Quote:
Originally Posted by rob
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All my issues of Dragon date back to just after they entered double-digits for issue numbers (yes, that's late 1977, which was a year after I first started playing D&D). I only picked up an occasional copy after the early 80s, and I never saw #184. I've got the old Dragon Magazine archive on CD, so I'll have to see if it's in there (it's the first 200+ issues, right?) and take a look at it.  |
Yes its there (p21) and like you I have that same archive, and though the archive issues go up to only 250 issues in a PDF format and mainly deal with game editions up to 2e D&D, its still a great source for core ideas. I agree with AEIOU, if your rendition is similar this is GREAT news for those periphery NPCs.
Sidenote of similar application.....
Often random encounters within an urban setting become one of two extremes .... well fleshed out NPCs or the atypical scruffy barkeep or sour attitude dwarf with little defining their motivations.... And as you have pointed out elsewhere, sometimes you don't need a WHOLE other category or Herolab Profile but need just a bit of flavor..... this would fill the gap nicely.
In the late 1980's Midkemia Press / Chaosium took a similar approach with random encounters in a urban environment. Three renditions of a supplement called
Cities took this approach as well.
The first two editions (published by now defunct Midkemia Press) were more D&D 'esk (d20 based) the third edition (published by Chaosium), was converted to 1d100 and made more universally generic. All would be good candidates for templates in generating either random tables (suggested elsewhere in another thread) or as idea makers for fueling something along this application.
Incidentally, Cities was a precursor to the Thieves World supplement, RuneQuest and Cthulhu.
For any interested *(and I have no affiliation)*
Located here
1st ed
http://www.amazon.com/Cities-Gamemas...stephen+abrams
2nd Ed
http://www.amazon.com/Cities-Guide-A...stephen+abrams
3rd Ed
http://www.amazon.com/Cities-Create-...stephen+abrams
and a digital version is available here
http://www.midkemia.com/