Do you supplement your party with a companion NPC? If so, tell us about him/her!

I don't currently utilize one. But I'm thinking about making one soon to help. If I do, it'll likely be a human pilot. My party desperately needs a pilot.

EDIT: Clarification for others who may read this. I'm not asking advice about why I should or should not use an NPC. I am very familiar with how to run a NPC in a party successfully. Nor was this thread intended to debate the pros and cons of using and NPC.

The purpose of this thread was for people to tell others and share the type of NPC they may be using in their game. Good, bad, fat, drunkard, background, what makes them interesting, etc...

My group has three.

The first is a LE repair Droid. He's a sullen Droid looking for friendship after a betrayal by his former master. He's a free Droid but he sometimes has trouble realizing that.

The second is a young doctor (well, medical student)from the core worlds that didn't fancy getting stuck with an Imperial assignment on graduation, so she dropped out and ran off to the Rim. She's naive and often serves as a foil to the less ethical members of the group.

The third is an adolescent Wookiee that's hiding out from the general Imperial bounty. He's big and tough, bit has crap for combat skills. He's not quite comic relief, but he has served well to attract trouble/opportunity for the group.

If you ever do this, you need to create a persona/personality for this character. What do they do well and also what are some flaws they exhibit?

R2-D2 for example was very independent minded. Thats great for figuring out complex technical problems but not so great when it comes to following orders.

Sounds like some nice NPC's you have there HappyDaze!

Diggles, you have a good point. I've ran likely hundreds of companion NPC's over my many years of GMing. Your advice is great advice for any new GM's who may see this thread. Are you running any NPC's currently?

I'm thinking about letting them pick up a old grizzled and haggard fighter pilot NPC as their new pilot. He has long traded in a fighter for boring and safe freighter runs up and down the Corellian Run. I think I'm gonna make him have a powerful lesai addiction--as well as a lost daughter who is now an Imperial pilot. It should be interesting.

Keep posting your interesting NPC's!

I prefer to have interesting and useful NPCs available for the party to hire temporarily rather than stay with the party on a regular basis. The story is all about how the player characters solve the problems. If you have too many NPCs, then you risk the party relying on them as a crutch.

Let the NPCs have a life outside of the party. You can use that life to complicate the plot very easily, but still let the PCs use the skills and talents of the NPC when they really need to. There is nothing like having to travel off planet to make a party decide if they REALLY need Bob Robert's skill in bobbing for apples or not. Chances are, they will find another way simply using the tools and skills they have on hand.

It also keeps the NPC fresh and interesting to the players. You avoid the PCs forgetting about that member of the crew unless they happen to be needed for something. You avoid, "oh yeah, Bob can stand guard so we go out to the town and adventure."

It really is the PC's story so I would suggest keeping the number of required crew NPCs to a minimum.

@Hungry Donner - why not simply let one of the existing PCs take a few more ranks in piloting and maybe even a second specialization? This game is great at cross-training for breadth of expertise.

Since we are 4 players (me and my 4 players -> 5 ) there is no need for a NPC at all. In other RPGs I sometimes put in some to get them back on the right line. Or let one or 2 NPC die to show how dangerous it could get and to thrill them a bit.

I agree with FangGrip - the game is a story about your PCs and how they overcome the challenges set before them. If the NPCs are solving the problems, it tends not to be as rewarding.

If there's a critical skill missing, then make an NPC available if requested by your players - that way even if the NPC makes the roll, it's still the players that thought to use them.

@Hungry Donner - why not simply let one of the existing PCs take a few more ranks in piloting and maybe even a second specialization? This game is great at cross-training for breadth of expertise.

None of the PC's are interested in piloting. As a group they have all decided to hire a pilot. Which is where my NPC comes in. He won't work for free, they have to keep him in credits and benefits if they want him.

Also, the intent of the thread was not to discuss the pros and cons of providing a NPC but to share interesting NPCs that GM's are currently using.

Using the default assumptions, there are two obvious ones:

The droid.

The droid can fill a skill gap, sure, but the droid can also be the mascot and reenforce the theme of the crew. If they are struggling smugglers with hearts of gold, the droid is a plucky mechanic, an astromech. If the crew is a bunch of hardened mercenaries and/or bounty hunters, it's an assassin droid. Pick the droid as you would the ship -- get a feel for the players, their characters, etc. and choose accordingly. Alternatively, if one of the PC's is already a droid, this is Rosencrantz to his Guildenstern.

The mysterious passenger.

