Friends
This week’s Game WISH asks whether characters in my games have, well, friends. Buddies. Pals. Outside the party itself, that is. NPCs who come back every once in a while to say hi.
Well, sheesh, yeah. Some more than others, but yeah. Otherwise, with what or whom are my characters supposed to interact? Inanimate objects plus a neverending string of faceless enemies, barkeeps, and gate guards? Sounds about as much fun as wandering a strange city blindfolded.
In some settings, recurring friends make more sense than in others. And they make more sense for some characters than others. Passions of the Tide centers around House Amyriand, which is a very closed circle, though indications are it won’t always be so (that dratted wedding is still on, so we bid fair to have to integrate ourselves into court society). And Tamasi for sundry excellent reasons tends to keep to herself. So thus far, her best friend is Isleen, another party member, and that’s perfectly fine. Things may change when Pirion and Ireth enter Tamasi’s life; we’ll see.
But Tamasi is a little strange, as my characters go. (Okay, all right, she’s strange, end of story. Stick with me here.) Generally, I actively seek out friends and allies among NPCs, and I get unhappy when GMs don’t feed my character’s social connectivity, treating their NPCs as mere information conduits. A central part of world-inhabiting just disappears when GMs do that.
I’m quite gleeful at the moment about how Renate in Dragonhunt is picking up friends. She started out with a family—a real, present, involved family, not the family-in-distant-parts that most characters have if they have any family at all—and they matter to her a great deal. In her first mini-adventure, she met a brash but kind competitive chef, and developed an interest in a pseudonymous swordsman.
(She was pseudonymous herself at the time, so she’s not about to hold his pseudonym against him. Even if it is “Coris Nightblade,” which is pretty awful. Though no worse than her own “Emilia Eaglebourne.”)
But Renate’s chief friend—and this answers the second half of the question, about henchlings and hirelings—is Godfrey Cuyler, her Jeeves-like personal servant. If you read this chat transcript, you get a fair sense of where their relationship is going. (You also find out what happened in Renate’s fight with the dragonlord, and you get a few good Wodehouse allusions, as both the GM and I are huge Wodehouse fans. For more such allusions, see actual game transcripts.)
I’m just tickled pink about it, because one of my favorite relationships to play out is mentor-student. Oh, and by “mentor” I ever so do not mean NPCs who come out of nowhere merely to mouth vague prophecies or instructions and disappear again. I mean a respected, trusted associate of some standing, with knowledge and wisdom surpassing my character’s but lacking omniscience, who cares enough about my character to teach and guide her. Godfrey is all of that.
And does Renate ever need a mentor! Goodness, she’s dreadfully young and green. The more I read her, the sixteener she sounds to me.
The GM pointed out to me today that his friendly NPCs exist to add depth to the gameworld, not to cause mechanics headaches. His solution to mechanics headaches is not to overuse combat-ready henchlings. To me, that makes eminent sense. I’m not munchkin enough to want a henchling or henchcreature just for the added power; taking them out of combat altogether means a better relationship for me and easier number-crunching for the GM. Win-win.
By the way, Dragonhunt may have room for another player or two. If you think you’d like to play one of Renate’s friends, look over the game site and send me or Alan email.
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