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Post by chimerat on Jan 14, 2016 1:50:32 GMT
I nearly put this in the Character Creation thread, but the more I wrote, the more I thought it fit in this GM section instead.
I was debating running a game on here (in a few months' time) of either PTA or PTU (if I'm comfortable with the system at that point), but my main block for any games that have complex character creation (including D&D) is NPCs.
What do you do for NPCs that the players might face? Considering they might be challenged to combat at any moment, you can't just go with no stats, so what do you do?
Should an NPC just be a basic skeleton with few tactical options outside of Rivals, Team Evil Boses and Gym Leaders?
Do you keep a pile of stats to use if PCs do challenge the NPC to battle but only pull them out if there is combat or some other Skill-related challenge going on?
What's the best way to populate a world with NPC Characters?
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Post by DataNinja on Jan 14, 2016 3:04:04 GMT
I know what I do is, since I do PbP, is keep an idea of what any random might have/be on hand, but not develop them until needed. On the other hand, remember, NPCs can refuse challenges. Unless your world has the "lock eyes and fight" mentality, not every NPC might have Pokémon, or accept challenges, especially on dangerous wilderness routes with no healing around.
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Post by TenabreTrevellian on Jan 14, 2016 17:50:48 GMT
If you want some quick and easy NPCs, pick a few features and stick them on a human, and add some stats on the fly. Most of the time that's probably going to make their Pokemon just a little more threatening and you don't have to worry about the trainer as a whole other than flavour for the NPC.
For bigger things you might want to stat them out as a character.
I've been thinking of setting up some thread for an NPC codex kind of thing, people uploading some of their NPCs or generic NPCs.
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Post by Kasumi on Jan 15, 2016 3:05:36 GMT
If you want some quick and easy NPCs, pick a few features and stick them on a human, and add some stats on the fly. Most of the time that's probably going to make their Pokemon just a little more threatening and you don't have to worry about the trainer as a whole other than flavour for the NPC. For bigger things you might want to stat them out as a character. I've been thinking of setting up some thread for an NPC codex kind of thing, people uploading some of their NPCs or generic NPCs. I've been thinking about doing something similar; building a suite of generic NPCs along the lines of those you'd encounter in the video games. I've gotten as far as... Bug Catchers, and that's about it.
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Post by TenabreTrevellian on Jan 15, 2016 9:56:10 GMT
If you want some quick and easy NPCs, pick a few features and stick them on a human, and add some stats on the fly. Most of the time that's probably going to make their Pokemon just a little more threatening and you don't have to worry about the trainer as a whole other than flavour for the NPC. For bigger things you might want to stat them out as a character. I've been thinking of setting up some thread for an NPC codex kind of thing, people uploading some of their NPCs or generic NPCs. I've been thinking about doing something similar; building a suite of generic NPCs along the lines of those you'd encounter in the video games. I've gotten as far as... Bug Catchers, and that's about it. Indeed, I wanted to be able to just have a list of archetypes rather than trainers with some builds and plot hooks, like, Archaeologist - [Build Link] - Wants ALL the fossils for himself and won't let your party through the cave. - Has resurrected a Kabutops that's gone a bit mental. - Needs a fossil from X place but it's a bit of a trek, if you're on the way, could you grab it? Names: Flynt Cole, Prof Fossiltree, etc.
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Post by chimerat on Jan 15, 2016 23:58:22 GMT
Exactly. Some sort of blurb. Or even just random stats. Not everyone can get away if PCs do push a for a battle.
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Post by kagemaru656 on Apr 25, 2016 11:05:43 GMT
What I've done for PTU is made a few characters to fit archetypes (most of the ones recommended in character creation in the rulebook) in the google sheets character sheet. Then I've made everything conditional so I can set the level and have them match up. This works best with the full contact trainers who I'm trying to scale for combat anyway.
Then for their own Pokémon I generate those as normal for wild encounters, maybe add bonuses from the trainer's features or tm/tutor moves and there we go.
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