For personality, I either:
1) Make it up as I go along. Maybe just an alignment for a mook in the crowd, then I invent backstory and personality from there if the person becomes relevant. Often for characters involved in combat, the personality “reveals” itself in play.
For example, the most recent NPC to get “spontaneous depth” was an archer at the Temple of Elemental Evil, one of many bandits, but he was lucky enough to be outside the Area of Effect of the party’s spells and not directly in combat, so he guessed the party would win and surrendered “to fight another day”. I knew he was CE, so figured “every man for himself”. When the PC’s interrogated him after winning, I had him be observant and a bit clever, but an underling and survivor. I decided his backstory, which they asked about, was he was from a Wild Coast city overrun by the orcs of the Pomarj and had been living by his wits and larcenous nature ever since. Knowing that made him easy to play, and the players felt sorry for him (sort of) and took him along on their adventure as a local “adviser”. Easy character for me to play.
2) Base it on someone. A real person, or more rarely a fictional character. In either case, change enough so it’s different. I think a lot of writers do this.
3) Random tables from AD&D DMG.
For names, I either make it up or use an online random generator and sometimes alert that a bit.
The guy above, Gragold, is from a WotC generator. I don’t remember if that was verbatim or if I altered it.
For stats, I roll or choose for NPC’s where it matters, or use some pregen, or just say, like with Gragold, +1 Dex ‘cause his job is archer, all other stats normal (10-11) and aren’t important. I might actually roll the other stats if he sticks around long enough, but they won’t be super high or low. Int and Wis might both be as high as 13 fir this guy, just nobody ever noticed before.
1) Make it up as I go along. Maybe just an alignment for a mook in the crowd, then I invent backstory and personality from there if the person becomes relevant. Often for characters involved in combat, the personality “reveals” itself in play.
For example, the most recent NPC to get “spontaneous depth” was an archer at the Temple of Elemental Evil, one of many bandits, but he was lucky enough to be outside the Area of Effect of the party’s spells and not directly in combat, so he guessed the party would win and surrendered “to fight another day”. I knew he was CE, so figured “every man for himself”. When the PC’s interrogated him after winning, I had him be observant and a bit clever, but an underling and survivor. I decided his backstory, which they asked about, was he was from a Wild Coast city overrun by the orcs of the Pomarj and had been living by his wits and larcenous nature ever since. Knowing that made him easy to play, and the players felt sorry for him (sort of) and took him along on their adventure as a local “adviser”. Easy character for me to play.
2) Base it on someone. A real person, or more rarely a fictional character. In either case, change enough so it’s different. I think a lot of writers do this.
3) Random tables from AD&D DMG.
For names, I either make it up or use an online random generator and sometimes alert that a bit.
The guy above, Gragold, is from a WotC generator. I don’t remember if that was verbatim or if I altered it.
For stats, I roll or choose for NPC’s where it matters, or use some pregen, or just say, like with Gragold, +1 Dex ‘cause his job is archer, all other stats normal (10-11) and aren’t important. I might actually roll the other stats if he sticks around long enough, but they won’t be super high or low. Int and Wis might both be as high as 13 fir this guy, just nobody ever noticed before.
