Article:
LARP Plot Tips: Directing your NPCs

In order to run an efficient crew, you need to find some fast and effective ways to give your NPCs proper direction. It's amazing to see the difference between a group of unguided NPCs and ones that understand their job and know what they're doing. But how do you do that?

Here are some tips to help sucessfully direct your NPCs.

Always Give Them Something
The worst thing you can do is to send down NPCs with no real motivation or roleplaying to do. Your NPCs aren't sure if they're supposed to be hostile, how they're supposed to fight, and what lengths they would go to in order to meet their needs. Make sure that you can give them at least one sentence of guidance before you send them out.

I would suggest putting one line of roleplaying/motivation on every monster card before you send it out. That way, NPCs just need to see the card can have something to use when they go out.

Don't Overwhelm Them
On the other hand, when you're just sending out a group of orcs, you don't need ten pages explaining to your NPCs every little detail of their culture. From my experience, any more than a paragraph about a basic monsters and characters will overwhelm your NPCs.

Quiz Them
This one works well with complicated cards that include a large skill set and intricate roleplaying. When you have information that's very important, you should quiz them periodically to see what they remember. It helps them wrap their heads around what information is important and what they should focus on.

As a corrolary, you can also get your major NPCs to quiz the other NPCs about important pieces of information. It's a lot easier for your major NPCs to remember things when they're teaching the facts, rather than learning the facts.

Provide an Event Write-up
Rather than giving your NPCs paragraphs for each module you run, think about making an event write-up that you can give to your NPCs ahead of time. It will give them a bit of information on the story you're running, major characters and places they should be aware of, and what it might culimate in. Presenting the information in this way has the added benefit of letting the NPCs see the whole storyline, which is much more interesting and likely to keep their attention.