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Message: <blockquote data-quote="aramis erak" data-source="post: 9773969" data-attributes="member: 6779310">[snip]No, all I need for an NPC is their current motivations and current game stats. And half the time, the stats are overprep.Giving them history is not a benefit most of the time. If they're not a major NPC, I only need their goals for the current scene or adventure. I'm far better off with an image than a history.Then again, most of my NPCs aren't there for  story, but for some level of realism. They're nameless and faceless unless and until the PCs interact with them. Most have very evident motivations for their place... The baker in a second millennium CE middle eastern setting isn't interested in buying your stuff, but is interested in selling you bread, getting thieves' hands chopped off, and not missing daily prayers. Not of need in that order. Transplant him to Arrakis in the Dune setting, one of the "city fremen", and you have much the same... For their role, that's enough on motivation. An image, and the NPC stats needed, and done. Even a Major NPC, I mostly don't need their history save as it relates to their presence in the current story.Then again, I've run John Wick's Blood and Honor, which is notable for many things, but the most important is that no character is immune from changes imposed by others in play. No NPC planning past their current state is useful; further, if you leave a blank on the character sheet of an NPC, players interacting with them can (and in my experience, will) fill them in. Its a great game; same engine as the slightly more popular Houses of the Blooded. Introduce an incomplete NPC, and you risk them being something you never imagined... but at the same time, players can, and sometimes do, add NPC villains for you.</blockquote>

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