51st Legion: Hegemonic military that represents the law anywhere off-planet.
Borniko Syndicate: A tightly knit group of thieves who steal highend technological supplies. Man, the Guild hates these guys
Counters Guild: Officials who maintain the galactic currency network and build shadow repositories in any system the Guild has a presence in, storing mysterious items and securing auctions and commerce.
Echo Wave Riders: Pilots. Many organize illegal races. Many take dangerous jobs for pay, and a few test dangerous new engine/flight technologies for the Guild. They wear a pin that shows how many races they’ve won.
Turner Society: A Holt-based Syndicate running drug dens masquerading as society houses. Their drugs are cooked with rare Aketi animal parts and Vosian crystals—which they sometimes have trouble sourcing.
Vigilance: Warrior mystics bearing artifact blades, who seek to enforce an ancient code of justice on any they find wanting.
Wreckers: Scavengers and thieves with a few brilliant hackers, who incite factions to fight so that they may pick the battlefields clean later.
If there are other relevant factions, please edit this post and add them.
Per p. 59, “Each playbook has several NPC friends. It’s important to note that
you know all these people well.” There are two that are designated a special friend and a special rival/enemy, but all the NPCs listed are in play.
I added the other three factions I know we have ties to (the Counting Guild, the Turner Society, and the Wreckers) but I didn’t have the book handy so I can’t copy/paste their description over. I know I’m missing one but can’t remember their name (and can’t access Roll20 to find it). The Vigilant I think?
“Star Wars: the Old Republic” was an amazing MMO in some ways, including its Companion system. For solo play, everyone had an NPC that they could have follow them around. Playing a tank or DPS build? Take your healer with you. Need more DPS? Bring your DPS NPC. Squishy healer? There’s a tank.
The recommendation from a lot of people is just that. After all, all they are are names and general archetypes. Hell switching out something like “bounty hunter” for “exotic animal hunter” doesn’t change much game-wise but says a lot about a character where they know someone like that.
Perhaps a little out of place, but someone made a very nice Faction Breakdown with all the resources and locations mentioned in the book. Someone else then took this info and plugged it into a nice faction relation sheet on Kumu (obviously our relationships with these factions will be different, but all the other relations look good).
Everyone’s listed in the original post, with links to the forum and Roll20.
We have almost a dozen “signature” NPCs - people who are friends or rivals - and half a dozen relevant factions. That feels like a lot of moving parts, but hopefully we’ll make it all work.
Well, there’s certainly fodder for a lot of episodes …
I assume that, even in the normal scheme of things, we’ll never hit all those NPCs (even the signature ones), or worlds. But they are there so that any of them can be called in (into the action or in flashback) if there’s a hole they fit. That’s actually kind of awesome.
So if I did a little write up + art picks for some NPCs associated with my character, would that be appropriate in this thread, or in my character concept thread?
So I was thinking through Armin’s contact list last night and had a thought of all my contacts, Kerry the doctor is likely the least likely for me to ever use. On one side we have Seon our doctor who will probably handle all of our medical related needs and on the other we have Kei our academic who will likely take care of all our scholarly pursuits. While overlap isn’t bad, I also have an eye towards in-game usability; why go to an NPC when I can cede to a PC and give them the spotlight (especially when it’s what they’re best at).
So I pondered and thought about areas were we don’t have someone who already fills a niche. And that’s when it came to me: Armin needs a seedy lawyer to handle his shady dealings. Or, alternatively, a very not-seedy lawyer who Armin is pulling down with him with his shady dealings.
In general it makes perfect sense to me. I don’t know how much screen time our NPCs will ever get, so the distinction may never be necessary. If it does, I’d enjoy the well-meaning and competent lawyer who is in the process of going to seed out of loyalty or admiration - a Dorothy Boyd who followed you as you Jerry Maguire’d your way out of your previous position.
Other options: the ultra-seedy lawyer who keeps trying to pull the crew into shenanigans even we won’t touch; the lawyer who insists they’re honest and above-board and is clearly not, but keeps trying to represent you in very reputable places.