Here the NPC is part supporting cast/guest-star/macguffin. He or she is plot incarnate, story-of-the-week. Being transitory, this NPC's fate is uncertain; there is no plot-immunity: they might fall in love with one of the PC's, they might die -- or both! Either way, this is how you bring drama and tension without necessarily putting the PC's in mortal danger.

But I stop there. There is only so much spotlight time in a game, and I like to keep as much of it as possible on the PCs themselves.

This train has derailed.

What no pilot? Piloting is one of the most interesting parts in the game.

This train has derailed.

Oh, no, it's just . . . going off on a tanget into the hinterlands . . . an unexpected safari, yes, that's it -- a wild and bumpy ride . . . so when the train slows to about 20, please gather your belongings and disembark in an orderly fashion... ( )

This train has derailed.

Oh, no, it's just . . . going off on a tanget into the hinterlands . . . an unexpected safari, yes, that's it -- a wild and bumpy ride . . . so when the train slows to about 20, please gather your belongings and disembark in an orderly fashion... ( )

Haha.

*grabs his stuff. Checks his ticket and politely disembarks.*

This train has derailed.

Sorry about that, I thought the original question meant something broader.

What sort of niche are you trying to fill with an NPC? That might help people give suggestions on NPCs for your group.

This train has derailed.

Sorry about that, I thought the original question meant something broader.

What sort of niche are you trying to fill with an NPC? That might help people give suggestions on NPCs for your group.

I don't need any suggestions, I have had my NPC all worked out for a while (ever since the party made the choice to try to find a pilot for hire). I just wanted to hear about the interesting NPC's other GM's might be using. Kinda like a show and tell.

My NPC is a Smuggler Pilot named Wick. He spent most of his life flying ships and eventually became a fighter pilot. Then age kicked him. He as long since grown old and become weary of the boredom of his now routine freighter flights on the Corellian Run. A lesai habit still hanging over his head he was fired from his job when he had a close encounter with a hyperspace buoy after blacking out from a lesai binge. My PC's have now hired him to be their live in pilot, as long as they can keep him in credits and they give hi, employment benefits he is happy. He is old, grumpy, and ill tempered but he is honest and a good pilot. Unbeknownst to him he has a long lost daughter who has become an impressive pilot for the Imperial army in an effort to live up to the glory days of her old man.

Now, it's your turn. Do you have an NPC? If so, what is he/she/it all about?

My group has a squirrely little R2 unit, a holdover from an old Saga game I used to run. Same NPC, new players. He's pretty convinced that he's the rightful owner of their ship and everyone works for him. Best part is, he's not far off.

He's the slicer in the group since he used to be the R2-R Recon build from Saga. Basically, he's trying to become an information broker and crime lord without anyone noticing. And it's working.

I do have a question as I'm still relatively new to GM-ing. Do your in-party NPCs have full character sheets or abbreviated stats like adversaries? In my old game, the R2 was a full PC since I only had three players and wanted to bolster the party. Now they're pretty well balanced, so I could just give them a stat block. I haven't decided just yet as he's being introduced in the next session.

My group has a squirrely little R2 unit, a holdover from an old Saga game I used to run. Same NPC, new players. He's pretty convinced that he's the rightful owner of their ship and everyone works for him. Best part is, he's not far off.

He's the slicer in the group since he used to be the R2-R Recon build from Saga. Basically, he's trying to become an information broker and crime lord without anyone noticing. And it's working.

I do have a question as I'm still relatively new to GM-ing. Do your in-party NPCs have full character sheets or abbreviated stats like adversaries? In my old game, the R2 was a full PC since I only had three players and wanted to bolster the party. Now they're pretty well balanced, so I could just give them a stat block. I haven't decided just yet as he's being introduced in the next session.

That is freaking awesome!! I love it! Wonky little R2 unit for the win! Very creative!

For reoccurring NPC's or 'live in' NPC's I always make up a full character sheet for them. Sometimes a lot of it won't come into play, but you never know--and for me having the full sheet NPC makes that NPC more realized and full. For me it helps me make them real, even if it's just in my own head I'm sure it translates through my PC's interactions with my NPC's.

I do have a question as I'm still relatively new to GM-ing. Do your in-party NPCs have full character sheets or abbreviated stats like adversaries?

A great question. It depends on the system. SAGA, unlike its immediate systemic successor, D&D 4E, lacked any kind of companion system, so you really should make party NPCs "by the book" as though they were PC's just so all the math works out right, esp. if multiclassed.

