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<blockquote data-quote="Hypersmurf" data-source="post: 3386214" data-attributes="member: 1656">My personal trick for a quick reference to an NPC's personality is to attach them to a character from a TV show or movie.In Hommlett, for example, I had a brief note beside Canoness Ydey - 'Judi Dench as M'.&nbsp; It gave me demeanour, accent, verbal mannerisms, and a mental image in one shot.&nbsp; I doubt the players picked what I was basing her on, but they got the benefit of my confidence with the portrayal.By contrast, Spugnoir was tagged 'Basil Fawlty'.&nbsp; The PCs entered his shop hoping to buy a potion - he was busy.&nbsp; About four seconds after he opened his mouth, the players all knew what he looked like, what sort of mood he was in, how he was likely to react... because they all recognised Fawlty from his first few words.&nbsp; It saved me trying to describe the character, because they could all see him in their heads.It doesn't matter to me if it's something so obscure that only I'll know, or if my impression is so bad they'd never make the connection... because the important part is that it summarises a lot of information for me in two or three words.&nbsp; If they do pick the source, that's a bonus <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile&nbsp; &nbsp; :)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />-Hyp.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Hypersmurf, post: 3386214, member: 1656"] My personal trick for a quick reference to an NPC's personality is to attach them to a character from a TV show or movie. In Hommlett, for example, I had a brief note beside Canoness Ydey - 'Judi Dench as M'. It gave me demeanour, accent, verbal mannerisms, and a mental image in one shot. I doubt the players picked what I was basing her on, but they got the benefit of my confidence with the portrayal. By contrast, Spugnoir was tagged 'Basil Fawlty'. The PCs entered his shop hoping to buy a potion - he was busy. About four seconds after he opened his mouth, the players all knew what he looked like, what sort of mood he was in, how he was likely to react... because they all recognised Fawlty from his first few words. It saved me trying to [i]describe[/i] the character, because they could all see him in their heads. It doesn't matter to me if it's something so obscure that only I'll know, or if my impression is so bad they'd never make the connection... because the important part is that it summarises a lot of information for me in two or three words. If they [i]do[/i] pick the source, that's a bonus :) -Hyp. [/QUOTE]

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