Do all NPCs in your game need to be statted out?

[coyote6]

What Mouseferatu said.

Sometimes the "stats" consists of just a single noted skill (e.g., "Andorik is a halfing alienist (Knowledge (the planes) +26) who..."), because that's all I expect to need.

If the players suddenly turned out to have been secretly replaced by Bob, Dave, & Brian from KoDT, and they spontaneously decide to kill their source, then I'd wing it. ("Let's see, he'd have about 65 hp, so he's still alive on his turn. He'll cast teleport.")

 

[Diamond Cross]

I will stat out important npcs. And it also depends on how well I know the system. For low level people I usually don't.

 

[CleverNickName]

I'm somewhere between "no" and "sometimes." Or rather, the answer is sometimes, but I don't stat out all evil NPCs, either. Only the ones that I think are likely to get into combat with the PCs, and who are powerful enough that there's no reason not to just handwave it.

This. I prefer to just write up a couple of sentences to describe the NPC, and add detail later as needed. Example:

Nik Thistledown (Human Expert3): Nik is the owner of "The Spice Rack," the largest herb shop in Rooker Line. He is a pleasant and good-humored fellow, mid-30s, and knows a great deal about the Black Swamp where he collects many of his products. He is aware of the Baron's smuggling ring, but will not interfere as long as the town is peaceful. He is neutral in alignment, and a strict vegeterian.

That's really all I need to know about most NPCs. Even when combat is inevitable, I don't usually create special stats for them---I will always use the stats in the DMG for adepts, commoners, experts, etc., unless I have a very good reason not to.

 

[Dausuul]

I'm somewhere between "no" and "sometimes." Or rather, the answer is sometimes, but I don't stat out all evil NPCs, either. Only the ones that I think are likely to get into combat with the PCs, and who are powerful enough that there's no reason not to just handwave it.

This. Although I sometimes stat up non-evil NPCs too.

 

[Nifft]

Sometimes I use stats for inspiration, to try to ground an NPC's abilities & knowledge to the world as the PCs understand it, to give me better ideas about presenting the NPC's accomplishments.

But otherwise, nah. I don't even fully stat up all the "evil" ones.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Insight]

I only worry about statting things I expect the PCs to fight. If they want to kill a random shopkeeper or something (thankfully I don't have that sort of player in my current group), I'll just let them commit murder and deal with the consequences. No need to play out the combat. When the city watch gets there, that's another question entirely.

 

[IronWolf]

I do not stat out NPCs on very many occasions. I think more about how they act a little bit about why they run this shop or some such thing and then I can play the NPC better know some of these motivations without having to make rolls for it. On occasion having a haggle skill/diplomacy check type thing mechanically so they get assigned one to keep that more recurring role constant between encounters.

I just don't feel the need to waste prep time with detailed stat for the NPCs in many cases when if push comes to shove it can be done on the fly.

Recurring villains and such will get more stats and such, but these are likely evil NPCs the part is apt to run into or expected to encounter on more of the combat level.

 

[Uder]

I'm not going to vote, since I don't think statting out an NPC somehow makes them fodder. NPC stats can make a difference not only in how I roleplay them, but can also have mechanical game effects.

I like stats and I like randomness, yet I don't like randomly rolling out stats, so I usually randomly improvise the stats on the spot.

For AD&D and C&C I use a random roll (usually 2d6+6) to figure their primary stat and add a couple of skills and/or quirks from the "inspiration" panel of my DM screen. I used to use Rogues Gallery, but I fell out of love with that book over the years.

For D&D 3.5 games I use a random level NPC from Everyone Else (one of the few five-star OGL products, IMO) maybe with a quirk added from my inspiration panel. Before I got Everyone Else (I am not involved in the production or sale of this stellar OGL product) I would do the 2d6+6 thing and give them a skill or two at APL+3 or APL+6 for Skill Focus. It just didn't feel right to me that NPCs always "scaled" exactly to the party though. The only problem with Everyone Else (still for sale here at ENWorld and at other PDF retailers) is that it's 3.0, so I had to write a cheat sheet inside the cover of my printout.

Other games that I play (Traveller, Dark Heresy) already have good premade background NPCs, so I just pull them straight out of the books.

 

[IronWolf]

For D&D 3.5 games I use a random level NPC from Everyone Else (one of the few five-star OGL products, IMO) maybe with a quirk added from my inspiration panel. Before I got Everyone Else (I am not involved in the production or sale of this stellar OGL product) I would do the 2d6+6 thing and give them a skill or two at APL+3 or APL+6 for Skill Focus. It just didn't feel right to me that NPCs always "scaled" exactly to the party though. The only problem with Everyone Else (still for sale here at ENWorld and at other PDF retailers) is that it's 3.0, so I had to write a cheat sheet inside the cover of my printout.

Links go Everyone Else to save interested folks some searching.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

Sometimes.
An NPC likely to see combat has stats, whether good or bad.
Recurring NPCs have rough outlines that can easily become a generic statblock with a few specials tacked on in a pinch, if necessary.
The rest are pretty free-form, and just fit into a generic statblock as needed.