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« on: November 24, 2011, 01:51:30 PM »
Erik,
It took me a moment to realize what you were talking about! You're referring to our conversation after the last session, right?
If so, it was about a technique John and I (that's quite a mean typo you made there!) were working on a few years ago. It's not strictly relevant to AW, but could be made to fit.
The idea was to take traits important to the characters and then create NPCs that reflect them or subvert them. For example, if one character is struggling with issues of loyalty, you might create a strongly loyal villain (perhaps someone who takes that trait to the extreme), or a disloyal hero (Robin Hood?). Or simply an NPC who reflects a particular angle of that issue. Then in play you see how the protagonist relates or reacts to that NPC.
It's a very character-centric view, not along the lines of NPC-PC triangles, but...
OK, new thought on adapting this to AW:
* Take an important issue from a character. (We don't have too many of these yet, maybe some more "reading" moves and/or provocative questions will help here?)
For example: Big Dog clearly believes that respect is based on relationships of power, a "might makes right" kind of philosophy.
* Create a basic idea for an NPC who pushes that idea to the extreme or subverts/inverts it.
Example: A warlord/cult leader who believes in equal rights, loyalty, the value of the community over individual power. Might does not make right to this guy!
* Now do the same thing for another character.
Example: My Quarantine desires to find his family, it's his drive at the moment. Let's create an idea for a character: someone who believes family ties are an evil philosophy, that people are what matter, that we should erase all ties of blood, separate children from parents, etc.
* Finally, you create an NPC that combines those two things.
In our example, we get this warlord/cult leader figure who a) believes that people are equal, that violence is not the basis for respect or leadership, and b) wishes to destroy family relationships and create a society that values community above family ties: everyone is "equal", and ideas of blood lineage and family should be thrown out the window (probably at gunpoint, since this is AW).
Silly example, maybe, but that's basically the line of thought.
You could easily assign such "angles" to existing NPCs instead of creating new ones, of course.
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