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.

[Sobran]

I agree. I've been trying to do something similar. My biggest problem is pruning out the unneeded or redundant entries for each new NPC. It would be nice if we could set up a template for various categories. So for NPCs, I only want these categories to show up and for locations I only need these categories.

[JustinThomason]

Good find AEIOU. This will definitely percolate through my brain on how to handle NPCs in the future. This really could be a powerfully simple way to template NPCs in Realm Works.

[Cornelius]

I only ask myself what motivates the NPC. Knowing their motivations helps in determining their reaction to PC actions. Usually this motivation also gives an idea how they act towards others.

[Dark Lord Galen]

Originally Posted by AEIOU

The simplicity of his approach coupled with the 7-sentence NPC published in Dragon Magazine eons ago .............

Just to help those curious...
the issue was Dragon Magazine #184 and repeated in the compendium. And I agree its a tool I have used for years.

DLG

[eponette]

Just by curiosity : could you please put the 7 magic sentences here?

[Parody]

Perhaps the magic of internet search could help here? (For me, the first three items of that search included it.)

ObTopic: It's been a long time since I had to flesh out NPCs as long-term characters vs. short-term obstacles. (Convention length events don't need a lot of fleshing out, and my recent campaigns came from published sources.) The two important things for me were "What's (his/her/its) goals?" and "What methods will (he/she/it) use to accomplish them?"

[AEIOU]

The intro to the article starts with a 7-sentence NPC example: "Rand the Elder is a blacksmith who has spent all his life in Arabel. He is a tall man with a heavy black beard. Rand is known for his great strength (16), skill as a blacksmith, and rather dim wit (Int 7). He values his family above all, is honest to a fault, and has a great fondness for music. Uncomfortable and a man of few words with strangers, he is talkative and likes to sing with his close friends. With his shop on the main thoroughfare, he hears many of the tales from outside the city, but often gets the facts mixed up due to his slow wit. He talks in a deep, slow drawl and pulls at his beard when talking to others."

As I've noted in the past, the LWD team has already captured much of this in RW already. What the article sparked in me was "ahhhh, THAT's a way to use the snippets more effectively; THAT's a nice way to lay things out." The explanations and examples in the article helped me wrap my head around entering NPCs.

I'd love for the RW manual to flesh out several examples of entries in different genres to help users visualize the potential easier.

1) Occupation and History
2) Physical description
3) Attributes and Skills
4) Values and Motivations
5) Interactions with others
6) Useful knowledge
7) Distinguishing feature

[Barwickian]

Originally Posted by AEIOU

I'd love for the RW manual to flesh out several examples of entries in different genres to help users visualize the potential easier.

1) Occupation and History
2) Physical description
3) Attributes and Skills
4) Values and Motivations
5) Interactions with others
6) Useful knowledge
7) Distinguishing feature

I think you've just done that, at least as far as I'm concerned.

Great thread. Going to hunt up that Dragon article and steal ideas from you fine people.

[Dark Lord Galen]

As nimble the halfling rogue would say "steal??? That's such a harsh word. We prefer acquire or re-appropriate." 😃