Defining your NPCs?

[Elodan]

I believe there was an article or post about the 4 things you should define for your NPCs. I can't remember where I saw it. I believe it covered things like motivation, appearance, and such. No more than a few sentences for each. It sounded simple but very effective.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Feel free to post what characteristics you define and how much detail you cover for your important NPCs.

Thanks.

 

[Crothian]

Name, race, role of the character (baron, thief, bartender, etc) and then a little note. That's about it. And sometimes I don't do that much.

 

[JoeGKushner]

http://www.roleplayingtips.com/readissue.php?number=407

http://www.roleplayingtips.com/readissue.php?number=406

 

[fba827]

I only have a

Name
Decription: (this is race, approx age, any distiguished physical features; this is also basica personality or speech pattern if there is anything disctinctive about the NPC)
Role: (Role in society, be it merchant, barkeep etc; if i bothered to think up a class and level appropriate for this, i also list it here)
Location: (Since my NPC notes are lengthy and some of my NPCs do move around, I list what city/town/local they are usually found at; if it is an NPC that's on the move, I list it down as a last known location type thing)
Attitude: (this is attitude towards the PC based on default or whatever the last encounter was like. a simple friendly/hostile/professional/hostile/etc. I have to do this because I would otherwise forget if it's months in real time before the PCs run in to the NPC again)
Notes (optional): (Any other random story-related things I've thought up for the NPC, such as information they will have if the PCs ask for it, etc)
Misc (optional): (any other stat-related things I've thought up for the NPC; approrpaiate skill bonuses for their role, or feats I decided that they must have, etc and the couple ability scores that I decided are "high" "average" "low")

So that's the 5-7 things I make note of for each NPC that I have detailed. And even then, lots of that is barely a word or two.