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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rechan" data-source="post: 4848600" data-attributes="member: 54846">This is topical, but also a tangent. In the "Dresden Files" series, the author, Jim Butcher, was having trouble coming up with a way to dispense info. His instructor warned against having a <a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main.TalkingHeads" target="_blank">talking head</a>. Which gave the author the idea of a character who was a talking head (literally, a talking skull) who gave lots of info-dumps. However, he did so in such a funny, engaging way (a sex-obsessed, corny, snarky little joker who doesn't understand the mortal notion of good, evil, and morals), that the reader doesn't mind the info-dumping because they're so amusing by the character.In the book, the character (Bob) is a Spirit of Knowledge. An entity that is a sentient collection of knowledge. The spirit is bound to the skull (and has to ask permission to come out). Bob's purpose is an adviser, tutor, and serves the purpose of a computer. Another character that we learn about is called the Archive, which is a person who has the full knowledge of everything ever written; this knowledge is passed down mother to daughter, and the daughter 'inherits' the knowledge when the mother dies. Both are generally oblivious to the plots at hand, but they are sources of info.Going off of this, these could make great NPC Guides: <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Use the Archive. Seriously, it's a sound idea.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">An Angel of Knowledge, a celestial librarian, is a character's "Guardian Angel". Or in this case, the character's mentor/custodian.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The ghost of an elven bard. Given how long elves live, and how much lore bards pick up, this would be a source of countless info.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">A creature that cannot "die", but is physically bound to something. A genie in its lamp is an example (one game I used a kobold bound to a gem; when he died, he went back into the gem and couldn't be summoned for another day).</li> </ul></blockquote>

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