Creating NPCs

Various background stats often require that we have an idea of the people we are dealing with. These stats include Allies, Contacts, Followers, Retainers, and more. Not all backgrounds are available to all classes. The Storyteller ultimately controls all your NPCs.

Powerful helpers are Allies, Backup, Retainers, or other major characters.

Types of NPCs

Powerful NPC

Any NPCs from the background below need to be fully statted. Only these categories may have significant combat stats if desired. Go to the 'Base Mortal' heading to points and rules.

Allies: Friends, family, friends of convenience, fishing buddies, work-out buddies, etc. These npcs are more likely than not to help when you have a crisis, if they are able to. However, for their help in your time of need, they expect the same of you. "They’re probably aware of the weirder side of your life, but they don’t know the details of secret society or your true powers unless you choose to endanger them by sharing those secrets. Whatever their nature, or their relationship to you, these allies are characters in their own right, with needs, fears, motivations, and agendas that might coincide with your mage’s goals but also may occasionally clash with them.

Backup: Requires membership in a larger organization --a gang, the police, an armed services division, the Technocracy, and so forth. (Currently reserved for Technocracy only) "Backup tends to arrive as a pack of gun-wielding grunts who rush in to cover a mage’s escape. Any major tasks (or sacrifices) are the mage’s responsibility – the backup’s not there to handle much heavy lifting. In other situations, the Background can represent other types of support personnel: receptionists, students, roadies, drivers, medics, even prostitutes. A King or Queen of the Jungle might be able to holler for assistance and attract an appropriate group of animals, assuming that character has a story-based reason for such loyalty.

Retainers: Each retainer is a devoted servant, employee, mind-controlled servitor, lab-built construct, or even a very minor spirit who does your bidding with a decent sense of loyalty. He’ll tend your house, your gear, and your overall busywork. Perhaps he’s a pathetic lab-assistant, a mundane apprentice, a lover, or a devoted friend. He’s your Igor; she’s your Moneypenny. So long as you treat such characters with respect (and maybe even if you don’t), this Background gives you extra sets of hands. With few exceptions, a Retainer’s skills are strictly mundane. He might know some yoga or have office experience, but he won’t be hefting a machine gun anytime soon! If and when you train up a Retainer character, that character becomes an Ally instead.

Background NPC

These backgrounds require a brief paragraph about how you acquired them, what they do for you. In some instances you may be asked for certain notable stats.

Contacts: Acquaintances from that collection of business cards, the people you meet at seminar, etc. These npcs are really nothing more than a contact in your address book. They have no loyalty to you to do anything, but you do share some interest at the very least. Their range of influence may be fairly narrow depending on how you gained this contact.

Cult: Any mage with charisma can have friends; this Cult, however, goes beyond mere friendship. These devotees trust and revere you so deeply that, when gathered and directed, they can lend their beliefs to your rituals. Cult members are typical Sleepers: not especially skillful or accomplished beyond their utter faith in you. On your end, then, you must fulfill their trust. If you want their trust, then at least appear to be the person they expect you to be. If their faith wavers, then you lose this Background’s benefits.

Kinfolks (Shifters Only): A pool of human and wolf kinfolk you have access to.

Mentor: As with Allies and Familiar, this Background represents Storyteller characters with their own backgrounds, personalities, and relationships to the world at large. Your Storyteller can (and should) have a blast playing up such characters, running agendas that often remain obscure to the students in their path.

Patron:In the chessboard politics of the Ascension factions, certain players conceal their faces from the pawns. One of those players has dedicated him- or herself to your welfare… at least for the moment. Chances are, you have no idea who this patron is, what they want, or what the final bill for services rendered will be; even if you think you know who’s behind that goodwill, the truth remains uncertain. This person is no Mentor or Ally but a secretive benefactor whose true goals remain hidden… at least for the moment… from your understanding. Game-wise, Patron reflects a powerful party who’s watching out for your character’s interests. Only the Storyteller knows what this party’s plans are and what their interest in the character might be. Pacts (Demon): Represents the number of pacts you start play with. Others may only be gained by making them Icly. When you create your character, give some thought to her existing pacts. Who are her thralls? What is the nature of the agreement she has with each one? How did she come to this agreement in the first place? What does she have to do to keep up her end of the bargain? Do other demons know about these pacts? How does she protect these thralls from her enemies?

Exceptions

These two categories are exceptions in that Followers may be fully statted, partial statted, or not statted at all. It is on a case by case basis of how the followers are used. Familiar may not necessarily be powerful but they do always need to be statted, and they have special rules for doing so.

Followers (Demon): Followers are mortals who work in your character’s service. They differ from contacts in that they often appear on stage and carry out tasks for the character. Followers are less capable than allies, however, in that they are always normal mortals without supernatural abilities or elite skills. Followers can be extremely useful in some situations, though, because they feel far more loyalty to your character than her allies or contacts do. Your followers need some degree of reward for their efforts, and they won’t take endless abuse without rebelling, but they will still do almost anything your character asks.
xxxxxOther kinds of followers do exist, however, and almost any character can amass a group of loyal retainers. An artist might have a stable of students and assistants; a businessman might have a number of loyal staff members; the captain of a SWAT team might have her subordinate officers. The main thing that differentiates followers from other mundane retainers is simply their loyalty.
xxxxxThe primary use for Followers is to perform your character’s legwork. Legwork covers tasks that are generally too minor for your character to take care of personally or too mundane to warrant roleplaying out in detail. Someone needs to drive your character around, take care of her taxes and deliver important packages while she’s engaged elsewhere. Followers are also useful for dangerous tasks that aren’t worth placing a player’s character at risk. If you need to lure out the maddened demon who’s stalking and killing prostitutes, you could dress as a hooker and lure him out, but it’s safer and perhaps a better strategic option to use your loyal worshipper as bait. Followers can also sometimes serve as backup in dangerous situations. An ally would be more competent in a crisis, but followers can be counted on to fire wildly, distract opponents and drive the injured to safety.

Familiar/Companion: The Mystic's Familiar. The Technocrats – especially among the Progenitors, the New World Order, and Iteration X – have been known to employ Companions: cybernetically enhanced critters, bioengineered experiments, clones, and so on. Other groups, as usual, employ their own names: assistants, brothers, soul-beasts, spirit animals, and so forth. In game terms, this Background – like Allies and Mentor – reflects a character affiliated with the player and yet created and run by the Storyteller.

Creating Companions

Base Mortal

As per Mage 20, Chapter Six.
• Attributes: Primary 6, Secondary 4, Tertiary 3 (Physical, Social and Mental)
• Abilities: Primary 11, Secondary 7, Tertiary 4 (Talents, Skills, and Knowledges)