NPC Ideas

I was just thinking... there are a few essential roles, I think, in the RP that need to be filled and can be filled by NPCs (occupied by admins and mods; trusted members of the forum)... things that could make the RP more exciting and engaging and possibly retain membership better, and it would allow for members to get injured (and therefore, have to go to St. Mungo's or the Hospital Wing at Hogwarts without having to wait for plot-specific threats, duels, faction fights, or particularly violent witches/wizards).

So, this first idea would be a Threat NPC (it could be a separate account or just something that is attached to an admin account, and I do think it would be important for threat NPCs to only be admins). These NPCs would be specific to the following locations: The Forbidden Forest, Knockturn Alley, and the Wizarding World. Threats that would be found in these locations would be along these lines:

Forbidden Forest- Any type of magical creature (or plant, if you want to be really creative) except for vampires, werewolves, veelas, goblins, giants, trolls, dragons, and any other extremely large-sized creatures (with the exception of maybe a Cerberus named Fluffy). No "bad-type" human NPC threats.

Knockturn Alley- Most types of human-like character that are bad or could potentially be bad. So, thugs, ruffians, psychopaths, Death Eater NPCs, goblins, veelas, and vampires. No werewolves or magical creatures of any kind.

Wizarding World- If in a populated location, then it's the same as Knockturn Alley with one exception: minor magical creatures that don't cause much damage but can still be a nuisance (there would probably be a markedly reduced chance of encountering a threat in such a populated location than there would be in Knockturn Alley, the Forbidden Forest, or the wilderness). If in a wilderness location, then ANY type of threat (including werewolves) could be found (including large-sized creatures like trolls and dragons and such)?

So, with that out of the way... What would determine these encounters (more in a moment?) Furthermore, what would be the point? Well, again, it would drum up more excitement causing for a variety of interesting little plots to occur in the Forbidden Forest, Knockturn Alley, the Wizarding World, St. Mungo's (due to people suffering from injuries from particularly bad encounters) and the Hospital Wing at Hogwarts, and the Detention Room (due to students entering the Forbidden Forest without permission/supervision). There could also be a reward/punishment type deal... like maybe someone who went into the Forbidden Forest could find a rare ingredient used for potion-making or crafting or something like that... And someone in Knockturn Alley could possibly be robbed or find money or be given a "mysterious" potion or something. And somebody in the wilderness of the Wizarding world could possibly find any of the above or a magical artifact.

Anyway, I think these encounters could be determined by a random number generator system (these numbers are tentative, of course, and you admin people can play around with them to decide what is truly best and such). It could go something like this:

Forbidden Forest-

• Below 50 of 100- Threat... 50 and above of 100- A staff NPC of some sort finds the student(s) in the Forbidden Forest and escorts them out unharmed but with the promise of detention; nothing is gained.
  
  
• If receiving a threat, re-roll the number generator (this time out of 1000) to determine the damage done: 1-50 (5% chance) means the character is killed. 51-550 (roughly 50%) means the character is injured mildly or moderately but manages to escape or temporarily defeat/kill the threat. 551-1000 (roughly 50%) means the character is severely injured and gets rescued by a staff NPC; detention is certain, in this case, after the character heals. (Note: To prevent general unhappiness regarding bad luck, admins should PM the character and inform them of a "kill roll." The character, then, has the option to turn tail and get out of the forest; they will get nothing as a result, but they'll also avoid detention and not die; or die. Characters have the option to either be mildly injured or moderately injured (for 51-550), but admins choose whether the threat is temporarily defeated or killed. If the character is a NEWT student gifted in the Care of Magical Creatures, they will not require rescuing (and can thus escape detention), and they'll escape with only mild or moderate injuries; never severe unless they really want their character to make a mistake while trying to calm a magical creature)
  
  
• Continuing on, re-roll the number generator to determine if the character gets a reward (out of 100). 1-25 means the character gets a reward. Anything above 25 means no reward.

Knockturn Alley-

• 50 and below (out of 100) means threat. 51 and above means no threat; nothing gained. If the character is a Death Eater (or accompanied by a Death Eater; Dark Followers do not count as Death Eaters), the chances change to 25 and below means threat (by someone that ISN'T a Death Eater NPC), and 26 and up means no threat.... unlike other characters, though, a Death Eater may still collect a reward if there is no threat.
  
  
• If receiving a threat, re-roll the number generator (out of 100). 1-25 means the character is not or only mildly roughed up while being robbed of a moderate amount of money. 26-50 means the character is roughed up a lot and/or given a non-lethal curse but not robbed. 51-100 means the character is roughed up moderately and robbed of a low amount of money. Once again, for Death Eaters, the chances change. 1-50 means the Death Eater is not or only mildly roughed up while being robbed of a moderate amount of money. 51-100 means the character is roughed up a lot and/or given a non-lethal curse but not robbed. If for whatever reason, the character in question (Death Eater or not) has no or very little money, they will not be robbed and only roughed up.
  
