Set up a bunch of interesting NPCs and plot hooks

Then soon they become the evil they are trying to fight!

As a relatively newbie PC, I can tell you that I won't go anywhere near an NPC unless I feel interacting with it can bring me more advantages than disadvantages.

PCs wouldn't ignore them if they actually were interesting

so?

I need to ask, what's the harm in trying to put forth an effort to present fleshed-out, interesting NPCs for the PCs to interact with and/or rape and murder?

Make your NPCs cute anime girls and traps.

Then your players will always give them attention, guaranteed!

Interesting to whom?

>Though OP, you are quite the le faggot yourself if you think your NPC:s are interesting.

>thinking your work is good means you're a faggot

fuck you

when the initial reaction is to murderhobo, the players are just dicks, just sayin

just the fact that you're trying to make the campaign around your oh so interesting PC makes me want to kill him.

none, asshole players like user above think a game revolves around their fun only. as a gm, you should give them the boot as quickly as possible.

I'm starting to wonder if I don't belong on Veeky Forums.

>Create a slew of NPCs, give them all different motivations, give them different voices at the table to differentiate them further.

>My players meticulously make sure to visit each of them every time they get a chance to ensure they don't miss any conversations, like a bunch of goddamn completionist Mass Effect players looking for hidden dialog.

>The PCs try to bring the NPCs with them into whatever they're doing, even if it has a chance of making things worse. "He said he always wanted to see the lost shores of Ibydos as a young boy, so lets take him along even though he wont survive!"

>They take the NPC to the lost shores, they escort him through the beautiful and wondrous landscape so different from his drab and dreary mundane home. He ends up being mortally wounded when the BBEG shows up.

>They're all gathered around the NPC as he gives his last words: "Thank you, for being the heroes of my story."

>Player responds, "Thank you for being a part of ours."

>Female Players starts actually crying. Male players just stare at their sheets in silence. I wait until some time has passed and try to cheer everyone up but it's impossible.

>Next session the Female player shows up with some art she drew of her character gently laying the NPC to rest. The table decides to devote the entire session to a funeral for the NPC instead of taking up the chase of the BBEG.

I think I should be far more grateful than I usually am. Even though they can waste an entire weekend on pretending to be drunk in an inn...

Give us an example of one of your interesting NPCs and we'll see who the real autist is, OP.

Success guaranteed.

Although to be honest, Fire Emblem's mechanic of 'Half of these NPCs you meet will be recruitable' does make me more interested in them from the start.

These.

fuck you in every goddamn way

>what's the harm
what's the benefit? Why should I waste time lettingg you show off your so interesting NPCs? How does it make my game more fun than just killing them and moving forward?
There should be some reward for the player that encourages them to do the action you want. Your "interesting and well developed" NPC character just geets in the way of the game, it doesn't add to it. And the only reason you put them in is to show off.

Next session tell them an anonymous hue thinks they're awesome.

My Rogue Trader posse have a nasty habit of adopting an NPC on nearly every adventure they go on. It is a bit useful though because this way if you want to do a bit of expodump you can say "NPC from previous adventure says" instead of "a random pleb from your ship says".

So far they've adopted
>A pilot from a haunted ship that later became a PC in his own right
>A hulking borderline ogryn who only speaks in caveman talk but can be surprisingly philosophical
>Random tech priests
>Spymaster who also became a PC
>A merchant who sells miniature sculptures of Emps
>A qt lass who lost her leg to acid and now has a bionic
>A pilot who died
>The dead pilots son

just keep adding on dead pilots user

Well we got lots of those too. But most of them don't have names or personalities.

My players aren't quite *that* dedicated, but I feel ya.

Gathering allies to support you can be fun, user.

Allies who can help you out. Give you discounted rates, give you job offers, quests, introduce other people who need your brand of murder. They can get you into organisations who can equip you with custom gear!

You may not like pretend social interaction but there can be some serious fun and loot in it.

A master blacksmith who was chased out of his home town could have a few gold pieces on him, but if you ger him a new forge, could craft you demon infused weapons. Don't you want +5 demon infused weapons, user?

>I'm starting to wonder if I don't belong on Veeky Forums.
you don't.

My rogue trader players' idea of "taking responsibility" is hiring on every named NPC whose livelyhood they destroys.

You could talk to your players before the game and get a consensus on what game they want to play, what you want to play and how you can work together to make this come to fruition.

Or you can post about how much you hate them all on the internet. That counts as constructive behavior, right?

Why should Player characters be interesting? Why should I waste my time allowing my fellow PCs to show off their amateur acting and awful writing? Its not like my character can interact or develop through interactions with other characters to develop, or work togethre to create an interesting and dynamic plot.

