Non-player character

non-player character, N.P.C., NPC, n., D&D-ism 1. in a role-playing game or LARP, a character in the story controlled by the gamemaster; as opposed to a player character, or PC. [EDE] 2. Not Particularly Cooperative; see addendum. [MH]
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Addendum (Def. #2): This was in response to the rash of unhelpful, surly, hostile, and generally incompetent NPCs that we ran into during the course of an AD&D adventure. [MH]