This is the second article on making monsters do more than just bop. In part one, I covered the value of giving enemies more than just basic attacks. Creatures in mixed groups who fight smart and threaten more than just hit points make far more interesting encounters. This part will cover another easy way to make fights more fun: use NPC objectives.
NPC Objectives in LoTR (Mild Spoilers!)
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers film made some big changes to the book. In one scene, a villain sends a group of warg riders after a convoy of refugees. Now, I know this never happened in the book; King Théoden sent Éowyn with the women and children to the safety of Dunharrow, not Helm’s Deep. However, for this article, the film creates a great example of enemy NPCs with an objective.
The villain, Saruman, has no expectation the wargs will kill everyone in the convoy; that’s not their job. Instead, their objective is to harass and damage morale. They ambush the convoy, kill a number of people, and then run away. The warg riders do not fight until they are all dead. Sacrifice is not the objective. A number of the warg riders die, true, but this works to highlight their ruthless nature; they don’t care about their losses, and they greatly outnumber the forces of Rohan anyway. In contrast, King Théoden’s people greatly mourn each death, and each one shrinks their chances of survival.
The reason why Saruman chooses to send the wargs is never explained. Perhaps the convoy is too far away for a slow moving force to catch. He may feel his main force isn’t ready for war yet. Maybe he simply wishes to make the people of Rohan suffer. Perhaps the film director just wanted to raise the stakes and give his heroes something to do. He’s not afraid of changing the story, after all.
NPC Objectives Change an Encounter’s Foundation
The main point is the monsters are doing a lot more than just going bop. Because harass is the objective, it influences the warg riders’ tactics. They make clever use of terrain and speed to achieve surprise. They don’t wait for the convoy to organise a defence; they attack as soon as they make contact. Nor do they wait for their full force to gather; a single warg is powerful enough to cause chaos amongst the refugees; a coordinated attack to wipe out the enemy isn’t the goal. They just want to find the convoy, cause panic, kill who they can, and then run away.
The objective influences everything.
NPC Objectives in Dune (More Mild Spoilers!)
In Dune, the Emperor sees the political power of House Atreides as a threat. His objective is to maintain power. However, he cannot attack Duke Atreides openly because other political groups would unite against him. This influences his tactics; he must be subtle.
Enter House Harkonnen. The Harkonnen hate the Atreides; their Baron is also ambitious enough to make a deal with the Emperor. The Emperor cannot directly attack a great house, but one house attacking another is far more acceptable. Consequently, the Emperor and the Baron make perfect frenemies. The Emperor will use the Harkonnen as a hammer to crush the Atreides. He will send his best warriors in support, but only in secret. No witnesses can survive. The Emperor and Harkonnen cannot look like they’re working together; it would unite other groups against both of them. Therefore, the plan is to wipe out the Atreides, but make it look like a Harkonnen-only action; officially, the Emperor will be blameless.
…Keep Your Enemies Closer
For his part, the Baron knows he is playing a dangerous game. One of the brilliant aspects of Frank Herbert’s writing is his villains are not stupid. If the plan works, the Emperor and the Baron both know they will try to kill one another eventually. However, for now they both need each other; they both need the Atreides gone. The Baron believes control of the spice will bring enough power to protect his house from the Emperor; eventually they will get enough power to replace him; the opportunity is too good to pass by. In turn, the Emperor believes the Harkonnen weaker opponents; they will never be the threat the Atreides are becoming, and he can deal with them later.
So, he will remove the Atreides, and do it in a way no one can officially blame him. Together, these fulfil his objective of keeping power.
NPC Objectives: Keep & Take
NPC objectives can work on any level—local, one-off battles to controlling a galaxy. Here are some ideas for objectives that can work in any genre, at any scale. All of these need a target—an item, location, person, or group—nearly any target will do.
- Keep. The key words protect and hide inspire similar objective ideas. Keeping hostages of powerful families was a popular way to force loyalty in medieval Europe and feudal Japan. Keeping is usually easier than taking because people can normalise situations quickly; change is harder to fight.