No, its clear that interesting characters are shit and GMs that try to make them are stupid retards that are bad GMs for trying to make their world make sense and function in order to create an interesting story.

fuck, thats the best kind of party. You should be happy to be a GM for them. My party is pretty nice roleplayers, but this kind of devotion would make my knees weak as a GM.

>Had a player play a Necromancer.

>Finally got to the level where he could make intelligent undead with memories n shit.

>He creates his first one, out of a young mother who happened to acccidentally stumble across him in the woods and his skeletal guards immediately shot her with arrows.

>He feels so much pride in bringing her back to life as a ghoul, asks her how amazing undeath is.

>The ghoul-mother immediately starts bawling about how she's a monster, and her children will never accept her. She becomes a black hole of sadness and misery, and woes her fate.

>Necromancer player is shocked to the core. Can't seem to grasp this outcome. Immediately back-peddles and promises the ghoul-mother that he'll make this right.

>He ends up spending thousands of gold to give her a faulty illusion pendant that will make her appear to be alive so she can return to her family.

>Turns out her husband tried to hug her, discovered the flimsy illusion, was horrified and tried to kill the ghoul-wife. She is forced to kill her husband to protect herself and her children. The ghoul and her children end up heading back out to the Necromancer PC and she explains what happened.

>Necromancer player is seriously heartbroken, feels sick at the table and is having trouble continuing.

>He ends up having his Necromancer fill in as the father figure for the children and ghoul-mom as his penance.

>He has to keep her from letting the hunger take over and eating her own children. He can't sleep much anymore, because she might get cravings while he's sleeping.

And he never wanted to create undead again. The end.

Not him, but...
>Set up a bunch of interesting NPCs and plot hooks
>Players aren't interested

>Bake a bunch of delicious cakes
>nobody likes the taste of them

>Craft a beautifully aromatic perfume
>nobody likes the smell of it.

Couldn't he just kill the kids and bring them back? They would accept her undead mother then, or at least there would be a bigger chance for that.

And if not, who cares? Those who cannot appreciate the gift of eternal life can turn into dust, for that's all they are anyway.

You cured a player from playing Necromancers.

You're my hero.

Honestly OPs problem sounds more like

>Set up a bunch of interesting NPCs and plot hooks
>Players kill them without second thought

>Bake a bunch of delicious cakes
>People decide to try unbirthing them through their assholes

>Craft a beautifully aromatic perfume
>People just piss in the perfume bottles

I feel like you missed the moral of the story...

get fucked op. It's a game not a storytelling jackoff session where you talk 4 people's ears off about your shitty ocs.

>thinking that players want to play in a role they find boring
You know nothing about what a person might want. Shame on you.

Necromancers who create undead aren't as good as those who debuff enemies anyway.

Why do you think it's fun to shitpost?

Why do people do this?

And they have to endure that for 4 HOURS!!

Please see and learn how to roleplay in a way that is fun for everybody at the table. Otherwise, please go play a video game or do some mathematical equations since you like number-crunching porn so much.

I meant to link , but both work quite well.

>have a relativley normal group apart from one That guy/murderhobo
>was very difficult to get him to fuck off because it'd mean losing players, since he caused drama
>took a few months but I managed to boot him without losing any players

anyways

>Powerful political character pressures the PC's into doing something, with consequences if they don't
>That guy: "Hurr we should kill him"
>he is pushy and used to always come on top as party leader because he was the quickest to offer solutions, even if they were disastrous/unthought-trough
>they kill the NPC successfully
>it has disastrous consequences, NPC's house, which he benefited, ruin the PC's. With killing this guy they sever various Marriage arrangements and alliances that the family was benefiting from
>Their entire quest get's turned on it's head because they have to get out of the country, and avoid any future towns where the house of the NPC resides
>that guy and a few other players in the group bitch and moan about not being able to murderhobo a problem, tell me how I am a shit GM and how I play against the players
>I laugh in their face and tell them they are stupid gypsies

But since I kicked the that guy they have learned to play shit smart.

He also did selfish as fuck things that should have TPW'd the party three times, but I didn't have the heart to do it because I didn't want to punish my players who are good over the actions of one retard.
Whatever he did in game had to be his way or he would cause in game and out of game problems, regardless of the fact if his way was good or bad.
My only regret is keeping him around so long and letting him in my game.

>but I didn't have the heart to do it because I didn't want to punish my players who are good over the actions of one retard.
Stupidity begets stupidity.

It's real life politics: if there are idiots willing to give power to absolute heels, then they are going to pay the consequences.

