200 Pages of NPCs For 5E, Pathfinder, or S&W

If you want 200 pages of NPCs for your game - and by game, I mean D&D 5E, Pathfinder, or Swords & Wizardry - Nord Games looks like it has you covered. Ultimate NPCs has NPCs galore at levels 1, 4, 8, 12, 16, and 20. It's a Kickstarter, already funded, and they've kindly sent me along a couple of pages from the book to share with you. I had the choice of 5E, Pathfinder, or S&W, and figured 5E would gather the most attention, but if you're a fan of those other two awesome games, just imagine these with suitable stat blocks. Anyhow, on with the preview! This is Jana, a gladiator, at levels 1 and 4.

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So what else is there to know about this Kickstarter? It's being spearheaded by Christopher Haskins from Frog God Games. You get a PDF for $15, or a softcover for $25. Or you can go up to $40 for a hardcover. There's a whole bunch of stretch goals - guilds, generic NPCs, brigands, ruffians, assassins, and more - many of which are already unlocked. The book and art is done - it's just production left to do. There's also add-ons like cards.

Those 200 pages include 30 unique characters at level 1 then leveled up to 4, 8, 12, 16, and 20, for a total of 180 NPCs, plus the more generic NPCs of which there will likely be about 30 to make small groups of ruffians, bandits, thieves, etc.

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[pukunui]

Just confirmed on the kickstarter, you will get generic NPCs as well:

If they've got personalities, then they're not as generic as the ones in the MM. Even so, I'd rather have *just* these than the main content of the book.

But as [MENTION=4937]Celebrim[/MENTION] says, I wish them well and hope they get enough takers for the thing to be a success.

 

[Desrimal]

I was hoping these would be 5e-style generic NPC stat blocks like the ones at the back of the 5e MM, or similar to the generic role-based NPCs in the Pathfinder Gamemastery Guide. I'm definitely not interested in 200 pages of special-snowflake PC-type NPCs.

I agree. I find myself using the NPC stat blocks in the back of 5e MM a LOT! I like making up my NPC's backgrounds myself, but I find making stat blocks quite boring to be honest.

 

[S'mon]

I agree. I find myself using the NPC stat blocks in the back of 5e MM a LOT! I like making up my NPC's backgrounds myself, but I find making stat blocks quite boring to be honest.

Yeah, I'm exactly the same. I have no interest in designers' fluff text - almost certainly I already have a character in mind, I just need simple, useable stats for eg a 3rd level priest or a 6th level magic-user. The 5e MM ones are great but there are no (eg) low-level wizards, high level Clerics, or really bad-ass non-casters in there (though the Assassin ain't bad).

 

[pukunui]

The 5e MM ones are great but there are no (eg) low-level wizards, high level Clerics, or really bad-ass non-casters in there (though the Assassin ain't bad).

Agreed. There are some real gaps in there. It'd be nice to have a generic bard as well.

 

[Goober4473]

The example there looks like the NPCs are built as full PC characters, which is much less useful for me, but if there are also a bunch of generic stats that function more like the 'back of the DMG' ones, this could be useful.

 

[Nord Games]

Does anyone know about the company? Anyone have any of their other products?

You can talk to Bill Webb, Matt Finch, Frank Mentzer, Wolfgang Baur, or pretty much any of the heads of our industry if you'd like to know more about me or my company. Basically we are a group of gamers who are also writers, actors, graphic designers, and of course experienced game masters who are creating cool stuff for our own purposes that we think other gamers would like to have. We have done well in running and delivering our past Kickstarters and plan on running several more. Feel free to ask me anything you'd like.

 

[Nord Games]

Agreed. There are some real gaps in there. It'd be nice to have a generic bard as well.

We have plans for even more generic NPCs beyond what we've posted so far for stretch goals. These additional NPCs include unnamed characters of various classes and races at varying levels.

 

[Kite474]

For 15$ bucks for this many NPC's its a absolute steal! Definitely intend on at least getting one version. Anyone know if it will be available on platforms like DriveThruRPG when it gets published?

Edit: Wording made it sound like im not backing it, I am. However I am curious about online stores as I know quite a few people who are not ones to trust kickstater

 

[Desrimal]

We have plans for even more generic NPCs beyond what we've posted so far for stretch goals. These additional NPCs include unnamed characters of various classes and races at varying levels.

Sounds great. Have you considered making a product with just generic NPCs?
Another thing: I like how the NPCs in the back of MM are all presented as humans. Then you can easily make them any race you want. Want a goblin druid? Easy - just use the Druid NPC and add the goblins' Nimble escape + darkvision. You could off course change abilities as well, but it's not really neccessary.

Edit: Forgot to mention that I like the NPC cards alot. Great way for visiualizing the NPCs, and a good way to save space behind an already crowded DM screen

 

[Jester David]

You can talk to Bill Webb, Matt Finch, Frank Mentzer, Wolfgang Baur, or pretty much any of the heads of our industry if you'd like to know more about me or my company.

Cool.
What's their home phone numbers so I can do so?

Teasing aside, here's some real questions:

Basically we are a group of gamers who are also writers, actors, graphic designers, and of course experienced game masters who are creating cool stuff for our own purposes that we think other gamers would like to have. We have done well in running and delivering our past Kickstarters and plan on running several more. Feel free to ask me anything you'd like.

I'd like to know who's writing the book. It's being published by Nord Games, but are you writing it or just publishing it?
Is it a one-man project or a full team of writers? What are their credits like in the industry?

Are the same people writing and editing the Pathfinder and D&D sections, or are there separate designers for each?

Past experience with Kickstarters aside, how experiences is Nord on the book side of publishing? Cards and bookmarks seem very different and much smaller in scope than a 200+ page book.

Pathfinder statblocks tend to eat up a lot more space than 5e statblocks, especially at high levels. How is this discrepancy in pagination being handled? Will the 5e book be slightly smaller or feature more negative space? Or is their bonus content/flavour?