How often do you use signature characters in your games?

[Chris24601]

I’ll actually go a step further and say not only do I not use established characters, I actively overwrote the canonical vampires in Boston because, frankly, they were lame. There’s just so much history and culture in Boston that got completely ignored in favor of a Malkavian Prince who thinks he’s King Arthur and fights the upstate Sabbat.

So I actually do things with the trade triangle, Free Masons, the Boston Brahmin, Harvard and MIT, the oldest subway system in the US, Jane Toppin, the Patriarca mafia family, the Boston Marathon, the Great Molasses Flood of 1919, the Curse of the Bambino, the Boston Busing Crisis, etc.

Way more than whatever managed to be mentioned in mid-90’s US and World History books happened in all the cities official VtM material has covered, but outside of Chicago you’d be really hard pressed to think so if just looking at the canonical NPCs for those locations.

[Lysander]

That is true I do latch onto Detective, Bodyguard and Investigative Reporter types in my games Heavy Arms. As that is what feels natural towards me and I don't like to stray far from my comfort zone.

[Heavy Arms]

I think of it as the fact that I consider the Chicago NPCs some of the best written NPCs of any game system ever made.

I can understand the personal attachment to an extent, but well written canon NPCs are practically limited by the fact that people playing the game have to run the characters.

If your ST just doesn't connect with a canon NPC and runs them "poorly" all that great writing is wasted for that instance of the game. Or worse you get players that think you're playing Olaf "wrong" because that's not what the books say.

Shakespeare might just be the greatest English playwright in history, but the best play manuscripts can't save a play from a bad troupe; and because Shakespeare is so well known the mistakes are more jarring. A local amateur improv group doing skits based on random things five year olds said might never move you to tears like a West End production can, but it's more than enough fun to keep you entertained for a few hours every week. And it's certainly a better use of your time than watching said amateurs do mediocre Shakespeare once a week instead.

One of the things about being a ST/GM/etc is unlike pre-written scripts, is that I can make NPCs I know I can make entertaining for my players because I know what my skills as a ST are. Tully might be gold on the page, but if he's a turd in my hands I'm not doing my players any good.

And then there's something so many STs/etc. have had to learn how to deal with: when your players adopt throwaway NPCs. You had some NPC, they might not even have a name in your notes, that existed solely to drop a plot point, or get the PCs from location A to location B, and the players suddenly ignore the big NPC you have five pages of notes on to see what's up with the guy that runs the ferry across the river. Again it doesn't matter how good that NPC you have all that work into might be... it matters what the players latch on to because that's where the fun is.

Also, the best way to use vampire NPCs is to cultivate longstanding intimate relationships.

OK? What makes you think those of us prefer bespoke NPCs would disagree with that? The PCs get to know the NPCs deeply over long games. That's how they work regardless of who writes the NPCs.

With all the people who talk about their original PCs, I'm wondering how long they last.

I've noticed no particular difference in game longevity between canon settings and custom settings. The longest running characters (both PCs and NPCs) I've run were in custom ones personally. I once ran a NPC on a 24/7 chat (so that's running said NPC multiple times a week,not just once a week, or less because they didn't show up every session) for 6 years. Which would be at least 18 years worth of weekly TT play (easily more) in terms of how much time and energy I put into that (I speak from experience running both styles there). My longest running PC was 8 years, also an original, also on a 24/7 chat (so that's playing nearly daily, not just once a week or so). Yeah, I'm confident to say that if everything else falls into place, I can keep a character going for over 2,500 sessions.

If you take the time to create your characters in any game. You like to stay with them no matter what and even alter them to suit different games and I did that with one that I created in the 1990's for Rifts and numerous others. So it's not surprising to get attached to certain ones.

Some people do, some people don't. There's a whole "school" of gaming (not exactly WoD fans) that think PCs should be seen as more disposable and don't see getting attached to them for long is a good thing at all. I've played with a lot of people that are perfectly happy to retire a PC once they feel that PC is played out, and never touch that PC again, and others that keep going back to the same PC over and over. I would say, in general, it's more common for players to make new PCs for new games (instances of the same system, or new systems) than repeat the same thing each time. In my decades of RPGs, the players that always make the same basic concept get a reputation of "being that player" and thus are perceived as the unusual ones.

New players also tend to latch on to "easier" concepts that they're more used to because it means they have more energy for other things, but most players then try different things once they know the game better IME.