My friend ran a pathfinder game with his own world and plot, the king of the human lands was Liam Neson,nwe had singham a Persian warrior who always had a band following him even if he was gonna assassinate anyone.

It was different from what you think. They should have wiped due to a personal, specific action by the that guy, irrelevant of his status within the party. Once, he stole something from an extraplanar shop, which they can only contact once in a month as-is. I really really didn't want to kill them all then, especially since 3/5 of the party had died to a boss fight 2 sessions ago and they had to reroll chars. I just gave them ridiculous prices for all future visits and they stopped visiting, made it obvious he was to blame. All prices rose by x100 until they payed off the stolen item by way of shopping. The prices were in the 000000's

At least you gave them tangible consequences for the stupidity of taking the side of that guy.

They didn't take his side in that affair, it was just literally him being and asshole and nicking something, being completely inconsiderate about what consequences could befall the party or himself. And whenever he shat on the party with his stupidity he backpeddled saying how he didn't do anything and how he did it for the good of the party, irrelevant if his actions to benefit them had colossal consequences.

So they didn't know anything about the theft? The store owner didn't tell them about what happened?

Saved

Ignore the title, it's what I call all the Veeky Forums stories

yes. And the owner only noticed a magic gem was nicked when they exited his demiplane/store.

I'd have sent extraplanar goons after them since the gem was worth like 5.000 gp (a lot in my campaign) and they would have probably wiped the party but I didn't want to wipe them for his stupidity.

Let me get this right: the owner of the shop noticed the theft and then started to charge them a lot more when they next came to him to buy some shit, without telling them the reason of why he did so?

No, he told them why he charged them extortionately. He told them "Until you buy goods that will be in the value of 5000gp or more all prices will be enhanced for you"

The cheapest things in his store were around 100gp before the price spike, and the PC's get 500gp average from a quest total with loot and reward. He basically stole something they could never hope to buy any time soon and they knew this.

Why do you think it's fun to play adlibs but with more wizards?

In good games characters living long enough to have characterization should be a rare occurence.

So he didn't let them know about the fact that That Guy was a filthy thief?

so, basically, by pricing them extortionately, they'd be forced to buy something that costs a lot more than 5000gp. if they wish to get the old prices, thus making the merchant genie profit a whole lot more than he has any place doing.

Somebody's been playing too much DCC.

He informed them when they returned to his store. And they know it themselves as well as two sessions later that guy revealed the shit his stole, and the players were pretty pissed at him because they knew there'd be repercussions.

What the heck are you even on about?

You're just assuming that
>Interesting NPC
means that the GM is droning on and on about the PCs backstory or character, instead of what he might've done, which could also be playing out the role of the NPC very well to the rest of the group.

I always write down a couple of interchangeable traits for NPCs in order to give them some characterization when the party talks to them, otherwise it would all be tremendously boring.

So, let's stop assuming things for a moment and let's look at situations objectively.
>a GM droning on and on for 4 hours about his OC is shitty and shouldn't be done
We can agree with this, yes?
>a GM giving a bit of characterization to his most important NPCs, only for them to get stabbed by murderhobos is equally shit
Do you agree?

And the players didn't beat That Guy up, taking the stolen item and bringing it back ASAP to make amends with the incredibly powerful being to mend any bad blood between them?

Then they took the side of That Guy.

If you see that something bad is happening or has happened and you don't do anything about it, it's bad.

Witnessing theft/murder/crime in general without doing anything about it is also illegal in most normal countries, did you know that?

Yeah, I guess you are right user. They might have realized this would have consequences but they didn't want to give the item back either.

>Witnessing theft/murder/crime in general without doing anything about it is also illegal in most normal countries
[citation needed]

wklaw.com/knowing-about-a-crime-and-not-saying-anything/

There's a saying where I am from, to emphasize "You only have yourself to blame"

So they chose to take the dickass thief with them instead of pleasing the creature who has all the shiny toys they can use in future adventures: they are idiots. Easy as that.

Nubby, from the All Guardsman Party, is a good example on how you should play with a thief in your party. That Guy probably only wanted the item because "it's shiny".

If somebody was being stupid in my party and my character noticed, I'd do something about it to fix the fucking mess the retard made. I would clean the bed I have to metaphorically lie in, if somebody shat in it. Or I would find another one altogether, possibly.

How's that a nasty habit? It basically creates an infinite supply of plot hooks for you, no?

I agree with this dude

necropimpin ain't easy

Don't ever leave orphans?

Then just play skyrim, retard.
>What's the point of having interesting fleshed out NPCs to interact with in an RPG. Let me just kill everything in sight and win the game!

You are the definition of lucky.