Cool NPCs

[PsychoLaughs]

lots of talk of cool character concepts for when IK MII comes out. But let's hear some DM ideas for cool NPCs to introduce in their new campaigns.

for myself, i am working on the models for four dwarves, that form an adventuring troop. they are mercenary in their own way, but rather than working for armies, they are paid to explore and retrieve valuables from ruins, dungeons, and the like.

the idea i have is for them to be rivals to my PCs, but not entirely hostile. I'd like them to be able to be antagonists or allies depending on the situation.

they are armed to the teeth.

they are ex gun corpsmen, their boss is a cigar smoking, beret wearing, scattergun totting, leader.
the other three are one with a modified forgeguard maul and shield, one with two pistols, and one with mechanika gauntlets and double barreled pistol.
still thinking of names.

so, any cool NPC ideas brewing out there?

[pavel0]

How about some kind of brainy gobber and his ogrun compatriot? Maybe the ogrun is a bokor, maybe he's just his friend who's amazed at the gobber's mechanical skills? Cliche? Obviously, but then I'm no GM.

I think a blackclad whose job it is to take in those younguns who're experiencing the wilding would make excellent fuel for a storyline. Depending on the party, he could be a protagonist or an antagonist. The party could either help the druid out with the kidnapping or defend the child while taking it to a church or some place to be exorcised.

I also think a gobber bard/minstrel would be cool, mostly because the bellows crew leader looks like he'd be easy to mod so that he's holding a mandolin or something.

I don't really know if these are legit or not; I've never done tabletop RPGs before.

[profparm]

The beauty of being a GM is that almost any NPC you create is "legit". You run the world, it's your rules.

I would like to use an Ordic Courtier in the game (ala Madelyn Corbeau) but I'm still not sure whether this politician that the group may or may not meet in person will be causing problems for the group or working on their behalf.

I would also like to use an obnoxious Trollkin Fellcaller with a really good bluff that is often competing with the group (and usually not as successful, depending on whether the group succeeds probably) who always exaggerates stories about how well his most recent jobs went in front of the PCs in bars to get with women. Especially the women any of the group goes after.

[StJason]

I had a NPC Gobber Alchemist who I dropped into our Witchfire game. He had a small shop not far from Kurgen's in Corvis, and had a running battle with the OGC to keep his membership. The store was small, long and narrow, with the black powder on the left, red powder on the right, and lots of things (is that a fish skeleton in a jar?) on the shelves above.

There were a lot of NPCs that I liked that never really saw light:
* A druid/thief who had a Moonwing as a companion. Send it over to put people asleep, walk right past, take what he wanted..
* A priest(ess) of Morrow who set up a battered woman shelter/school who pushed the slightly heretical viewpoint that Stacia wasn't such a bad person... Odd thing is that she seemed to do just fine with Stacia as a patron...
* A Cephalyx that had a number of Black Ogrun drudges... He'd arm them with Black Steel weapons...
* An Irdian freedom fighter that raised Goraxes for battle (this was pre-hordes).
* A Order of the Fist Scrutator who went out in plainclothes among the people. When someone revealed they were a heretic, he'd tail them and ambush them in an alley somewhere...
* An Adventuring Scholar focusing on Mechanika. He'd excitedly (Spark-like) dissemble and 'improve' upon mechanika that he came across... even if that mechanika was trying to kill him.
* A ranger from the Wyrmwalls who specialized in hunting down Dragonspawn. Problem is, he's starting to show the blight...

[Chip]

The Khardov campaign I'm planning currently has in the area of 50 NPCs, but some of my favourite "neutral" ones are;

- The Tordoran river pirate who everyone in the city uses to smuggle things past the guards on the walls. She has a reputation for total reliability, always getting paid and inexplicably surviving in a Khadoran city despite being dressed in clothing that would look cold in Southern Cygnar...
- A team of four Illuminated Ones (A gunslinger, a gun mage, a Morrowan priestess and a wizard) who are in the city to crush a Thamarite cult they believe has just moved into the city. I'm sure I won't use this to have them suspect the party to start with...
- Argus the Bounty Hunter. Yeah. I went there.
- The ghost of an old mine foreman who's controlling the population of Shaft Wights under the city somehow. He seems to be directing them to leave the other human miners alone and instead intercept the Dregg raiding parties coming up from beneath the mine shafts. I'll leave it up to the party to decide if he's a friend or not

One of the members I've listed also hates arcanists enough to have turned informant for a small Retribution cell that's based near the city. I won't say who, 'cos at least one of my players is on these boards

[pavel0]

A lot of the minion/merc solos available to WM/H would make great NPCs as well. Gudrun, Alten Ashley, Boomhowler etc. It'd give your party the chance to interact with an IK celebrity. I vaguely remember the Totem Hunter being used in an encounter in NQ.

[PsychoLaughs]

i do hope we get NPC stats for well known characters.

it would be cool to play a hunter who has some history with Alten Ashley. and just running into them on a town would be something i think my players would really appreciate. even if it's just "was that Rutger Shaw? bastard still owes me money..." type of interactions.

[stormwell]

Not exactly 'new' per say since she's an NPC from my current campaign that I'll be converting over.

Her name is Lady Ellsworth, seemingly the sole surviving member of her family after the late Lord Ellsworth and his wife were killed by King Vinter's agents during the Skorne occupation of Corvis and her brother disappeared in Llael during the Khadoran invasion. She owns and runs the family business, the Ellsworth Shipping Company and originally hired the party as troubleshooters after her business started getting harassed by pirates. After travelling down to a dread isle in search of a lost colony founded by her late father and some black pearls (not a Savage Tides ripoff *honest*) the party were tipped off by a Rusalka that Lady Ellsworth probably wasn't who see claimed to be. At least twice she used what appeared to be 'black magic' (though no evil was ever detected), Thamarite books on the origins of magic and ascending were discovered in her library and later on the Gatorman gnawed remains of a couple of bodies (mostly red herrings) helped to convince the party that perhaps the Rusalka was correct.

Being a character created during a previous non-IK campaign she was a lvl 20 Shadowcaster, though I'm in the process of converting her over to an IK class and was thinking perhaps Malefactor of Thamar. As for the new version, thinking Gifted/Aristocrat/Sorceress unless theres a better way of doing the Malefactor class.

[stormwell]

Remind me again, do the Rhulfolk have something like an Inquisitor?

I've got this fella and I've got in my head that he could be some sort of agent for the Rhulic Moot, basically investigating clan disputes and ensuring that everything's all legal.

[StJason]

Inquisitor? No. They do have catburgler/spies called Lurkers, though.

[stormwell]

Reading the World Guide there are judges appointed by the Rhulic Stone Lords who have jurisdiction over entire clans and can pass judgement on clan lords. Basically the sort of thing I was looking for.