this post was submitted on 17 Nov 2025
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Oooh, I love point 4. Could you expand a bit on that? I'd love to know some tips for pulling that into a game.
I'm not sure that I understand how point 2 would happen in a TTRPG
The first thing to understand about how to have NPCs with legitimate grievances be a thing in a TTRPG is to imagine the world as a real one and the NPCs as people within that world. If you're just thinking of the setting as a flat backdrop for gameplay and the NPCs as colorful questgivers whose protection is a thin excuse for the plot to happen, then you're not going to be thinking in terms of things like what needs various NPCs might have and why they're unfulfilled or violated.
Ah, I immediately interpreted it as PCs with grievances. NPCs with legitimate grievances makes a lot more sense, thank you!
PCs having grievances can happen too, but it tends to be more of an intermediate technique than a basic one for players, and dependent on them already having a solid understanding of the setting.
Right, 'cause it's like a second-order effect? Like, your PC's grievance has to make coherent sense with/against the values/cultures that make up the setting?
Essentially, yes.