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Korrigan (sorry I dont know your out of game name) brought up a good point about npc's. While having more players would likely increase the amount of npc's it could just make our plot team more outnumbered. There are several solutions to this that I've seen work to varying degrees of success.

#1- Permanent npc position (s)- Kinda like a junior plot member. These people agree to npc for the majority of the year, maybe 3 or 4 events. In return these players usually get to draw from grab bag every couple events.

#2- Implement a pc/npc ratio- Players get a positive point whenever the npc and a negative point whenever they pc (usually -1 per day to pc and +1.5 per day to npc or so). Players typically start with a positive ratio like 2 or 3 so they can get a few games under there belt before they have to npc. Implement negative effects for having a ratio less than 0. This is my least favorite as it involves negative ig consequences for oog reasons.

#3 4 hour npc shifts. Players can elect to take shifts. This is especially usefull if the pc to npc ratio is extremely high. Players would obviously get any award/nicholson points or whatever that are available.

Having been the member of a small plot team with a fairly large pc base I know how hard it can be. Bottom line is the players should be willing to give back a little bit of time given the immense ammount of enjoyment that we get out of the game.

NPC'ing/PC'ing is not, nor should it ever be forced upon anyone. there are benefits to NPC'ing right now and I think they are very good ones.

On occasion the staff does pull PC's to NPC for a bit, this is usually because that PC is doing something that is important but will take time to complete (checking on farmers around the area, scouting, etc.) they can then use that PC to help with a current short plot or just wandering monster. when they are done the re-enter game as their character with whatever task they were doing complete and information gathered.

its also hard to pull random or new people to NPC because your first mentality is "kill the PC's" not "Make the PC's have fun" it took me over a year running a different chapter to get that concept down, and I still have trouble at times

TL;DR: its a complex, selfless, thankless job. not a lot of people can or should do it. we have some fantastic GM's / NPC's and while numbers are always better I would not want more at the cost of quality.

I'd sign up for a 4-hour shift of npc-ing if that was a thing that was done.

I wasnt suggesting that anyone should be forced to do anything. But from what ive seen something needs to be done to help plot out. I was simply making some suggestions based on what ive seen works. As for me I will be voluteering a 4 hour shift at every event that I am at. Sarah said she would as well. I encourage everyone else to consider do the same thing. Whos with me?

As much as I enjoy PCing, I know the need for NPCs every event.

I started playing the FH ruleset with Ark, at the chapter he talked about in his post. It was usually Ark and his brother, and maybe sometimes an extra NPC or two, and 8-12 PCs. The plots were a bit smaller, and there was less going on at once, but it was always clear that more NPCs would have made it more fun for every PC.

I agree that NPCing shouldn't be forced on anyone, however, offering incentives for NPCing on a "we need two of you, so the first two to come talk to us get X" is okay. I'd prefer incentives that effect the game a less significant amount, so, like, no special items, etc. I know Ark always offered 8 levels for any event you NPCd the whole time.

But like I said, as much as I love playing my PC, I always enjoy NPCing as well. So I always try to NPC towards the end of the event, when there is usually more stuff to finish and the GMs may be getting burnt out. I feel like it's part of my payment to the GMs for running these events for us.