Klang....Clop, clop. clop

I was talking to a reader the other day who had called to tell me how much he enjoyed our Hook, Line and Sinker scenarios. During our conversation he made an observation about my personal entries. He pointed out that a good portion of my adventure-seeds involved non-player characters who embrace the party but somehow interfere with or impede the player's progress. Simply put, the reader wanted to know why?

I thought about this for a while and I immediately determined the reason. A good, well developed NPC is worth a thousand adventure plot-lines. When I first began playing role-playing games, my particular group was in a position to play almost nightly over the course of the summer. This posed a problem - as the GM, I had little if any preparation time to work up adventures.

My solution was to develop non-player characters who during the course of my ad-lib sessions, suggested adventures.

One of the those characters was a cowardly little thief nicknamed, "Klang... clop, clop, clop".

Bernie was his real name but he earned his title because, invariably, when the party met with imminent danger, Bernie would drop his sword (Klang!) and run away (Clop, Clop, Clop). Who could blame him? Bernie was a 1st level thief with 4 hitpoints. Though, the allure of gold was great, survival was foremost in his mind.

You would think the other party members would quickly turn Bernie into dragon bait. Alter all, Bernie was the first to run but always managed to show up later and beg for a share of the spoils. Bernie also had a bad habit of pick-pocketing his comrades. Once Bernie stole a magical ring and sold it. When his crime was revealed the angry party threatened to lynch him. Bernie, complete with tears, explained that his elderly mother was dying and that he needed the money to care for her.

The party, filled with compassion for their comrade's plight, secretly pooled together a large sum of money and made arrangements to assist the old woman. That's when they discovered Bernie's mother had been dead for 11 years. Somehow, the party could never bring itself to harm Bernie. As flawed as he was, he was fun to have around.

When Bernie was finally killed (he fled from a light and ran right into the arms of a Cave Bear.) the party went to great expense to bury the thief, complete with a marble statue of his likeness. For years, newer players would ride past that statue on the edge of town and wonder at the inscription of "Klang Clop, Clop, Clop".

Gandle

Another favorite NPC was a lowly leather-worker named Gandle. Gandle was a dwarf and originally was one of those throw-away NPCs pulled together for a random town encounter. Gandle was a stingy, tight-fisted merchant who would steal a dollar from his own mother.

As the most contrary character I've ever ran, it escapes me how he managed to win the hearts of the party. Eventually, the party rented Gardle's backroom (for a hefty fee of course). Soon after that, Gandle was hired on as a torch-bearer for the party and began adventuring with them. If Gandle happened to be killed the party would make arrangements to have him resurrected.

When Gandle was cursed by a local cleric the party set out to avenge him. During the course of that mission the cleric was killed along with his innocent family. The pary, filled with dread and guilt, was forced to burn the cleric's house to hide their crime. I don't think we realized the significance of the event at the time. Looking back I have to smile. In a world filled with hack-n-slashers, here was a group of characters expending their hard earned gold and risking their lives for a lowly Non-player character.

I suppose many of my Hook, Line and Sinker scenarios are written with the hope that one of those NPCs will become a "Gandle" for someone else's campaign.