NPCs offers a fresh look at the world of role-playing games. While many fiction books use the settings for various roleplaying games as a skeleton on which to build their storytelling edifices, NPCs expands on this idea by telling a story about the characters who exist on the sidelines of a roleplaying world – the NPCs or “non-player characters”. Sure, everyone knows that a mighty warrior or dazzling magician can make a heroic cast member for a tale, but what about a bartender or a lowly city guard? Turns out, they can make tales just as fine as the tales about the “real” heroes of the world.

This novel is simultaneously adventuresome and darkly comedic, and the characters are surprisingly detailed with rich backstories when compared to NPCs in a typical roleplaying game. This makes it easy for them to carry a story, and it reverses the formula usually seen in roleplaying worlds by making the characters who specialize in more heroic careers almost one-dimensional by comparison.

Fans of roleplaying games will find many snicker-worthy inside jokes, but readers without any roleplaying experience are not left out in the confused cold. The author works in enough details about the hobby and process of roleplaying games to make the story engaging even for someone with no prior knowledge of the subject.

NPCs weaves a tale that is inspiring and heroic and proves that even those that society usually overlooks can be heroes.

Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language:26 mild obscenities; 2 religious profanities; 9 derogatory names; 17 scatological words; 1 anatomical term; 6 f-word derivatives.

Violence/Gore:Characters spar for practice; a few verbal threats; a fewreports of innocent villagers killed; report of monsters killed by characters; report of deaths in battle; a few reports of a murders; report of a person beaten; report of an attack by monsters; report of people executed;a fist-fight;a few fights using magic and medieval weapons in which monsters and humans are killed or injured killed and character injured without graphic gore;a building is destroyed by arson; a few buildings are destroyed by explosions;characters die from poison; a fight with magic and melee weapons in which characters are killed and injured, with blood and severed body parts described.

Sex/Nudity:  Characters hug and kiss; an implication that a man is sleeping with another man’s wife; report of an extramarital affair.

Mature Subject Matter:

Arson; kidnapping; theft.

Alcohol / Drug Use:

Adults drink alcohol.