Detailed and Varied Non-Player Characters

Obviously, NPCs are a major part of any social campaign environment. For a campaign with major roles for thieves, this must be one of the primary areas of DM concern.

Details are important, as always. Because of the number of NPCs needed, DMs will probably want to develop a convenient shorthand procedure for keeping track of all these characters. It is not necessary, for example, to include stats and proficiencies and equipment for each shopowner and innkeeper in the player character orbit. Often a name for the character and a one or two word personality description will suffice to give the DM all he needs to roleplay the NPC in an interesting and consistent manner. (Remember, if the innkeeper is "greedy and bigoted" the first time the PCs encounter him, he is likely to be that way next time as well.)

Of course, NPCs who might logically be expected to enter combat with the PCs (guards, rival thieves, thugs, bullies, etc.) will need to be detailed with the relevant combat information. Other NPCs who fill the roles of the potential targets for PC thievery (merchants, nobles, dandies, caravaners, fences, influential criminals and thieves, etc.) will need additional information on valuables possessed, how those goods are secured—including notes on locks, traps, secret compartments, and the like—as well as enough combat information to allow the DM to quickly adjudicate an encounter should matters come to blows.

Chapter Twelve of the AD&D® 2nd Edition DMG includes valuable information on defining the personalities of NPCs (pg.114) and on creating fast, realistic characters when needed (pgs.115-117).

The DM, after working out an easy way of recording his NPCs, must then keep this information close at hand where it can be easily referenced. He is then ready for any encounters the characters might decide to find.

A variety of NPCs is every bit as important as the detail used to record them. In all campaigns, the player characters will interact with folks from all walks of life—in a thief campaign such interaction is common and expected.

Some of the NPCs will need to be peers of the PCs—fellow thieves and rogues inhabiting the same area. These NPCs can serve as rivals, temporary helpers, sources of information, and even sort of a measuring scale for the PC's successes.

Thieves will often develop contacts with NPCs even lower in status than the thieves themselves. These characters can include beggars, urchins and orphans, harlots, and other low-life types. A stable of these NPCs can provide the PCs with a ready source of information ("Here's a copper, kid—go and count the guards outside the storehouse for me!"), as well as providing a touch of believability to the campaign background. These low-life NPCs will, of course, have the same variety of personalities and abilities as other NPCs. Because the PCs represent persons of power to them, however, player character actions can have a great rebounding effect in their relations. For example, a thief that always shares a (however small) portion of his take with the gang of urchins constantly roaming the neighborhood will find those urchins to be useful lookouts and helpful, willing sources of information. The thief who spends his time cursing and kicking the youngsters away from his abode may just find them leading an elite unit of the city watch straight to his door.

Potential targets for robbery include a whole vast realm of NPCs: wealthy merchants, powerful nobles, influential foreigners, even thieves and other adventurers who have enjoyed a certain amount of financial success in their endeavors. A variety of characters is essential here because this gives the PCs the opportunity to determine for themselves what will be the site of the next furtive operation.

Here your group might try pacing the gaming sessions to give the players complete freedom of choice, while not burdening the DM with the task of detailing every mansion, noble house, and merchant shop in town. Simply use the expedient of closing a gaming session with the PC planning meeting for the next operation. Then, when the target for the theft has been selected, the DM has the next week (or next few hours, depending on how often you play) to prepare a detailed layout of the setting.

No campaign is complete without at least one, or ideally several, strong villains to serve as antagonists for the player characters. Villains, of course, do not have to be criminals or other low-life types. They can be nobles, government officials, law enforcement officials or magistrates, foreign ambassadors, powerful wizards or sinister clerics—in short, all types of characters can make good villains in a thief campaign. And don't overlook the grandmaster of the thieves guild or some other powerful criminal who might be a rival of the PCs; these kinds of long-running feuds can kindle the fires of many an extended campaign adventure.

Whoever the DM picks as a central villain for the campaign, a few general principles apply. The villain must be a powerful character—one who can inspire fear, or at least grudging respect, in the PCs. Power can be expressed in financial resources (an estate, fortress, collection of treasures, etc.), authority (such as a troop of guards or command of the city watch), personal abilities (such as magic powers, magical artifacts, combat skill and weaponry, or sheer intelligence or charisma), or, ideally, some combination of all these characteristics. Certainly in order to seem formidable, a villain's power must exceed the combined power of the PCs.

Scenes involving the villain should be paced and staged carefully—the PCs probably will not find him in a back alley rolling drunks. (If they do, that should tell them something about the drunk!) Villains, being powerful and influential individuals, are not stupid. When they are encountered, they will usually be surrounded by their lackeys and henchmen (some of these can be quite stupid, at the DM's option).

In fact, the villain's lackeys should be common antagonists of the player characters throughout the campaign. It is well worth a DM's time to develop some of these henchmen as detailed NPCs—minor villains in their own right. What is the Sheriff of Nottingham without his loyal house guards, after all?

Any villain worth his black mustache will have one or two escape routes planned from every location where he is likely to be encountered. These will only be used in emergencies, of course, but can serve an important campaign function in that, as a villain escapes from near-certain death time after time, the players will develop their own motivation in wishing to go after him and end the conflict once and for all. This resolution, ideally occurring after many gaming sessions, then becomes a major triumph in the PCs' careers. Of course, if they blow it, the last battle can make a glorious final chapter in a PC career . . .

A final category of NPCs, impossible to overlook in the thief campaign, are those characters entrusted with the enforcement of law, or justice, or power—whatever prevails in your campaign environment. Even should you have created an anarchistic society, people will take steps to protect their belongings and some of these steps usually involve big, tough fighters.

It is interesting and enjoyable to have several of these characters become very well-developed NPCs in the campaign. The gruff sergeant-major of the city watch, for example, might have a few stern words for the PCs each time they are apprehended. A villainous thug in charge of a platoon of mercenary guards might develop a personal grudge against the PCs that can grow into a major campaign storyline. Even a severe magistrate can be a recurring character, especially if PC lawbreakers are coerced into helping the forces of justice in exchange for their freedom, lives, or whatever.

The DM need not go overboard on details for these NPCs. After all, having 100 NPCs in the campaign isn't much use if the DM has to shuffle 100 pieces of paper every time a player character asks a question. It is best to work out to your own satisfaction the level of detail required for consistent, enjoyable play, while allowing a brief enough format that the DM does not become overwhelmed with recordkeeping and NPC creation.

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