NPC personalities!

[fryplink]

So I have been making an ODF containing Generic NPC's or "Flesh bags" if you will. Bundles of stats in case a party member stabs one. I have finished that project. Now I am moving on to dynamic-ish personalities. Sort of based on the Article in the gaming section of this site. Here is an example:

Robert Strongarm Human LG- Expert (Blacksmith) or Commoner(with Blacksmith ranks)

Robert, or "Bob (Bobby from his mother)" lives in a small wooden house with his wife (Saria) and two children (possible plot objects). Robert is a blacksmith, but dislikes making Martial and Exotic weapons (that he knows how to make), thinking them to be weapons of oppression

Their house is well built, but the chimney is sloped a bit funny. It is two stories tall, with 2 windows on each floor in the front. He has a workshop off the side of the house that he uses for his blacksmith work. His older male child is learning to be a blacksmith as well, but his younger daughter is not.

Loves: wife and children, health, his dog Irony,

Hates: Drunkards, thieves, cats which he kills when his wife isn't looking.

Goals: Bob wants another child but his wife is too weak to bear anther, he is working on a Masterwork full plate, Eventually wants to learn a spell but doesn't even know where to begin

Quirks/Traits: Fascinated by magic, hardworking but doesn't work before his wife gets up in the morning

Saria Strongarm: Robert's wife, she loves her husband but doesn't understand or appreciate his hatred of cats. She isn't as fascinated by magic but is trying to convince a local Shaman to teach Bob the basics of Spell casting, not knowing enough to know that that really isn't a possibility. She likes to sleep in but doesn't because she knows her husband won't get up in the morning if she isn't up to.


Thus, I'd like to ask the GITP Forums to help me! If any of you are doing things like this that would be great. If I get a couple dozen or so I'll put it up on google docs for download.

Hopefully they will be in a format similar to what I am using just for uniformity's sake. Flavor details are king here! I don't even want stats because while they are 3.5 characters, I want the to be good for 4ed or even a medieval Paranoia.

Also, Saria is part of the Robert Entry, not her own entry. That doesn't have to be the case and she will probably be her own entry in the finished product. EDIT: I have finished a Saria Entry. Also, as I add them to the document, I am sourcing you with your username.

Saria Strongarm: Human LG Commoner

Robert's wife, she loves her husband but doesn't understand or appreciate his hatred of cats. She isn't as fascinated by magic but is trying to convince a local Shaman to teach bob the basics of Spell casting, not knowing enough to know that that really isn't a possibility. She likes to sleep in but doesn't because she knows her husband won't get up in the morning if she isn't up to. Saria loves to bake, but I truly awful at it. Her husband hasn't told her, and she doesn't understand why her family gets some many stomach aches.

Saria is largely incapable of having children after a complication when her second child was born, although the clerics and physicians in the city they trek to every season cannot find a medical cause or proper treatment.
Her oven is cracked and she has never had any baking instruction. As a cook (of non-baked goods) she fares a little better, being a decent chef in her own right. She is a truly addicted gossip and will know the ins and outs of most the town of Oakweld.

Loves: Husband and Children, good baking, cats. Cupcakes hold a special place in her heart when she can afford the sugar.

Hates: Irony the dog, Husbands penchant for killing cats. Fruitcake, really, anything with exceptionally well cooked fruit and baked good together.

Goals: Find a teacher for Robert, actually bake well, get a new oven.

Quirks/Traits: Uses the word “gotcha” excessively even when it doesn't make sense. She adjusts her dress when nervous, but won't if lying.



Also, would this be better suited in a different forum? Such as the straight 3.5 forum or the general role-playing forum

[A Rainy Knight]

So... something along these lines? This one's a pair of colorful NPCs I thought up a while back, basically the fantasy equivalent of the ice cream man:

Maxwell Sugarshine Gnome NG Expert

Maxwell, an aging gnome merchant, lives and travels in a stagecoach designed to feature a storefront on one of its sides and decorated garishly to draw attention to his business's name: Sugarshine's Delights. He's practically a wizard with the modified oven he's outfitted his coach with and specializes in baking cookies and sweet breads, though he also makes hard candies when he can get a surplus of sugar cheaply, and ice creams on the rare occasions he can harvest some ice.

The coach has an unusually large body, given that it accommodates Maxwell's stock of baking supplies, his oven, and a set of cramped living quarters for him and his apprentice Amelia, who he sees as an adoptive daughter given his lack of a wife or family of his own.

In terms of quest hooks, he often has need of guards on stretches of road prone to highwaymen due to his hatred of giving money to people who haven't earned it and his intense fear of a violent disruption of his business or harm being done to Amelia.

Loves: baking, sampling his creations for free, his apprentice Amelia, Amelia's riddles, well-mannered children, seeing new places, other gnomes
Hates: rude and "grabby" children/customers, getting drawn into dangerous situations, people who see his occupation as frivolous, spending large sums of money, haggling with customers
Goals: wants to someday set up a permanent storefront but refuses to do so until he can afford exactly the one he imagines; wants to research some way to use illusion magic to make his creations or his truck more visually exciting
Quirks: still wears a pair of spectacles out of sentimental attachment despite the fact that they've bent a bit out of shape and tend to slide down his nose a lot, remembers the most difficult riddles Amelia tells him and makes people who ask for too many free samples answer them before getting any more

Amelia Hart Human NG Expert

Amelia lives and travels with Maxwell as an apprentice to learn from his baking techniques and his business skills. Her living conditions are a bit cramped since Maxwell had to accommodate her in a gnome-sized coach, so she tends to walk outside a lot when the coach is in town and she isn't needed at the ovens.

