As many of you may be aware, I’m currently prepping a Changeling: the Lost one-off game; I’ve just got to the point in my planning where I’m starting to actually put the stats down for the NPCs.
One of the things I like about Fate (okay look, I’ve done well, I got a whole sentence out before I mentioned it ;)) is that important NPCs are genned up like normal characters, but minor characters have a quicker method of creating NPCs where you basically note down a couple of descriptive terms for them and then jot down a few things they are good at and a couple they are bad at. Everything else they are considered to be average at.
I wondered whether this could be applied to NWOD; the corebook defines attributes and skills like this:
Attributes
o Poor
oo Average
ooo Good
oooo Exceptional
ooooo Outstanding
Skills
o Novice
oo Practitioner
ooo Professional
oooo Expert
ooooo Master
So for the game I’m running (certainly for minor NPCs) I’m going to use the following dice pool ratings:
Bad at: dice pool 2
Average at: dice pool 4
Good at: dice pool 6
This should hopefully allow me to quickly create some minor NPCs without needing to have a cribsheet for them all.
Example NPC:
Corrupt Beat Cop
Description: Uphold the law, willing to look the other way for the right incentive.
Good at: Shooting, driving
Bad at: Resisting a bribe, working out when they are being tricked, resisting mental coersion.
The NPC will be assumed to be ‘average’ at anything not mentioned in the above description (dice pool 4).