Deus Ex Machina

[garhkal]

This is where the gm/dm has some uber npc (or less powerful but more numerous npcs) show up to save the pcs butts.

Who here uses this?


To me, i hate it. Cause i feel.
1) if the npcs are that powerful/numerous and already in the area, why have they not already handled the situation?
2) why would they come in to save the day, unless they owed something to the party?
3) if they don’t even know the party, or the area is one in which it would be hard to justify someone else coming in to save the day, how can you just say there they are...
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Endwyn]

The times I saw this used most was when a GM had a "favorite PC" he used as a NPC. That NPC did this alot.
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Luke, I am your father.
That's impossible!
And Leia is your sister!
That's improbable?
And the Empire will be destroyed by..EWOKS!
That's...highly unlikely.
The Force? Bacteria called midichlorians.
If you don’t take this seriously I'm out.

[beaumont sebos]

I used this tactic a little bit. But the PCs had already developed long-term relationships with the NPCs and they were on the same side.
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Beaumont Sebos

"Saving the multiverse, one Gamorrean Ale at a time."

[Argamoth]

I can see it being used sometimes, but only occationaly. Can't let the PCs get lazy.

NPC may be busy dealing with a bigger situation, or the PCs just got there first. NPC may have other motives for the 'quest' to be completed. They could even be evil or shady NPCs.

[Tahlorn]

[garhkal]

[roguesquad]

I don't use this NPC's to save the party. If I really needed to "save the party, that's just a bad way to do it. It shows the PC's they are not really needed, and someone else can do the job.

To get the same effect, but let the PC's feel they are the result, simply have the Enemy not have full hit points. No reason that the enemy couldn't have fully recovered from the last attack, or even simply be injured, or weaker than expected.

I have to say, the game is more important than any numbers.
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Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom. Psalm 145:3

[Sabre]

I've used NPCs to save the party before, but they're never just a mysterious stranger from out of the blue. Either they have something important to add to the plot, or they're a character the PCs have been bringing along with them for a while, or they have some motive of their own for being where they are at that particular moment.

When the party does get saved, usually they've failed to achieve some particular objective and the NPC pulling what's left of them out of the fire doesn't change that failure. I'd *NEVER* have an NPC background character defeat an NPC villain. I'll even fudge die rolls to prevent this from happening accidentally in combat. True villains are an obstacle for the PCs to take down, NPC minor characters are only there to fill in the story.

I'd say equally often, I've had NPCs show up to complicate matters for the PCs in ways they weren't expecting, sort of reversing the scales. Another villain the PCs haven't encountered before shows up suddenly and saves the villain they're about to defeat (of course there's a reason for this and it doesn't happen on a whim), or they reach their objective after fighting their way through enemy territory only to find the person they were trying to rescue has already been kidnapped/killed by someone else they haven't heard of (there'll be clues to follow of course).

Anyway, I'd never use this trick without having something else in mind beforehand. It'd cheapen the game somehow.

[Boomer]

I have a player who is very anal about NPCs taking any action in his character's presence.
Train Robbery
They took down a Gammorean all by themselves, had him cornered, end of story. Than some NPC Twi'Lek hits the Gammorean with a stun baton, just because he could.... the player threw a little fit at me the next day. I tried explaining since the players had the Gamorean corned, with a gun to his head, stomach, and balls, that they had won and the stun baton did not change the situation one bit.

Later, in the next train car, trying to take down a pair of weequay, some passengers seeing the fight begin decide to take down the weequay themselves. Element o' Surprise+Big Numbers=Pinned Weequay.
Now the players have to fight, coerce, and threaten the passengers, who are ready to be an angry mob, so that they don't beat the weequay to death and throw them out the window on general principle.
Somehow this was the NPCs solving the situation... I dunno about you, but that is the NPCs making an even worse situation.

...I don't put a lot of stock in what this person has to say about anything.
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My backpack has jets!
I'm Boba the Fett!
And I bounty hunt for Jabba Hutt,
to finance my 'vette!

[roguesquad]

I think those examples were good Boomer. Sometimes NPC's really do act like a PC, as the PC's don't live in a vacuum. Things will indeed happen that they can't control.
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Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom. Psalm 145:3

[Argamoth]

I like to have a semi-powerful NPC so follow the PCs around. Either because his boss said "go take care of them" or because the NPC likes make fun of their incompetence. It lets me have some fun PC to PC interaction occationaly. Or make fun of people.

[Boomer]

Argamoth just explained why Q was so popular in Star Trek. The all powerful a-hole who doesn't really do anything other than tag along.
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My backpack has jets!
I'm Boba the Fett!
And I bounty hunt for Jabba Hutt,
to finance my 'vette!

[Jedi Skyler]

Now there's a good description of Q!

[Argamoth]

He isn't around to help the PCs, he's there because of his own agenda. (In Q's case, because he felt like it.) It's fun to watch them laugh at a bunch of PCs that have gotten arrested by troopers.

[Volar the Healer]

In games where the PCs are part of a team, say the Rebellion, I use it quite a bit. But then they always get a chance to save their rescuers at some point also. This makes the Rebellion more "real". In our current campaign, where the PCs are a free trader on their own, they're...well...on their own.
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