Tracking NPCs

[KageRyu]

This may have been brought up before, and if it has, I apologize for reposting.

I was just curious on a particular topic. Do you, as a GM, track the progress of your NPCs? I mean, do you keep an archival timeline of which skills have increased over the course of the campaign, and how many CP/FP have been earned in total?

In many of my older games, I usually either keep a master copy of my NPC stats at the time of creation, or write their starting skills in ink. I used to do this in case I ran a new game and wanted to reuse or revist a specific timeline and wanted a reasonably acurate guideline of how that NPC looked then. I would usually write the skill increases in pencil, and keep track of total CP or EXP earned over the game time. I was just wondering how many other GMs used this practice, and why?
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"There's a set way to gain new Force Points and it represents a very nice system, where you're rewarded for heroism, not for being a poor conductor to electricity." ~Jachra

[Tahlorn]

I am not obsessive enough to keep track of exact experience points and such earned for my NPCs (Star Wars and other systems), but instead mentally track what has or may have happened between the encounters of the NPC and the PCs. I will adjust skills accordingly(inc/ knowledge skills if has been learning stuff, str skills if has been growing, specific skills if focused on certain skills, etc.), and perhaps give them a 'foot up' if they were a menacing NPC before, but it has been long enough that its old stats won't be enough of a challenge for the PCs, yet I still want it to be menacing and a problem.

[K_Feldspar]

I do not track these things either. If I want to reuse an npc or something I usually wind up recalling them from memory and tweaking them a bit anyways. I do track D&D stats, but only because I don't give treasure every night. I don't really see me not awarding cp every session.

[Volar the Healer]

Yes, but only for the major villians and recurring NPCs which are important for the characters (eg. Rebel and underworld contacts, the routinely encountered custom official, superior officers).
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Know Jesus, Know Peace.
No Jesus, No Peace

[KageRyu]

Yes, I was referring to reoccouring NPCs as well as NPCs that travel with the players, and not the random background NPCs. I would asume some form of experience or CP would be nescessary, as NPCs aren't static. I was just wondering who kept track of it and how.
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"There's a set way to gain new Force Points and it represents a very nice system, where you're rewarded for heroism, not for being a poor conductor to electricity." ~Jachra

[Volar the Healer]

The Director keeps track of it. I usually use a standard character sheet.
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Know Jesus, Know Peace.
No Jesus, No Peace

[garhkal]

Yup. The group i gm with (sparks) has a tiering system.

Basically it works like this:

Each character starts out at 'sheet 1'. From then til the end of his 7th game he is a sheet 1 character. At the begining of game 8 until the end of game 14, he is sheet 2. And for each 7 games (or line items) he is another sheet. Other line items that add in, are gming, or authoring (1cp per module gmed at a con, 10cp for authoring a module, 9 for being its editor. 10 CP or more per line item. So if you had 6 cp from origins, and 7 from gencon, that would combine into one line item for 13cp).

You then take the sheet numbers of the people on your table, and divide it by six (the number of SCHEDULED tickets). So whether you play light or heavy the number is the same. This is the table average.

Then that number is looked at on a 'generic tiering chart'. Where at sheets 1-2, the opponets are as wrote out. Sheet 3 and 4, they get X and so on.

I have adapted it for my home games, where for each 50 cp (average) that the pcs get, the npc gets 30 (or so). And increase it accordangly. Either that or i just up 1-2 skills 1D when i feel it is needed.
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[KageRyu]

Ok, I don not think anyone is following or understood the question. I give up.
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"There's a set way to gain new Force Points and it represents a very nice system, where you're rewarded for heroism, not for being a poor conductor to electricity." ~Jachra

[entropy]

I'll take a stab.. as a player, I keep a running total of CP earned. As a GM, I keep a running total of base CP given out (excluding bonus points for role playing, heroism, etc.) When I create a significant NPC that the PCs may fight, I generally start him slightly above (+5-10% CP) where the characters are at that point. If he survives, the next time they encounter him, he has usually gained about the same amount they have. For major villians who will face the PCs alone (for reasons of arrogance, or stupidity) I tend to make them a bit tougher.

So I guess I don't track the NPC per se, but I keep them a little ahead of the characters.

[TheFamousTommyZ]

I think I get it...

You're talking about statting out major NPCs at the beginning of the game and advancing them as the game goes so they don't get outclassed, and *how* GMs do it...i.e., making new sheets every time they change something, or only caring when something major happens.

Me, I tended to write it in pencil and adjust as I went...but now that I do more online, I'm bigger on just making copies of things to reference later. After all, that extra Darth EvilGuy sheet isn't going to take up that much space on my hard drive.

[KageRyu]

yes, TheFamousTommyZ, that is basically what I was talking about. For those GMs that actually have their NPCs gain CP and advance, whether the stats are tracked to keep an acurate record of timeline advancement for later use, or if they simply advance them regardless of keeping notes.
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"There's a set way to gain new Force Points and it represents a very nice system, where you're rewarded for heroism, not for being a poor conductor to electricity." ~Jachra

[garhkal]

[KageRyu]

[garhkal]

For home games. Yes. For con games, no as the modules have their 'mods' in... Heck, i made a chart of what they earned, when, and what they increased. And when they are played in a 'session', if they achieved their mission paramiters, i give them more. Same goes for FP... Unless a dark side force user, who only gets new force points in a specific way, the npcs get them from spending a FP at a dramatic time.
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Chabit Rane]

I do keep track of NPCs in my games. For one just like PCs they should grow and expand (case in point, Vader). But I use this only for repeating NPCs, not one shots.