NPCs: Authority figures
Chances are good that, in most games, the players will start with characters on the low end of the social hierarchy. They’re not typically kings and queens or generals and gods, giving orders to the people around them. The dramatic arc is rising from obscurity to heroics.
So for most of the game, the characters are going to be the ones taking orders. But if you simply boss them around, it can end up being just an in-game Storyteller Hammer. The players need to be able to make their own choices. If they’re in a position where an NPC is giving them orders, try to allow the players a lot of leeway on how to carry out those orders. The PCs are the heroes: above-average people with special skills or powers. Authority figures should recognize that in the characters, even if their relationship isn’t a friendly one. Those NPCs can make sure to give the characters the opportunity to use their abilities.
Friendly authority figures may phrase orders as requests, be lenient with mistakes or provide ample assistance and support. That’s easy. But when you have an antagonistic authority figure, be careful to make sure that they come off as an autocrat, not an asshole. They may be an antagonist, but you don’t want to make your players hate every scene with them and question every order they receive.
In one game, the powerful supernatural ruler of the city and his cronies were in a stand-off against the PCs and their allies. In order to avoid a lot of collateral damage, the allied NPCs pushed for a truce. But one of the player characters just could not stop making wise-ass remarks. He was threatened and he kept joking. The villain tried to use his powers to shut him up, but the character succeeded the roll to resist the ability. So my villain strides across the room and physically tears the PC’s arm off. The character — already beginning to regenerate the lost arm under his own power — continues to wisecrack. My overreaction utterly failed to project an air of authority and succeeded only in making the villain come across as a petty jackass. Punishing characters doesn’t often gain your NPC much respect.
Most of my authority figures tend toward antagonistic. If the authority is friendly to the PCs, it removes much of the challenge. It’s hard to be the underdog when the king listens to every suggestion and the general places her battle fleet at your disposal. The story is about the player characters, so it’s their struggles and victories that earn them the respect of those in authority and gain their help at the crucial moment.
The content of this post originally appeared in My Guide to RPG Storytelling.