However, EotE is so simple that you could really just swag it like they do with adversaries and put the NPC on a 4"x6" card. 6 stats, some skills, the thresholds and armor. For talents, you can just swag those as well and only give the really interesting ones. You want the character to be simple enough that any one of the players can run him in a fight or skill check.

I do have a question as I'm still relatively new to GM-ing. Do your in-party NPCs have full character sheets or abbreviated stats like adversaries? In my old game, the R2 was a full PC since I only had three players and wanted to bolster the party. Now they're pretty well balanced, so I could just give them a stat block. I haven't decided just yet as he's being introduced in the next session.

The three recurring NPCs in my game all have full sheets just like the PCs.

My campaign, Star Wars: Big **** Heroes , has been going since 2002, and the PCs have had MANY NPCs in their party. In most cases, those NPCs have filled specific, non-combat needs, although there have been at least two notable combatants.

In the first "stage" of SW:BDH, the PCs were crew on a freighter that generally did passenger runs. The captain was a droid (NPC) who had inherited the ship when the previous owner died. He eventually left the ship to save it (drawing a "fatal" computer virus into himself) and the PCs become part owners with some of the PCs. Recurring party NPCs at that point included:

• Iyari, a Zeltron masseuese who was introduced because the team had no dedicated healer. She eventually become the girlfriend of Sakar (PC), a Zabrak pitfighter/slave-turned-guerrilla.
• Maggie, a teenage runaway with a secret past and tons of tech savvy. She became the ship engineer, but she was morally questionable and constantly ran side scams on her own. "Maggie! Where did all the food go?!?" "Oh, I sold it for profit." "Where's our share?" "Don't worry, I got enough food-paste for everybody." "But where's our profit?" "Um, yeah, I gotta go fix the engine..."
• Weeble, an Astromech who was modified at some point before purchase, with weaponsmithing capabilities. Jake, our resident gunslinger, wanted an Astromech, and I wanted someone who would feel different than Artoo, so Weeble is kind of like a loyal puppy dog. (In a particularly sad sub-plot, Jake had to temporarily give up Weeble for about a year so the poor droid could go undercover in a horrible slaver organization). In game terms, Weeble gave me a way to have the PCs upgrade their equipment, and also a way for me to put a limit on it: he only worked on one project at a time.
• Rush Hawkins (think Wash from Firefly , but played by Owen Wilson at his stoner-iest) was an old friend of Jake's and a fantastic pilot. They often recruited him when they needed a better pilot than Jake was, but Rush never hung around too long because he was afraid of dying.

Eventually, the campaign shifted so the PCs pursued their own agendas more (Sakar took his fight to the slavers, Jake became a lawman, Ni-Lah, our Jedi, because Sector Watchman). Although Weeble and Iyari were still around, they were often in the background. Since the PCs started taking on bigger and bigger threats (often leading troops), I gave them a little more combat support.

• At one point, Ni-Lah was given a whole squad (okay, four) of giant alien commandos with specializations that the PCs weren't strong in (piloting, demolitions, stealth), but they were killed off one by one, until only loyal Shuren (the superstitious stealth expert) remained. Poor Shuren made it as far as the final fight in the last episode/session of the game, when the Big Bad stabbed in through the neck while he was in the middle of his signature line, "This place is cursed."
• Federigo Maximillian, of the order of the Free Chevaliers of Serenno (aka, Max), a nobleman knight out to stamp out evil (in D&D, we'd call him a Paladin). Max and Ni-Lah enjoyed an ongoing and on-so-forbidden flirtation for many seasons, and he was often at her side, serving loyally and stoically. Max isn't quite as good as the PCs in combat, but he can take a lot of punishment (If this were an MMO, I guess he'd be a tank), so his role was often to buy time for the PCs to do stuff. To balance the fate of poor Shuren, in the season finale, Max proposed to Ni-Lah (who has all but abandoned the Jedi Order at this time, feeling pretty betrayed by the fact that they kept secret from her the truth that she's descended from Sith). The last line before we "cut to credits" and took a break was Ni-Lah saying "Yes."

You'll note that in most cases, the NPCs were specifically designed to fill a role that the PCs didn't have, or else to supplement the PCs. I often like to give the NPCs cool moments, but I never let them outshine the PCs. In fact, I had two different sets of stats for Shuren: one was a "weaker" version that I normally used; the other was upgraded to make him the same power level as the PCs, and was only used if a) an extra player showed up (which happened once or twice) or b) a player had their regular character out of commission for one reason or another (again, only happened periodically).