Power is a common choice for keep. However, this should not be abstract. Dune’s Emperor keeps power by having the scariest warriors in the galaxy; additionally, he makes sure no one controls spice production for too long; he also encourages the Houses to fight amongst themselves. This all keeps his rivals weak politically, economically, militarily, or—ideally—a mix of the three.
- Take. Convert also works in much the same way. Saruman wants to take the land of Rohan (and beyond). Taking is usually a lot more costly than keeping. However, taking, especially by force, often leads to difficult complications later. Boris Yeltsin summed this up well: “You can build a throne out of bayonets, but you can’t sit on it for very long.”
A Brave New World: Create & Destroy
- Create. Unite, discover and invent use similar storylines. Like keep and take, it’s often easier to destroy than it is to create. Saruman wants to create an ordered world of industry under his control. In Dune the Bene Gesserit create the story of a coming messiah to control people. Create always comes with complications; no one can foresee all of the consequences that will come after. Even the Bene Gesserit, with powers to see the future, cannot anticipate people using their own creation against them.
- Destroy. This works like remove or ruin. The fellowship in The Lord of the Rings want to destroy the One Ring. However, a lot of stories get lazy with remove; there should always be good reasons behind this objective.
The Harkonnen want to destroy the Atreides, yes, but it’s because of centuries of rivalry. The Atreides beat the Harkonnen in a war, and they’ve never let the Harkonnen forget. The Harkonnen pride themselves on toughness, brutality, and winning at all costs. The Atreides, with their loyalty, compassion, and charisma, are everything the Harkonnen are not. Additionally, the Duke of Atreides has the best advisor and the best military trainer in the galaxy. Together with the charismatic Duke, they see the Atreides getting dangerously strong. They fear being left behind. And so, they try to destroy their enemy out of revenge, hatred, and survival. Desire, pride, and fear.
NPC Objectives: Reach & Prevent
- Reach. Escape or catch also work here. The Fellowship wish to reach Mt. Doom in Mordor. The Harkonnen want to catch every Atreides that flees. Because these key words involve movement, they are often an easy way to connect multiple dramatic encounters together. Changing locations naturally alters the situation and possibilities for an encounter. This can underline the changing events of the narrative. Location, situation, objectives, and—hopefully—story can all influence and reinforce each other, maximising excitement and narrative potential.
- Prevent. Stop and delay can also work in similar ways. Saruman wants to prevent the Dark Lord from getting the One Ring. If he can get the Ring first, he believes, he would be unbeatable; Saruman, not Sauron, would become the ruler of Middle Earth. Therefore, much like the Baron Harkonnen and the Emperor, Saruman and Sauron are using each other in a dangerous game. Together, they split the forces of good; yet individually, they race to find the Ring first.
Desires, Fears, & Pride: Objective Inspiration
If it’s a struggle choosing an objective, think about what the NPC wants, fears, and prides themselves on. In this article on improvising, this is exactly how I suggest quickly building a NPC. Let these desires, fears, and points of pride inspire objectives. Saruman wants power and control. Therefore, he chooses to find the Ring for himself. If he can get the Ring and boost his power, he can take control of Middle Earth.
Saruman believes himself to be smarter and more powerful than anyone else. It’s only natural, by his logic, the people of Rohan should serve him. And so, he goes to war against them. The pride he takes in his intelligence and skill is his character flaw; he doesn’t fear Rohan or doubt his path to victory; his pride has blinded him. If he fears anything, it’s Sauron finding the Ring first; it’s the only threat to his rise to power that he can see.
His warg riders want to cause chaos and death. They pride themselves on being stronger and more brutal than humans. This means they do not hesitate to attack anyone in the convoy. Perhaps their only real fear at this point is disappointing Saruman.
In Dune, the Emperor is mostly acting out of fear of the Atreides; they are a threat to his position. He has no interest in sharing power, and so he does not negotiate with them. Instead, he chooses to remove the problem and wipe them out completely. People often do not see the mistakes they are making until it is too late, usually due to pride.
