[freeroleplay] S cubed

[Samuel Penn]

On Thursday 13 July 2006 15:51, Troy Truchon wrote:
> Not really. The more I think about it the more I find that my problems
> are with over detailed systems. The more complicated the character
> generation the harder it is to come up with NPC's on the fly.

Depends on the type of NPCs. In most attribute/skill based systems
(such as GURPS or Yags), you can assume average stats and then give
them a suitable skill rating in the skill you need to know. If you
want them to stand out a bit, then give them a bonus/penalty in
one of their attributes.

The thing about NPCs is, you don't need to completely flesh them
out. I generally assume the majority of the populate has no
advantages or disadvantages (in Yags), and that the average
attribute accounts for 90% of the population.

In many systems, the character generation rules can be used just
for PCs. It's harder to do in games like D&D where progression
is very inflexible (an Nth level character will always have so many
skill points etc), but for skill based systems you can assume the
default for everything you don't care about.

For major NPCs you probably want to give a lot of care and
attention to their abilities, so in this case a complex set of
rules will slow things down.

-- 
Be seeing you,                         http://www.glendale.org.uk
Sam.                        
              IM: samuel.penn at jabber.org or samuel.penn at gmail.com