TowersMUX makes use of a fair number of NPCs in various IC positions of power. People who hold authority at a city-wide or sphere-wide level are very likely to be NPCs, and while that may change someday, it will probably not be in the near term.

• These NPCs are essentially here to be placeholders; they prevent us from having to deal with the situation of, say, having a PC Prince of London who has no choice but step away from the game for several months. PCs can, and will, still hold power, but if things should go south, there will always be a higher level of staff-controlled authority who can remove them without the headache of constant IC leadership changes.
• PCs who demonstrate sustained effort over a period of time and act in the spirit of the game’s ideals of cooperative storytelling can and will achieve positions of authority and leadership. This is most likely to come about through the actions of other PCs, rather than by staff fiat. However, a character who reaches the highest levels of leadership (e.g., a Vampire Primogen, Sept Alpha, Chantry head, etc.) will normally become an NPC after an appropriate interval.
• NPCs are, as a rule, deliberately designed to avoid being involved with day-to-day things. They are, if you like, kept behind glass to be broken in case of emergency; they aren’t going to be nitpicking your character’s everyday doings unless those everyday doings rise to the level of an emergency. They’re off doing relevant things (relevant to them, anyway) and don’t have time to closely supervise PCs.
• Getting NPCs to go along with your plans is generally handled by the Influence system; there are so many potential interested parties for this sort of thing that we feel it would be unfair to decide it on the basis of who can wrangle a scene with the NPC and roll really well on their Mind 5 brainwashing effect.
• Actual NPC appearances are intended to be rare. You’re not likely to see Queen Anne if you show up at Elysium on any given night; you probably still won’t see her if you show up at Elysium every night for a month. An NPC appearing on the grid generally means that either someone has done something really great that they’re about to be praised and rewarded for, or else that someone has done something really awful that they’re about to be chastised for.
• NPCs do not have +sheets; they have whatever abilities make sense and are necessary to keep the game moving smoothly. They’re more like part of the landscape than they are actual characters, but they can and will still take action when IC necessity demands it.
• When necessary, NPCs can be controlled by any staff member. Staff keep records of NPC doings in order to retain consistency.