I often just try to think of a character's abilities as being in the scale of about -4 up to +10 or so in increments of two.
This idea basically falls along the line of what Ive talked about before - Simply assigning a particular value based on your perception of a character and not worrying about the supposed relevant details.
For example - the Players stop at a small oasis to water their horses. The GM desides or maybe rolls randomly to see if there is anyone else there. He establishes in some manner that a couple of soldiers are there. He makes a couple generic d10 rolls for their relative ability and gets a 2 and a 6. He describes the two as a young and eager looking recruit, several battles behind him from the looks of his scars and the way he carries his weapon but he still has that youthful enthusiasm. The other he describes as an older, quieter veteran, the age of his armor and the slow and steady way he moves indicating no wated energy and constant awareness.
The GM doesnt go any further than this for now but later, when one of the players tries to bluff some information out of them he assigns the younger soldier a 4 and the older a 7 to resist. It seems about right given his view of them. Now does this imply their level and ability - I suppose so but it neednt. Its just a plugged in value to allow the encounter to continue.
Later a group of bandits approach the oasis. The GM assigns a Listen value of + 8 to the old veteran who is on watch with one of the players. Still later when combat begins he gives the same soldier a +5 initiative and his younger partner the same, one based on experience, one on natural ability. Finally when the young soldier is shot at by an enemy archer the GM gives him a Dodge of 15 and awards him 22 hit points.
These values, and possibly many others, were assigned more or less arbitrarily without attending to the actual rules of character generation at all. Im hearing on this forum that this is a actually a customary way many GMs handle the situation. Ill have to say it certainly takes some of the paintstaking monotony out of making up NPCs and as far as IM concerned, will be the way I approach it from now on.
