NPC Concept- Nargaster the Great

Right now with the time crunch of work going on, I take whatever inspiration I can get. Today's post was inspired by discussion on Gaming BS podcast as they were talking about overused tropes such as Elminster, who sounds as if he has become a Mary-Sue. As I was listening on my long motorcycle ride home, my mind came up with a more twisted, and perhaps more truthful version of Elminster. Behold, Nargaster the Great!

Legend: Nargaster is a swarthy master magician that could wipe out a horde of dragons with one magical sneeze. In every village he has left many a buxom lass heartbroken yet "satisfied". He is considered one of the greatest living legends of the world and where he goes, justice follows.

The Truth: Nargaster is a wimp that knows a few minor magic tricks. His legend is a result of his childhood sweetheart, Grezelda the Bard, who's heart he inadvertently broke. Rather than compose "rage ballads" of his inadequacies, she has built him up to a legend that he can never live up to. The tales have even taken on a life of their own and many great deeds that are accomplished by other heroes are becoming attributed to Nargaster.

Whenever he tried to cash in on his fame with towns, he found himself asked to do magics he is incapable of against threats that would squish him like a bug. And as for the ladies, when faced with the reality of Nargaster they tend to unleash mocking tirades. Nargaster has now been branded as a cheap, weaselly impostor of himself.

Nargaster is not a bad guy. He genuinely does want to help people and will often try to recruit adventurers to help those in need. Unfortunately whenever the heroes are successful, Nargaster's fame grows and the forgotten heroes take it out on Nargaster.

Nargaster would work as a reoccurring npc, always trying to drum up help for some village in need. 

He may also have his own character arc: The only way for him to break out of Grezelda's curse is to actually become the Nargaster she has built him up to be. Having the heroes help him to become that person could be a great moment in the game. Heck, maybe they can even get him and Grezelda back together!

Yeah this type of character is fit for a Fantasy campaign and I have been hounding on sci-fi a lot lately, but as I said I have to take my inspiration where I can.

Here's a Few Links I'd Like to Share

First up is from Geek and Sundry and Wil Wheaton. It's his new live-play videos of the Ashes of Valkana. It uses the same game system that the Dragon Age rpg uses. The system is intriguing...

Introduction to Valkana

The Journey Begins

Evil Awakens

I really like the production of it: the die roll display and the occasional art pieces flashing. I also respect the fact that he isn't using a game board and is sticking with "theater of the mind".

And a rather lengthy review of D&D 5E from Kurt Weigel. He reviewed D&D 4E (Part 1, Part 2) once upon a time and it was scathing and full of flame. Watch them both to see how things have changed in the industry's big bad baby daddy.

If you aren't familiar with Kurt's reviews then you should check him out. He has reviewed a lot of Savage Worlds games and he is a fan of the system. His review of Marchland convinced me to head over to Drivethru RPG to pick up a copy. Kurt has also been a guest on Jerrod "The Savage Daddy" Gunning's Savage Worlds GM Hangout.

Regarding Figure Flats, Tri-Folds, And Pogs

I'm feeling over-worked, but very crafty.

So people seemed to really enjoy the Slipstream Tri-Folds. I'm considering doing some more "paper heroes" in the future. However I'm unsure of the format that works best for people.

For me, the best format is 2-sided flats that I can mount into game stands. They collapse for easy storage and I can carry a huge amount of figures in a Plano deep storage box.

I built the Slipstream characters as tri-folds because that's how Pinnacle made their set and I wanted to maintain compatibility. However tri-folds seem frail and hard to manage imho. Sure they stand on their own but once they are glued together they take up more storage room and are still quite delicate. Also a slight exhale over the game surface may scatter them, more so than flats on stands.

Then there are the pogs, or tokens. I also make these since facing isn't really an issue in Savage Worlds (or most games these days now that I think about it). You still get a lot of storage, but you sacrifice full body art. They are very stable and if you glue the pictures to inexpensive wooden discs from your local craft shop then they won't slide around when people breathe. Just when they bump the table while reaching for more pizza.

So which do you guys and gals prefer for paper heroes: Tri-Fold, Figure Flat, or Pog? Leave a comment if you want to be immortal...

And speaking of Pogs...

Triple Ace Games announced these new and totally cool gems for their Helfrost setting.

These are awesome and beautiful. I wish the folks at TAG good luck on their sales. 

A few people like me are wishing for some generic versions but I don't know if that's possible. The artwork is very integrated with the pog, so they would need to shotgun a whole bunch of art onto them and pray that people would want to buy the sets. The safer bet is to stick with IPs.

Still it is giving me ideas for some homemade Pogs. They wouldn't be as sturdy or cool as the official ones but for crafty gamers on a budget...

One idea was to use a rotation wheel in a sleeve, like those old decoder wheels or the life trackers for Magic the Gathering. Problem is that would put an axle pin right in the center of the art.

Another idea is to print out pogs and coat them with something that would allow me to use wet or dry erase markers. I'll have to think about that for a but as I'm worried that the constant erasing and marking might slow down gameplay.

Dogged Indecision

It's one of the things severely cramping my mojo right now, and why I am spending so much time (too much) on starship design. The problem is a lack of clear vision of how I want starship combat to work and feel. It's a trifecta of clashing issues: reality, individuality, and cool-ality. 

The reality of space combat is incredibly boring. And even though I'm not shooting for reality, some aspects of common sense keep dogging me. For instance why is every ship armed in Star Wars? A stock light freighter coming off the line is equipped with a laser cannon. In reality things would be more like Firefly where civilian vehicles don't run armed, they just run.

Individuality? Well, what sets my setting apart from thousands of others? Do I make space combat more unique or do I just keep doing the same thing everyone else is doing?

And Cool-ality. What will my future players enjoy? What do people like? Do they even want a (semi) unique yet common-sense approach to space combat because it is different or do they want Star Wars with the serial numbers filed off?

Self-editing is the problem here. I keep going over and over the same rules, the same design concepts, all because I can't work out which of these three voices to satisfy. This is where having a second voice, a writing partner, makes all the difference. Unfortunately I'm all alone here on space station Yelp. Unless you count the voices in my head.

If anyone has any advice to get me out of this rut, I'm all ears.