D&D 5E DMG Previews: Building NPCs
http://theiddm.wordpress.com/2014/11/09/dungeon-masters-guide-preview-building-memorable-npcs/
https://theiddm.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/dmg-npc1.png
https://theiddm.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/dmg-npc2.png
my first throught is that these charts could also be used for PC generation
Ah, the return of the very useless mannerisms and manner charts.
Credit where it's due: secrets, bonds, ideals.
Wash: talents
Write better NPCs. Hint: mannerisms don't make them better or "come to life."
To be fair, some DMs can get their hooks more easily into NPCs that have predefined mannerisms. It also gives something for the players to remember.
Example:
I created a merchant in the PCs' home city who had the mannerisms of, "smarmy, always finishes a pitch with finger guns, and always tries to sell off his overstock of surplus silk rope".
At first the party groaned at this snake-oil salesman type. But after a few adventures of bringing their gear back to his shop they began to love his upbeat nature and would always try to purchase some of his extra rope to make him happy.
During the campaign the city was sacked and destroyed. A year later the PCs were wandering the roads on the way to adventure when they came upon a merchant cart selling from the road. The moment they got the "finger guns" evereyone was ectatic to see that their favorite rope merchant survived.
Without that "signature" it would have been tough to give the party the gift of recognizing him. I would have had to explicitly say, "it's that guy you used to know." Which would have been much less memorable.
bawylie wrote:
bawylie wrote:
edwin_su wrote:
Mistwell wrote:
bawylie wrote:
dmgorgon wrote:
dmgorgon wrote:
MechaPilot wrote:
I think the random charts are fun. I wouldn't use them most of the time, but like with random treasure tables sometimes I just want to be suprised myself.
bawylie wrote:
Timborama wrote:
dmgorgon wrote:
MechaPilot wrote:
dmgorgon wrote:
MechaPilot wrote:
dmgorgon wrote:
edwin_su wrote:
MechaPilot wrote:
CCS wrote:
So it was E-war hogwash afterall. Oh well.
dmgorgon wrote:
dmgorgon wrote:
dmgorgon wrote:
I like the charts. I may or may not use them myself (depending on both how much prep work I've done on my NPCs, and how creative I'm feeling midway through the play session) but 2d20 options times 2d12 options times 1d10 options times 1d6 options means that a random NPC out of the book is a 1 out of 3,456,000 individual personality. Those are some very solid training wheels for a new-to-the-game DM.
(Man, I hope I did that math right!)
dmgorgon wrote:
edwin_su wrote:
bawylie wrote:
bawylie wrote:
Mistwell wrote:
MechaPilot wrote:
bawylie wrote:
dmgorgon wrote:
Reprinting bonds, ideals, flaws, etc. from the PHB is silly, IMO. A chart for NPC mannerisms and quirks is ok, I guess.
Something I want to see under NPC's in the DMG is a quick way to make them into a 'monster' statblock. We DM's have all had this happen: The PC's decide to attack an NPC. Maybe you didn't prepare for that. Now, initiative is being rolled, and you gotta DM up a combat with the NPC(s) in a few seconds.
I also (obviously) don't ever want to make an NPC as complex as a PC, no matter what abilities, spells, class levels, magic items, etc. they have.
Lastly, umm...Forum people; don't type thinly vailed attacks at other editions, or reply to thinly vailed attacks at other editions. That sh*t has gotta stop. Seriously. No one here is ever going to change my opinions on 4e, 5e, or any other edition of D&D (or any other game I've played, for that matter.) I don't expect to change anyone's mind either. Lets just talk about what our opinions of 5e are.
edwin_su wrote:
seti wrote:
"10 Roll twice, ignoring results of 10"
They couldn't come up with a 10th bond? Also wtf "dedicated to fulfilling a personal life goal"?! That's like everything.
Reius wrote:
All we are missing here is a random table of NPC names.
Shasarak wrote:
MechaPilot wrote:
Reius wrote:
iserith wrote:
Tables like these are fun and they promote role playing via hooks. They are not indented to completely replace your own writing. IMO, they are very usefull to new players. Not everyone is a creative story telling godling.
And yes, they do help remind players that the game isn't all about the mechanics.
dmgorgon wrote:
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Shasarak wrote:
I almost think they split up NPC.s and the step-by-step NPC's section seems focused on NPC's you are not expected to fight.
the section is 3 pages and i wonderd how they would fit all the info about the NPC combat stats in the one page of this section.
But as i said i think they might have split up NPC's and the NPC's your expected to fight are now called Villans.
so page 94 to 98 in the vilan sections is where you generate stats and Cr fro NPC's you might fight.
MechaPilot wrote:
edwin_su wrote:
NimrodVanHall wrote:
Better to include these tables to provide some suggestions as to what bits & pieces might help to create memorable NPCs for anyone that doesn't already know than to have some more easily overlooked paragraph that tells the person looking for suggestions "just make up some stuff."
...and it's a good counter to the argument that I have seen in the past that D&D is only about combat and uses how many pages are dedicated to combat rules rather than role-playing suggestions/rules.
With any new edition, including 5E, I want to see things that improve what was done in the past. And the most beneficial random tables I ever used was from 1E oriental adventures where you develop world events. NPCs are cool, but looking at character development (class, background, skill, etc.) is usually the best route to develop a challenging and interesting NPC. The only time I used NPC tables was to develop personas.
Uchawi wrote:
I am a fan of NPC trait/quirk/appearance charts.
But this one isn't my favorite, simply because it is so short. Over the years I've collected books of NPC generation tools and I lilke to draw from that larger pool simply to avoid having too many similar NPCs.
I also use the "3 by 3" method for any NPCs of importance in a given location.
Bawylie has a good point that a DM needs to be able to emulate "human" behavior regardless of charts or sources. Tool like this help give me an extra bit of help when I'm flailing for inspiration or when I am fleshing out a very large number of NPCS - such as when I want to spruce up a published adventure by adding a bit more to each NPC found within.
Maybe we should start a separate thread where we discuss our various methods for creating and bringing life to NPCs?
Shasarak wrote:
edwin_su wrote:
MechaPilot wrote:
FFSAA wrote:
bawylie wrote:
Great art.
Some DMs will find these useless, some will cherish them greatly. Either way, they're quite nice to have, though I'll probably still use the Dungeon World method for NPCs.
I like the charts and I think they are a good thing to include in a DM guide. I'd never randomly roll up an NPC, but I can see myself looking over the chart for ideas while populating a non combat area of my world. If anything it gives me the idea of putting an space for talents/manerisms/traits in my NPC template so I have the information there if I go back to the NPC in a later adventure.
I think this would be usefull for new DMs (and old DMs stuck in a rut) to make sure that all their NPCs don't end up all being the same. If this helps some players/DMs enjoy the session time between adventures more then I'm a fan.
dmgorgon wrote:
bawylie wrote:
I don't think a new player is going to look at a chart and thing these could be a great source of ideas, they are going to think they have to use charts. I would be nice to have a short section on the uses/creating of charts.