A character in an RPG whose decisions and actions are handled by the game-master or a designated assistant. An initialism that stands for "non-player character."

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9
votes
8answers
291 views

How do you make a new NPC likable?

The players in my campaign will soon rescue a woman who's been trapped in an awful dimension (think Jumanji, if that helps) for ten years, and bring her home. After 2 sessions, they'll realize that ...
9
votes
1answer
109 views

Where are a monster's skills?

If you grab a goblin for example, and the goblin test to escape it says to have it make an acrobatics or athletics check but I can't seem to find where it says there skills? Any help?
8
votes
6answers
217 views

Can the GM give control over a support NPC to the players?

If there was a group with only 2 characters, and an NPC with a missing skill set was presented, would it be feasible at all for a player/the players to control the NPC in question, or should this only ...
5
votes
1answer
125 views

How much experience should a vampire of a given age have?

I'm creating a setting for a Kindred of the East chronicle and I'm not sure how many discipline points or virtues characters should have. There was an old trick in V:tM that consisted in giving an ...
2
votes
1answer
130 views

Creating NPCs from Real-Life People

I have some friends that would like to be part of my future D&D campaign as NPCs. What I need help with is creating stats for a NPC based on a person. I am a player in this campaign. Our DM will ...
11
votes
2answers
168 views

Reducing a monster below CR 1

There are many instances in Pathfinder and other 3.5 based systems when you might need to reduce a monster below 1 or 1/2. For example, if I'm using a CR 1/2 monster from a 3.5 source in Pathfinder, ...
2
votes
1answer
150 views

NPC Ships for Rogue Trader

Anyone know of a good list of premade ships for Rogue Trader? I'd like to build up a good collection to choose from for some one off sessions I plan to run at a Con this year.
15
votes
4answers
974 views

Please stop giving the town sheriff a noogie!

Related to this question but more closely related to this question. How can I get my PCs to not cause a single or small handful of characters to become the butt of a joke when that humor could easily ...
16
votes
4answers
681 views

Why shouldn't I use fully statted PC characters as NPC antagonists in D&D 4E?

According to the DMG (187), NPCs in 4e seem to be run as a weird sort of template halfway between a monster and a PC - you don't generate an actual character with a full array of powers and feats. Is ...
0
votes
1answer
86 views

How many XP points should an enemy have?

How can I assign an amount of XP points to an enemy that I have created for a campaign that I am writing? What would be a good way to decide, and still be fair? The campaign that I wrote is for the ...
7
votes
3answers
271 views

Who are the movers and shakers in any larger city in Vampire: the Requiem?

I'm making a list of influential vampire NPCs that will exist in any but the smallest of cities. I do this because I wish to start a sandbox campaign in Vampire, and as such, the players will need to ...
11
votes
2answers
246 views

Tips for keeping track of NPC stats and conditions

Is there a good paper based solution to keep track of NPC stats so they are avaliable when you need them in-game but don't take hours to keep up to date? I have a bunch of NPC notes and lists of ...
5
votes
1answer
228 views

How do I handle a PC - NPC?

In my online game, it's often hard for me to handle NPCs with the loads of characters we have so sometimes I ask or a player volunteers to play some of them. The issue is though, that one player ...
1
vote
8answers
342 views

Survivalist NPC build?

How can I best optimize an NPC so that instead of having perfect power attack or sneak attack, they're just really hard to kill? I can think of thief acrobat and perhaps exemplar or dungeon delver, ...
8
votes
2answers
198 views

One-sentence NPCs

A while ago ChattyDM and someone else ran a couple contests where people submitted one-line NPCs. The collection of submissions was free to download, but now that I want to use it my google-fu has ...

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