Maxperson
Morkus from Orkus
It is all we need with regard to how it will act in a moral sense. That's the context in which this discussion is taking place, so that's why we are saying that it's all you need. We don't need blurbs like, "Enjoys watching kids boil in oil." or "It will defend clergy with its life." We know the game circumstances surrounding the encounter. Those don't involve the moral decisions the NPC will make. All we do then is plug in alignment and go.Because @Oofta said, and has reiterated, that typically all he needs to know to run a NPC or creature is that being's alignment. And some other posters in this thread - @Helldritch and you being the main ones but I think @Flamestrike might be there too - have agreed with and/or defended Oofta in respect of this claim.
The fact that I don't have a particular expectation of alignment doesn't change the fact that other posters appear to, and I am asking them to elaborate on that expectation by showing how it would work in concrete instances.
I'm not going to remember the write-up on how an NPC will behave and I don't want to have to disrupt a game to re-read it in the middle of the encounter. A simple LG or NE suffices.For instance, in my Prince Valiant game the scenario I am using often describes how the NPCs will behave, at least by default. I extrapolate from that as necessary, and also apply the consequences of Presence checks made by the players for their PCs.
I also use stats when determining NPC actions. An intelligent CE monster will behave differently than a very stupid one. There are lots of little tricks to running an NPC, but the key is for them to be brief. That way I don't have to disrupt the game to try and remember how each NPC will act.In my Traveller game I am typically preparing my own scenarios. I might make notes as to what a NPC is likely to do, or what their motivation is. Otherwise I lean heavily into reaction rolls, filtered through the relevant context. I also look to a NPC's background, stats (especially INT, EDU and SOC) and skills to get a sense of their personality: eg someone with low INT but high EDU is likely to be disciplined but lack initiative; someone with mid-to-high SOC and skill in Foil (the bladed weapon) and Leadership is apt to be dashing rather than plodding; etc. If they have low INT then we can add that they may also be a little naive.
See, even that's too much for me to be giving to each NPC. There are typically lots of NPCs(I'm counting monsters in there) the group encounters in a given session. I'll note a few things like that for the important NPCs, but by an large I'm just going to go with alignment and game circumstances, which include NPC stats, when figuring out how the NPC will act.In Burning Wheel I will give a NPC up to three Beliefs to reflect their basic orientation and place in the fiction. In Cortex+ Heroic a NPC's Distinctions play a similar sort of role. And of course the results of social interaction also make a difference.