Non-Player Characters (NPCs) are an important part of any role playing game. NPCs allow for important positions within any role playing game, traditionally they are used to be filled by a storyteller / Game Master (GM). Within the Molten Aether games they are designed to democratize the game play and setting for all players. The use of NPCs within Molten Aether allows any player to pick up an NPC character and temporarily play them as needed. Typically they are not the focus of a particular storyline and can serve as secondary players, extras, and other fillers for game stories. This document attempts to outline best-practices ways of playing an NPC.
Purpose
Any NPC has one, and only one, main purpose in a story. They are there to progress the story and propel it forward. Here are some suggested uses for an NPC but the main take-away from this is that NPCs are to be used to further a plot / scene rather than be the focus of it. They are supporting cast not main characters.
Filler Positions
Often in scene a particular type of character is needed like a chef, doctor, military / police officer, or even just a passer-by. Rather than having a full player character with a set player assigned to a particular role and thus having an additional scheduling / creative issue to look into players can choose to employ the use of an NPC themselves or ask a moderator to do so on their behalf. We have a specialize NPC Character List here on the wiki to help with that. Any player / mod can pick up an NPC as needed to fill in gaps in a story.
Expositional Positions
This is similar to the above filler positions but more directed toward moderators. In these cases the NPC is used to provide required information to players. Within the Blazing Umbra setting this is often accomplished by interrogating a computer or AI, such as HAL 9000. Other types of NPCs are also useful for this, a military officer giving an assignment or responding to a call for help. In other games these can be town mayors or other officials of a locale which provide needed information to players for the progression of a storyline.
Also important is the use of NPCs to move plot along. A well placed NPC can point players in the optimal direction or provide in-game nudges for players to proceed with a storyline. While this is geared mostly for moderators it should also be used any time a player wishes to impart information to a story for which they don't have a ready-made character for play.
We can see this in most popular media, though most strikingly in Charlies Angels where Charlie assigns the girls some task and then steps out of it, effectively getting the ball rolling. Additionally in video games this often takes the form of an in-game AI (Cortana from Halo) or remote person assigning tasks (Big Boss from Metal Gear). It is important to note that within their respective media the NPC is not the focus of the story, rather they support the main character(s) of a story. Though it should also be noted that an NPC can temporarily be the focus of play, as needed, so long as that play is geared toward progressing the storyline for the player characters or to better develop the NPC.
Technical Positions
While traditional role playing games offer skills which can be rolled upon for technical tasks to be preformed (such as a Disable Device check in Pathfinder / D&D to pick a lock or disable a trap), within the FFRP model it can be difficult to provide for such tasks. If a player is unsure how to resolve a task within the narrative they can be unsure how to proceed. Placing an NPC in a support role for a particular game can ease this tension and provide a way to express via a narrative potential solutions to a problem for characters to choose from. The use of an NPC allows the focus to remain on the player characters. In this way a player character can ask an NPC to perform some task (call for help, pilot a ship, ride ahead and scout, to name a few) that player characters may not be well suited to but needs to be done. Similar to using an NPC in an expositional way, this broadens the scope of such an NPC to perform actual in game tasks at the behest of a player character whose player may not know how to accomplish something.
Within media this is common in TV shows of the mid-late 20th century, where a main character (or characters) pawn lengthy tasks on supporting character to do. We see this in Star Trek where McCoy often calls down to the labs for something, or Scotty is told to do something to the engines. We never see Scotty do this but we can then focus on Captain Kirk and the main trio for the story.
Character Integrity
Some NPCs have a great deal written about them, one should not be afraid to pick up an NPC with a backstory or well thought out personality. There is a significant leeway given to players who use an NPC to use them creatively. Since they are not the focus, it is ok to focus on the task they need to perform. The character information should be used to guide play but the focus should remain on the use of an NPC for the story at hand. An NPC with little or nothing written about them should be considered open to interpretation, though players using an NPC in this way should update the character bio on the wiki to reflect any specifics they have added to the character, to allow for more consistent gameplay.
Taking over an NPC
In some cases an NPC may become the focus and it could become important to allow a particular player full ownership of an NPC. This is easiest for a name that is mentioned without a bio in place, a player can simply write a character bio and submit it for that character. In other cases a player may like to play an NPC or want to do more with them, in these cases a player should ask a moderator about taking over an NPC. In most cases we can allow a player to convert an NPC into a player character (PC) and allow them ownership of that character.
Converting PC to NPC
Sometimes a player leaves a game or no longer wishes to play a character. In these cases the moderators should be asked if they can make a PC into an NPC so that plots can continue. This is most often done with the permission of the original player wherever possible. Characters take a lot of time and energy to write and play / flesh out and this should be respected as the players creative work. Where a player can be directly asked this will be up to the original player, where the player cannot be asked this will be up to the staff on a case-by-case basis.