I've noticed a fair amount of discussion on GM style, primarily preplanned vs. freeform stuff. However, another aspect of GMing I find can make or break a campaign-reoccurring NPCs. There a fairly common staple to RPGs, that can have quite an affect on how the players view the game. I've run games where a particular reoccurring character has greatly added to the players' enjoyment, and have experienced occasions where the players can't stand an NPC to the point of ruining the game.

So what do you notice about GM's with good NPCs? How about bad ones?

Have any stories of excellent or horrible NPCs?

I had a very mememorable one, a Johnson. One of the runners and this Johnson were completely wack (it was a gag campaign). These guys ended up being drinking buddies for a while, until the corp expedited the Johnson, which led to a really cool revenge run.

The most memorable bad guy had to be the street preacher, whose lines were always "Praise to the Deity" with one of those southern baptists/televangelist voice. The runners were actually okay putting an end to him and his church, esp. when he turned out to be a wendigo.

Don

The best re-occuring NPCs are the ones you didn't make to be re-occuring in my experience. If you make an NPC solely to be the re-occuring villian, the players can see right through it and it feels fake or like they're being railroaded. On the other hand, all the best re-occuring villians I've had were just guys they had a hard time beating or who did something that really set them off.

The only exception I've found to this is if you create a "rival" character for another PC. The martial arts adept clashes repeatedly with a student of the rival school who's just a few karma points better than the PC, or the speed-freak elf with WR3, RE, and basically walks at 30 MPH meets someone with MBW4, and so on. When making this kind of NPC, always make sure to make them just a BIT better than the respective PC, so they will usually end up in a draw but with the NPC "winning" whatever the contest is over (the NPC gets the chip, the NPC banishes the spirit, and so on). The only problem with this approach is that you're focusing on one specific PC, so make sure you have rivals for all your PCs or else have something else for them to do. It's also best to draw these NPCs out of your PC's background.

The Abstruse One

I guess it really depends on the role the NPC is playing. I tend to use one NPC as the main antgonist druing a section of campaign. But I try no to over do with NPC's don't want the game to get like an episode of Cheers " Where everybody knows your name" In fact my players have just managed to defeat the last big "enemy". Which is unfourtunate for them because up next is the Arc Shutdown.... oh how much fun its gonan be to have them on a run inside the arc when it goes down I love running for new players that have no clues on the plot lines in shadowrun. So much easier to surprise them.

I know what you mean...I've got a group I'm grooming for an extraction run from this new-agey cult called the Universal Brotherhood...

The Abstruse One

Couldn't go back that far some of the players are from way back so they know about the brotherhood. But none of them know from the ARC and on..... can't wait for Ghostwalker to show up....

Interesting how quickly this discussion shifted toward villain NPCs only.

Contacts make the most basic NPCs that most players wish would recur, at least when they need them. But contacts have lives too, and sometimes those lives can be dangerous just by virtue of who they are and where they are, never mind who they know.

How did the street kid get to be a street kid? How does she survive? What alliances has she made in order to be (mostly) left alone by everyone who might wish to exploit her ... and how has that last run by the runners against the yakuza threatened those alliances? After all, she's been seen talking to them.

Why does the corp secretary/tech/researcher talk to the shadowrunners? Does the corp know he does this? How are they likely to react if they find out? What do the runners have to do to keep this NPC recurring and "active"?

Another option is to make a club or specific neighbourhood or even a specific apartment building (perhaps the primary residence of one or more of the runners?) a type of general "contact" for one or more of a team of runners. By fleshing in the place's habitués and giving the major ones personality and a sketched-out background, the GM instantly has an entire roster of potential recurring NPCs, with no requirement for railroading whatsoever.

As a loose example from our games, a smaller building, say a four-story fringe-area former large house converted by a superintendent Prairie Dog shaman and her family business (architects/builders/renovators, dedicated to restoring and converting old fringe-area buildings), doesn't have that many residents to flesh out - maybe 4-6 apartments per floor? - but all who live there will "fit" within that community, and more than one is likely to be magically active. In addition to the extremely tight in-building network (help or hindrance to the runner, depending on the nature of the runner's relationship), each resident will additionally have a source of income (possibly a job - where?) and a pattern of interests which will evolve their own network of contacts. Potentially, the runner in good standing with one or more residents of such a building might be, contact-wise, "one friend-of-friend away from everything". Alternately, the runner who has pissed off someone in such a building might equally find that listened-to rumour has quickly spread far beyond what should be possible for a simple wageslave, perhaps even to the ears of someone who would have been far better left in ignorance ...

I have a recurring NPC in my game, a Seductress Shaman who acts as a Mr. Johnson, who the PC's are convinced is going to be a villian (my PC's read the forums so I wont say if he is). The reason they haven't (or wont) kill him yet is that one of the PC's has amnesia, and the Shaman knows about his past. That runner's payment is information about his life. The PC's hate him, but they need him, too.

Any contact or acquaintance that the runners interact with regularly is a "recurring" NPC. The way to make the good ones is to use the time to develop them into more complicated, three-dimensional people as the runners continue to interact with them. If an NPC that the PCs interact with continues to be a one-note stereotype, then it detracts from the roleplaying of the game. This is fine if the game is a light one where people crack jokes, shoot things, and let off steam from work. But it is a problem if you are trying for a more serious campaign.

Recurring villains are more complicated, and harder to get right. The biggest problem is with railroading. If the PCs get into a position where they have a villain dead to rights, then go ahead and let the villain die. Don't use a plot contrivance to let the villain escape. It's fine to have a villain with contingency plans and minions to cover his escape, but don't fudge or ret-con to save him. The best way to handle it is to have a replacement handy. And don't have the replacement just take over where the first villain left off. The new villain could decide that corrupting the PCs to his side would be a better tactic, or decide the whole plan isn't worth it, or be much more (or less) competent than the previous villain. As a GM, you may have a story to tell, but always keep more than one branch open for the story to go. If you force it to go in one, and only one, direction - then you aren't respecting the players (who should also play a part in shaping the story) or the dice (a random factor that keeps things unpredictable).

I encourage players to keep notes on all of their contacts. Everything you learn about them: fashion statements, what kind of place they live in. Where they like to meet....
This serves two purposes. First, it helps you flesh out your meetings with the contact. you can tailor gifts and payouts to them, offer to do favors, make small talk while waiting for late team members, and so on.
Secondly, you will end up with well rounded NPC's to show up in other campaigns. These guys will already have reputations, and they really turn into a 'web' of contacts.
Also try NPC's who are charicatures (sp?) of people that you and your players know but aren't particularily close to. A classmate or prof, some local TV guy. It helps to have the same image in everyone's head.

Yeah I have this guy who encounters thet poor group every time.

He tries to ambush the group, with a group of Gangers and always yells out "Die You Fraggres!!!"

I just make NPC's... whether or not they become reoccuring is up to the PCs.

If they go to bar X and decide they like it, they'll be back, blammo, bunch of people just became reoccuring NPCs.

I rarely plan that sort of thing as, anytime you plan something, your players will do the opposite, just because.

Sunday

I use alot of the old characters that our groups have played as contacts/npcs later in our campaign. The old players love it, and the new players feel like they have a connection after hearing some of the stories about the old players. Plus it's less work for me, as I have all the old stats to update for most of these guys.

So a question to follow this all up, do you have 1 fixxer that you try and hook a group up with, or do you let everyone in the group choose their own fixer?