NPCs?

[DerpRavener]

Say I wanted to start/manage a thread in which a group of thieves are trying to steal something. If there's no risk it's not very interesting, which means that for best results there should be some kind of guard presence or response.

Now one possibility is to make a guard character, and I've been considering it though I'm a little hesitant to make a character solely to be foil. Even then, that wouldn't solve the problem in situations where a single guard makes no sense.

So my question is basically, what is the best way to manage NPCs? I'm defining an NPC is a character that has to be present for the story to make sense, but that isn't, doesn't need to be or even can't be as fleshed out as a typical character, which would be the guards mentioned above.

Or by asking this question am I looking at things the wrong way entirely? I come from a pen and paper roleplaying background, and as such I'm still kinda confused about how 'the world' is managed with no specific DM for a given thread.

[GhostGirl]

Basically, as thread antagonists, you are allowed to use NPCs as long as they have less total "screentime" than the actual player characters in the thread. It can be a sort of gray area, so please remember that a staffer may still PM you to request that you back off on NPC use.

[Rosewind]

NPCs are fine to use, but like Ghostie said, make sure they're used to provide background for the main characters to interact, instead of coming to the forefront themselves. Make sure you're communicating with other players in an OoC space (PMs or thread) about what your plans are, and how you want the roleplay to proceed, especially with use of NPCs.

[DerpRavener]

Right, makes sense. They aren't really characters, so one doesn't want them really doing character like things (they're more like setting, or environmental effects maybe).

Actually, shifting my thinking like that probably answers any questions I might have had: treat them like an event or series of events rather than characters.

Thanks for the help.

[CaptainMcDerp]

What a coincidence. I was about to ask this question just before I found your thread. XD

[Ashton]

Basically, as thread antagonists, you are allowed to use NPCs as long as they have less total "screentime" than the actual player characters in the thread.

Just a friendly warning from a veteran of bad RP decisions - make sure your NPCs are either less-interesting or more-dead than your PCs, If your not careful, you can end up with a player latching on to an NPC and before you know it, the NPC has developed into a full-flown PC (has hapened dozens of times with me) the first warning sign is if the other player asks for the NPC's name... at that point you need to kill them off before they can get a name

[DerpRavener]

Heh, well that's something to keep in mind, for the time being though I need a few more characters, so that doesn't sound so bad.

That said, I could also see an attitude like that being my undoing, in the end...