An additional side-note on Max and Shuren: Once Ni-Lah became the Sector Watchman, she had a TON of responsibilities, and Max and Shuren were designed, in part, to help her with that. To me, it made the world more "real" (that someone in that level of power would have "staff"), but it also helped justify the logic of the game and allowed Ni-Lah to gallivant with the other PCs: "Aren't there things I should be doing as Watchman?" "Don't worry. Max and Shuren can take care of it for a few days..."

I'm new to GMing, and I know this isn't a thread for h ow create a NPC, but I was just looking for some experienced input, and I didn't think this was new-thread worthy.

When using companion NPCs, as the GM, should I roll their checks, allowing the PCs to order the NPCs to perform actions, but not go through the tedious rolls, thus allowing them to focus on their characters alone. while I provide more narrative experience, or should I make them roll to avoid feeling "cheated" if a critical role doesn't go their way?

I have one NPC, a Slicer R3 Droid (R3-D0), named Redo. He's owned by one of the 2 PC, an Outlaw tech. I've initially wanted to include him in the group, to supplement them, but at the same time, he's becoming a source of adventure to the group.

Here are some old favorites from a WEG campaign.

The Gentleman Pirate:

I originally intended this pirate leading a fleet of 3 ships to be a one time encounter, and casually made the pirate "Captain Morgan". I actually don't quite recall what outcome I had envisioned, but a clever player bargained with him and using a Force point, convinced the pirate to become a privateer for the Alliance. Another player joined our game shortly after, using the backstory that she'd been part of the pirate crew. Morgan become more involved in the Rebellion, but was mostly "off screen" in the adventures. The player character later came into command after Morgan heard that the Rebel base at Hoth had been compromised and brought his dreadnaught, The Bottle o' Rum, to Hoth to aid in the evacuation. The ship was saved, but not the captain. Now Marlene (PC) has taken command of the 3 ships, but remains aboard her blockade runner, The Bootlegger. The campaign has wound down, but this was a case where having a major fleet wasn't a hindrance. In fact, the players were very hesitant to bring their ships near any Imperial systems, and mainly used the ships as a base of operations. The arrangement also gave us a handy way of working new players into the game. And for the record, the third ship was a Correllian Gunship called the Hangover.

The Recruiter

Lianna, a Kamillian gambler, was the main NPC in my introductory game. Kamillians were near-human aliens, whose hair changed color with their moods. This actually aided Lianna in gambling, since she learned to "poker-face" this aspect. Mostly, she gamed in order to carouse and overhear conversations that might reveal potential candidates to join the Rebellion. When the alliance assigned fighter squadrons to the late Captain Morgan, now Marlene's, fleet, Lianna led the Lush Squadron (Y-wings) and became a love interest to the X-Wing pilot (who originally recruited Morgan) who led Booze squadron.

The Droid with Two Brains

This droid didn't spend much time in the game, but was more of an interesting sidebar. An enterprising Jawa was cobbling together parts from different droids. He armed an astromech with the blaster salvaged from a probe droid that self destructed. The Artoo's programming would not allow the droid to fire a weapon, and the Jawa was not a good enough programmer to change it. So he patched in a second brain from a sentry droid. Supposedly, the astro brain could be commanded to shut down when the weapon was needed, and the sentry brain could be shut down when not needed. In reality, both brains remained active, arguing with one another constantly. The droid was known to complete a repair, and subsequently shoot whatever it had just fixed. Sadly, the players decided that R2-M0 (Artoo - Em Naught) was not a good fit for the party.

Only two PCs, and they're fairly specialized, so I needed to give them a boost, as it were.

First is the R5 unit they liberated from the Scrapyard in Mos Shuuta. He helps out with mechanics checks and when interfacing with computers, but he slows them down a bit when they're trying to leap from rooftop to rooftop. The "Droid Companion" of the surgeon droid.

Then came Tycho Kreel, the alcoholic pilot, depressed over the theft of his ship. **** good pilot, when he's sober. I try to leave him on the ship.

Lastly was KOR-16, an IG-86 series sentry droid, used for assassinations since the Clone Wars. Consummate infiltrator; I try to make sure that he assists the PCs in a supporting way, slipping out of the party for some off-screen work, lest they try to use him as The Tank.

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ArisSn, I think all NPC rolls, except perhaps for those of a droid companion/pet belonging to a PC, should be handled by the GM.

I'll sometimes let a player throw the dice for one of the allied NPCs, but I don't let players control what actions they take. The PC smuggler is kinda the group leader, but beyond actions that specifically deal with the safety of the ship, she doesn't really have much command authority. She does have excellent Charm and even a touch of Leadership, and she can certainly use those to influence the NPCs when she wants to.