Great White Games/Pinnacle Entertainment Group

[ProfMarks]

I was wondering if any of the GM's here would be willing to share there techniques on creating NPC's without making an encounter death ground for the players. I've read the threads about the type of balance systems that have been suggested so I'm not inquiring about that. I'm speaking more to putting an npc together.

The SWEX says: "just give them what you think they ought to have in their various skills and attributes and move on." How do you all do that in practice?

Thanks.

[quixol]

I tend to let experience based on what my players have done in the past, and how NPCs have fared to be my starting point. While vague, this means if I know the PCs are fast on the draw and tend to use guns first, I do what I can to insure I get a first action for a major NPC.

So I guess I start with making them a bit defensive in nature for the major NPC, so I can have him do something of importance and/or escape if needed, and then add those skills, stats that support the flavor of the NPC.

For lesser NPCs, I just make them a bit less guileless and go for support for what their major focus is, Guns, Fighting, Magic , + perhaps one other skill that is a bit of flavor.

Now I also play my games with the NPCs being as fully realized as possible, so not all encounters are simply antagonistic free for alls. So if a PC is facing a more skilled opponent, they dont have to ALWAYS worry that the first shot is a death shot. If however the PC decides to shoot first, than the deadlier NPC more than likely will kill them. Thus the player learns over the death of his corpses, and I learn how the player plays, and thus alter my NPCs for the next time.

Great question and will be interested if others have something a bit more refined

[shadd4d]

What kind of NPCs are we talking about?

Question 1: Is he/she/it a wild card? If not, I worry more about which die I will use.
I recently ran a game and didn't stat out the main baddy, a murderous psycho named Knifey. I just made him a wild card and knew that he used knives, had a few edges and had throwing d12, fighting d10 and vigor d8. Beyond that, I didn't need anything...but the situation didn't call for it. That said, I've also stated out a big-bag in exhaustive detail.

Usually I stat out main villains...probably really meta-gaming it a bit by incorporating some edges which might counter-act my group's abilities.

The only really good guideline I can give is if 1x villain is going to confront a whole posse of guys, make sure he is Mr. Legendary and has those edges or other special abilities. My experience with Knifey has showed that a posse of 5 PCs + 4 Flock NPCs v. 1 baddie = really short fight with shaken fool after he had 1-2 really good shots.

The real question which the rules kind of tap dance around is...NPC are dependent solely for the function of the plot and the story. They're as skilled as they need to be, as incompetent as they need to be, as sympathetic as you can portray them and as useful for moving the plot as oxygen to life.

Don
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Don

"But there is a difference between fear and horror. An important difference.
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[Semper Mortalitas]

Greetings,
I feel the need to chime in on this one. Here are my thoughts,

1) shadd4d was correct in that it IS meta-gaming to stat your PC's opposition off of the PC's stats. However this is what a GM does. You can not make a challenging encounter without taking into account what the PC's are capable of.

2) NEVER forget the dice. I have seen challenging encounters go down in flames to Aced rolls and one encounter between an d6 skill extra and a WC swordsman last 10+ rounds due to horrible rolling.

3) Bennies, use 'em. Also watch your players supply of them, they can turn a TPK into a victory very quickly. If you want a more climactic final battle be stingy handing them out. One fantasy game I ran I started handing out Bennies very frequently but before the final encounter I cut back. The tension level of that battle was very high because no one had more than one, if that.

4) Do not forget your edges. I have run encounters on more than one occasion were I got caught up in the scene and forgot that X NPC had IMP Frenzy or Nerves of Steel or ...well fill in the blank here. I started using a bold font when I printed my NPC sheets so the edge would stand out more.

5) Many may argue this but I will say it anyway. Fudge. Yep I said it. If you stat out an encounter and it looks like in the first round or 2 your NPC is going to clean the floor with the PC's change him on the fly. Remove the Imp Trademark Weapon and make it a regular Trademark Weapon or just a regular weapon. If the encounter is going to easy raise a trait by 1 or 2 die types. Or maybe reinforcements show up, the building catches fire, etc.

That is all I can think of for now, hope it is of some use. Good luck.

[Mindseye]

I seem to vary between extremes.

If it's a mook, I just roll d6s as needed. makes things go faster.

Any Wild card is built like a character. That way if someone manages to puppet it, I don't have to worry about giving them a tactical nuke!
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[ProfMarks]

Appreciate the responses. All were very helpful. Thanks.

[Pure Evil Model: D]

You also have to rememer thatthe NPC's stats arn't written in stone. If you find your WC is nailing them too hard, drop the die type and don't mention it to the players. they'll feel all the better when they vanquish their foe after he put that much hurt on them, and never be the wiser that you pulled some punches. and Vice Versa. Your villain is going down too quickly, boost his vigor discretly, or boost the stats of some nearby mooks to make them more competant body guards.

That way you don't miss any chances while you work out the art of building NPCs
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[Dont Die]

A lot of it is just intuition. I've ran encounters that I thought would be really challenging for the party but after some good rolls by the players and bad rolls by the NPC's, the boss is smoldering pile on the floor. While other times, the opposite has happened.
I think the key is to always have some out for the players. They hate to run away but sometimes they just have to.
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[UmbraLux]

[SlasherEpoch]

You may find it helpful to browse through the book and think about the kinds of NPCs you would like to make:

Leader Types: Usually Wild Cards. Often have Command, Luck, and d8s in relevant stats.

Tough Fighter: High Vigor, some decent armor. Often not too bright and has low Fighting but deals a lot of damage with a hit. Examples are Ogres and Trolls in the rulebook.

Agile Fighter: Low Strength, but high Agility and Fighting. Usually has edges that take advantage of this, like Frenzy or Two Fisted. Example (extreme example!) would be the Werewolf in the rulebook.

One Guy That Challenges the Whole Party: Has a whole passel of Edges, may have some Monstrous Abilities, like Hardy, that keep support characters in check. Often a Wild Card, or an Extra so ridiculously tough that the PCs are afraid to challenge them. Examples are Liche, Dragon, and Giant Worm.



...and so on.
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