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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nightcloak" data-source="post: 2124454" data-attributes="member: 23862">GM Notebook Essentials #5: NPC Stats (Part 1)We have discussed NPC names. Now it’s time to look at the rest of the NPC: The stats. One of the most time intensive parts of developing an adventure is stating out the monsters and Non-Player Characters the party is going to encounter. With the d20 rule system, you need to apply many factors to rounding out a monster/character: feats, bonuses, skills, different weapons, magic, and so forth. Don’t get me wrong. I love the d20 system and all the options it gives me. In fact, I own a lot of third-party OGL books do to the extra rules and options they give me. But it doesn’t change the fact that stating out encounters is time consuming, not to mention a little intimidating for the new GM. More importantly, for our discussion, what do you do when the players decide to start interacting with NPCs that were “flavor text” one minute ago? Stopping the game to stat out a bunch of NPCs is not an option. You would lose the players to drinking, a game boy, or a game on TV long before you finished the details. You need stats now before you lose the action.That is why you have your GM Notebook. It will be stocked full of NPCs ready to go. This part will discuss the higher-level NPCs you may need. The next part will cover all those 1st level NPC types that are encountered everywhere, but don’t necessarily deserve the attention or need for development.There are three rules to NPCs that will make your life easier. Rule Number 1: There are two types of NPCs. The first type is a reoccurring character that the players will meet at least more than once. They are either integral to the story or serve as a bridge for the players to interact with your game world. The evil bandit, his thugs, and his spy at the Old Mill Inn are part of the story. The innkeeper and his daughter don’t serve the plot (unless they are the spies!) but do interact with the players and thus serve the game by creating verisimilitude. They make the world believable to the characters. The reoccurring NPC is usually important enough to be stated out.The second type of NPC is what movie producers call “an extra”. They are part of the background, and if the players interact with them it will most likely be for one time, a sort of cameo appearance only. For purposes of this article, we’ll call them “disposable” NPCs, or DNPCs for short. The DNPC is “on screen” for a brief moment and then gone. Rule Number 2: Recycle Disposable Non Player CharactersI was watching Babylon 5 several years ago and noticed that the starship commander highlighted on that episode was the same actor that played Worf’s brothers on Star Trek. When I pointed out this fact to my wife, she reminded me that he also appeared on Hercules and some other shows. It’s amazing how these actors have found their way into a sort of fantasy/sci-fi “actor’s circuit” through the different shows and characters.Your DNPCs need to do the same thing. In this case, you do not recycle the actors (the description), but the stats. They are called disposable for a reason. When they are done, they are gone. Stating them out is a complete waist of time if you only roll one dice and put the sheet away never to be used again. Like actors who appear in one episode of a show then on one episode of a different show, your stat blocks can appear during different sessions of your game as different characters.  Rule #3: Generators are GoodOK. You knew this. At the end of this article is a link to a great online generator. There are many others out there also. Book mark them. Let them do the work for you and save the hard work for the major NPCs of your world.Putting it all together to build an NPC army!First and foremost, use those generators. Go to the link or do a search for one you like, but go to a generator and start whipping up some “generic” NPCs. A lot of these generators will give you a name, but don’t worry about it (or better, add the name to your name list!). If the NPC needs a name then he isn’t disposable and needs to be filed separately as a reoccurring NPC. Reoccurring NPCs should have their own folder so they are available when you need them. If you like doing stats, then this type of NPC should be your focus. They are the important NPCs and deserve the time.Disposable NPCs, however, should be quick and clean. Use the generator to print out copies of different classes at different levels. Don’t bother with 1st level NPCs; we’ll address those later. Don’t forget the NPC classes (most NPCs should belong to an NPC class). You will want some variety of each type, but you don’t need to go crazy. Just a few for each class at different levels will work. Don’t be afraid to regenerate a character that doesn’t look right to you. With generators, change is only a click away. Print up all those NPCs and add them directly to your notebook. If something really catches your eye, say the generator punched out something cool or above average, then just place it into your important NPC folder. You can never have enough of those. Now if the PCs spot some shady NPCs in an ally and decide to roll initiative, you can just pull out several rogues of the appropriate level and jump to combat. When the players dispose (literally) of the DNPCs you can just put the stat blocks back into the notebook for next time. If they follow the rogue’s trail back to a warehouse and get the jump on more shady characters, you can just pull out the same rogue stat sheets. The characters will see several new rogues with new descriptions and only you will see the same stat sheets again. They will remember an exiting “alley crawl” were they took out two individual groups of “guild goons”. You’ll be the only one who knows they technically (at least on paper) fought the same rogues twice.Just watch out for high level NPCs. Most generators will include magical equipment into the character. As always with magic, be careful. That magic item could very easily wind up on the players treasure list. Not to mention, they may be suspicious if the third fighter they killed that week has a +1 long sword. In other words, you may need to change out high level NPC stats more often to keep things "fresh".Finally, don’t bother with 1st level DNPCs. In part 2 of "Essentials #5: NPCs" I’ll post what I call the “NPC Matrix” for 1st level characters. It willl give you everything you need for the most numerous members of your world on one single page.Great Links:<a href="http://www.aarg.net/~minam/npc2.cgi" target="_blank">NPC Generator</a></blockquote>

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