Atgxtg Posted February 22, 2013 Share Posted February 22, 2013 how do you feature an NPC that cannot be killed or harmed in a game without unbalancing it completely? Having him give out a quest/mission seems like a plan, but are there any other ways? There are a few ways to handle this. It depends a bit on what the GM wants and also how much he is willing to force things or how willing he is to risk departing for the established storyline. I had to deal with that a lot in games like Star Wars and Pendragon. Especially Pendragon, as it is probably has the most heavily scripted timeline for the major NPCs out of anything. Obviously, it would be very bad news for a campaign if Arthur got killed at an early age, by a PC. and never lived long enough to get married, establish the knights of the round table, or any of that. The way Pendragon handles it to to strongly suggest than the GM not allow such a situation from arising in the first place. After all the GM has a lot on control over the coruse of events in a campaign. Or, if it somehow does, try to come up with a way to work around it. Somebody could step in and stop the PC from killing young Arthur (perfect intervention for Merlin- it's what he did to keep King Pellinore from offing young Arthur). The dead body could turn out not to be Arthur. Lots of possibilities. In my own Pendragon campaign I had to resort to something like that once. Some of the PCs had befriend Mordred when he was young and still a good guy. Years later the same PCs screwed up and were in trouble with Arthur, and Mordred was adventuring with them to show his support. During a rather epic fight, where the Pcs stormed a castle, Mordred took a really nasty critical hit. The type that, with open rolls, is hard to fudge. He was pretty much doomed. Yet I still needed him for the campaign. Luckily for me, the time was right for the Holy Grail to start making some miraculous appearances. I was looking for a way to bring it in to foreshadow the upcoming GrailQuest , and the Grail would also solve another problem, namely that all the PCs except one were all badly wounded in the fight and probably wouldn't survive. I had the Grail appear, heal everybody fully, save Mordred, who at least started to breath again, and avoided a nasty complication. It worked, too. I wouldn't do something liek that on a regular basis, but it worked great as a one off. Quote Chaos stalks my world, but she's a big girl and can take of herself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Posted February 22, 2013 Author Share Posted February 22, 2013 ATG, seriously? He charged into a fight without drawing his sword? I can only imagine just how badly that went. You don't bring a fist to a sword fight. Unless you're a monk. Some good ideas, I think I got a handle on this now, thanks people. Also, ATG, you mentiioned anthropomorphised animals? Like the kitsune, etc? Quote Money can't buy happiness. But it can buy marshmallows, which is kind of the same thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atgxtg Posted February 22, 2013 Share Posted February 22, 2013 ATG, seriously? He charged into a fight without drawing his sword? I can only imagine just how badly that went. You don't bring a fist to a sword fight. Unless you're a monk. [/qouote] LOL! He previous character was a monk. You see in L5R there are verious schools that characters can go to> Fencing schools for bushi (warriors) and magical schools for shugenga (spellcasters) and so on. When we first started playing L5R the player wrote up a memeber of the Dragon clan, but instead of going to one of his own clan's fencing schools he had gone to one of the Crane schools, which specialized in Iaijutsu (rthat's a sort of fast draw from the scabbard, combined with a strike). THe player's first character was good enough that he could pretty much enter a fight with a sheathed blade and still get off the first strike against mooks. Then he played a Ise Zumi (tatooed monk) and had different abilities. When we got to the new campaign everybody pretty much decided to play members of the Dragon clan, and he wrote up another samurai, only this one went to the Mirumoto school, which focused on Ni-Ten (two swords). While he still knew Iaijutsu (fast draw) he wasn't nearly as good at it with his new character. So the first fight he got into he kinda forgot what his character could do, slipped back into the tactics of his former character and got cut down while trying to draw his swords. I had some sympathy for him. I think we've all slipped into the wrong character at one time or another, especially when we've played the same PC for a long time and then swtich to a new character. But then he did it again. And again. And Again. By the third time,. I was losing sympathy for him. By the sixth time the other players were getting sick of it. By the ninth time or so, I forced him into rolling up another guy from the crane school just to keep my sanity. It's