In 4E, stats are not so important any more. Just some flavor text or whatever. Its not meant to be generating NPCs for 4E combat, mind you...just for roleplay, creating a town "roster" if you will for flushing out a town of people, etc.
For instance, with my old app, I'd determine I want to populate a town with shops of all types (from cobblers and shop keeps, to guards, to magistrates). I then specify the total population to generate, and it spits a delimited list of NPCs with the specified params. I can then sort the list by Craft, and tada...I've got a town of shops. I then specify a group of guards named "RedCloaks" as the career, and have it generate 25 of these. Tada...I can now add a list of guards to the town.
I then specify I have 12 dwarven brewers in town. I choose dwarf, I choose craft, and it spits them out.
I next, specify a group of foreign humans in town who are a part of a weapon shop. The names I decide are "mongolian" culture wise and spit out a group of them as well.
You can keep doing this until an entire meaningful pop is created and I can just print the list on an excel doc and now when the PCs enter a town, they have names which I don't have to "wing" that they can build on. I also have next to each name how "good" each of these guys really are talent wise, and another column on their "reputation". So the PCs can be told to go to Razzel's Inn, or but they might get a tip from the passing tax collector Potenus Alfor that Grumley's Inn is far superior and costs less. While there, one of the RedCloaks is there talking with Cho' Fan at the bar, who is one of the foreign weaponsmiths in town. If the PCs press me for finding a fellow Dwarf in town...cool...I just check my list and mention that the Dwarf Krixus RockBreed is in town. A relatively unknown brewer who (upon a streetwise check) is actually pretty darn good!
I deliberately decided it should not be class or level based. If it really came to needing that info...then really...prepare a combat card and have at it.
Alright...a lot to read, I know...but I need some encouragment. If its worth it for 2 or more, its worth the effort for me to do! So pipe up, folks.
if you have suggestions of what would make a useful NPC generator in the 4E world of no commoners
, then let me know.I think it works for that basis, I do think that if you were going to do it then do it with the ability to specify genre, and make it non game specific, you'd never have to do it again.
You could build plugins to generate more detailled stats if needed and tailor the plugins to the specific games.
It gets my vote.