NPCs as Treasure

Rescuing someone in a dungeon may lead to them offering you a reward.  It may lead to players having a local contact for information and interactions in the future.  But what if the person rescued was so talented the reward they offered was like a magic item?

The Royal Jeweler - I can make a brass automaton that mimics the movement of a real creature so truly it can pass as that creature!  Come to me in the future and I will make one for you.  Whatever creature you wish as long as it is no bigger than a small dog. 

The Wise Woman - Take me to some dread place you will enter and I will ask my ancestors about it.  Then I will give you a walnut that will roll toward treasure, an acorn that will roll toward lost friends, and a maple samara that will flutter back to the exit.

The Mad Hermit - I have gathered foul herbs enough to slather three of you so you will appear dead to the dead and beast to the beasts and foul impertinent to gentlefolk and scholars.

That's the idea anyway.  I want it to be a kind of one time service, not something the players would go back to again and again.  So it needs to be unique and powerful enough that the NPC can only afford it once.  But also want it to function as another tool in the Player's adventuring toolbox.  Something they will keep in mind for future heists or schemes.  So it can't be a straight up reward, like if the wise woman gave the three seed to them and they would work in the next dungeon with no further help from her.

Woodcut Portraits

I thought these woodcuts were cool and might be useful to represent npcs.  From this book published in 1633.  I would say that puts them in the public domain but apparently the book scanner claims copyright, so . . . who knows.  I edited them a bit.

 

NPC Portraits 4

I thought these first dudes would work well in a Boot Hill adventure:

I especially like this last one, would fit well as a character in a fantasy world I think.

These are all in the public domain you can do whatever you want with them.  I'll eventually add them to the npc portraits zip file on my art page.

Update

Work is crazy right now.  Here is the collected NPC portraits I promised long ago.  The file is still pretty big.  Also, have a bull, or aurochs silhouette until I can post more substantially:

Sandbox Lessons from Westeros

I finally got around to reading the books of A Song of Ice and Fire at the insistence of one of my players.  I'm not quite done with the last book currently out, but I've enjoyed them quite a bit.  I think Martin has done a good job of providing plots that both provide for genre expectations at the same time as surprising me every now and again.

Anyway, as with anything I approached the books with the eyes of a DM and I found some simplifications Martin adopted to help him tell his stories that might also help DMs trying to run players in a big, imagined world.  Some simplifications you might consider for your fantasy world:

1. Simple Family Names - There are some allegiances in the books that are complicated by marriage, but most are related to your immediate family and families in the books are clear because they have the same last name.  Bastards are also clearly marked by a traditional last name, and marked in such a way that you know where their family is from (Snow, Rivers).  This allows you to have a lot more characters floating about with out losing track of where they are from and where their allegiances most likely lie.  (Many, though not all, of the place names in the books function in similarly simple ways: Oldtown, King's Landing, Winterfell, Riverrun).
2. Simple Coats of Arms - Along the same lines, heraldry is simple and almost always utilizes an object appropriate to the location and vocation of that family.  And soldiers wear badges of these arms.  So you can usually tell just by looking who different troops belong to.  That's the point of heraldry, but in real life it is much more complicated.  I think that for many of the arms of Westeros players might even be able to guess where the family hails from without former knowledge.
3. Simple Long Range Communication - Ravens - By sending message via the ravens, word of deaths and crimes can spread relatively quickly.  And while uncertainty of arrival is always mentioned as a possibility, it's never been a plot point in what I've read so far.  So, in effect, the castles become points of civilization where news is heard and only someone traveling between them won't be privy to important goings on.  Individuals can also send messages, using the ravens like a mail system.  This means you don't have to have a complicated system to track the spread of news based on travel times of merchants or peasants, just have ravens carry the news and get on with the show.
4. Assumed Knowledge NPCs - Maesters - Every castle has a source of history, technology, and healing.  And because of their vows, these maesters while serving that family, are generally neutral and not seeking power or wealth of their own.  Have a wound or question about historic lore-- head for a castle.  Priests are a similar resource, a septa or septon in every castle, but because of the low magic beginning of the series, they are less important in the books.  It might be more important in your world that every castle has a chapel and a priest.
5. Assumed Dumping spot for troublesome NPCs - The Night Watch - It seems a neutral faction with its own military but concerns other than ruling, might be handy for many reasons.  Having an order to put criminals or potential threats to succession in means these threats never disappear, can be questioned by players, and can become threats again if they break their vows.  Also, the faction can be a place for players to look for aid, if it aligns with the order's goals.

