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Topic: DMPCs/Henchmen/Companions in a DMed game... (Read 90 times) |
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Burrie
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Last On: 08/22/10
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Hey,
As a campaign that I've been running for a looooong time is slowly drawing towards a close, the party has, as of late, been growing in ways that I hadn't completely forseen. Usually, the players would act upon information that they received from NPCs and then take care of a situation by themselves, but as of late, they've been using their influence to take a more active role in actually leading characters... allow me to elaborate...
Well, I suppose it actually started a few sessions back. The players searched through a small house that was basically a red herring. Because I didn't want them to leave with empty hands, I had them find a small abandoned puppy there whom was adopted by one of the players. I had built a small script that would allow the player to call him and tell him to follow him at a certain distance, so I didn't have to micromanage him.
First off, they were chasing a small army whom are carrying an artifact that they are after. For a bit of exposition, I had them come across a small band of adventurers and the Knight of a millitary unit of a country whom they had helped before. To make a long story short, not only did they gain all the information I wanted them to have, they got an army with it.
This was definately an unanticipated, but welcome change for me. Truth be told, ever since a war broke out in the campaign world, I had hoped that the group would lead small units. In fact, I hope to actually have them control a large-scale battle, using brownies as set-pieces for large units.
Anyways, they took their new responsibilities well. I had a lieutenant officer to whom they would relay their orders(ie. set up camp, scout this area, brush my feet) which worked out nicely. However, because I'm a single DM, it was a chore to often have officers and soldiers follow the players, and I would sometimes even forget it, leading to soldiers suddenly running up to the players after staring at the wall for some time.
However, this is not all. A certain character that had already played a minor role before recently actually joined the party at the request of one of the PCs, basically becoming a DMPC in the process. Again, I did encounter the same problem that I had before, namely forgetting that she was sometimes there. I did manage to somewhat recover from this as of late, as I added a small feature to my personal DM wand that allows me to easily control her from a distance without needing to control her.
Now, I'd like to ask if you folks have any experience with these situations(both as a player or DM), and how you handle them. I'm generally used that the party would handle certain situations on their own after conversing with NPCs, and for the record, my players have been more than accomodating for me. I mean, it's not as if they were ordering their soldiers around to clear a dungeon, they generally did all that themselves, and fought alongside them to clear a base of operations from the enemy.
Me, I've used the following methods to elevate my burden somewhat...
- Old-fashioned way, using a DM Widget to have them auto-follow a player or moving them via click, shift-click(which often led to them accidently attacking each other).
- Allowing the players to tell a NPC to follow them by simply initiating a conversation with them and telling them to follow them at a certain distance.
- Creating a widget that I have to point at a NPC that makes them follow the nearest PC. Removed the hassle of having to spawn a Autofollow widget on a creature, taking control of them and then use the widget to follow a PC.
So... to the DMs/players out there, how do you take care of the more permanent additions to the party?
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Gulfwulf
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Personally, I would setup those NPCs as henchmen and let the players control them themselves as they would any other henchmen. The only downside is, is that I don't think you can DM possess henchmen.
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Lazybones
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Last On: 12/31/11
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I have used both methods.
I have a simple conversation script that allows a PC to have an NPC follow at varying distances, "stand their ground" and keep an eye out, or change from ranged to melee weapons and vice-versa. I have used this to allow players to control minor guards, etc. without me having to micromanage.
I also use henchman scripts (without the default henchman OnDeath, I don't like them being invincible) for NPCs that are going to be with the group for a while but don't have strong individual personalities or plot roles. Examples would be elite soldiers, battle droids or astromechs (for my SW campaign), and the like.
The main limit is the NWN engine. I find that even one henchman per player tends to lag up the server if you're facing an enemy force of roughly equal size. So I tend to mainly use henchmen and allies in situations where I can control the number of total creatures on the screen at one time.
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Etarnon
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Last On: 03/16/11
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I've had good luck with totally rewriting the torchboys and lackeys scripts from the vault.
This series of scripts allows simple commands by a player to attack, follow, defend, etc. like a very limited henchman.
Thus you can hire gear carriers, kids to carry torches, etc, for cost.
I also changed it so that you can have a paladin go to a temple of his faith, and if there are any "Squires" available, they go out with the PC paladin on missions of the faith at no charge.
Player characters can also hire complete bands of 4+ mercenaries.
Since then, I've seen solo players gear up, and stroll out with a party size of 6, or a full party gear up and stroll out with a small army.
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deathchild
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I like the HCR associates scripts. I used them on several occasions to play single-player with multiple henchman and had great success.
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| « Last Edit: on: May 9, 2007, 9:41PM » |
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