After an extensive scientific survey consisting of me asking one of my friends what he thought of Harlequin, I’ve been able to determine that Har's not an especially liked individual. As my friend so eloquently put it: “You can’t kill the motherfucker!”. I think he managed, in only five words, to relate the frustration many players feel towards seemingly invincible NPCs such as our mighty, painted face friend.

And I can see where they’re coming from. Lets take a real life example: The Internal Revenue Service. Here’s an agency that has access to everything about you, can do virtually anything to you, and, until quite recently, was answerable only to God (and I doubt even God would raise his/her voice at the IRS for fear that they might audit him/her.) I, personally, am so terrified of the IRS that when they failed to give me the full value of my refund a few years back, I chose to take the $175 loss as opposed to risking possible retribution, such as being forced to listen to the busy signal of the Tax Payer Assistance Line until my brain turned into stromboli.

Harlequin’s a lot like the IRS, but slightly less likely to reposes your house. He’d probably just burn it down. Anyway, the lack of control one feels when confronted with a force they cannot retaliate against not only leads to a lessening of morale, but also an unhealthy feeling of paranoia; unhealthy because, unlike other instances in which you can effect the outcome of a situation at least indirectly, there’s really, positively, NOTHING you can do. Being as pawn is absolutely no fun.

But, at the same time, individuals such as Harlequin can be great fun for the GM. Perhaps a little too much fun sometimes. Once a GM gets hold of a Harlequin type of NPC it’s really hard to resist the urge to make the runners pay for each and every NPC they’ve ever blasted into little NPC pieces before shuffling off nonchalantly to the local bar to talk and laugh about the experience even though you, the GM, spent HOURS developing those NPCs and the runners - those dirty bastards - tore through them like they were wet pieces of paper and right now you’d like nothing better than to have Harlequin use some ancient, esoteric spell to drop a cow the size of Baltimore on top of their big, fat, player-character heads. Not that you’re bitter.

So we can see that godlike NPCs present problems in both the player and GM area of the game. But this doesn’t mean we have to degrade nifty, Harlequinesque NPCs to the status of a funny looking elven target. No, what GMs have to do is create an NPC that gives the impression of possibly being a target, but which isn’t. In other words, you have to trick the PCs into actually believing that the NPC can effected and/or controlled. Here are a few suggestions on how to portray such an image:

Achilles Heels

If the runners learn of a surefire way of killing the NPC, the NPC won’t seem nearly as immortal. However, the exact nature of the weakness should be extremely complicated and nearly - but not completely - inaccessible to the runners. For example, the NPC may be unable to resist a particular type of clock. The NPC has collected these types of clocks throughout the ages and, if the runners got hold of one, he would almost certainly come barging in in an attempt to take it. The runners would then be able to fight the NPC on their own turf and, if they have the right amount of ordinance, perhaps even take him out. Of course only one such clock exists outside of the NPC’s collection, and is located in a small, backwoods African village which the runners may never find. But at least the runners will be able to sleep better knowing that they have an angle on the NPC.

Art Of The Trickster

Most god-like NPCs have a trickster personality, meaning they’d rather tease than kill. (If god NPCs didn’t have this personality, everybody in the world would be dead by now.) The last thing a trickster wants is for a PC to lose interest in his game. This is probably the greatest weakness of a god NPC. The NPC will do anything to keep the runners interested, including doing things to the runners’ benefit if it seems that their interest is waning too far. Once the runners realize this, they may even be able to use the NPC to their advantage. However, it is extremely important that the PCs remember that even tricksters have a breaking point. Once the runners push that boundary, the NPC may decide to end the game. Permanently.

Enemies

 God NPCs tend to tick off a lot of people. If the runners manage to track down some of the NPC’s ‘victims’ they may be able to gain a bit more insight as to why the NPC does what he does. In addition, god NPCs often have enemies who are also god NPCs. If the runners somehow manage to hook up with one of these individuals, they could make the life of the offending NPC a living hell. But, again, they have to watch it. If the offending NPC manages to fend off another NPC, and somehow discovers who ‘sent’ him, there’s gonna be hell to pay.

So, next time you send Harlequin down the pike try out a few of these pointers and see if they help change the typical PC “Oh, shit. It’s the clown again.” attitude.