[Karos]

In terms of signature characters, I think I've only ever used Lucita and Beckett.

I have to admit as Englishman who studied history & classics I've got a soft-spot for the Gangrel Archaeologist and chronicler. Likewise, the Sabbat are my favourite sect and the Lasombra my favourite clan, so it's nice to have Lucita crop-up from time to time.

I do use plenty of the canon NPC's where appropriate. My London chronicle featured plenty of characters: Mithras, Lady Scarlett, Valerius, Stephen Lenoir, etc.

[Capussa]

I have used Mithras in most of my Chronicles, and a couple of others depending on the era of the setting and who would be available. Also as yet I have not had a need to use any stat blocks for such named NPC's, most of the NPC's I use are ones I have created to populate the setting

[Lysander]

If you take the time to create your characters in any game. You like to stay with them no matter what and even alter them to suit different games and I did that with one that I created in the 1990's for Rifts and numerous others. So it's not surprising to get attached to certain ones.

[CTPhipps]

I guess... it just seems so limiting to have this tool to make countless vampire NPCs, and then just recycle the same group over and over with some light reskinning if you can't use them as-is.

I think of it as the fact that I consider the Chicago NPCs some of the best written NPCs of any game system ever made. Also, the best way to use vampire NPCs is to cultivate longstanding intimate relationships.

With all the people who talk about their original PCs, I'm wondering how long they last. I've had chronicles in the same area that have lasted over an actual decade of real time.

The PCs get to know them deeply.

It's why I use the same NPCs in the Forgotten Realms. They're deeply close friends in a way.

[Astriarch]

I have not used Canon SPCs before in my games. I really enjoy making characters and typically populate my games with former PCs I or my friends have played. I have re-skinned old Requiem characters that we played into v5 SPCs.

That being said, I am about to start a chronicle that is starting in Paris and will end up taking the PCs to Istanbul. One of the foci of the game will be lineage... and I have set out to use quite a few canon SPCs mixed with some of my "signature" SPCs I have re-skinned. The Toreador Justicar in my games (he has shown up in a few Chronicles) is an original creation. In this new game I am having him be a grandchilde of Michael the Patriarch. One of my PCs is in Mithras' lineage. The other player is descended from Apacia Queen of Tombs. So Canon SPCs are definitely coming more into focus for me.

[monteparnas]

I guess... it just seems so limiting to have this tool to make countless vampire NPCs, and then just recycle the same group over and over with some light reskinning if you can't use them as-is.

I agree, especially if you want to have some sense of a broader world connecting your chronicles, which isn't necessary, but is something that many STs like.

But other than that, I just imagined how it would be to have a more globe-throttling game where the PCs find versions of the same people everywhere. It could be a funny comedic game for lighter game nights, or could be a Twilight-Zone kind of mystery if played straight.

[Heavy Arms]

I guess... it just seems so limiting to have this tool to make countless vampire NPCs, and then just recycle the same group over and over with some light reskinning if you can't use them as-is.

[CTPhipps]

How?

Unless you only play in Chicago (and then why would you limit yourself like that?), it would feel really weird for them to be showing up elsewhere; esp, if they're always showing up in all the games. Playing in Philly? Chicago NPCs are going to come by. Playing in Madrid? Yep there's going to be a reason for some of them to cross an ocean. Playing in Oslo? Apparently that's the same as Gary to the Chicago NPCs in terms of how involved they are.

Generally, I play in Chicago and Gary. I also happily just rename the chaarcters and use their stats as well as personality.

Tampa, Florida?

3000 year old Brujah philosopher named Archimedes.

[Chris24601]

Never. I build my own settings from the ground up; typically with dozens of original NPCs.

[BadFurryFanFic]

I don't recall ever having used them, or come across them in campaigns I've played in.

[Damian May]

Never. The majority of them are way too powerful or just batshit crazy to fit into my chronicles anyway and the places I set mine don't have any Signature Characters anyway.

Don't think I've ever played in someone elses game thats featured them either.

[Heavy Arms]

How?

Unless you only play in Chicago (and then why would you limit yourself like that?), it would feel really weird for them to be showing up elsewhere; esp, if they're always showing up in all the games. Playing in Philly? Chicago NPCs are going to come by. Playing in Madrid? Yep there's going to be a reason for some of them to cross an ocean. Playing in Oslo? Apparently that's the same as Gary to the Chicago NPCs in terms of how involved they are.