53. Confessions of My Own Ignorance – NPC Edition

A week or so ago, +William Nichols posted the following question: “What is necessary and appropriate to hack apocalypse world into a game wherein the characters are friends, and go on adventures together?” +Vincent Baker responded with: “1. Shared xp. 2. Collaboration moves, not seduce & manipulate and help or interfere. 3. GM prep that doesn't create pc-npc-pc triangles.”

That last one, number 3, didn’t sit right with me. PC-NPC-PC triangles are the best! Why would you ever NOT make those?!

I let that rattle around in my brain for the past couple of days. What do PC-NPC relationships look like in different stories? That’s not a question I had ever asked myself before. It never occurred to me that they might look different in different stories or that that difference could be important information to translate into RPGs.

But of course they do look different and that difference is important. Deadwood, Game of Thrones, The Shield, The Sopranos - these are the type of shows where the PCs and NPCs have triangulated relationships. We see scenes with all kinds of character-pairings that demonstrate to us all the facets of these characters. The different relationships are central to the drama and plot of these stories. But then there are shows like The X-Files and Star Trek. In those, the minor characters (which I am equating with NPCs) act pretty much the same no matter who they are with. Similarly, we don’t often get odd pairings of the major and minor characters in revealing scenes. The nature of those characters are set and displayed in ways other than through interactions with other characters.

You can certainly play a Star Trek-like game with PC-NPC-PC triangles, but the flavor and feel will differ noticeably from the source material. That aspect of RPGs is not something I had ever considered. I’ve known of course that NPCs are always a valuable tool for the GM, but that they are differently shaped tools with different narrative purposes in different games – that is something I foolishly overlooked.