One of the things that was mentioned a few times in the Cavcari campaign, that I found very amusing but couldn't comment on at the time, was the concern some of the players had that they nearly got the NPC Tomas killed. The assumption was that that character was clearly important to the plot, and that I'd be pissed off if he died.
When I'm running a game, there is no fixed plot. Every NPC is expendable. Hell, every PC is expendable, too. I'm not trying to write the next great fantasy epic here - I'm running an RPG, and I hope you find it entertaining, but that's all.
The thing is, I learned a long time ago that if you assume things will go a certain way, the players will find a way to screw with you. If you plan for one NPC to die, to be replaced by another, and spend weeks setting up the cross-over, Marcus will swoop in and save the damn NPC, thus leaving you with two NPCs with the same name. Expect the PCs to refuse to ally with the evil villain, and what will they do?
In the case of Tomas it was particularly amusing. That character existed almost purely to drive the PCs into action in the first session. After that, he was expendable. The Velvel Glove didn't care whether he lived, died, or was appointed king over all the world - he wanted to see how the PCs would react when he commanded them to keep him alive. Like me, he was surprised.
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