Questions About NPC Grading In Threads

[Randy Savage]

So I was musing over the rules and grading rubric and was curious about the NPC rule. I wanted to know if, for NPCs to count into this grading rule, they needed to be previously created NPCs with standalone profiles, or if it could just be an NPC that is reoccurring throughout the thread? Also, do these NPCs have to be at a certain standard, either in their creation or execution, to be considered at all for grading? Then, last but not least, do the NPCs posts have to be their own, separate posts from the PCs involved, or can they be part of a PCs post? Then, to piggyback on the last question, do those posts have to be from the NPCs perspective, or can they be NPC controlled actions from the point of the PC?

If I missed the answers to these questions someone, please feel free to just point me toward the thread. I did some research in old graded topics and couldn't gather much from how these questions should be answered.

[Deleted]

If you're talking about NPCing in a thread for poinz, that only applies to when a member chooses just to NPC. You cannot collect poinz for playing NPCs and EXP for your own character in the same thread. If you're playing both NPCs and a PC in the same thread, you're expected to incorporate both into the same post in whichever manner you find most appropriate.

To give an example, if Vio and I decided to do a thread where our characters fought a rival pirate crew, neither of us would collect poinz for controlling the NPCs, we'd just get EXP/poinz for our OCs. If I invited you to control the rival captain and their crew just for that thread, you'd be eligible for grading and the appropriate number of poinz regardless of your performance or whether or not someone made a profile for any of the NPCs.

Different graders might have different approaches to grading NPCs, but I imagine you'd be judged by very similar standards to if you were posting with your own character.

[Randy Savage]

Thank you. That answers a lot of the questions but made me think of two more! Is it possible to do a thread with two people; one a regular PC and the other controlling NPCs? I know the rules on solo threads are a bit new but does this count as a solo thread for the one PC or naw, because there ARE two people? The other question is, for the person controlling NPCs, does this count against their thread limit?

[Deleted]

A thread with two members posting wouldn't be considered a solo thread, no.

Thread limits are per character, so if you're just NPCing it won't count toward that. As the grading thread says, though, the staff can exercise their discretion if we feel someone is taking on too many NPCs just to farm poinz.

[EriChar]

If you're not using your character in a specific thread, why would it count against their thread limit?

And it is possible to do a thread like that, should you choose, but generally you should be making NPC profiles for the character you are using. Like, you take control of a significant NPC. You can't really just control every character that isn't the player character and have no 'face' for your RP, because it's both bad storytelling and impossible to grade.

[Randy Savage]

Aug 30, 2015 13:24:04 GMT -5 EriChar said:

If you're not using your character in a specific thread, why would it count against their thread limit?

And it is possible to do a thread like that, should you choose, but generally you should be making NPC profiles for the character you are using. Like, you take control of a significant NPC. You can't really just control every character that isn't the player character and have no 'face' for your RP, because it's both bad storytelling and impossible to grade.

Well the whole point of a thread limit is as a balancing measure. Given that there ARE rewards for npc threads, I was unsure of if they tied into the innate balance rules in place. For the npcs of course there has to be structure and a point to the story; my question more so came about because the only spot I could find for npc profiles is specifically for marines. Is there a spot to use for npcs of the other factions? If not, are the npc rules specifically tied to the use of marines in threads?

[Deleted]

The Marine NPC board is a sub-board of the general NPC board.

And yeah, Char raises a good point. I'd say someone who's just playing nameless marine mooks A, B and C at the very least will not be getting a very high grade for their efforts, and again, we can deny rewards entirely in cases of abuse.

[Randy Savage]

Makes sense. All is now right in the world.