Guide to making quick & easy NPCs

[Guardian_A]

Over the last couple of weeks, I've seen some discussion on this site about people making their own NPCs (Mostly imspired by the NPC collections I've been working on), and I've also received a number of PMs about the subject as well. This has prompted me to take a closer look at how I have built NPCs for my own games. I have realized that there are four ways that I go about building NPCs.

Some people have no problem putting together a quick NPC for their adventures, while other people will agonize over a NPC for hours. This article is to make things a little easier for the second group.

While I pick on the Imperial Army Trooper through this entire article, these kinds of changes can be made to any NPC.


The Cosmetic NPC

The Cosmetic NPC is probably the simplest way to bring a new NPC to your game. To create a "Cosmetic" NPC, you need a pre-existing NPC, then make one or more cosmetic changes to the character.

For example, take the Imperial Army Trooper:

Option 1. Race Change: By simply changing the character's race to Wookiee, your Imperial Army Trooper becomes a Wookiee Soldier or Mercenary.

Option 2. Gear Change: Another option would be to change the gear the character is carrying. Instead of a Blaster Rifle and Field Armor, give the character a blaster pistol and a blast vest to create a local thug, or police officer.

Option 3. Description Change: Just changing the character's description or gender can have a huge affect on the way your players will persceive a character. Instead of wearing a Imperial Army Uniform, the character could be wearing a tattered old pear of work clothes, making the character a grumpy old laborer who lives in a dangerous part of town.


The 1UP! NPC

This is another simple method for making quick NPCs. Do your players need just a little more of a challenge? Are your enemies falling just a little short? One of the quickest ways to give your characters a little more fight is to add +1D to every skill in the stat block. By doing this, your Imperial Army Trooper becomes an experienced soldier instead of a green recruit. By adding +1D to every skill again, your experienced trooper becomes a grizzled veteran. If you dont want to give the character such a rapid progression, add just +1 or +2, if you want the character to progress faster, add +1D+1 or +1D+2. Also, if you have a little extra time, raising less important skills slower will help define your character even further.


The Leader NPC

So, you have your foot troops completed, but you want someone to lead them into battle? For example, your squad of Imperial Army Troopers lacks a compitent commander. You already know that you want your Squad Leader to be more dangerous than the troopers serving under him, so you have already boosted all his skills, but just having slightly better skills dosnt make a person a leader. In this case, adding +4D to Command puts this caracter firmly in command of the troops serving under him. By adding between +3D and +5D to Command, your slightly upgraded character becomes the unquestioned leader of almost any group.


The Scratch Built NPC

Scratch Building an NPC can be a major undertaking because a scratch built character is often a very important character in your story. Here are a few questions you should ask yourself when making your own characters from scratch:

1. What do you need to know about the character's history? How did that history make the character who he is today? Answering this will often help define the character's personality, appearance, and background.

2. What role do you want the character to fill in your story? Is the character a good guy? A bad guy? Or a shade of gray? Will your character need to have a particular skill set to fill that roll? After all, almost any soldier needs Blaster and Dodge, a fighter pilot needs to be able to fly, a slicer needs to have Computer Program/Repair, etc.

3. How powerful do you want your character to be? Do you want the character to be weaker than your players characters? More powerful? Somewhere in between?

I use the following guideline when building scratch built NPCs. While I rarely follow it exactly, it does give me a target so my NPCs can be close to what I want with a minimum of effort.

When using this guideline, all Force powers come from the Skill dice pool, but all Force skills cost X 3. In other words 3D worth of Skills = 1D worth of Force.

The first baseline is a little weaker than a starting character, and the top baseline could go toe to toe with the Emperor, or Boba Fett and fight either one to a draw.

Insignificant
Attributes 12D
Skills/Force 10D

Novice
Attributes 12D
Skills/Force 20D

Experienced
Attributes 13D
Skills/Force 35D

Veteran
Attributes 13D
Skills/Force 50D

Advanced
Attributes 14D
Skills/Force 75D

Minor Hero
Attributes 15D
Skills/Force 125D

Experienced Hero
Attributes 16D
Skills/Force 175D

Veteran Hero
Attributes 17D
Skills/Force 230D

Advanced Hero
Attributes 18D
Skills/Force 290D




I hope that at least one person finds this article useful!

Thoughts? Comments? Questions? Feedback?

[Bren]

[Guardian_A]

[Whill]

Thanks for posting your ideas and suggestions.
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[garhkal]

[Guardian_A]