Collection of premade (noncombat) NPCs?

[Frankie1969]

I'm preparing a game world, and I have a decent handle on the big picture stuff, but not so much on secondary details. I'd like to populate the background with a bunch of fleshed-out NPCs: names, relationships, personalities, quirks, and (ideally) secrets. For example, local residents & businesspeople, guests at a social event, passengers & crew on a trip, etc.

The specific setting is alternate 1880s Europe, but I could probably adapt NPCs from medieval fantasy through near future. Game system is irrelevant; very few of them will ever need stats.

I'm hoping maybe someone has made a compendium of such people? Or even a list of mix & match traits?

 

[gamerprinter]

From Paizo for Pathfinder, there is the Gamemastery Guide, with a full third of that book as stats for hundreds of PCs of varying level and occupation. The PDF is only $9.99, though I got it for free from Paizo when they gave me a commission to create a map and gazetteer for the Jade Regent AP, as resource material. I haven't used it for NPCs but they certainly are in that book... just a suggestion.

 

[Crothian]

If you don't need stats for the characters there is a book called Masks that has 1000 NPCs of which about a third is for fantasy. It is a fantastic book that I have used in every campaign since I got it.

 

[Kingreaper]

The 1000 Masks book looks very cool.

Of course I can't help but pimp my own product. The first 80 characters were prepared previously, so can be sent out digitally straight away if you choose to back for it.

 

[Crothian]

Another resource is the To Slay a Dragon website. They have a free down load of NPCs that are used in that adventure that can easily be used in other fantasy campaigns. Don't ignore the adventure though, it is pretty cool.