Writing up NPCs

[Grimolde]

I know there's a handy little sheet for recording npcs, but how do you create them?

Assuming an opponent not found in the Coliseum book, how do you calculate its variables? Do you create it step by step from the book, working out things like Damage Modifiers, Combat Actions, Strike Ranks, Skills etc, or do you just whing it?

 

[Deleriad]

I know there's a handy little sheet for recording npcs, but how do you create them?

Assuming an opponent not found in the Coliseum book, how do you calculate its variables? Do you create it step by step from the book, working out things like Damage Modifiers, Combat Actions, Strike Ranks, Skills etc, or do you just whing it?

Depends. If I need something in a hurry I'll just wing it. E.g. some decent bandits.

SR 12-5=7, CA 2, DM -, Magic Points 10, Armour Points 3, Hit Points (5)*
Evade 40%, Persistence 30%, Resilience 40%
Banditry skills 60%
Combat: 70%
Weapons Sword (M/M 1D8), Shield (L/S, 1D4), Bow (H/- 1D8)
Common magic 50%: Bladesharp 2, Bandit's Cloak 2, Speedart 2

*i.e. leg/head hit points are 5, arm 4, abdo 6, chest 7

That literally took as long as it took to type out. Weapon names are basically generic. There are deliberately no characteristics because you usually don't need them.

You can easily change this by bumping SR up to 14-5 which also means they have 3 CAs. Or giving then a positive Damage bonus or an attack spell (Befuddle and Disruption) or biasing their spells (e.g. Bladesharp 4 or Multimissile or Protection).

If I want to create detail I use a spreadsheet (check out Phil Hibbs's online character generator) and copy paste to a Word Document.

 

[Grimolde]

Pretty much what I was thinking.

On those npc cards, what are the entries:

CA - Combat Actions
DM - Damage Modifer
IM - Improvement Points?
MR - ?
DP - ?
MP - Magic Points
SR - Strike Rank

 

[Deleriad]

Pretty much what I was thinking.

On those npc cards, what are the entries:

CA - Combat Actions
DM - Damage Modifer
IM - Improvement Points?
MR - ?
DP - ?
MP - Magic Points
SR - Strike Rank

MR would be Move rating and DP Dedicated POW. IM is Improvement Modifier.

 

[Grimolde]

Pretty much what I was thinking.

On those npc cards, what are the entries:

CA - Combat Actions
DM - Damage Modifer
IM - Improvement Points?
MR - ?
DP - ?
MP - Magic Points
SR - Strike Rank

MR would be Move rating and DP Dedicated POW. IM is Improvement Modifier.

Of course!

Thank you

 

[weasel_fierce]

For skills, I just assign an overall skill rating and extrapolate stat stuff as needed.

f.x. "guard 50%"

If he's rolling stuff that isn't quite guard related, do it at -20

By and large, I prefer having players roll, than having NPCs roll, but MRQ2 does expect a lot of opposed rolls.

 

[Richard]

Type 'Runegoons' into your search engine and check out a great online NPC resource.

 

[languagegeek]

Type 'Runegoons' into your search engine and check out a great online NPC resource.

Really neat page. I'm guessing this is an earlier version of RQ?

 

[Grimolde]

I did a mock combat the other day, on my own. Four pcs against 1 dark troll and 6 trollkins. I rolled individual initiative for each combatant and it was a nightmare.

I'm assuming you roll one initiative total for the dark troll and one for all the trollkin? I didn't want to do this as I thought it wasn't realistic. Not sure I can handle individual initiative though.

I was thinking of buying one of those magnetic combat boards, but then I'd have one sheet of paper for the bad guys, and a board for the initiatives.

Not to mention keeping track of all those CAs, how do you manage that?

 

[Deleriad]

I did a mock combat the other day, on my own. Four pcs against 1 dark troll and 6 trollkins. I rolled individual initiative for each combatant and it was a nightmare.

I'm assuming you roll one initiative total for the dark troll and one for all the trollkin? I didn't want to do this as I thought it wasn't realistic. Not sure I can handle individual initiative though.

I was thinking of buying one of those magnetic combat boards, but then I'd have one sheet of paper for the bad guys, and a board for the initiatives.

Not to mention keeping track of all those CAs, how do you manage that?

It's a lot easier when you're only tracking the npcs. Mock combats make it feel much harder. I would certainly do the trollkin as one group.

For CAs all I do is put a mark by each npc name or number after each action. do it in pencil then rub them out afterwards. Like most things it becomes quite simple with experience.