One of the things currently missing from The Fantasy Trip world today is an online tool to generate non-player characters (NPCs) specifically for TFT. Other systems have them, but not TFT. I have been working on one for a few weeks, though, and have finally completed the first iteration of one.
What It Is and What It Is Not
The inthelabyrinth.org NPC Library is a large collection (over 10,000) of randomly generated NPCs. The NPCs are categorized by type–Thug, Farmer, Thief, Scholar, Courtesan, etc. They have the usual attributes generated for them, as well as primary and secondary weapons. The NPCs also have 4 personality attributes generated for them, plus some possessions and sample story hooks, as well as talents and spells. These are all stored in the system.
The NPC Library is not a tool that generates NPCs on the fly. I decided to have the system be more of a library that has already somewhat randomly generated NPCs stored in it, rather than generated at run time, if you will. The reason is so that I can tweak or otherwise improve the NPCs over time, in ways that may be more difficult for this guy to code.
The Library is also not a complete character generation system. The NPC Library does not generate every detail of each NPC–just the important parts. I was trying to balance giving information to harried GMs, while leaving some flexibility to them to flesh the NPC out at the table. By the way–all information given is meant to be used or discarded as you see fit. Take it, modify it or replace it entirely… it is all up to you.
How It Works
The NPC Library works by creating an NPC of a given type, then overlaying a layer of adjustments, based on that type. The reason I went this route was to be able to simplify the coding of a number of business rules–why a farmer or courtesan does not need to have plate armor, why someone with a DX of 10 should not be wearing half-plate, etc. It let me tailor the range for attributes to a given type, as well as let me select talents and spells that are tailored for that type, too.
The system does perform some checks against various attributes, just to make sure things follow The Rules. For example, spells and talents are checked against IQ, armor is checked against DX so the adjDX is 10+ (got that from Death Test II), and weapons are checked against ST.
In addition, some story hooks are provided as an initial sample. These are just suggestions. Use one of them, all of them–or none at all. They are provided to help a GM in a pinch.
A word about spells and talents: the Library assumes that the NPCs have all of the critical talents or spells they need, say for the weapons they have, as well ones for their profession. For example, that thieves have THIEF, or woodsmen have WOODSMAN. Those are NOT listed on the record for each NPC. What is listed are supposed to be more exceptional talents or spells that would give the NPC more color or life. I may rethink that in the future, but that was my thought process up to now…
And another thing… names. I did not include names. There are tons of excellent name generators, and those are specific to a particular world anyway, so I left that up to the GM.
So–with all of that going into creating the NPCs, the NPC Library then selects a number of NPCs of a given type, based on what you want. The system can then spit out 1-20 NPCs at a time. Select a type, or just select "All" and get what comes out at random. Everything is listed in a kind of card-like format for each NPC.
Where To Go From Here
I tried to be like The Fantasy Trip, and keep things simple and clean. Still, I know that there are things that need to be improved or added. Some of these include:
Additional NPC types. Obviously I could go crazy here, adding tons of different NPC types (They are not classes, dammit!) I will do that over time, but what is there is the initial set.
Additional story hooks. The ones I have now are pretty down-and-dirty. I need to include more so they are better in the future. There are a number of sources with ideas I can mine from, I just need to add them.
Additional possessions. Just like the hooks, I will add more possessions to make the NPCs more memorable. This includes the occasional magic item or two.
Descriptions. This is the hard part for me. To do this right, I almost have to do it by hand for each NPC. I also want to balance that against leaving it up to the individual GM so they have maximum flexibility. We’ll see.
Surprises. Oh, yes… surprises. I may add in some special talents or spells to selected NPCs where you would not expect them, just to keep everyone on their toes…
And that’s it. A lot of work went into creating the NPC Library. As always, I want to thank Jeff Vandine for his invaluable comments and feedback. (Thanks, man!)
Hopefully the NPC Library is something that will be useful to you all. Let me know what you think, the good and the bad. I will do what I can to incorporate what I can!
Marko ∞
(Originally published on inthelabyrinth.org, on 3/23/2018. After this article came out, I had a change of mind, and converted the tool to generate the NPCs on the fly, and for Blades & Black Magic, not The Fantasy Trip. Still, these games are very similar, and it should work for both.)
