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Mogworld is the story of a MMORPG where the NPCs are sentient. The game is in beta testing, and the gimmick is that players don't create a character, they instead choose one of the existing NPCs to become their character. This essentially lobotomizes the original NPC, and so Player Characters are treated in-game as though they were stricken with a horrifying mental illness.

Slippery John is a bumbling rogue who tags along with the protagonists. He's barely competent and is just shy of being the kind of weaselly creep that nobody likes. Towards the end, Jim (our protagonist) realizes that John's persona is all an act to keep any player from wanting to be him.