In your opinion...

[claire_chan]

How do PC's differ from NPC's?

I know the two abbreviations stand for Player Character and Non Player Character, but does that really mean you don't think so hard about the NPC in particular? Are NPC's really not so important to the plot of the RPG, whichever one it is?

Comments

[kanjoku]

Depends on the type of game.

In videogames and most tabletop rpgs, there's a clear divide between the players and the person or system that's running the game, so 'npc' just means 'not played by the players.'

In more freeform rpgs, the line gets a lot blurrier. The type of npc I'm familiar with there is in livejournal roleplays, in which an 'npc' is 'a character run by the moderators whose primary purpose is to move plots along, not to have character interaction.'

I think that's the key difference - some npcs have excellent character interaction and are well thought out, but their main purpose is plot, not interaction.

That being said, there are also npcs in lj games who are 'characters that are too powerful for a player to use, but I want to use them / the plot needs them anyway,' which... theoretically, I think their purpose would be plot, but that intention sometimes gets lost in personal desire to play someone really awesome.

[claire_chan]

Hmmm.

That makes sense!

I was just wondering to myself. xD

[x_equals_speed]

I mostly play tabletop games, the difference tends to be that PCs recieve preferential treatment by other PCs (In the form of total, unjustified, cooperation) and sometimes by fate (In the form of only ever running across problems that they are able to solve), wheras NPCs recieve indifferent treatment. Also PCs tend to be a lot more detailed than NPCs in most respects

[claire_chan]

Hmm.

Aren't we all playing for entertainment? What other reason could there be?

[laughingimp]

To vent pent-up frustrations by having a torrid in-game affair. To vicariously beat the hell out of another player. To bask in a spotlight when you're drab and easily ignored in real-life. To vicariously beat yourself up. To use game time as a soap box for whatever political position or religious belief you happen to espouse.

For what it's worth, I don't think any of these are healthy reasons to play, but I've seen them all. (I've also seen games run as testing grounds for fanfic characters, and as a forum to educate the players, but I think those are healthier than the list above.)

[claire_chan]

Oh, I hadn't thought of that.

Character testing sounds extremely appropriate in this medium.

[dr_silverrose]

I've been working very hard over the years, in both LRP and tabletop games to have NPCs treated the same as PCs, but one of the things I've noticed time and time again is that PCs will ignore NPCs when they're not *currently* spewing the plot at them and, worse, when an NPC dies, its usually met with indifference

[claire_chan]

The indifference kind of makes a sad kind of sense.

That didn't sound especially preachy to this Atheist, but then again, I have only visited the deep South once, immediately fleeing within a week upon taking note of the attitudes of the people and the extreme heat... in December/January.

ST? CtL? *fail* But in advance, that sounds like it had been so much fun.

[dr_silverrose]

I'm from the deep South...we're not all bad, honest. ^_^;;

ST: Storyteller

CtL: Changeling The Lost

They're White Wolf game terms.

[claire_chan]

Coulda fooled me. XD;;; Although I've heard northerners aren't much better.

Oh, thank you! *reads about White Wolf* I've heard of Exalted before.

[pagandenma]

NPCs for me (I'm mostly tabletop) are the characters you use to fill gaping holes in your party and to move the action along when it stalls.

PCs are your focus, but NPCs can be very very fun . . . .

[claire_chan]

That makes sense! (I've been primarily email; a very recent occasional tabletopper am I)