Collaborative NPC Roles Random Roll Tables

Collaboration
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PREAMBLE STUFF YOU CAN SKIP IF YOU DON’T CARE

While I made a self-promotion post about a recent blog post of mine, I have not made a proper post on this forum yet.

I actually much prefer these more long-form platforms than discord- I think the NSR server is a great community so I have tried to engage there, but I’m excited about this platform and hope it is successful.

I do also want to give some love to The OSR Pit, which is a very similar platform and also happens to be a discourse forum, but they’re laid out more like G+ was, whereas this reminds me more of old school internet message boards. I think it’s cool that we have these two platforms and I hope they both are successful and feed into each other. I’m interested to see what effect if any the structure of the platform itself has on the discourses of these respective discourse platforms :p.

So ya, I’ll make a companion post there I think, and inform them that if they join the NSR Discord Server that they can get invited into The Cauldron. I have no horse in the race for either platform, I just want them both to be successful, so hopefully doing this helps in that regard rather than hindering.

THE ACTUAL POST FINALLY

I made a blog post a while back for a Character Formula.

Basically:

NPC: [Adjective] [Occupation] and [Hobby/Other Notable Activity] who [Personality Quirk]

Where you might have a Role such as “Fantasy Tavern Keeper” and generate ~4 unique NPCs for that Role using this Character Formula.

This way, you can have two otherwise identical scenarios but with randomly selected NPCs in specific Roles, and that may radically change the experience even if you ran the same module / prepped session multiple times.

So for example:

Fantasy Tavern Keeper
Joy von Otter: Suspiciously friendly bartender and taxidermist who will not tolerate whistling in the bar.

Cyberpunk AI
Marxxx: Superficially socialist HR specialist and premium personal assistant who was supposed to be so much more.

So for this collaborative exercise, you can take one of those Roles above or in the blog post and write ~1-4 NPCs roughly following the formula, and also recommend a new Role which I will try to respond to or others can respond to with ~1-4 entries, and you’re also welcome to write your own ideas for tha novel Role.

4 Likes
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Role: “Noble” Knight
(I’m stealing Syr from MTG as a gender-neutral honorific because I think it’s cool)

1. Syr Macey: Spectacularly incompetent knight by birth and falconer who will likely react violently to any questioning of his station.

2. Syr Roseaman: Outwardly zealous guardian of the land’s official faith and renowned ale brewer who has secretly been stealing money meant for the church.

3. Syr Arnaut: Stoic questing knight and historian who is searching for an artifact which does not actually exist.

4. Syr Goisfrid: A true believer in the land’s chivalric code and master swordsman who is often so blinded by his personal code that he causes unintentional harm to those he tries to help.

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Role: Robber-Knight

1. Black Tomlinson : Morally-uptight brigand knight and amateur philosopher who lectures victims on the morality of theft.

2. Sir Ossifer : Skeletal crusader and freer-from-the-flesh who is easily distracted by ill-made fashionery prompting them to rant at length.

3. Baron Vault : Wilderness lordling and compulsive architect who delights in entertaining guests before disposing of them in their dungeons.

4. Swordbreaker Meg : Lithe martialist and bandit-queen who lies to her men about her past nonexistent escapades and adventures.

3 Likes
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Role: Unexpected cellar dweller

1. Lacy Vanwick: Verbose freeloader and cup-collector who will invite you for a cup of tea but will not let you leave.

2. Loose Garith: Desperate rat cultist and cheese aficionado who needs you to to help complete their ritual.

3. Lug Polt: Feverish prospector and debt fugitive who is jealously guarding a secret cave.

4. Lenneth Pontuary: Fastidious condiment archivist and supertaster who rewards donations and loathes disruptions.

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Gonna try to do one each from the ones you all have shared so far :)!

"Noble" Knight
Syr Cochlea: Uncouth adventurer and shell collector who is superstitious about ever being fully naked.

Robber Knight
Blue Steal: Gorgeous socialite and renaissance person who is secretly a vigilante robbing the rich to help refugees.

Unexpected Cellar Dweller
Oberon Jones: Shining sun demi-god and tragic alcoholic who brings brightness to dark places.

3 Likes
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Role: Wizard of the Local Village

  1. Grorick Izelor (They /Them) Misanthropist Wizard who modifies the weather in exchange for money and loves harvesting flowers in his garden who sighs continuously.
  2. Iflyn Uzimarim (he/him): Atheist wizard who helps the less fortunate of the community; he drinks a lot of beer and eats tons of cheese and he dislikes priests.
  3. Ishan Xumor (he/him): Unfaithful to women and libertarian wizard that plays tricks to the villagers using illusions who hunts down giant rats in the sewers.
  4. Ennelle Emorith (she/her): Vegetarian wizard that manages a kennel in town, she grants intelligence and the word to dogs through magic and likes chatting with them.
2 Likes