NPC advice

[StarHawk]

Its a little known fact that I hate making NPCs. They take forever to make them "real" and I play in a group that believes anything that has stats can and will die if they get in the way. In an effort to reduce the time I use to make the NPCs that will ultimately die, I've been looking for optional rules on creation, shortcuts, or pre-made NPCs.


Does anyone else have ideas??


I did come across a house rule on the wiki about just giving them raw basics and going with that, found at the official wiki and that could work, but I would like other options too.

 

[Flagg]

If an NPC isn't likely to be in combat, I don't stat them at all. If I expect them to fight, I usually make a shorthand version of the character sheet with only the Charms expect them to use, and a few combos worked out. I usually don't bother keeping track of points, I just assign them what I feel will be appropriate.


If DBs are going to be frequent fodder, I usually just stat out a bunch at differnet power levels and re-use the character stats. In most cases, the players won't be able to tell that they're fighting the same "sheet" as they've fought before, as long as the names and faces are different.

 

[skafte]

If I had been here sooner I would have written what Flagg wrote.

 

[Kyeudo]

Whenever I'm bored, I make up new sheets based around some strange idea. Sometimes its a demon, but usually its a combat specced Exalt. They then find a place to die in my games.

 

[StarHawk]

but generally you guys read the charms and add them to NPC's even if the NPC's live all of ten minutes?


Is there a shortcut I could take? I like the idea of making only so many sheets and using them over and over. That might just work

 

[Arthur]

Is there a shortcut I could take? I like the idea of making only so many sheets and using them over and over. That might just work

If you are too lazy to do even that (I am), you can just buy the Storyteller's Companion, which has dozens of sheets waiting for you to add water and use.

 

[cyl]

Cool think about NPCs when it comes to the blood sport is that they don't need much.


- combat form: ranged/close combat / both ? ping spammer ? moderate dmg ? DD ? Sorcerer ?


- Combat pools (main weapon secondary weapon and all natural attacks)


- damage : if you want to really mess with your group in need of a lesson, try piercing bashing damage (like goremauls) they'll know they too have stats and can be killed. Essence can be a big part of it.


- Defense pools (P/D/M DV)


- Soak & HL: depending on what your group is packing, those two means "combat durability"


- Essence pool


- charms: no secrets here, they have what you want them to have. But if you're bored just at the thought of reading through all the HCs to find something worthy to be thrown against your group I got a tip: make simplified charms for npcs focused on their effects (like disarming, crippling, infection etc etc).


There is no need for you to memorize all of the charms if you have a bit of imagination and a sense of proportion. You just set the effect, considerate the cost and then use it, basta.


And as Flagg rightfully noted: the npcs being dead doesn't mean erasing their stats, only the names

 

[wordman]

...you can just buy the Storyteller's Companion, which has dozens of sheets waiting for you to add water and use.

The whole sort of "mix-in" concept is actually one of the best things about the 2E Companion. It needs to be updated a bit to be really useful, but you can see from reading it how you'd get some mileage out of it.


Some other ideas:

• Presumably, you're already using something like Anathema to do the math for you.
  
• The wiki's Characters page has a pretty large array of characters you can use as NPCs, though most of them are starting level. (Add the aforementioned mix-ins from the Companion to advance.)
  
• FrivYeti's thoughts on NPC construction.
  
• While not about NPC creation itself, advice on building squads of terrestrials.
  
• A small number of characters, along with tips for playing them, have been created for my Archipelago Conundrum challenge. (I should probably post my own at some point. Kind of forgot about it, actually.)

 

[StarHawk]

I actually didn't have Anathema, I had Ed's Exalted, but I downloaded Anathema and cranked out a 500xp DB in no time flat. Thanks a million for that. I don't like that I still have to know what the charms do, but its a thousand times better than doing it all myself.

 

[StarHawk]

New Question: Which I think was asked elsewhere but can not find it now for an answer.


Does anyone have more information on Anathema? Are there patches out there that support 2E Lunars, Sidereals, Abyssals, etc?

 

[wordman]

Does anyone have more information on Anathema? Are there patches out there that support 2E Lunars, Sidereals, Abyssals, etc?

There is a fairly long thread here. (Might want to skip to the end.) The short answer is that I wouldn't hold your breath, unless you can hold it a long, long time.


I spent some time looking at the code a while ago, but haven't done much with it lately.


The hold-up, I think, caused by the same thing that always holds up Exalted software: charm handling. Especially the way Anathema does it. Adding in stuff for the various type of Exalted is fairly trivial (lunars would be a bit harder), but for the charms. It takes forever to build the SVG files that Anathema uses, from what I understand. UrsKR (who posts here from time to time) might give a better answer, as he is the primary author.

 

[cyl]

*aims at the spam bot with a smirk*


Thou shall not pass ! :twisted:

 

[Lord Kamina]

lol necroposting.


Still, I use my own minimized sheet for making my NPCs and if appropiate, add some excellencies or one or two charms I'm familiar with that are thematically appropiate.


Edit: Sheet at http://nacho.fail.cl/npc.pdf