Topic: Shadow World NPCs

[darksilver]

I have noticed that many powerful NPCs in Shadow World have more than 1 class listed, with associated skill and spell list development. I was wondering what mechanism has been used to create these characters, as I am curious if, with special training or quests etc, the same options in extreme cricumstances may be available for PCs. Also if an NPC is listed as lvl 10 in two classes are they actually level 20 regarding xp total (although obviously not for spell atacks etc). I realise this discussion takes us beyond standard Rolemaster rules, but any ideas...

[egdcltd]

I seem to recall it being posted that stats of many of the powerful NPCs were simply made up.

[vroomfogle]

egdcltd has pretty much got it right.   Terry, who was also one of the original RM designers, typically generates NPC stats by making them up off the cuff rather than going through the character generation process.....at least for the more powerful NPCs such as Gods, Loremasters, Navigators, etc.     I have personally never had an issue with this.  These types of powerful NPC's aren't typically direct adversaries and so their stats aren't all that important.     The less powerful NPCs, of the type characters would have more serious interactions with, are more standardized.

Regarding the multiple professions, this is typically used to represent the NPC's base lists rather than indicating any real "multi-classing".   So if an NPC is listed as a Magician/Illusionist, they aren't really two different classes but instead they have base lists from both Magician and Illusionist.    Their actually development point costs would have come from either Magician or Illusionist.

This isn't much different than how I run my own campaigns.  I tend to be quite flexible in character creation and if the player has a solid character concept I let them mix base lists from multiple classes for their base lists, but choose only one Profession for all intensive purposes.

[markc]

  That is good to know, and that in RMSS and RMFRP you can buy other base lists for higher DP cost. I guess you can have a training package as a special that allows for learning spell lists. Or you could design a special Talent that gave you the ability to reduce spell lists costs or even make some spell lists your own base.
  I also do not know a lot about SW but it does seem like there can be a lot of "special" things that can give a person access to another's base lists. Ancient tec, magic etc might be a reason what a NPC's DP costs get turned around or altered. 

 
  I also tend to make up NPC's on the fly, with what I think they need. I am also just thinking about how I would see stuff in the real world. For example a Religious Fighting Order would have pure arms, semi-spell casters and even a pure spell caster or two. The semi's might be Paladins or some other semi with access to the religious orders spell lists if any. There is a good article at the GuildCompanion.com about other professions becoming an initiate of a God. IMHO looking at that article might be a good thing.

MDC

[Moriarty]

On a related note, I personally don't find stats for powerful individuals useful as campaign material. Could someone who has ever used them in practical play please enlighten me?

[metallion]

On a related note, I personally don't find stats for powerful individuals useful as campaign material. Could someone who has ever used them in practical play please enlighten me?

They're useful for providing a sense of scale when making intermediate-level NPCs.

[yammahoper]

If you require an mechanical explination, there could be ancient esseance machines that can mind print, etc.  In game terms this could provide knowledge for free, reduce cost of dev, etc.

I once tried to allow muticlassing in RM.  Basically, the player had to assign exp to each of the prof he pursued, leveling up when the proper ammount of exp was gained.  The reults were mixed.  Players enjoyed a much wider veriety of skills, far more than single class PC's, which really made little sence balance wise.  When it became apparent players would HAVE to pursue multiclass characters just to maintain balance, I droped it and never looked back.

In my own game the Loremasters have an ancient esseance machine that can imprint their base list upon new recruits.  I have used it several times when mid level PC's have been recuited, passed iniation into the Loremasters and needed the base list.

[Cory Magel]

Since, other than GM limitations, any character can develop any skill in RM it makes perfect sense that a very high level character would start buying skills/spells normally possessed by other professions.  Very minor example, but I had a higher level Rogue that started buying spells off of various lists, some of them costing like 2/3rd of my DP for a level... but where I had nearly maxed out all my other main skills it wasn't a big deal anymore.