Category:NPCs

NPC stands for non-player character. This term somewhat segregates the very large cast of characters from a small group of Player Characters. This distinction comes from the days of free form role playing on AOL and is less important now than it was then, but it does help us to distinguish ownership of characters.

NPCs are considered to be owned by the character who originally wrote them, however they are available to be used by any and all writers. Please respect the character. It would be polite (but not required) to run your plans for a particular NPC past the NPC's creator. NPCs should not be killed off or otherwise damaged without the creator's permission. Failure to secure permission may be forgiven if the results are worthwhile, but the creators of the NPCs have veto power and you may find your post is removed or revised.

Some NPCs are more important than others. As a general rule of thumb, if the NPC has a page in the Character Backgrounds category they should probably be considered to be a protected non-player character and should be treated with care when writing them into stories. These Protected NPCs are Player Characters in all but name.

Player characters are considered the property of their writer. Any control of another writer's player characters in a story should be kept to a minimum unless the owning writer is consulted. Player Characters will not appear in this category.