In another thread someone had stated they saw the NPCs of Matt Mercer on Critical Role as being shallow and void of motivation.
Now I thought about disagreeing by discussing the NPCs specifically but then figured, maybe we just share some of our own and see what comes up.
So to start here is a fairly bare bones outline of the central antagonist in my Eberron game (which is set about five years before Airships first appear and while the war is still going.)
Kerris wasn't born an Artificer or a member of the Karnathi nobility.
Raised by magewright father who falsely claimed to be of House Cannith.
Watched father be killed by Cannith enforcers and taken in by a Karnathi Noble as a stableboy.
There showed a talent for Artificer, creating various small items that assisted on the lands and slowly earning greater trust until he was sent to get a proper education at the Capital of the country.
Has risen to be respected as one of Karnath's generals and diplomats, having served on the lines against Aundair. He was relocated to the southern border as Cyran forces pressed northward and claimed resources on Karnathi soil for the Cannith production lines.
Fast forward to game where the players are part of the Cyran populace and/or military and they find themselves facing incredibly well trained and equipped Karnathi Skeletons who are raiding multiple military outposts. Whereever the forces seem on the verge of overrun a warmage appears, ripping the earth beneath the feet of the Cyran defenders shielding the retreat of the undead.
Finally, word comes that the city of Swoz had fallen and was now flying the banners of the north.
Obviously a barebones run down. But I'd ask for thoughts, places where it seems lacking in motivation or has gaps. With this light a description I'm sure there's many.
But I'd encourage folks to pick at this NPC and share their own. Should be a good exercise in building antagonists and sharing with each other.
Not a D&D NPC, but one from my current d6 Star Wars pick up game. For background this NPC started as a barroom F&*K the tramp freighter captain picked up and things evolved from there.
Deimos Xyxslavan presents himself as a "space" pirate. At 47 years old, his black hair and beard are streaked with grey, he keeps both closely cropped. His kit includes a full carapace armored breastplate and weaponized gauntlets. He seems to favor greys and blacks in his clothing choices with some item of blue for variety. His eyepatch conceals his missing eye due an old injury which has resisted cybernetic replacements.
Deimos actually is a pirate currently, and is the leader of a small fleet of ships operating out of the Malvorna System. He rules his group with a cold ruthlessness, allowing no quarter or less than stellar performance go unmentioned. Survival of fleet depends on discipline. When off duty, he smiles like a cat that caught a mouse when interacting with the PCs. He is played like he knows more and plans further ahead than they do.
He freely admits to being a former Guild Skatoris bounty hunter and doing some independent work after he left the Guild due to political considerations. All of this is true, but he doesn’t speak openly about his life prior to the Guild. In effect Deimos Xyxslavan did not exist before becoming a member of that illustrious Guild. The man who would become Deimos was a broken being edging towards tasting a blaster barrel.
Why? Because he is a former Mandalorian warrior. In the course of a mercenary action, he was defeated by an opposing warrior. That warrior in an ultimate insult took his helmet and left him for dead. But, the former Mandalorian was cursed with continued life. He drug his wounded body over to the corpse of one of his unit and found a medpac. Though his soul was crushed as his identity, his literal personhood was stolen, his will to live prevented him from simply succumbing to his wounds.
His life was not easy for the next years, he suffered deep depression unable to return the life he lived. To the Mandolorians he was dead, and they did not treat revenants lightly. Somehow, he ended up in the company of a Skatoris bounty hunter. He won’t go into the details, but those in the know suggest he was hired for a bottle of “jet fuel” and a couple of rations to help flush out a target for the hunter. Apparently his performance was exceptional because he not only left the planet on the hunter’s starship but scored a prestigious sponsorship a few months later.
His independent work included a year in which he tried to deal with the core of his rage and despair by hunting down and killing his former kinsmen. He is confirmed to have killed at least seven competent Mandolorians and he has a bowl in his quarters where he holds tokens of their honor insignias. Even though he gave up the hunt against them, he watches for the retribution he is certain will come for his actions against the clans.
