Quick prep question as we’re nearing Conception here in the UK. How much effort do people put into NPC’s for there games?
Does any one give there PCs special moves based on their plans / presence in the story. Or just a brief background / goals?
Quick prep question as we’re nearing Conception here in the UK.
Quick prep question as we’re nearing Conception here in the UK.
My NPCs get a name, a short sentence description, and I run them in the Apocalypse World way with a small tweak: sometimes I still pick a body part to guide them but I try to tie it to an emotion or ideal (their greedy heart, their noble spirit, their hateful tongue, etc) but most of the time I try to make their simple straightforward motivations a reaction to one of the factions.
For example, I have a pilot NPC who thinks Lives Outweigh The Bottom Line, in reaction to a Faction that lets people die by withholding valuable astronomical “trade secrets”; I also have a religious NPC who thinks The Academics Know The Secrets of Creation as a reaction to one of our Factions who are masters of the sciences… While another religious NPC is starting to think of the Academics as heretics for similar reasons.
Sounds like a good way of doing it, although a couple of mine have grown fuller backgrounds and spurred another adventure idea. I do need a few NPC’s ready for a potential senate scene and this would be a better way of doing them without spending more time than nessary