NPC Objectives at Work In-Game
Before any social or combat encounter, give NPCs an objective or two that make sense. This should add variety to the game and make the world feel more alive. NPCs guarding hostages will be acting differently to ones holding a ritual, asking a god for help. This may also change how the players approach the encounter, and how NPCs initially react to the player characters. NPCs in a ritual may not wish to stop, or want violence in their place of worship. Not everything has to be a fight!
Sometimes, consider giving the NPCs conflicting objectives. For example, NPCs protecting a convoy may not wish to enter holy grounds; the convoy will have to go around the area or go through it without their help; perhaps the convoy could intimidate the guards into doing their job; all of these present the party with choices and things to exploit.
There’s no need to do this every time—it won’t always result in more fun. Also, as always, never expect the players to make a certain choice. I might think finding a group of orcs praying to their god is an interesting social opportunity. My players, on the other hand, might see loot opportunities and experience points.
Mid-Combat NPC Objectives Changing
This is a brilliant way to make encounters more interesting. Significantly, it doesn’t rely on reacting to the players all the time, either. First, and probably the most common example, is enemy NPCs running away from combat. They were trying to protect their boss, but now their objective has changed to survival. I’ve seen this recommended many times as a quick way to end combat before it gets boring; the ending is obvious, no waves are coming, and the players want the story to keep moving.
However, it’s also possible to change objectives mid-encounter to further the story or give the players a different challenge. For example, the player characters are negotiating with a NPC for financial support. Halfway through negotiations, a servant enters the scene and tells the NPC there was an attack on the local bank. The thieves stole the NPC’s money. The scene changes; the NPC might now ask for help, or the party take a much stronger position in the negotiations.
As another example, the party are in a fight with hobgoblins and carrion crawlers—because mixed enemies make better combat! During the fight, a hobgoblin riding a worg—not warg, never warg—enters and gives the hobgoblins a new objective. Now they need to take one of the party alive. Or, some mountain trolls are attacking the boss, come and save them. Or, these are the wrong adventurers; stop wasting time and find the real criminals.
Of course, player choices should impact the world. However, it’s always useful to have some ideas to add variety and keep the action moving when they need a boost.
Post Combat NPC Objectives
How does the world change after the encounter? What did the party do or didn’t do? What did the NPCs do (if they’re still alive…)? In The Two Towers, the heroes fight off the warg riders, but lose key fighters; the convoy makes it to Helm’s Deep, but the morale of Rohan is even closer to breaking point.
The warg riders return to Saruman, who feels even more confident of his coming victory. Soon, he will send his entire army to Helm’s Deep, and try to wipe out the people of Rohan.
Adding Complications
For even more variety, gamemasters can add complications to the NPC’s objectives. I’ve already mentioned morale and conflicting objectives, but giving the NPCs time or supply worries will also change standard encounters. An unstable environment like an erupting volcano or incoming flood could endanger something they wish to protect. This may make them reckless or ready to make an unusual deal.
Unstable alliances could make NPCs take precautions. The NPC may divert some of their force to defend against possible betrayal; the party may be able to take advantage by helping one side or encouraging the split.
Misinformation or mistakes in communications can make for some fun encounters. For example, NPCs fighting for one objective suddenly receive new orders. These new orders create confusion and now the NPCs have to decide how to react. They now realise they had been fighting for no reason. Alternatively, the new orders are wrong but they follow them without question; they stop fighting the party and face the consequences from their boss later. This works especially well if the party have a chance to cause this misinformation!
Part 3 To Come
So far, I have covered giving monsters more than just basic attacks to avoid them going bop; this hopefully gives some ideas on the usefulness of objectives. In part three, I will cover giving the monsters personalities—please stay tuned!
To Sum Up
Giving monsters objectives is a quick and powerful way of making encounters more interesting. It can affect games on the small scale in one-off combat; likewise, it can affect galaxies and theme whole campaigns. Choose a key word or two (considering a NPC’s desires, fear, and points of pride helps); very soon, the outline for the next encounter will be ready to go.