He is currently going very attached to the freighter captain mentioned earlier because part of her backstory is that she was the sole survivor of an accident that killed her Mandolorian family. She was found in the wreckage by a scavenging rag tag caravan of people called Travellers and raised as one of them. She was informed of her heritage by Deimos when he recognized the symbol she wore on a pendant as that of a fierce warrior named Jakub Jorvan. Seeing in her a connection to a people he is denied, he acts in small but manipulative ways to keep her in his orbit by telling her just enough to keep her interested but not enough of the truth of her ancestry that she can leave him behind.
BTW: I started this NPC before the current Mandolorian show aired, and his culture was purely speculative. It is funny how much of Mando culture on the show mirrors what I had in the game already.
A villain that I particularly enjoyed from a couple games ago was Monsieur Fontaine; he was a diplomat for the nation of Gaul (explicitly based on pre-Revolutionary France). As a diplomat, he was smooth-talking, intelligent, and patient. He wasn't a "bad guy," per se - he was simply loyal to his country, and if lies and manipulation were the most effective way to serve his country's interests, that's what he would use. Such a shame that his country wanted to invade the PCs' country, and it was his job to manufacture a sufficient pretext to justify it!
I didn't bother fleshing out a whole life history for M. Fontaine because that wasn't relevant to the campaign; however, he had a singular fascination with (one might say fetish for) dragonborn, and so when he met the dragonborn fighter PC, named Cagrio, he couldn't help but court him, even though the party was working to foil his plot to create a political scandal that would justify Gaul invading the kingdom. (Though they didn't know that he was the one ultimately behind the plot.)
Cagrio was quite receptive to the handsome ambassador's advances and unwittingly gave away valuable information to M. Fontaine that helped him advance his plot. Finally, M. Fontaine attempted to magically charm Cagrio and compel him to stop the rest of the party from foiling his plot; even though he was genuinely fond of Cagrio, loyalty to his country came first. Unfortunately for him, Cagrio resisted the charm and realized he was the mastermind behind the plot that the party was unraveling. Though heartbroken to have been so deceived, he revealed the truth to the rest of the party, and they managed to take M. Fontaine down.
Good morning, all. :-)
In another thread someone had stated they saw the NPCs of Matt Mercer on Critical Role as being shallow and void of motivation.
Now I thought about disagreeing by discussing the NPCs specifically but then figured, maybe we just share some of our own and see what comes up.
So to start here is a fairly bare bones outline of the central antagonist in my Eberron game (which is set about five years before Airships first appear and while the war is still going.)
Kerris wasn't born an Artificer or a member of the Karnathi nobility.
Raised by magewright father who falsely claimed to be of House Cannith.
Watched father be killed by Cannith enforcers and taken in by a Karnathi Noble as a stableboy.
There showed a talent for Artificer, creating various small items that assisted on the lands and slowly earning greater trust until he was sent to get a proper education at the Capital of the country.
Has risen to be respected as one of Karnath's generals and diplomats, having served on the lines against Aundair. He was relocated to the southern border as Cyran forces pressed northward and claimed resources on Karnathi soil for the Cannith production lines.
Fast forward to game where the players are part of the Cyran populace and/or military and they find themselves facing incredibly well trained and equipped Karnathi Skeletons who are raiding multiple military outposts. Whereever the forces seem on the verge of overrun a warmage appears, ripping the earth beneath the feet of the Cyran defenders shielding the retreat of the undead.
Finally, word comes that the city of Swoz had fallen and was now flying the banners of the north.
Obviously a barebones run down. But I'd ask for thoughts, places where it seems lacking in motivation or has gaps. With this light a description I'm sure there's many.
But I'd encourage folks to pick at this NPC and share their own. Should be a good exercise in building antagonists and sharing with each other.
Not a D&D NPC, but one from my current d6 Star Wars pick up game. For background this NPC started as a barroom F&*K the tramp freighter captain picked up and things evolved from there.
Deimos Xyxslavan presents himself as a "space" pirate. At 47 years old, his black hair and beard are streaked with grey, he keeps both closely cropped. His kit includes a full carapace armored breastplate and weaponized gauntlets. He seems to favor greys and blacks in his clothing choices with some item of blue for variety. His eyepatch conceals his missing eye due an old injury which has resisted cybernetic replacements.
