Most larping systems have some sort of means or method of making NPC’s that your character is connected to. Whether it’s the King’s Steward or the Chief of Police. Unless your GM tells you otherwise, you ought to take it upon yourself to create the NPC’s yourself. After all, your GM likely has a lot of stuff to do. And in truth, this is an opportunity to personalize the game a bit especially as it relates to you. I am astounded and amazed at players who aren’t interested in doing this for themselves and yet are willing to grind for 10 hours in order to unlock the ability to customize the color of their avatars pants.
Here are some tips for making this work for you:
1) Don’t shave your head
To many players the idea of making a character that your character cares about, is like handing the GM a ready made hostage and is to be strenuously avoided.( WHAT? They’ve kidnapped my favorite second cousin? This Time it’s personal!”) Many players avoid having romantic entanglements and family members like the plague. As if they were shaving their head in order to avoid having something the enemy could grab in close combat. THIS IS WRONG.
I’ll tell you how I know. I went the other direction.
I made a character some time ago for a game who had living parents, and 8 siblings not to mention countless aunts, uncles, cousins and so on. and he was superfun to play. Mainly because I imagined they were the sort of family that was always having some kind of drama or another. As a result, I was never at a loss for things to talk about. Also, I made it fairly clear that by speaking of my family, in the presence of other vampires that I was extending a measure of trust to them. Trust that they should understand that if they harmed so much as a hair on my families heads, That I would burn down every square inch of town to get them. It’s true that I did have to point this out to a few vampires specifically, But it made for interesting play. Having a family also meant I had responsibilities that fell outside the realms of ordinary play. Like occasionally, I’d have to go bail my dumb-ass brother out of jail (“What? Slow down! What do you mean Trafficking? How much were you holding when they popped you, dumbass? Sorry, Prince, I have to go take care of this.”)
Sure, in some types of games having actual family members can be problematical. But in some others it can be a positive boon. And might even give you an opportunity to hand off an NPC to a friend who might be interested in trying out the game. (“You know, whenever a see someone about to go into a frenzy in the middle of vampire court, I think back to the christmas eve when my little sister came out to my parents. Dude. It was like lightning struck the fucking house. And then a great wave of calm washes over me, knowing this ain’t going to be THAT bad.”)
Your allies are not a sonic screwdriver:
Sure, you want allies and retainers who are useful. After all, you can know scores of people who AREN’T useful and offer you no advantage whatsoever. But it is considered poor form to try to make your allies capable of solving every problem. Narrow is considered more authentic to actual human existence. After all it’s fairly unlikely that your friendly is going to be an expert apothecary, scribe to the local court and an accomplished werewolf hunter. It’s far more likely you know three people that specialize. And there are going to be things in their bailiwick that they actually can’t do. So get used to that idea.
And if you want them be a bit less narrow and more useful there’s nothing wrong with spending some points to buff them out some or use your own abilities to help them succeed in their own wheelhouse. gratitude can be useful.
Cops got better things to do than get killed:
If your allies/retainers/whatever are combat capable, it’s usually foolish to have them go around to attack the bad guys. That’s YOUR job. however, they are likely to be useful for combat related activities. Like defending your HQ, I have used an ally with a sniper rifle to good effect in the past. But anything going on in the killbox is really up to you.
Architectural Gingerbread:
There is exactly nothing wrong with handing a GM an NPC that is actually fun to play. Your PC is of course the main character in his own personal story but there’s nothing that says your NPC’s have to be dull and boring. Make them fun and interesting. give them goals and agendas that your PC can help them with. Heck, you make the NPC interesting enough someone might end up wanting to play it full time. I’ve seen it happen.
3x5:
Put the information about your NPC on a three by five index card. His stats and weapons and stuff like that at the top. Put any history or portrayal note in bullet point form so it is quickly and easily consumed. When you go see a GM about talking to the NPC. hand them the card which ought to tell them enough for them to improvise.
If you are a GM you might consider giving the players a 3x5 with their NPC on it, if you’re running a con game and a number of uses you can put them to before they’re exhausted. Like make tabs on the card itself that can be torn when you’ve used the NPC up
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