She's around 17 years old now, having joined Maxwell as an apprentice about 3-4 years ago with her (suspicious of gnomes) parents' reluctant approval. She thinks of the travelling business as a good compromise between her fear of going too far from home and her love of seeing new places, given that she views the coach as her home. She's a bit of a puzzle aficionado and has a tendency to zone out when pondering a particularly hard riddle.

In terms of quest hooks, she keeps an ear open for rumors of illusion-related magical items but would need to hire adventurers to follow up on any rumors given her fear of ne'er-do-wells and getting lost at night.

Loves: baking, Maxwell, riddles, cool and windy days, flowers, asking customers questions about themselves
Hates: taking risks, fighting, wandering far from the stagecoach, the dark, people commenting on her absent-mindedness
Goals: originally wanted to open her own bakery after her beloved hometown bakery went out of business, has grown attached to Maxwell as a father figure and wants to work at his "dream bakery," secretly wants to learn illusions from Maxwell but has yet to ask
Quirks: has a knack for mathematical and logical brainteasers as a hobby and tends to phrase her questions in terms of sweets ("if I eat the middle 1/9th of a chocolate square, then eat the middle 1/9th out of each of the remaining 8/9ths, then repeat this infinitely..."), often complains of assorted cramps and soreness from sleeping in various curled-up positions

[fryplink]

So... something along these lines? This one's a pair of colorful NPCs I thought up a while back, basically the fantasy equivalent of the ice cream man:

Maxwell Sugarshine Gnome NG Expert

Maxwell, an aging gnome merchant, lives and travels in a stagecoach designed to feature a storefront on one of its sides and decorated garishly to draw attention to his business's name: Sugarshine's Delights. He's practically a wizard with the modified oven he's outfitted his coach with and specializes in baking cookies and sweet breads, though he also makes hard candies when he can get a surplus of sugar cheaply, and ice creams on the rare occasions he can harvest some ice.

The coach has an unusually large body, given that it accommodates Maxwell's stock of baking supplies, his oven, and a set of cramped living quarters for him and his apprentice Amelia, who he sees as an adoptive daughter given his lack of a wife or family of his own.

In terms of quest hooks, he often has need of guards on stretches of road prone to highwaymen due to his hatred of giving money to people who haven't earned it and his intense fear of a violent disruption of his business or harm being done to Amelia.

Loves: baking, sampling his creations for free, his apprentice Amelia, Amelia's riddles, well-mannered children, seeing new places, other gnomes
Hates: rude and "grabby" children/customers, getting drawn into dangerous situations, people who see his occupation as frivolous, spending large sums of money, haggling with customers
Goals: wants to someday set up a permanent storefront but refuses to do so until he can afford exactly the one he imagines; wants to research some way to use illusion magic to make his creations or his truck more visually exciting
Quirks: still wears a pair of spectacles out of sentimental attachment despite the fact that they've bent a bit out of shape and tend to slide down his nose a lot, remembers the most difficult riddles Amelia tells him and makes people who ask for too many free samples answer them before getting any more

Amelia Hart Human NG Expert

Amelia lives and travels with Maxwell as an apprentice to learn from his baking techniques and his business skills. Her living conditions are a bit cramped since Maxwell had to accommodate her in a gnome-sized coach, so she tends to walk outside a lot when the coach is in town and she isn't needed at the ovens.

She's around 17 years old now, having joined Maxwell as an apprentice about 3-4 years ago with her (suspicious of gnomes) parents' reluctant approval. She thinks of the travelling business as a good compromise between her fear of going too far from home and her love of seeing new places, given that she views the coach as her home. She's a bit of a puzzle aficionado and has a tendency to zone out when pondering a particularly hard riddle.

In terms of quest hooks, she keeps an ear open for rumors of illusion-related magical items but would need to hire adventurers to follow up on any rumors given her fear of ne'er-do-wells and getting lost at night.

Loves: baking, Maxwell, riddles, cool and windy days, flowers, asking customers questions about themselves
Hates: taking risks, fighting, wandering far from the stagecoach, the dark, people commenting on her absent-mindedness
Goals: originally wanted to open her own bakery after her beloved hometown bakery went out of business, has grown attached to Maxwell as a father figure and wants to work at his "dream bakery," secretly wants to learn illusions from Maxwell but has yet to ask
Quirks: has a knack for mathematical and logical brainteasers as a hobby and tends to phrase her questions in terms of sweets ("if I eat the middle 1/9th of a chocolate square, then eat the middle 1/9th out of each of the remaining 8/9ths, then repeat this infinitely..."), often complains of assorted cramps and soreness from sleeping in various curled-up positions


This is awesome and exactly what I was looking for, THANKS!