Another smaller one might be simple cultural rules shared across the whole world, like any knight can make a knight, or that any marriage can be annulled if it wasn't consummated, or breaking bread with a host means they can't harm you.  Then, if players know these rules, they know the import of someone breaking them.

Anything you would add?

3 Knowledge NPCs

I've posted about npcs several times before but I wanted to zoom in on a particular type that I haven't handled very well in the past: the npc that helps players figure out magic items.  If you imagine a game world stripped down to having only one npc, it would probably be one of these.

I can imagine a game that doesn't require figuring out what rings do or how wands work, for example, because players are told immediately upon finding them.  The point of the items is for them to feel like rewards, to allow for new abilities, and to provide some fun toys, after all, so why not just streamline towards those ends.

And yet, there is some mystery lost by doing that and some possible fun, tense situations are lost where players have to experiment with potentially dangerous items.  So, the compromise is to have a way for low level players to find these things out if they go back to town.  Traditionally I've used cantankerous and greedy npcs to do this, but that gets annoying for players fast.  And charging too much eats into the idea of the items as rewards (especially keeping in mind that some of these might be single-use).

Another thing to keep in mind is that I'm a ham and like to roleplay a bit to try and make my players laugh.  So I want to allow for that without being too annoying.  So here is my idea of a new way I might handle this with three different  Knowledge NPCs.  All of these would be free of charge to talk with, but have some downsides.

The Veteran
"Have I ever told you about the time I . . .?"
Upside: The veteran will tell some ridiculous story that actually has good tactical gaming advice embedded in it.  Ever wonder how to teach new players what to do with a potion of diminution or a wand of mineral detection, this old soul can tell them a specific example involving an amusing anecdote.
Downside: The veteran has a poor memory so activation words or potion tastes might be slightly off.  For example, he knows a common wand activation word is "something like loose, or lute" when it is actually "luz."  The players will have to experiment a bit, but should be able get the right answer without too much trouble.

The Storyteller
"Ah, the lay of Phineas mentions such an item, let me sing it for you . . ."
Upside:  Get your DM singing and rhyming fun here.  A bard type or maybe just a village gossip, this person can help players understand the range of possible items.  So, what are the most common ring types in your world?  They might reveal a few common types each time.  This can help players know what they might want to find or later make themselves.
Downside: Not every story you hear is true.  The storyteller will give the truth + some ridiculous baggage.  For example, "The wand's activation word is "Luz" but beware, for every time you use it you will shrink 3 inches."  The idea is to make the players a little hesitant.  The false part can't be too scary though, or they will never want to use it.

The Scholar
"Where exactly did you find this again?  I have the memoirs of Helen the Bald in which she describes exactly how she made that item . . . and an indication of her heir."
Upside: The scholar has original sources, or photographic memory of triple-checked accounts and can give you three possible activation words and a recipe for making the device yourself.
Downside:  The scholar wants to know where you found this, when, who was involved, all the details.  This is a way that any player tomb robbing shenanigans (or thinly veiled lies about such) might spread.  It could be a way that rival adventure parties or disgruntled heirs get on the trail of the party.  But mostly it will create a bit of worry by implying to players that those are definite possibilities.  Also,I think it could still be fun to have a little experimentation involved to discover the actual knowledge.  For example, "Helen made three wands of this type, one was said to activate by speaking the word 'Luz,' one with 'Beleuchten,' and one with 'Nur.'  With the actual word for this wand being "Luz," but if similar wands are found in the future, the players can try the other two without even consulting the Scholar again.
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So, one of these might be more helpful for particular items, for characters of particular level, or even for DMs of different proclivity.  One thing you might do is have each of them available nearby and let players alternate and discover the weaknesses of each type.  Another idea is, once players are familiar with the npcs throw in a complication, for example the Scholar acts like a Veteran when thoroughly drunk.

But, I'd love to hear details about how you handle this part of DMing in your campaign

More NPC Portraits

Here's another batch of public domain images you might find useful as NPC portraits. These are all public domain. Some don't really meet the quality standard I'd like, but I thought I'd just put them up and let you decide. Lots of moustachioed men in uniform here, perfect for your 1850s Cthulhu campaigns. (ps, be on the look out for celebrities).