Thursday, August 9, 2012

Game idea - creating NPCs

Like I noted in the advice in my last post, I like to prepare a few NPCs that I can insert into different settings for plot purposes. 

For example, I might prep an NPC to be an old priest, but if the players don't even go near the church, but rather travel to an old shack in the desert, I might change the NPC from a priest to a grizzled old seer while keeping the same general characteristics. Here's a simple NPC table that I've used for my homebrew (mostly D & D 2.0 and 4.0) games:


Name:

Sex:
Race:
Class:
Alignment:
Voice:

Quirks:

Personality:
Garb:

Look:
Secret:
Location:

Purpose:
Misc:






For voice, quirks, and personality, I write at least 2 adjectives in each spot that will help me roleplay the NPC. (I'll post some tables of these soon.) Yeah, I try to use voices, even though my friends say they all sound the same. 

Garb refers to clothing and look refers to salient features and/or a more general sense of appearance, e.g. grizzled, fat, curiously old, etc

I like to invent one secret for every NPC; it's good to have more rather than fewer potential storylines at hand.

Location and purpose are to help me remember where and why the NPC exists for the story.

I should mention now that my games are generally light on combat and heavy on exploration and skill use. But inevitably some of my more intractable friends want to be able to fight any NPC--from the cocky soldier to Granny Applesheets, the beloved old breadmaker. So to prepare for this, I also use this NPC table:

Name:

Sex:
Race:
Class:
Alignment:
Voice:

Quirks:

Personality:
Garb:

Look:

Secret:
Location:

Purpose:
Misc:

Type:
Abilities:
Skills:
Hit Points:

Size:
Condition:
Armor Class:
Attack 1:
Attack 2:
Special Attack:
Special Qualities:
Saves:
Buffs:
Debuffs:



These tables have worked out well for me, but I can see some disadvantages:
  • They're not useful for fighting groups of NPCs (especially if there's a controller and some minions).
  • There are no equipment spots, so they're not great if you like to emphasize equipment and inventory realism.
  • They're generally only good for humanoids.

I generally only use these tables for NPCs that are important to the plot. For NPCs that I'd like to remain meaningless to the plot, I'll just invent a name, a voice, and a look.

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