GMing DFRPG

[evilalbino]

Hey guys forgive me if there is a post that already addresses this..

I am GMing a Dresden Files RPG and I am new to tabletop RPGs as a whole. I got my group through city creation and character creation. We fleshed out some characters and plot ideas and then I put a spin on them to make them a little bit of a surprise for the players...

For my campaign I ended up having about 18 NPCs. Typically do you stat out all of your NPCs? Also, I am trying to get a good grasp on how to run conflicts.. Should I generate a bank of NPCs for the purpose of conflicts or do you typically do this on the fly. Character generation for NPCs has been sort of a worry of mine, I keep worrying about the characters coming across an NPC and not having them developed in full.

I set out to build 18 NPCs and their character sheets and it has been pretty exhausting.

Aside from the above question.. Does anyone have any good tips for a new GM?

Thanks for the help!

[narphoenix]

NPCs: be flexible. Stat them out according to importance. For example, if you're opening with a bunch of punk Renfields in a pirate setting intending them to die without much of a fight, give them Good Weapons and call it a day. If you are in the same setting, however, and you're dealing with an Elder of the Black Court, you'll want to flesh them out a little more, since they'll be around for a while. If an NPC is sticking around for longer than you thought, flesh them out a little more than you had before. Do it on the fly. The players don't know you're winging it.

In general: be flexible, but have some plans. You'll want several plans so that you can plot out what your players are about to do, but if they do something to screw it up, don't railroad them (try to force it back on track). You have multiple plans so you can fall back, and if all of them fail, improvise. Lots.

[noclue]

I set out to build 18 NPCs and their character sheets and it has been pretty exhausting.

Oh, dear god. 18?!? Exhausting is right. My brain is exhausted just thinking about it.

The book has to have something on this...yes! Page YS327. Nameless NPCs, Supporting NPCs and Main NPCs, with On-the-Fly NPC creation on page YS330.

[Crazy Wilhelm]

One good tip is to remember that many NPCs will offer concessions if they're clearly being beaten, especially if they've gotten roughed up a bit already. Heck, any NPC who has taken a moderate consequence without doing any real damage to his opponents is probably squirrelly enough at that point to turn tail, no matter how maximum their power could theoretically be. First session in my current campaign featured extreme, brutal, bonecrunching violence since none of the NPCs conceded conflicts, instead attempting to flee via actions. Obviously we ran them down and broke them, of course.

Basically, Concessions are magic, because it lets the NPCs get off a little bit easier than having their torso shattered.

[dplanken]

Do NPC's need to adhere to the skill pyramid? Like, can't have 2 Great skills if it only has 1 Good one?

For the session I ran I used NPC stats that were similar to my NPC's from the Our World book, but I wasn't too happy with the results. The players didn't know that though so the conflicts I ran went just fine.

[bobjob]

It's generally a good idea to stick to the skill pyramid for fairness sake... but as a GM sometimes it's hard to tell a good story if you're being fair. NPCs in the books usually follow the pyramid, but I've found that since the players won't look at your notes, it's not a bad idea to fudge it sometimes. Also remember Stunts... they can be very useful to boost important skills in certain situations. Also you'll notice that a lot of the NPC stat blocks only list important skills for the characters.

[Cadd]

... Also you'll notice that a lot of the NPC stat blocks only list important skills for the characters.

That's actually all I care about when it comes to NPC skills. I figure out which skills I think will matter, and assign values to them. If I need one in play that I haven't decided before, I mostly go by "what would fit the story - high or low" and just decide then.

Of course, this should never result in an NPC with Superb in all the relevant skills, just at it shouldn't be Average at everything relevant, a good spread in rating is always more fun.

[Sanctaphrax]

You don't need to prepare NPCs in advance and you don't need to give your NPCs functional skill pyramids.

I personally prefer to do both, though.

If you find the effort of statting characters exhausting, you might find it convenient to use stats from the Resources board. There are stats for all kinds of characters there.

If everything goes as planned the wiki will soon also contain a massive number of characters, but at present its supply is much smaller than that of the Resources board.

[Wordmaker]

My rule of thumb is to only give the NPCs the stats they'll explicitly need when interacting with the PCs. If I want a cop to be a shrewd investigator and cause trouble for my PCs in their activities, it doesn't matter how high his Investigation is - he finds whatever clues and information he needs in order to keep the story interesting.

But if he's going to be interrogating the PCs and putting the heat on, then I need to know what his Intimidation, Discipline and Presence are.

Concessions are one of my favourite rules in the game. I like recurring antagonists, and this offers me a way to have opposing characters stay in the game long enough to develop engaging relationships with the PCs.

[Wolfhound]

Concessions are one of my favourite rules in the game. I like recurring antagonists, and this offers me a way to have opposing characters stay in the game long enough to develop engaging relationships with the PCs.

Yes. This.

And I feel a related point, story arcs where I finally allow the PCs to finally "put down" a long running EBG (Evil Bad Guy) naturally flow into the Significant and Major Milestone advancement structure.