Hi, welcome to Narrative Control. This episode is on Living City, a technique of giving conrol of NPCs to the players and allowing them to bring more life to your world as well as turn the story in the directions they are exited about.

Hosts: Sean Nittner and Justin Evans

Liner Notes

[0:38] Introduction – Living City
[0:40] Source – John Wick's Play Dirty
[1:28] Justin answers “What is Living City?”
[3:00] How it's done. John Wick's example: NPCs given to player.
[4:39] Pitfalls with antagonistic or knowledgeable NPCs?
[5:30] Disseminating information through the players.
[6:00] Sean's use of a similar techniques in his Mage: The Awakening game.
[8:30] NPC Information: Name, Nature, Aspects and Motivation
[9:47] Bread Crumbs. How changing information on the cards can throw players off balance.
[11:15] The technique gives players who would normally be out of scene a chance to play.
[11:29] How to make up NPCs on the fly: Sins and Virtues cards.
[11:47] Show Notes vs. Schnotes battle returns
[12:23] Back to Sins and Virtues...
[14:55] Why would you create a Living City? New plots, granting players narrative control, more believable NPCs.
[17:50] Some of the most interesting interactions happen between players are taking the roles of NPC.
[18:08] More emotional involvement between PC and NPC vs. PC and PC?
[19:45] Pitfalls. Too much information shared? NPCs not coming to life? GMs gets left out? GM needs to be more prepared.
[21:58] Burning Dresden City Creation. Entire group creates locatoins and personalities.
[23:25] How to contact Narrative Control

Wicked Dead Brewing Company
Shnotes siting - Beware!
Sinister Game
Dresden Files RPG

Direct Download here: NC_Episode_002.mp3

Great podcast so far, guys. It's exactly the sort of thing I want to do on my own cast (sooner or later), so it's nice to check out something new like yours and see how it progresses. I've just listened to all three episodes, and I'm definitely going to keep checking them out. Good name for your podcast, too. :)

For this particular episode, it kinda scares me as a GM to let the players run the NPCs. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for giving the players more narrative control and the ability to change the story and such, but I think letting them run the NPCs is a bit much. They come to NPCs for information a lot of time, and I'd just be "taking back over" the NPC anyway to relay the info. I dunno. I can see where it might be fun in certain situations, but just not useful for the bulk of PC/NPC interaction in my games.

On top of that, my players wouldn't go for it anyway. I *try* giving them more narrative control, and none of them take advantage of it. However, I am planning a new 7th Sea campaign soon with some different players...

One thing to make clear to players if you are giving them control of an NPC...is that the NPC is now theirs. They get to determine their the NPCs motivations and goals. They should treat them as a kind of 'sub-character'. If you need to funnel information through that particular NPC I wouldn't 'take back' the NPC, instead I would prepare that information in advance (I use 3x5 cards) and hand it out as needed...or use a different NPC that a player is not controlling (save some for yourself).

In the ongoing game I'm currently running, over 3/4 of the NPCs are run by my players but I do keep a few key NPCs in reserve to advance my plot more effectively. Each player started with a certain number of contacts. These were each played by other players. I prepare details that some of those contact may be aware of for each game as well as some general details that could be leaked by any of the contacts. They are mainly used in short scenes during the 'investigative' parts of the game. I've kept certain key political figures or antagonists for myself that I play during key turning points in the game.

You're right though, it does take some getting used to. Right now I don't think my players have fully realized the power they have to shape our game through these NPCs.