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NPC Essentials
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<blockquote data-quote="JoeGKushner" data-source="post: 2009359" data-attributes="member: 1129"><p>NPC Essentials</p><p>Written by Johnn Forr</p><p>Published by RPG Objects</p><p>84 page PDF File</p><p>$8.95</p><p></p><p>Let me start off by saying what NPC Essentials is not. Is it not a collection of feats, prestige classes, spells, magic items and monsters to add to your Non-Player Characters to make them cool or improve their skillz. Instead, NPC Essentials is a book devoted to helping the GM master the fine art of controlling the population of a world. </p><p></p><p>How does he do this? Well, Johnn’s got a lot of experience under his belt with that whole Dragon Magazine writer credits and the every popular roleplaytips.com so he’s got some knowledge to draw off of.</p><p></p><p>He’s broken the book down into seven chapters: Introduction, NPC Design, NPC Roleplaying, Campaign Management, NPC Archetypes, Mini-Adventure and Charts and Sheets.</p><p></p><p>The important aspects for those who want better control and portrayal of their NPCs comes mainly in NPC Design and Roleplaying. Johnn talks about the different levels of detail needed for NPCs based on their type. The walk ons and bit players rarely need anything more than name, level, armor class and hit points, while the nemesis and rivals need not only to have all stats written out, but also their normal tactics and methods. </p><p></p><p>One of my favorite sections is the Roleplaying section. There are a lot of things as a GM you have to keep track of and being an actor is indeed part of that. Here, Johnn provides the reader with some tips on breathing, moving, changing your voice, using props. All the things that can help indicate which character the GM is portraying without always stating, “Hector states,” or “Liam says.” Despite the fact that most of the time as a GM your sitting on your behind, Johnn shows that there is some physical work involved in good GMing. He keeps the pace of the game going by showing GMs how to prep their work ahead of time so that they’re not always stumbling around looking for X, Y, or Z characteristics. He also shows that just because you screw up when you’re in role, that you shouldn’t stop and apologize. Just move on. I agree with him that the players want to believe and that they aren’t there to pounce on you when you do make a mistake.</p><p></p><p>A vital element though for new GMs is the section on campaign management. It talks about organizing your NPCs, updating character sheets, how and when to introduce NPCs, and my favorite part, “When PC & NPC Power Levels Differ.” I like this because there are often many times when a player assumes that anything the GM throws at him is going to be equal to his level or around it. An encounter that he can win. Of course, NPCs hail from all walks of life from the lowly beggar to the mighty noble so how in the world can the PCs always are equal?</p><p></p><p>One of the most important things to make sure of is that the players know the NPC by reputation or witness a display of his power. This insures that the players aren’t going to be ambushed by someone they thought was their level. In terms of lower powered NPCs, well, the NPCs often have allies, friends, non-combat contacts, and a host of other utilities at their command. Having said that however, it’s important to note that some NPCs are indeed just there to be beat into the ground. The hirelings, henchmen and minions often fall into this category.</p><p></p><p>Outside of their use an enemies and allies though, Johnn goes it one step further with ideas on how to make the campaign seem more alive by having NPCs die off stage. Disease, old age, assassination, and other random events can strike at the NPCs just as some of those same events can strike the PCs. This makes the world more believable as the players must accept that their favorite merchants, dealers and priests won’t always be there to save them.</p><p></p><p>About the only place I disagreed with Johnn is in his NPC Archetypes. He does a great job with craftsmen, merchants, nobles great and small, but misses the whole adventuring Archetypes. Where are the mysterious fighters with dark destinies? Where are the powerful mages who mentor the party’s progress for their own sinister purposes? Where are the evil clerics who hide behind bureaucracy? The material covered here is indeed vital for fleshing out role playing encounters with non-adventurers, or those whose main profession at least falls under non-adventuring, but I would’ve liked to have seen more on the nemesis. More on the arch-villain.</p><p></p><p>The mini-adventure is a great tool for GMs to run through to see how much of this material they’ve soaked up. When We Practice to Deceive is for 3rd-5th level characters and involves the rulers of the small village of Meremath as a power struggle gone wrong brings bandits to the town. The players get involved with it and of course, have to help set things right. Johnn makes excellent use of side bars for GM Notes and even includes a table for those who wish to use their Gather Information skill. Information regarding the three rulers is broken out into ruler, potential sources, and the DC. This is a format I’d like to see included in more adventurers.