NPC Development

[AEIOU]

Bob Conley over at http://batintheattic.blogspot.com/ had a looooong blog post today which had a little gem towards the bottom regarding what he thinks about for each NPC that he creates that I wanted to share with folks.

For each NPC I ask myself,

a) what they do for those they are loyal too
b) who else they are loyal too
c) what they want for themselves.

I try not to get much more complex than that as I don't want to have to use a charting program to keep track of everything. Which is what would happen if you tried to make things as complex as they are in real life. For some NPCs, details get piled on due to PCs exploring logical connection or a character is used over multiple campaigns. But in general I start with the above three for any particular NPC.

The simplicity of his approach coupled with the 7-sentence NPC published in Dragon Magazine eons ago provide quite a bit of usefulness without creating a huge burden. A few standardized snippets that can prompt GM thinking. It's a basic framework for motivation and limits.

Coupling these or similar methods for NPC creation with RW (which WOULD create interlinkages)...niiiiiice.