Just make your own party and leave all NPC's as they are. Use S.K to adjust your party if so desired. Click Multiplayer game, then "create" all characters. I'd suggest 4 at most to leave you room for the NPC's that you need to take along in order to do their quests. Once you have started your multiplayer game save it and then copy the game from the multiplayer save folder over to the single player saves folder and then just carry on playing as a single player but controlling your own created party members.
Hope it helps dude.
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It's bleedin dark down here, slippery too.

Man, that's a pisser.