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Message: <blockquote data-quote="delericho" data-source="post: 6234528" data-attributes="member: 22424">Information should be presented clearly, so that when I need to check something when running the game, when I'm probably juggling six other things, I don't need to read a paragraph of text to find one key point.The more important something is, the sooner it should be mentioned.The more obvious something is to the PCs, the sooner it should be mentioned.I'm a big fan of breaking things down into bullet points, and keeping those points both short and few in number. The first point should probably cover the character's expected role in the adventure, the second the key points of his appearance, and the third his motivations for why he's doing what he's doing.Chances are some NPCs will call for more detail than a simple five-point list will allow, but if so, give the long-form description, background, etc in addition to the summary, and give it after the summary. That may feel like you're wasting space repeating information, but it's almost certainly helpful.No, because different adventures have different needs - an NPC for a dungeon-crawl probably looks very different from one for a murder-mystery. However, within any single adventure you should probably stick to a common format.The three most important things, in order, are probably what they're doing, how they're trying to do it, and why they're doing it. Then the character's physical appearance, since that's what the PC will first notice.Beyond that, add quirks, flaws, background, etc to add as much detail to the character as you feel you need - and no more. I'm quite happy to do a fair amount of filling in the blanks for unimportant things... and, in general, I actually prefer being left the space in which to do that.</blockquote>

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