The Mook and You

Mooks^[1] play an important role in many RPGs, but a few problems can arise from their use. I intend to go into these problems and to give methods of making them more vibrant and exciting (hopefully, that is).

The Purpose

Mooks fill the niche of minions, critters, and fluff enemies. I.e. they are all the enemies that exist that aren’t bosses. This could be town guards, cultists, wolves, goblins, you name it. Why they are there is to make the big bad evil guys (henceforth BBEG) seem more important. If everyone your players face is a super powered sorcerer, then the main villain just won’t seem scary. However, if the party has just killed 20 goblins and they come up against an Ork Warboss… Well, let’s just say there shall be lead in their pantaloons.

The Problems

The problem with running mooks is that they either feel like filler, or they feel tedious. Filler is bad, because you don’t ever want your players feeling out of the story (side-plots are just as much story as the main line, so what I am talking about here is dead space – random encounters). Tedious enemies are bad also, for they feel more like work and boxes to be crossed off (or ticked) than challenges to be overcome. The job of a good GM, therefore, is to make mooks interesting.

The Solution

Make them smart. Or, more broadly, play to their strengths. A handful of goblins against a party of adventurers isn’t going to last long… So you have to ask yourself, “How the hell did these goblins survive in this world before they encountered the players?” Your answers are very varied here:

1. They hid. This then raises the questions of why, where and how they hid, as well as why, where and how they were found out by the party. This is a weak choice for a boss lead-up, but can make an interesting RP opportunity; these people were living peacefully, and just want to be left alone.
2. They were prepared. Basically, they had fortifications or methods in place to prevent the enemy from taking them down. This is a fine choice, as it can turn a handful of goblins into a fort-occupying tribe armed with traps and possibly allies!
3. They have a leader. They have a mini-boss basically. Someone bigger and tougher is looking out for these little guys, and he won’t be happy when the PCs come a-knockin’.
4. They have connections. This could be anything. Someone, somewhere, needs these guys to be around, and so has allowed them to live for the time being. This could be the BBEG who is protecting them whilst they mine for him, or it could be that these creatures are the only ones capable of controlling a specific machine/magical force/whosawhatchamajigga, and so need to be left to deal with this.

After you have answered this question, you know why they exist, so you can make them seem like they fit in the world. This should also make them less tedious as well: your players will have something to think about as they bathe in their blood. Should we really be slaughtering these people? Are they necessary? Who is going to care if we take them down? Are we just bashing in a hornet’s nest and waiting to be stung?

I hope to talk to you again soon,

Ben Scerri

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¹ A ‘mook’ is any enemy or NPC that is itself not named or singularly important. Examples of this are goblins, kobolds, wolves, giant rats, lowly cultists, etc. These should be enemies that are easily killed by your players, and should serve as nothing more than a lead up to the final fight.

Conflict Without the Killing

Conflict is what drives all narrative, and whilst this usually involves violence of some form, it doesn’t necessarily have to. At least, not lethal violence. Whilst the concept of making a deathless novel is somewhat old hat, the concept is still very young when it comes to tabletop RPGs. Let’s take a look at why that is, and what we can do about it.

Live and Let Be (or Not To Be)

Conflict all too often translates to combat. Combat, especially in RPGs, translates too two parties standing across from each other until enough blows have been exchanged to whittle the HP of one side down until they die. Loot, then repeat.

Whilst this can be fun and a fresh experience for those of us who (thankfully) have relatively non-violent lives, it can get stale very quickly. Sadly, the other experiences and other forms of conflict are rarely addressed.

The question that is often asked when people think about an RPG is “What would you do in [insert scenario] situation?” Usually the answer is “Kill them and take their stuff.” Really? Really? If you were confronted by a horde of zombies you would choose to “Kill them and take their stuff.” Personally I would run like all hell had broken loose (for, it likely had, considering the zombies) and hide. Maybe save a few friends if I could. But I would likely act the coward and fall back on self preservation.

Avert your judging eyes. Unless you’re militarily trained, or insane, you would too. That is how life works. Living creatures run and hide when faced with danger. That is why they survive and breed to ensure there are going to be living creatures tomorrow.

So, then, why is this the option always taken? Because people don’t want to be themselves when they game, or they want to think that they are actually as brave and as fantastic as their characters are. But then it must be asked, why is bravery mixed in with killing? Surely the mother who goes above and beyond to rescue her children from a burning building, or the policeman who faces the abusive boyfriend of a beaten woman are both brave. Why are they not good subjects for games?

Because they are too real.

So we have two criteria with which we need: fantastic attributes on mundane people, as well as fantastic scenarios.

Still, there are thousands of possible situations one could get themselves into under these guides without shedding a drop of imagined blood.

Consider “The Adjustment Bureau” (SPOILER ALERT)

The Adjustment Bureau is a beautiful example of what I am talking about. Here you have an organisation of ‘agents’, or ‘angels’ or any other term you wish to use that basically sums up the concept that they are the hands of fate. These agents work according to the grand designs of ‘The Chairman’ – basically a secular deity. They are essentially just trying to do their job – making sure things happen the way they should, as every time the world goes off plan, we seem to screw everything up.

No one dies in the movie. A few people get punched, and a man gets in a car accident, but is fine. The main ‘villain’ makes one woman sprain her ankle. That is basically the height of the physical damage caused in the movie.

Any GM who has seen the film should have walked out saying “I can’t wait to run that.” The concept of such a freeform world where the PCs don the hats of the agents are are assigned tasks such as “Prevent person X and Y from meeting” or “Prevent person A from seeing person B before person C does” where the PCs can do anything in their power, so long as they don’t screw up any of the plans should have any GM going crazy. Consider the scenarios. They could do ANYTHING, but each action has a ripple, and those ripples need to be cleaned up and set straight so that the plan gets back on track. No one can die (unless it is so written), for that is a massive breach of the plan, so the PCs have to think of alternatives – like spilling coffee.

Consider Echo Bazaar

Echo Bazaar is an online text adventure game where you take the role of a new arrival to ‘Fallen London’ – a hellish re-imagining of London after a great calamity, during the Elizabethan-era. Bohemians, radicals, rubberymen and devils roam the streets, with you smack bang in the middle of it all.

Sure, you could train your dangerous, and fight in the arenas, or you could attend the Shuttered Palace and get fat on wine and cheese whilst gossiping to increase your social standing. A world of intrigue without loss of life (but possibly of soul).

If you know nothing more about Echo Bazaar, please visit the link at the top of this section and try it for yourself to know what I am talking about.

Now Get Out There and (Don’t) Kill Something!

I verily hope this has inspired you to attempt a campaign without the use of death (or with it being so rare as to be a shocking, plot hanging point).

I hope to talk to you again soon,

Ben Scerri