# NPCs

By Drew Hayes · Spells, Swords, & Stealth, book 1

Profile: https://hahafiction.com/books/npcs-23581ab9/

A visiting adventuring party dies in a Maplebark tavern, leaving four local residents to deal with the danger. To protect their town, they must take the dead adventurers’ places and attempt a dangerous quest.

## What makes it funny?

Thistle sees apparently unconscious adventurers and wants to empty their purses. When the guard objects, he offers a business solution: put them in a room and take the money as payment. The guests are in no condition to haggle.

### The comedy at work

At the gaming table, players can discard dead characters and reach for fresh character sheets. Inside the game’s world, the townsfolk have to live with the mess. Hayes gives the people usually treated as scenery their own objections to the way adventures work.

### Try this if…

Familiarity with tabletop role-playing games helps with the jokes about players’ habits and fantasy conventions. The appeal is seeing an adventure from the side of its overlooked background characters.

### Good to know

Strong profanity and deaths appear in the opening. The story also includes violence, gore and graphic injury, with moments of fear and sacrifice alongside the jokes.

## What to expect

- Genre: Adventure · Fantasy · LitRPG
- On the shelf: Quest
- Kind of humor: Banter · Parody · Situational comedy
- Format: Novel
- Audiobook: 7 hr 51 min
- Published: 2014

## Sources & further reading

- Review: [Bluejay Reads review](https://bluejayreads.wordpress.com/2022/09/16/review-npcs)
- Library catalog: [Audiobook edition details](https://dod.overdrive.com/media/1957720)
- Reading sample: [Opening chapter](https://www.drewhayesnovels.com/blog/npcspreview)
- Author commentary: [Author’s synopsis and cover](https://www.drewhayesnovels.com/blog/npcscover)