No Norseman is an island. Even if they happen to live on one. NPCs represent family members, apprentices, allies, spouses, who assist the PC and support them as they try to survive and thrive in the Written World. However, the focus of this story is on the exceptional PCs, rather than the cast of supporting characters. As such, the rules for what NPCs can and cannot do are much simplified from a PC. A single "NPC" can represent one character, such as a highly capable wife, or a group of characters, such as the crew of a ship or several feckless children. In addition, players need not have every family member or acquaintance count as an NPC, only the ones that the PC desires to have mechanical relevance.
NPCs feed themselves. There is no benefit to feeding an NPC, other than them liking you more.
Instead of having separate stats, traits, and tools, the progression of NPCs is abstracted based on the Year of the game. Generally, as the game progresses, NPCs are assumed to have increased their skills in their areas of interest and found or built better tools for themselves to accomplish those tasks. As such, many of the actions that NPCs can take refer to Year, which is a shorthand to say, "1 in Year 1, 2 in Year 2, and so on." The
maximum value of Year is 3. After year 3, NPCs plateau. They are not PC-level protagonists and cannot elevate their skills beyond first Norse ceiling. Year may also simply be used to refer to the actual year of the game. Context is important.
When creating an NPC, choose three Roles. Each Role gives the NPC one or more actions that they can perform. Every season, each NPC can perform two of their Role actions. These can be two of the same Role action or actions from two different Roles. The NPC roles are as follows:
Adventurer: [Trick Trait]: Your NPC accompanies you on an adventure! They will help in a narrative fashion. Their chosen Trick Trait dictates the kind of help than an NPC might provide. Swordsmanship Adventurers fight off mooks which Water Kunna Adventurers might cast a critical spell at a critical moment.
Role Action: Adventure.
Bargainer: [Seidr Type]: Your NPC is skilled in making bargains with spirits. Depending on the Year, your NPC can perform Spirit Seidrcraft of a designed Seidr type. The PC must provide the NPC with desired bargaining materials, if the Spirit asks for them.
- Year 1-2: Lesser Spirit Seidrcraft
- Year 3+: Intermediate Spirit Seidrcraft
Craftsman/Craftswoman: [Trade Trait]: Your NPC is good at repairing things. Eventually, they will become skilled at building and upgrading things. Pick one Trade Trait that can be used to craft things, such as Smithing or Woodworking. Your NPC may perform certain actions based on the current Year with regards to that Trade as if they possessed all reasonable core Discipline for it. The PC must provide the NPC with the materials required for the craft. Your NPC counts as having a [Year] Tier Trade Trait and a [Year] Tier Trade Tool when performing Craft actions.
- Year 1: Repair an appropriate object.
- Year 2: Craft an appropriate object that could be made with a minor action.
- Year 3+: Upgrade an appropriate object or build something that could be made with a major action.
Enchantor: [Seidr Type]: Your NPC is skilled in creating Seidr Filters. Depending on the Year, your NPC can perform Filter Seidrcraft of a designed Seidr type. The PC must provide the NPC with the item to be imbued with a Filter.
- Year 1-2: Lesser Filter Seidrcraft
- Year 3+: Intermediate Filter Seidrcraft
Extractor: [Seidr Type]: Your NPC is skilled in creating Seidr Extracts. Depending on the Year, your NPC can perform Extract Seidrcraft of a designed Seidr type. The PC must provide the NPC with the materials required for their Extracts.
- Year 1-2: Lesser Extract Seidrcraft
- Year 3+: Intermediate Extract Seidrcraft
Farmer/Fisher/etc.: Your NPC is good at Harvesting things. Choose a type of profession, such as Farmer or Fisher. Your NPC can Harvest reasonable plots and improvements related to the chosen profession. A Farmer could harvest fields, a Fisher could harvest piers and beaches, etc. For the purposes of Farmer actions, your NPC is treated as having [Year] Tier Trade Trait and [Year] Tier Trade Tools.
Herder: Your NPC can take care of Livestock.
- Year 1-2: Your NPC takes care of 1 + [Year] units of livestock. You must supply the Food or plot from which the Livestock graze.
- Year 3+: Your NPC breeds two units of compatible livestock together. They are treated as having Tier [Year] Husbandry.
Scout: Your NPC is a wanderer or an explorer!
- Year 1-2: Your NPC scouts somewhere on the Faroes, bringing back information on that location.
- Year 3+: Your NPC travels farther afield, gaining information from another land.
Trainer: [Trick Trait]: Your NPC is a sparring partner, mentor, or other helper in your acquisition of certain skills. The Training that a Trainer NPC grants is not increased by Fast Learner.
- Year 1-2: Grants a PC 1 Training which must be applied to the Trainer's chosen Trick Trait.
- Year 3+: Grants a PC 2 Training which must be applied to the Trainer's chosen Trick Trait.
[Write-in]: Hypothetically, NPCs might fulfill other roles. If there is something you'd like your NPC to be able to do, bring it up to me and we will discuss it. However, NPCs
cannot gain Runes or Spellcasting, of any kind. To do so would infringe on the realm of existing PCs and QM NPCs and make a less interesting game and economy.
Under the Current Ruleset, one NPC is worth 1 Advantage.
At this moment, if you want to cash in your NPCs for other Advantages, you may do so. What can be gained is a little broader, given the later start. For example, upgrades to existing property or runed items.
Otherwise consolidate your existing NPCs into NPCs under the new system.
Solo Bonus
No Norseman is an island… except those that are. Clan, family, and friends are a huge advantage to surviving the harsh realities of the Written World. At the same time, it is known that the glory of one is shared by those close to them. Deeds accomplished by those who have no one to support them reflect glory on them alone and, thus, each season, those with no NPCs or few NPCs gain some Ordstirr. This is called the Solo Bonus. At the end of each Season, each qualifying PC gets extra Ordstirr according to the following scale.
- 0 NPCs: +3 Ordstirr
- 1 NPC: +1 Ordstirr
- 2+ NPCs: No Solo Bonus
