God NPCs II

by HARLEQUINN@worldnet.att.net

Recently I received an e-mail message from a extremely attentive reader who not only discovered a few shortcomings in my God NPCs article, but also went on in his message to discuss a few things I probably should have mentioned myself. I all but never let anybody write anything for any of my pages, but I’m making an exception this time because: a) His message clearly and concisely identifies many important issues relating to the subjects of seemingly invulnerable Shadowrun entities, and b) I didn’t have anything of my own written for this week’s update.

So now I’ll turn the microphone over to Harlequinn, even though he screwed up my name in his original e-mail message. (The name is Branson, damnit, NOT Brian!)

I’m writing in response to your article about God NPC’s. I just wanted to voice an opinion about Harlequinesque style of NPC’s.

Your friend stated that his opinion was based on Harlequin’s seemingly immortal status. I’m not sure how to take that. To me, (and this is just my opinion) it reminded me of my days playing AD&D. In those days, the more powerful the critter, the more respect the players and GMs had for it…. UNTIL the players actually faced one. Then, as they were tearing their character sheets apart, grumblings of frustration and anger and helplessness were heard. Statements, almost identical to your friend’s, were rampant, and the GM had to (for some stupid reason) appologize and make excuses. (As we all know, the GM is often blamed for character deaths and failures). To me, this all seems petty. That aside, the point is that those beasties actually HAD stats! Granted, they were so preposterous that the odds of actually defeating one were slim, but the possibility existed. Hell, even the gods in AD&D weren’t immortal. They all had stats (all very similar to each other), and they all had hit points. Thereby, the possibility existed for a character to kill a god.

However, I enjoy playing Shadowrun because of its closeness to realism as well as its ability to keep the fantastical events and beings in existance. And while the game does this, it also tries to take the players and GM’s away from the “hack-and-slash” mentality. If the big megacorporation ruins the characters’ lives or even leaves them for dead (go figure), they don’t go and try to “kill” the corporation. Well, they may try, but they have a better chance of survival if they just put their own guns to their heads.

I feel this way because the megacorporations are, for all intents and purposes, invulnerable. You can’t kill them either, and yet no one complains about that. Would you not laugh if your group stated to you in a loud and proud voice that they were going to go kill Ares Macrotechnology? Not hurt… not steal from… not discredit… I mean destroy the entire corporation and all its holdings. I think you would because we know that a small group of shadowrunners are incapable of such an act. Now, I know that I am comparing an immortal elf to a multi-national megacorporation, but I feel that the comparison is not unjustified. If you compare the similarities, you will see that I am justified as well. (or maybe not… this is just my opinion.)

So, why is your friend (and everyone else for that matter) upset that an NPC is immortal when there are a dozen megacorporations that are just as invulnerable to the characters? Is it because Harlequin is the same magnitude of power condensed and personified? Is it because they can’t simply kill whatever it is that they fear and don’t understand? (sorry, I don’t know where that came from. But it still may hold some truth. that’s an individual thing) I understand frustration can do wonders for some people’s attitude, but there are some things that out of the reach of even the most powerful and determined of PC’s.

My point is (finally) that there are things out there that you can’t “kill.” Whether it be Harlequin or the IRS, they are simply beyond your reach. I don’t see why people find that offensive. I find it intriguing and mysterious. The idea of someone possessing near god-like status and having the power to do almost anything… Isn’t that intriguing? And why would Harlequin want to fuck with everyone on the planet? Why would I, as a GM, want to use any god-like NPC to take revenge on my players? Where’s the fun in that? I can do that anyway simply by flubbing dice rolls! I could kill your character off using the stats for a house cat if I wanted to! And like I said about the feeling of frustration, my group feels more frustration and helplessness towards the megacorps than they do any god-like NPC. And why would Harlequin be all that concerned if the PC’s want to play his games or not? He’s got billions of other players to choose from, and a lot of them are much more interesting to play with (i.e. Ehran or even Aztechnology). If Harlequin wants you to play, you’ll play. And chances are, you won’t even know you are playing.

In my opinion, Harlequin and other god-like NPC’s have been around for a long time. They didn’t just wake up one day, and POOF! they were immortal. They gained their power over time. And with time comes other psychological traits that make it very easy for a GM to explain why Harlequin isn’t buzzing around the bars all the time trying to pick up women or pick fights with the PC’s. And just like the megacorporations, these god-like NPC’s have others of their magnitude to contend with and fight with. They may use tools to make points to the players (pawns for Harlequin, and expediters for Ares), and these guys ARE mortal. Go ahead, put on your best war paint, grab your biggest gun, and go shoot some living targets. But if you keep pestering the master of the watering hole, he will remind you of your place on the food chain.

HARLEQUINN@worldnet.att.net