Wulf Ratbane said:
Running good NPC's takes TALENT. It's not something you can publish in a book.
I would not buy a book with NPC's to figure out how to hold a lengthy conversation on purple flowers. When you run out of "canned" donversation from the book, where then? Your NPC falls as flat as he was without the book. This is the wisdom behind the old "give a man a fish/teach a man to fish" saying.
At best, you can try to teach a reader HOW to come up with those details, and you can do that in just a few short paragraphs (one tip: pick a character from a TV show you've seen) but ultimately it comes down to the improvisational talent of the DM. Some have it (Piratecat), some don't.
I don't have this talent. I would not waste my time or money on a book that proposed to shore up my lack of talent with long descriptions of NPCs.
Statblocks I can use, I will pay for. Learning how to improv must be learned improvisationally.
Wulf
yes, but these are just going to be mini-hooks to get things started! take the wildflower example. of course you're not buying a book to figure out how to hold a conversation on wildflowers. you're buying the book because you never would have thought to make an NPC have that particular interest to begin with!
of course it takes talent to bring NPC's to life! it takes talent to DM, period! this book would just be about giving DM's a spark, or a starting point. the DM then customizes the NPC according to the interaction. obviously, when the PC's are done getting through the initial conversation it's up to the DM to follow through or let that NPC pass out of play, but hopefully there's a foundation to build on.
let me put it this way, how many times have you DM'd and said, "okay, there's a crowd full of people in this inn", and then not run one single encounter with one of those people. how realistic is that? yep, another night at "Vanilla Inn" for the PC's.
but with this book, the DM could describe the bartender as walking gingerly. One of the PC's takes the bait and asks what's up. the bartender goes on a diatribe on how his roids are flaring up. then, after the initial exchange, the DM improvises - "i'm looking for a particular flower that will stop these bad-boys from barking."
you might argue, "well, i could have thought of that myself". the fact of the matter is, you didn't and wouldn't have. a writer somewhere did and maybe, just maybe, their idea WAS a good one. maybe the PC's laugh their asses off when you tell them that bart has roids. maybe bart doesn't take kindly to that and sends three ruffians after the PC's. i know my PC's probably would appreciate an encounter like that.
psion argues that any unnecessary NPC plot involvement is a waste of time. respectfully, if it's done by a DM with a bit of flair, i disagree. no, you wouldn't want to make entire adventures out of moving Lucinda's (the barmaid) bed from the downstairs to the upstairs. done sparingly, however, i think it would work. after all, maybe something the PC's are after was hidden in Lucinda's house.
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