Quote:
Originally Posted by Bidmaron
Putting NPCs where they belong is an oversimplification for a world with any verisimilitude. Take the proprietor of a store who is lucky enough to have a home not attached to the store. Where does he belong? The store? His home? The tavern where he spends every waking hour outside the store to dodge his shrew of a wife? The brothel he frequents for the same reason?
NPCs in a single location yield unrealistic worlds.
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Nothing you said makes any difference in how I place my NPC's.
They don't make sense to be in a blob, because that makes it harder for me to remember at a glance where they 'live'. I'd rather make note of any of that information in the text for those locations - and if I needed to 'wing it' and have the players encounter 'the tavern owner from The Fox Hound' when they are in the woods - I can just expand 'The Fox Hound' instead of having to open the snippet to remember who that was.
I'm horrible with names myself and the visual placement is a help - having them all in one spot is 100% useless to
me.
Then again... I did say "find what works best for
you" only to be lectured about how I'm wrong. Here is a hint - if you think the NPC's all belong in the mechanics section under a 10 tier topic for each one... if it works for you that's fantastic. Don't get hung up on 'best practices' unless you want to sell your stuff in the marketplace. I do agree having a standard format for 'bought' stuff is needed even if *I* don't like it.