</p><p></p><p>The last chapter isn’t really so much a chapter as it is a collection of charts, tables and sheets. You pretty much get all the tools you need here like names, both for modern and fantasy games, as well as last names, background tables, appearance tables (hair color, eyes, skin tone, age, clothing, etc…), traits, quirks, secrets, and other tables that are mentioned throughout the text as ways of making each NPC unique. Especially useful for GMs always in need of quick NPCs are the mini-sheets where it contains 4 mini-character sheets to a page. Another sized mini-sheet carriers 2 characters, while regular sized character sheets are included for those who need some extra room for the big baddies.</p><p></p><p>The art by V. Shane fits the product well. It’s detailed but the colors are a little muted so that illustrations don’t distract from the crisp clean text. The illustrations are few and far between though which makes the book text heavy. Thankfully the person who did the layout is aware of the value of white space so your eyes don’t suffer. I don’t know what font they used for the header sections, but it stands out and makes finding different sections easier. The layout is standard two columns with no borders. I find this often works best for PDF files as you’re printing them from your own computer and ink is not cheap. The PDF file boasts the standard bookmarks and thumbnails to make looking through the product quick. The maps of the village and bandit camp are also in full color but suffer a little in readability purposes. Maybe if they were a little bigger. Editing was pretty good. I only saw two things. One was antidote spelled out as two words and another was the bard in the adventure is missing her class level under her character write up.</p><p></p><p>The book truly does cover almost every aspect of NPC Essentials. I only thought it was a little weak as far as its D20 coverage. While the adventure and the sheets are nice additions to any D20 library, some more focus on or discussion on appropriate feats, spells, and magical items for different types of NPCs would’ve made the book more immediately useful. In addition, I think that a few PrCs, like Guildmaster or Beggar King would’ve made the book just about perfect.</p><p></p><p>Hopefully if the book sees print it’ll get kicked it up 96 or 112 pages and we’ll see more D20 system specific stuff. Despite the lack of D20 information though, this book is a must have for any GM, regardless of system. If you play GURPS, Hero, Tri-Stat, or heck, even D20, you need a book like this to help remind you how to make your NPCs not only remain focused on the campaign, but also to stand out in the players mind.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="JoeGKushner, post: 2009359, member: 1129"] NPC Essentials Written by Johnn Forr Published by RPG Objects 84 page PDF File $8.95 Let me start off by saying what NPC Essentials is not. Is it not a collection of feats, prestige classes, spells, magic items and monsters to add to your Non-Player Characters to make them cool or improve their skillz. Instead, NPC Essentials is a book devoted to helping the GM master the fine art of controlling the population of a world. How does he do this? Well, Johnn’s got a lot of experience under his belt with that whole Dragon Magazine writer credits and the every popular roleplaytips.com so he’s got some knowledge to draw off of. He’s broken the book down into seven chapters: Introduction, NPC Design, NPC Roleplaying, Campaign Management, NPC Archetypes, Mini-Adventure and Charts and Sheets. The important aspects for those who want better control and portrayal of their NPCs comes mainly in NPC Design and Roleplaying. Johnn talks about the different levels of detail needed for NPCs based on their type. The walk ons and bit players rarely need anything more than name, level, armor class and hit points, while the nemesis and rivals need not only to have all stats written out, but also their normal tactics and methods. One of my favorite sections is the Roleplaying section. There are a lot of things as a GM you have to keep track of and being an actor is indeed part of that. Here, Johnn provides the reader with some tips on breathing, moving, changing your voice, using props. All the things that can help indicate which character the GM is portraying without always stating, “Hector states,” or “Liam says.” Despite the fact that most of the time as a GM your sitting on your behind, Johnn shows that there is some physical work involved in good GMing. He keeps the pace of the game going by showing GMs how to prep their work ahead of time so that they’re not always stumbling around looking for X, Y, or Z characteristics. He also shows that just because you screw up when you’re in role, that you shouldn’t stop and apologize. Just move on. I agree with him that the players want to believe and that they aren’t there to pounce on you when you do make a mistake. A vital element though for new GMs is the section on campaign management. It talks about organizing your NPCs, updating character sheets, how and when to introduce NPCs, and my favorite part, “When PC & NPC Power Levels Differ.” I like this because there