EN World City Project: NPC Submissions

Hear Ye! Hear Ye! The EN World City Project is looking for colorful characters to people the region in and around the city of Mor's End.

City Guards, Maidens, Fishermen, Craftsmen, Nobles, Thieves, Holy Women, Merchants, Street Vendors, Actors, Singers, Street Urchins, Drunkards, Gluttons, Liars, Cheats, Courtiers, Henchmen, Libertines or anything else your sweet little heart desires.

In short, we want you to help us populate the city. Here are the guidelines for submissions.

--Only races from the PHB may be used.

--Only classes, feats, skills, PrCs, etc. from the SRD may be used.

--The characters background/history must provide a plot hook(s) for player characters to investigate.

--Plot Hooks must take place within the region of Enheim (where Mor's End is located). See Geography Thread for details.

--If appropriate for the NPC/Plot Hook, please include stats for multiple levels (For Example... 0, 3, 6, 9). Multiple levels are NOT required.

--Provide stats for all other major NPCs central to the plot hook. If appropriate, stats should be included for multiple levels (For Example... 0, 3, 6, 9). Multiple levels are NOT required.

--Use d20 Standard statblocks: http://www.d20statblock.org/standard/examples.html
A useful statblock tool: http://mwtools.thyle.net/sb_gen.html

--This is an open call. You may submit as many NPC/Plot Hooks as you like.

--Submission deadline will be Midnight, March 22nd.

--Submission Format:
NPC Name
Description/Background/Plot Hook
Stat Block
Special Equipment/Weapons

If multiple levels are being included, please place those stat blocks as follows...

Stat Block (Level 3)
Special Equipment and Weapons

Stat Block (Level 6)
Special Equipment and Weapons

Stat Block (Level 9)
Special Equipment and Weapons

Other Major NPC Info:
Name
Brief Description
Stat Block
Special Equipment and Weapons

For multiple levels, use same format as above.

-----------------------------------

Threads that might help you devise plot hooks...
History Thread
Geography Thread
Administration Thread
Craft & Trade Thread
Government Thread

As other threads get started, I'll post them here.

[deleted. moved to OOC thread]

count me in for a few... I've wanted to volunteer to aid in this project since I first heard of it, but I've been a little busy with other things recently... thankfully, things will be quieter for me after this weekend (for a few months anyway)...

so, are the NPC's to be posted in this thread or emailed to the appropriate EN World City Project 'Minister'...?

also, are you placing any sort of "word count" restriction on background/history for NPCs (for the sake of your own workload)...?

Ruavel... There is no length restriction. Having said that, be as brief as possible. It will definitely make it easier on me.

--sam

Originally posted by lalato
Having said that, be as brief as possible. It will definitely make it easier on me.

Click to expand...

that's exactly what I was trying to be mindful of...



I'll try to get the first one finished and posted ASAP... especially given that I'll be out of town for four days starting this Friday...

I went through the DMG demographics guidelines on pages 139-140 and caclulated how many NPCs of each class we should have of every character level (see the "Time to open shop" thread for more details). Here are the results:

Paladin, Ranger:
1x 9th level, 1x7, 2x5, 2x4, 8x2, 16x1

Aristocrat, Barbarian, Monk, Sorceror, Wizard:
1x9, 1x8, 2x5, 2x4, 8x2, 16x1

Bard, Cleric, Druid, Adept:
1x11, 1x8, 2x6, 2x4, 4x3, 4x2, 16x1

Fighter, Rogue, Warrior:
1x12, 1x9, 2x6, 2x5, 4x3, 12x2, 24x1

Expert:
1x15, 1x12, 2x8, 2x6, 4x4, 4x3, 16x2, 32x1

Commoner:
1x18, 1x14, 2x9, 2x7, 4x5, 4x4, 16x2, 32x1

The rest of the population is filled up with 91% Com1, 5% War1, 3% Exp1, 0.5% Ari1 and 0.5% Adp1. That's an additional 6370 Com1, 350 War1, 210 Exp1, 35 Ari1 and 35 Adp1. (based on 7000 adults)

Given these numbers, we probably want to restrict "free for all" submission to a certain level, and have an actual contest for the highest-level ones (probably in cooperation with the Goverment thread). I think lvl 5 max is a reasonable limit for the NPC thread.

I also want to make sure that we are all comfortable with this size of city. Personally, I would prefer Mor's End to be a Metropolis or at least a Large City (12,000-25,000). That would allow us to have some fairly high-level NPC's (up to lvl 17), which makes the city scaleable for higher-level adventures as well.

This is pretty much our LAST CHANCE to change something as fundamental as this. I can easily recalculate the numbers I gave above, and I assume Buttercup could redo her numbers for the different types of businesses as well. But once we start weaving these statistics into the fabric of the city, it'll be too late to reverse any of this!

Well those are guidelines, and I think we shouldn't impose them because it's be restrictive. (and nigh impossible to coordinate)

Lets just go with the flow and see what emerges.

Krug said:

Well those are guidelines, and I think we shouldn't impose them because it's be restrictive. (and nigh impossible to coordinate)

Click to expand...

Oh, I agree that they are merely guidelines. But those guidelines could come in very handy when we notice that we have 10 submissions for 15th level fighters...

Besides, they give us an idea what sort of levels we need to aim at for the people in government as well: Lady Kelvin is likely 14th level, the head of the Mage's guild is ~lvl 9, head of the Thieves Guild ~lvl 12, head of the Merchant's Guild could be an Exp15, etc.

They're only guidelines, but they are reasonable guidelines, and so far we don't really have anything else to go by. I think we sorely need some guidelines for this sort of stuff, just like Buttercups list of businesses is useful to keep things in perspective. There's no need to match these numbers exactly, of course...

As others have pointed out, the population of Enheim is much greater. Mor's End would watch over a population of around 30k. I don't have the DMG; how does it all work out?

For NPC submissions, we'd stilll have to vet. Whatever guideline we used (Eg: for a town of 25k there might be only one 18th level mage, for example), I'm sure it would still get 'broken'.

And an 18th level commoner? Who might that be??

Krug said:

And an 18th level commoner? Who might that be??

Click to expand...

Probably the local ratcatcher . A couple XP a pop, say 10-20 rats a day... Ok, he might have to switch to dire rats and then alligators in the sewers at some point, but...

Yeah I know, WotC never really explained what it really *means* to be a high-level Commoner. Altogether rather silly. Hmm, maybe fodder for a interesting contest?