RPGaDay2024 Day 22 - Notable NPC

Dinner is Served

As I've mentioned before, the current campaign in my world is a sandbox game. It's slower, has a lower power curve, and is really focused on the plot elements that the characters choose to pursue. Some of those elements still end up with dungeon crawls, boss mobs, loot and threats, but there's a lot of engagement at a character level, instead of just the story level.

And an NPC center-point of this campaign is "Mom."

Mom is a ranked priest of Cime (Kimmy) of Spring, the goddess of the season, fertility, sex, beginnings, and impulsive decisions. Her rank is such that she is also a leader in the House of Dawn, which includes the related gods: Artem (the ever-changing but reliable moon), Body, Magic, "the Fool", Life, and the Sea.

Nobody is sure how old Mom is. It's clear that she's at least 60, given how old her children are. She has an ageless look, but might be older than that. She brushes off the question if asked.

Nobody is sure what "level" Mom is, either. She also sidesteps that question, with "good enough to do what I need to in the name of my goddess."

As an NPC, she was "created" by one of the players, whose character is a half-orc. Mom is human, and his father is an orc. As part of creating her, he defined that Mom's one rule is "When you are in town on Sunday, you have to come for dinner if you are able."

This has had several effects on the game:

First, one of the other players loved this concept, and for his "connection to another player" he chose sibling, but he's a Halfling (or Quarterling, as he likes to say) because his father is a Halfling. And with that choice, they'd grown up together, had memories, and of course an absolute devotion to Mom. Nobody blinked at a halfling and half-orc being brothers.

During one of the first adventures, on in-game Sunday, the two players explained that they had to show up for Sunday dinner because it wasn't an option. Another (third) player, whose connection was "best friends" with the first character, knew this rule because he was expected for dinner,  as well. Not literal family, but the chosen child who is always underfoot--and if he wasn't there, she'd go looking.

At that first event, the whole group showed up. Mom didn't blink an eye; she was just glad that her kids were making friends. There was more than enough food and space. Several cousins, uncles, tiny siblings, and random guests were there.  The random guests could be anybody. Someone important from the House of Days, a random merchant who sold her that brooch she likes, an important Duke, or a random person who looked hungry and got too close to Mom's house at dinnertime. Dinner at Mom's became a mandatory event for the whole party, which has resulted in debates such as whether being a half-day journey from the city qualified as being "out of town".

When Mom became pregnant with her latest child, from a Dwarven father, and the pregnancy wasn't going well, it became a group project to make sure she was okay, and got the best care, all while they were in danger themselves from a hornet nest they'd stirred up.

A fun aspect of Mom as an NPC is that the co-creators of the world don't know many specific details about her, either. Rather, we defined a vibe, and it's carried her far further as a character, than details. She IS at least 60, but we don't know/care if she's older than that. She has several children but we don't know how many--which gives us more opportunity to define new NPCs.

One such new child, a half-elf, was a legacy player in the game group. That player is a doctor and father of several kids in real life, but managed to attend remotely for a few weeks. He loved the idea of Mom and chose to be one of her children. His elvish background led people to guess that she's possibly more than 60.

We also don't know what level she is. We know that she's competent, has a lot of connections, is well-liked, and is very busy with important work that she doesn't talk about. We don't know what that work is. Rather, characters are often away for extended periods: solving problems, or questing for the next piece to a large puzzle. Why not her?

A side effect of this last point is that Mom isn't a quest-giver NPC. She'd never ask her children to run her temple's errands; that wouldn't be at all appropriate. She gives them privacy and agency to live their lives and doesn't interfere any more than she would want the party interfering with her business. Full disclosure: when things were getting a little dicey for the party, she did ask a friend, a priestess of Moriga of Vengeance from the House of Night, to keep an eye on them.

Mom is a great NPC because she is a source of world-building fun for the creators, the players like her, and she grows dynamically with each new interaction, guest or relative. And she exists as a strong figure without ever becoming a campaign-manipulator or a DM PC.