All About NPCs

Kaz
Sep 8
6 min read

Hey everyone! It’s been over a month since MEC ended, and no doubt many of you are anxious to return for the next run. For many of you this will be to continue your current character’s story, and for others who have graduated this year it may be with a fresh face and a fresh start. However, there will also be those of you who are interested in returning not as a player but as an NPC.

If so, this blog post is for you!

Whether you’ve already made your mind up or are still considering what to do, it may be helpful to know what exactly being an NPC entails, and whether or not it’s something that fits you!

What do NPCs do?

If you have been a player at MEC, then – unless you spent the entirety of our event in your room playing video games – you have undoubtedly encountered our NPCs before. Broadly speaking we can divide our NPCs into faculty and non-faculty. Faculty NPCs – more commonly known as professors – primarily (but not exclusively!) play a professor character whose main responsibility will be to teach one of our courses, but also serve as anchors for our players to interact with whenever they need help or have questions.

Non-faculty NPCs, often referred to as just “the NPCs”, play multiple different characters over the course of the event, usually at set times for set purposes. This can range from creatures during certain classes, students’ visiting family members and random strangers that need the students’ help, to mighty adversaries that threaten the entire school. They also perform utility tasks: assisting in the bunker with make-up, escorting other NPCs to their locations, helping professors with their classes, overseeing the progress of plots, or informing specific players of certain events. When not busy with either playing characters or performing tasks, NPCs generally reside in the bunker or roam the grounds in a brown cloak.

While this distinction is an important one to make, there is also a lot of overlap! We try to have professors in-game as much as possible so the students can interact with them, but when their assistance is needed elsewhere they will also help out in much the same way non-faculty NPCs do. Just because a professor is not in-game doesn’t mean they’re not doing anything important!

Last, but not least, NPCs also assist in the build up and break down the day before and after the event, to ensure the castle has that touch of magic we have all come to know and love! This involves decorating all the rooms of the castle as well as the grounds, but also a fair amount of physical labour such as moving chairs and tables, as well as crates of decorations up and down several flights of stairs. All in all very doable, but it’s good to know these things in advance!

I’m interested in playing an NPC.

How do I know it’s for me?

Whether you just graduated, are in the middle of your studies or have never been a student at MEC at all, you might be interested in joining our NPC team and experience the world of MEC in a new way! And while we are very happy to have each and every one of you, unfortunately there are two main obstacles: firstly, there is a limit on how many NPCs we can logistically support with regards to lodging, bunker capacity, and plot and player demands, which means we have an upper limit of 30 NPCs (of which 15 are faculty). Secondly, being an NPC simply isn’t for everyone: some people flat out don’t enjoy the experience, others don’t have the right attitude towards it, and others still don’t really have the skill set that we are looking for. Because we have more prospective NPCs than we have positions, we want to make sure that we give these positions to people that are a good fit for the NPC team, so that we can maximise the value we can bring to our players.

The main thing to realise about playing an NPC is that it is a fundamentally different experience from being a player. If you have been a player before and seen us in action, you might think this is obvious, but this difference is not so much in what it is we do but about why we do it.

Within MEC, the players are our central focus, whether that’s when we are making preparations for the event or when it’s actually happening. As an NPC, that means that everything you do is in the service of the players’ experience, and a good NPC is someone who finds this enjoyable in its own right. If you like being in the spotlight or creating play for yourself, then you may find that being an NPC doesn’t allow you to do that as much as you’d like. Similarly, if you thrive on creating persistent bonds between characters, then that is also something that you will have very little opportunity to do as an NPC.

In the same vein, NPCs have a lot less freedom than students: within rules and reason, students can do whatever they want – it’s their game, after all. NPCs on the other hand have to be more reactive, and can’t impose themselves on situations like students can. This also means you need to be able to follow direction: if a role has certain demands of you then you need to be able to both remember and correctly follow those demands. If for example you blank out during a Magical Defence lesson – or worse, decide to go do your own thing – then that can ruin the entire class.

Being an NPC is also physically demanding: our daily morning briefings start at 07:30, and while NPCs are not required to be available until the out-game curfew (if you need sleep you need sleep), in practice most NPCs do stay up until after midnight. That gives you a fairly small amount of sleep, which can be quite taxing – and that’s before considering you’re at the castle for two additional days. So if you already find being a player challenging, do please seriously consider whether you can handle the added strain of being an NPC without pushing yourself beyond your limits.

On the flip side, NPCs – especially non-faculty – often have a lot of down-time as well: sometimes there is just nothing to do for them. This occurs primarily during classes (which is a fairly large part of the day!), but also during moments when there is already a lot going on. This can sometimes feel like “wasted time”, so if you’re a person who is restless, easily bored, or really just wants to get the most out of every second of MEC, being an NPC might not leave you as satisfied as being a player would.

Lastly, NPCs also need to be versatile: if you are only interested in, capable of and/or comfortable with a very narrow range of roles then that strongly limits where we can use you. If for example playing any sort of creature is a no-go for you, you may want to reconsider if being an NPC is for you.

I’m still interested in playing an NPC.

How do I become one?

If you are not deterred by the previous section, then I invite you to apply for a NPC ticket once they become available. Before you are confirmed as an NPC, there will be a selection process where we will consider the suitability of every applicant. We do this based on several factors, such as what we’ve seen from you in the past, how versatile we believe you to be, if you fit a niche we’re missing, if we believe you’re a good fit for the group, and various other considerations.

If you make it through this process then you will be eligible to buy a NPC tickets; if not then we will recommend you either a Flying or a Student ticket instead (you will also be given the opportunity to ask for feedback). As we’ve said before, we are expecting a high amount of applications, so if we do turn you down that doesn’t necessarily mean we don’t think you’re a good

fit, but it could simply be that we do not have any room for you. Please do not let that discourage you! There is plenty of fun to be had in any of our three roles!

That’s all from me for now, we hope to see you all at our next event, whether as NPC, Student or Flying!