are often many times when a player assumes that anything the GM throws at him is going to be equal to his level or around it. An encounter that he can win. Of course, NPCs hail from all walks of life from the lowly beggar to the mighty noble so how in the world can the PCs always are equal? One of the most important things to make sure of is that the players know the NPC by reputation or witness a display of his power. This insures that the players aren’t going to be ambushed by someone they thought was their level. In terms of lower powered NPCs, well, the NPCs often have allies, friends, non-combat contacts, and a host of other utilities at their command. Having said that however, it’s important to note that some NPCs are indeed just there to be beat into the ground. The hirelings, henchmen and minions often fall into this category. Outside of their use an enemies and allies though, Johnn goes it one step further with ideas on how to make the campaign seem more alive by having NPCs die off stage. Disease, old age, assassination, and other random events can strike at the NPCs just as some of those same events can strike the PCs. This makes the world more believable as the players must accept that their favorite merchants, dealers and priests won’t always be there to save them. About the only place I disagreed with Johnn is in his NPC Archetypes. He does a great job with craftsmen, merchants, nobles great and small, but misses the whole adventuring Archetypes. Where are the mysterious fighters with dark destinies? Where are the powerful mages who mentor the party’s progress for their own sinister purposes? Where are the evil clerics who hide behind bureaucracy? The material covered here is indeed vital for fleshing out role playing encounters with non-adventurers, or those whose main profession at least falls under non-adventuring, but I would’ve liked to have seen more on the nemesis. More on the arch-villain. The mini-adventure is a great tool for GMs to run through to see how much of this material they’ve soaked up. When We Practice to Deceive is for 3rd-5th level characters and involves the rulers of the small village of Meremath as a power struggle gone wrong brings bandits to the town. The players get involved with it and of course, have to help set things right. Johnn makes excellent use of side bars for GM Notes and even includes a table for those who wish to use their Gather Information skill. Information regarding the three rulers is broken out into ruler, potential sources, and the DC. This is a format I’d like to see included in more adventurers. The last chapter isn’t really so much a chapter as it is a collection of charts, tables and sheets. You pretty much get all the tools you need here like names, both for modern and fantasy games, as well as last names, background tables, appearance tables (hair color, eyes, skin tone, age, clothing, etc…), traits, quirks, secrets, and other tables that are mentioned throughout the text as ways of making each NPC unique. Especially useful for GMs always in need of quick NPCs are the mini-sheets where it contains 4 mini-character sheets to a page. Another sized mini-sheet carriers 2 characters, while regular sized character sheets are included for those who need some extra room for the big baddies. The art by V. Shane fits the product well. It’s detailed but the colors are a little muted so that illustrations don’t distract from the crisp clean text. The illustrations are few and far between though which makes the book text heavy. Thankfully the person who did the layout is aware of the value of white space so your eyes don’t suffer. I don’t know what font they used for the header sections, but it stands out and makes finding different sections easier. The layout is standard two columns with no borders. I find this often works best for PDF files as you’re printing them from your own computer and ink is not cheap. The PDF file boasts the standard bookmarks and thumbnails to make looking through the product quick. The maps of the village and bandit camp are also in full color but suffer a little in readability purposes. Maybe if they were a little bigger. Editing was pretty good. I only saw two things. One was antidote spelled out as two words and another was the bard in the adventure is missing her class level under her character write up. The book truly does cover almost every aspect of NPC Essentials. I only thought it was a little weak as far as its D20 coverage. While the adventure and the sheets are nice additions to any D20 library, some more focus on or discussion on appropriate feats, spells, and magical items for different types of NPCs would’ve made the book more immediately useful. In addition, I think that a few PrCs, like Guildmaster or Beggar King would’ve made the book just about perfect. Hopefully if the book sees print it’ll get kicked it up 96 or 112 pages and we’ll see more D20 system specific stuff. Despite the lack of D20 information though, this book is a must have for any GM, regardless of system. If you play GURPS, Hero, Tri-Stat, or heck, even D20, you need a book like this to help remind you how to make your NPCs not only remain focused on the campaign, but also to stand out in the players mind. [/QUOTE]
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