The many life-forms characters are likely to face come in many shapes and sizes. While some are mighty entities that can stand alone against many foes, others function in groups. The following categories exist for NPCs:
Minor NPCs: These are rank-and-file personnel and ordinary people. Minors are the usual type of NPC present in a scene. Minor NPCs:
Notable NPCs: These are more dedicated and resourceful characters, often with specialist skills and exceptional talents. Notable NPCs:
Major NPCs: These are leaders among their kind, with a wide range of skills and abilities. Major NPCs:
Notable and Major NPCs have Personal Threat, which is a separate Threat pool used only on options and abilities affecting that NPC directly.
Whenever that NPC spends one or more Threat, they may spend from:
Apart from using their values, an NPC’s Personal Threat pool cannot be replenished during a scene. If an NPC appears in multiple scenes, their Personal Threat is refreshed to full at the start of each scene.
Notable NPCs typically have 3 Personal Threat.
Major NPCs tend to have 6 or more Personal Threat.
Many NPCs contain options marked Escalation. These indicate common variations for that type of NPC that represent response to a greater danger, or which themselves make the NPC more dangerous. When an NPC is brought into a scene, the gamemaster may spend 1 Threat to add one of the Escalation options to one NPC of that type.
The gamemaster takes on the roles of the various antagonists the player characters encounter. At times, the gamemaster roleplays and resolves actions for those characters, from friendly NorAellian ambassadors to hostile pirate groups, and everything in between.
Roleplaying as an NPC is one direct way to bring stories to life. Villains are often remembered for their deeds in RFI, but they are also remembered for their personalities, which can be as fun to watch as the players’ favorite episode of their favorite sci-fi show. You don’t need to deliver award-winning dialogue, but describing what makes your NPC an individual makes your game come to life.
Attempting tasks and acting in combat works the same for NPCs as it does for player characters. Taking damage with NPCs and ships, however, is slightly different from the normal rules for player characters and their ships. These rules are streamlined for the gamemaster so you can focus on resolving actions quickly and allow the player characters to have more of the spotlight in scenes and encounters.
NPCs do not have Stress, and cannot Avoid Injury or other consequences by taking Stress. NPC rules for injuries and Stress include:
Minor NPC: Instantly defeated upon taking any Injury.
Notable NPC: May, once per scene, Avoid Injury by spending Threat equal to the severity of the Injury.
Major NPC: May Avoid Injury by spending Threat equal to the severity of the Injury. They may do this as many times per scene as they wish, so long as there is sufficient Threat.
NPC ships: Defeated in the same way as the players’ ship: after suffering more breaches than the ship's Scale, or more breaches to one system than half the ship's Scale.
NPC Ships do not have specific crew at individual positions on the bridge. Instead, each NPC vessel has a Crew Quality providing the attribute and skill ratings needed by the vessel for any given task. NPC crew used in this way are always considered to have an applicable specialization.
| Crew Quality | Attribute Rating | Skill Rating |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | 8 | 1 |
| Proficient | 9 | 2 |
| Talented | 10 | 3 |
| Exceptional | 11 | 4 |
Ships are similar in strength and capabilities to one another; however, certain ships are significantly smaller or less well-equipped. A good indication of balance when building a starship combat encounter is the Scale of a ship.
However, there is a limit to this: in any round, each ship may only attempt one task assisted by each system—e.g., one task assisted by Weapons, one task assisted by Engines. The gamemaster may spend 1 Threat when the ship takes a turn to ignore this limit for that turn.
Under most circumstances, the rules for NPCs cover adversaries—those who are opposed to the player characters' goals. Most of the time, NPCs whose goals align with those of the player characters require hard-and-fast rules to the same degree as adversarial NPCs.
That isn’t always the case, however. And, in some cases, an NPC’s goals may shift—at some points making them an ally, while at others making them an opponent. To handle this, use the following guidelines:
The NPC spends points from the gamemaster’s Threat pool to buy Immediate Momentum spends and adds surplus Momentum to the Threat pool instead of having a group Momentum pool. Any instance where a player character would add to Threat, an adversarial NPC spends from Threat instead. NPC abilities that specifically cost Threat remove points from the Threat pool.
The NPC may add to or spend from group Momentum as the player characters do (the gamemaster may wish to let the players roll for the NPC’s tasks and control their Momentum spends). Allied NPCs treat instances where they would add to Threat in the same way player characters do. NPC abilities that specifically cost Threat add points to the Threat pool. Notable and Major NPCs may spend from their Personal Threat instead of adding to the gamemaster’s Threat pool.
In any given scene, an NPC is either an adversary or an ally (determined by the gamemaster). This is most likely to be the case where an NPC is regarded as an adversary for some purposes (such as social conflict), and an ally for others (physical challenges). The gamemaster should try to avoid situations where the NPC must be both adversary and ally simultaneously, to minimize confusion.
The gamemaster’s Threat pool also functions as a pool of Momentum for NPCs, as well as its usual function of allowing the gamemaster to alter the scene or encounter.
Several NPCs are presented in the following subchapters. However, gamemasters may want to create specific NPCs for a scenario, mission, or entire campaign, or modify the NPCs provided in this book.
Minor NPCs form the rank-and-file members of an organization. They are the nameless extras in missions, as groups to face in an encounter, or as guards for a Notable or Major NPC. If encountered alone, they shouldn’t hold up the player characters for long.
To create a Minor NPC:
Notable NPCs are more capable than Minor NPCs and are often lieutenants to Major NPCs. They are comparable to supporting characters and, if encountered as a group or with several Minor NPCs, can form a formidable obstacle and drain the player characters’ resources, forcing them to spend Fortune or add Threat to overcome them.
Major NPCs are the gamemaster’s equivalent of a player character. More thought and creativity should be put into creating a Major NPC, giving them names, backgrounds, and qualities comparable to player characters.
To create a Major NPC:
When creating NPCs, you can select talents from the list beginning on page 149 or other special rules from the list below. When the special rule calls for a “particular task” or “acting in a particular way,” it is asking for a limiting factor to the rule. For example, the special rule could only apply in circumstances in which the NPC is being threatened by another character.