Deimos actually is a pirate currently, and is the leader of a small fleet of ships operating out of the Malvorna System. He rules his group with a cold ruthlessness, allowing no quarter or less than stellar performance go unmentioned. Survival of fleet depends on discipline. When off duty, he smiles like a cat that caught a mouse when interacting with the PCs. He is played like he knows more and plans further ahead than they do.
He freely admits to being a former Guild Skatoris bounty hunter and doing some independent work after he left the Guild due to political considerations. All of this is true, but he doesn’t speak openly about his life prior to the Guild. In effect Deimos Xyxslavan did not exist before becoming a member of that illustrious Guild. The man who would become Deimos was a broken being edging towards tasting a blaster barrel.
Why? Because he is a former Mandalorian warrior. In the course of a mercenary action, he was defeated by an opposing warrior. That warrior in an ultimate insult took his helmet and left him for dead. But, the former Mandalorian was cursed with continued life. He drug his wounded body over to the corpse of one of his unit and found a medpac. Though his soul was crushed as his identity, his literal personhood was stolen, his will to live prevented him from simply succumbing to his wounds.
His life was not easy for the next years, he suffered deep depression unable to return the life he lived. To the Mandolorians he was dead, and they did not treat revenants lightly. Somehow, he ended up in the company of a Skatoris bounty hunter. He won’t go into the details, but those in the know suggest he was hired for a bottle of “jet fuel” and a couple of rations to help flush out a target for the hunter. Apparently his performance was exceptional because he not only left the planet on the hunter’s starship but scored a prestigious sponsorship a few months later.
His independent work included a year in which he tried to deal with the core of his rage and despair by hunting down and killing his former kinsmen. He is confirmed to have killed at least seven competent Mandolorians and he has a bowl in his quarters where he holds tokens of their honor insignias. Even though he gave up the hunt against them, he watches for the retribution he is certain will come for his actions against the clans.
He is currently going very attached to the freighter captain mentioned earlier because part of her backstory is that she was the sole survivor of an accident that killed her Mandolorian family. She was found in the wreckage by a scavenging rag tag caravan of people called Travellers and raised as one of them. She was informed of her heritage by Deimos when he recognized the symbol she wore on a pendant as that of a fierce warrior named Jakub Jorvan. Seeing in her a connection to a people he is denied, he acts in small but manipulative ways to keep her in his orbit by telling her just enough to keep her interested but not enough of the truth of her ancestry that she can leave him behind.
BTW: I started this NPC before the current Mandolorian show aired, and his culture was purely speculative. It is funny how much of Mando culture on the show mirrors what I had in the game already.
A villain that I particularly enjoyed from a couple games ago was Monsieur Fontaine; he was a diplomat for the nation of Gaul (explicitly based on pre-Revolutionary France). As a diplomat, he was smooth-talking, intelligent, and patient. He wasn't a "bad guy," per se - he was simply loyal to his country, and if lies and manipulation were the most effective way to serve his country's interests, that's what he would use. Such a shame that his country wanted to invade the PCs' country, and it was his job to manufacture a sufficient pretext to justify it!
I didn't bother fleshing out a whole life history for M. Fontaine because that wasn't relevant to the campaign; however, he had a singular fascination with (one might say fetish for) dragonborn, and so when he met the dragonborn fighter PC, named Cagrio, he couldn't help but court him, even though the party was working to foil his plot to create a political scandal that would justify Gaul invading the kingdom. (Though they didn't know that he was the one ultimately behind the plot.)
Cagrio was quite receptive to the handsome ambassador's advances and unwittingly gave away valuable information to M. Fontaine that helped him advance his plot. Finally, M. Fontaine attempted to magically charm Cagrio and compel him to stop the rest of the party from foiling his plot; even though he was genuinely fond of Cagrio, loyalty to his country came first. Unfortunately for him, Cagrio resisted the charm and realized he was the mastermind behind the plot that the party was unraveling. Though heartbroken to have been so deceived, he revealed the truth to the rest of the party, and they managed to take M. Fontaine down.
"We're the perfect combination of expendable and unkillable!"