  
• If the character is a Death Eater or receiving a threat, re-roll the number generator (out of 100) to determine if a reward is given. 1-10 means money is found or a "mysterious" potion is given. 11 and above means nothing is rewarded. (Note: If a character wants to go to a Knockturn store or bar, they have to take the chance of a threat encounter.)

Wizarding World-

• Characters have the option to decline having a threat rolled if they are in a populated area and only if they are in a populated area; they will gain nothing. If in a populated area, roll the number generator (out of 100). 1-25 means threat, 26-100 means no threat; nothing gained. If in a wilderness area, roll the number generator (out of 100). 1-75 means threat, 76-100 means no threat; nothing gained.
  
  
• If receiving a threat in a populated area, re-roll the generator, out of 100. 1-25 means the character is not or mildly roughed up and robbed of a moderate amount of money. 26-50 means the character is moderately roughed up and robbed a low amount of money. 51-75 means the character is roughed up a lot and/or given a non-lethal curse. 76-100 means the character encounters a minor magical creature nuisance/pest.
  
  
• If receiving a threat in a wilderness area, re-roll the generator, out of 1000. 1-50 means the character is killed by the threat (once again, the character has the option to back out; they will receive nothing, but at the same time, they won't be killed). 51-151 means the character is bitten by a werewolf and infected with lycanthropy (only works on human characters; for every other character, they will simply fight the werewolf and either escape or defeat it; characters have the option of backing out of this one as well). 151-200 means the character will encounter very large-sized magical creatures (if it is not a troll than NEWT students gifted in the Care of Magical Creatures or a ministry worker in the magical creature/being department may be able to calm it and escape with only minor or no injuries; in every other case, students will escape with severe injuries and graduates will escape with moderate or severe injuries, depending on what they prefer). 201-450 means the character will encounter non-large-sized magical creatures but will only receive minor injures unless gifted in the care of Magical Creatures in which case, they'll receive none. 450-700 means the character will be robbed of a moderate amount of money by a (or perhaps a small group of) human or human-like NPC(s). 700-1000 means the character will be roughed up, robbed, and/or cursed non-lethally by a human or human-like NPC.
  
  
• If in a populated area and the character has received a threat, re-roll the generator (out of 100), 1-5 means a magical artifact is found. 6-15 means the character finds money or is given a potion. Anything above 16 means no reward is given.
  
  
• If in a wilderness area and the character has received a threat, re-roll the generator (out of 100), 1-10 means a magical artifact is found. 11-40 means a rare ingredient or money is found. Anything above 40 means no reward is given.

.......................................

Staff NPCs (can be filled by mods or admins)... These could be used to fill roles that aren't occupied at Hogwarts, so teacher NPCs in classes that aren't filled, substitute teacher NPCs for whenever a teacher is away, groundskeeper, detention room monitor... Whatever. But I imagine they'd be particularly useful for whenever a teacher can't teach a class.

Ghost NPCs... (could be filled by mods or admins). It's just... it'd be kind of nice to see some more activity in the Deathday Dungeons... //>.>\\'...

Shopkeeper NPCs (mods or admins) for shops that are currently inactive...

Anyway, these were just some ideas I had. Thought I'd share. The whole number generator thing was inspired by something I saw on another forum once and thought it might be a good way to drum up more activity. The whole encounter thing could probably be limited to like one character per month or something to prevent it from being too abused or anything. Thoughts? Questions? Other ideas? (I have other ideas myself, but this is a long post, and I think I'll wait until tomorrow before sharing the other ideas I had)

Oooh I like this idea. Its very.. roleplayingy in the D&D dice rolling sense (number generator.) PA needs more of that. However, having personally experimented with the roleplaying system on forumotion I know its a bit too basic to do anything worthwhile.. But lets see what the admins can do, this is a good idea.

So, perhaps we can have a single account used as a basis for the NPCs, and have a master sheet for events in the Admin area. We could allow members to do with this asset what they will, and have a request application for the NPC account to appear in a thread, otherwise we leave it be.

OR, we could basically just have it that if you enter certain areas, you are pretty much automatically opening yourself up to having the NPC arrive at any time, then have the admins follow those forums in particular.

I believe that the highest we could go would be comatose - death is something I'm just not willing to inflict upon any member, even if the danger is advertised. I see inclusion of this feature as being a negative image, not a positive. Perhaps the choice could be there for certain members to die if they choose, but that would have to be a choice made at the start of the thread (Whether or not they'd be rolling in a mortal manner)

Biggest problem, as Kingsley pointed out, is that forumotion's support for this stuff is limited. However, that's easy to overcome. Question. Were you thinking of having members or admins do the rolling? If admin, I'd be more than happy to source a random number generator for us to use, and leave it at that. If member I believe it's at the interest of fairness that the inbuilt number generator be used.

Thoughts?

I was thinking it'd probably be best for admins and mods be the ones that do the rolling... since such events and everything have the potential to be abused or mishandled by new or inexperienced members. And I'm perfectly okay with the comatose thing... *lol* Like I said, you're free to tweak these ideas however you see fit. I'm just throwing them out there as suggestions to sort of spruce things up a bit.