incredibly frustrating as a GM to sit back and watch a guy make the same dumb mistake week after week. We'd go around the table and everybody would draw weapons and get ready for the fight and I'd ask him and he's go nope, and try to do an iai strike, fail the roll, and spend two turns drawing his swords while the bad guys took free hacks at him. Then, when he got cut down, he's look at me like I was Stalin or something. SO I'm an ogre because he's too $%&*$@ stupid to draw his sword before the fight starts...EVER! I eventually pulled the plug on the campaign because of it. Nope. Usagi Yojimbo is based on an excellent comic by Stan Sakai. When Stan started the strip he decided to use animals as the characters. "Usagi" is the Japanese word for rabbit, and the main character of the strip, Usagi, actually is a rabbit. He stands upright and dresses and acts like a samurai, but he is a rabbit. All the other characters are animals as well. Thew comic is not cute & funny, but simply uses animals in place of humans. When the comic needs to use an actual animal (like for a mount or pet), a lizard is used. But is is an excellent comic and one of the best for the genre. Perhaps a bit too westernized/americanized, but that makes sense considering it's made and sold in the U.S. for U.S. readers. If you like Kurosawa films, you'll like Usagi Yojimbo. Or, if you've never seen a Kurosawa film, if you like Clint Eastwood "spaghetti westerns" then you like Kurosawa films and don't know it yet, and you'll like Usagi. Quote Chaos stalks my world, but she's a big girl and can take of herself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seneschal Posted February 22, 2013 Share Posted February 22, 2013 (edited) Usagi Yojimbo is particularly appropriate for this thread, since it is based on traditional Japanese folktales. Although the primary characters are regular animals, er, people -- soldiers, farmers, nobles, mercenaries, bandits -- supernatural entities pop up all the time: fox spirits, ogres, bridge-haunting trolls, immortal warriors trying to make themselves gods. Another manga inspiration might be Monkey King, based on the ancient Chinese novel Journey Into the West. In contrast to Usagi Yojimbo, nearly everyone here is a supernatural entity. The Handsome Monkey King, the title character, is sort of the Bugs Bunny of Buddhist mythology. To atone for his many crimes, he must accompany a holy man into The West (India) to retrieve ancient Buddhist writings. Think Looney Toons antics with high-end DC/Marvel Comics level powers and you get the general picture. Edited February 22, 2013 by seneschal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Posted February 22, 2013 Author Share Posted February 22, 2013 If at first, you don't succeed, try, try again. But if you **** it up nine times in a row, give it a rest. Who can forget that old adage, eh? Sounds like an interesting comic, by the way Quote Money can't buy happiness. But it can buy marshmallows, which is kind of the same thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atgxtg Posted February 23, 2013 Share Posted February 23, 2013 If at first, you don't succeed, try, try again. But if you **** it up nine times in a row, give it a rest. It was incredible frustrating to run. THere is onhly so much a GM can do to "dumb down" a campaign for players. But there aren't many opponents who won't kill a PC if said PC can't manage to get his weapon out of the sheath. It was like watching BArney Fife try to draw his service revolver, load his one bullet. Every week the guy would try to quick draw, , flub it, get killed while fumbling with his swords, and then give me a dirty look as if I had put crazy glue on his swords. At one point the whole table would say, "Bob draw your @#$%^&* swords!" whenever a fight started. And still... I haven't ran or played L5R since then. Who can forget that old adage, eh?]/quote] Me. What old adage? It's very good. They collect several issue and print them as graphic novels from time to time. If you are thinking of running or playing a Samurai RPG, it's a must read. Not only does it help with the setting and culture, but it also is a goldmine for story ideas, and for the "look" of the setting. Even if you never want to play a Samurai RPG, it's a good read. Quote Chaos stalks my world, but she's a big girl and can take of herself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Posted February 27, 2013 Author Share Posted February 27, 2013 Poor Bob. Even the players are fed up, hmm? Personally, I'd have stopped at attempt 5. By the way, my new game works well. It's fun, the players are utterly insane and I can stay on them. Though if I can stay on pacewith insane players, does that say more of their madness or mine? I'm scared Quote Money can't buy happiness. But it can buy marshmallows, which is kind of the same thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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