot. Just giving them a bit more description than other characters get clues the players in to their importance, then having them generally be helpful can at least reduce the chance of them being perceived as a threat. It also helps to not have a history of everyone who looks like an ally turning out to be a turncoat; if you don't have that you're probably hosed.

Braininthejar2
2014-09-23, 05:26 PM
Give them a couple ranks in craft: moonshining. With the parties who spend their time murdering and drinking being the one who always brings the booze can get him a couple browny points.