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#1 zombiegleemax Jul 21, 2005 18:52:53

Ever have this happen to you as a DM? "I am the evil Exodur! Slayer of five kings! Ruler of the undead! Arch-wizard of…" PC: "Yeah, yeah, we've heard it all before; I cast my quickened fireball while he's giving his speech. Let's get it over with; I want to get to bed at a reasonable hour tonight." "But I didn't even get to finish my speech. How do you know he wasn't going to say something important in regards to your mission?" PC: "Do they ever?" The one dimensional evil doer gets old after a while. I don't care to remember how many times I've simply encountered the "bad guy of the week" in any role playing game I play. This problem can even extend to the main antagonist for an entire campaign. The NPCs I remember most are the ones I defeat through cunning, a two to five round battle leaves me with very little satisfaction; and I'm likely to forget it, unless something funny or incredible happened. Even those events usually happen through chance alone. A little careful planning on the DM's part can go a long way, when it comes to making memorable NPC's. Don't just make a big bad guy; make a big bad guy and his Lieutenants. Don't just make the Lieutenants mindless cookie cutter monsters like your typical Orc Horde from the Monsters Manual; give them names and personalities. For example: Grakh - The orc chieftain, he's ruthless and shows no mercy for anyone. He has two lieutenants and his daughter that help him manage the tribe. Thokk- Grakh's brother and personal body guard. Thokk would take any opportunity he could find to crush his older brother and take control of the tribe if not for the goblins within their camp that hold a fierce loyalty to Grakh. Sizzer - Named for his scorpion familiar Sizzer is the spiritual guidance of the tribe. He is an adept who claims he speaks the word of Gruumsh and will lead the tribe to glorious victory over all that oppose it. He hates Thokk because he thinks he is a mean bully, and he has plans to bring Thokk down someday, so he will be the second in command of the tribe. Ownka - Grakh's daughter, she is in love with a half-orc within the tribe named Imsh. She knows that if her father ever found out he would kill them both. Imsh - One of the few half-orcs within the tribe but a strong warrior none the less. The other half-orcs within the tribe look up to him and many of them would gladly fight by his side should Grakh ever find out about his love affair with Ownka. Now we have 4 NPC's to work with, this leads to the next bit of planning. How do you get this information out to the PC's? Unless they infiltrate the camp disguised as orcs some how, they will likely not be able to just walk around the tribal village or camp to see what others think about their leader and his followers. This is a fine opportunity to bring out gather information, diplomacy, and other such charisma based skills. There are many ways the PC's can utilize these skills to gather clues, for example: Maybe a prisoner who escaped from the orcs is recovering from his wounds that he received during the ordeal. If the party finds out about him through gather information checks and offer to use their resources to heal him then he will give observations that he made during his time in the orc's presence. A stealthy character or a diviner could simply observe the orcs from up close with their abilities. This would allow them to eavesdrop in on conversations that members of the tribe are having. These are just some of the ways they can find out what is going on and how to use the different rivalries to their advantage when they finally take on their enemies. Other factors to take into account are the NPC's willingness to work with the PCs. The diplomacy skill can really help the PCs in this situation. They could go as far as to simply offer one side of the conflict aid in disposing of the other, maybe even just a material reward like gold or an item the NPC would hold in high value. A more sinister party might even hold Ownka hostage to intimidate Imsh and his half-orc brethren to help take down Grakh. The DM has to decide what will truly affect the NPC's decision making. Another useful and often overlooked skill for these kind of encounters is sense-motive. Just because Thokk wants to kill his brother doesn't mean he necessarily will cooperate with the PCs to do so. Perhaps he has too much honor in his orcish heritage to receive help from these people, or perhaps there is a particular member of the party (maybe a dwarf) whom he just hates because of their race. Thokk might pretend that he will go along with the PC's to lead them into some sort of insidious trap where the entire tribe is ready to pounce on them when the arrive to confront Grakh, having expected Thokk's aid. Customize your NPCs to make the encounter more challenging. Thokk is obviously more than your average orc for Grakh to have made him so high a ranking member of the tribe. If he weren't, some other member would have already taken him down and stolen his position. Maybe, the key to Thokk's being able to keep his brother from being suspicious is the fact that he has ranks in Bluff. Because of this, Thokk can easily convince his prideful brother that he is indeed the most powerful member of the tribe and has nothing to worry about. This all could quickly change if Grakh has rested on his laurels too long and become lazy or sloppy in regard to keeping himself safe and protected. We've come up with ways to use Imsh, Ownka, and Thokk to the PC's advantage. But that still leaves Sizzer? Does your party have a particularly talented trickster? A bard, or even a cleric would do well in this case. Just something that can somehow trick Sizzer into believing his own story about being the voice of Gruumsh. They could manipulate him into making some sort of mistake that throws the tribe off kilter, or even prematurely going after Thokk, before he gains the full support of Grakh thereby causing a fight between the goblins and the orcs, while the party swoops in during the chaos to defeat the now weakened victor. These sorts of encounters can add a new level of play to your campaign that will satisfy your players, if they feel that role play is lacking in your game. Don't forget the importance of throwing in a bit of combat for the players who just like to chuck dice and kill monsters! Be careful not to take the focus too far away from the PCs. There is a fine line between you being the player and them being the players.