Ninja-Bear Posted March 24, 2022 Report Share Posted March 24, 2022 Hello Y’all, I’ve always had a problem coming up with backgrounds even brief ones for NPCs. Does anyone recommend either a free or cheap NPC background generator? TIA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tjack Posted March 24, 2022 Report Share Posted March 24, 2022 I just steal ‘em. Do you need an editor for a big city newspaper? There’s the history’s for Perry White and J.J.J. on their comic company’s websites. Not realistic enough? Look up Ben Bradley on Wikipedia, he was the editor of the Washington Post during Watergate. Do you need a soldier or a cop? Comics, movies, TV and history are full of them. I like to use obscure stuff and go whole hog. I saw a bad movie that starred Tommy Lee Jones as the Commander of a squadron of Apache helicopters. (Fire Birds) Soon after my Star Wars campaign had a new Commander for its B-wing squadron. Check out the episode of Big Bang Theory where Wolowitz is the DM for their D&D game. The actor is a very good mimic and breaks out celebrity voices for all the NPC’s. You don’t have to go that far, but I find that casting a real person in the role gives me an immediate grasp of what they sound, look and behave like. Good luck. Grailknight, Scott Ruggels and Steve 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duke Bushido Posted March 25, 2022 Report Share Posted March 25, 2022 There was a trio of books way back when called Central Casting (I had the sci-to one and the fantasy one once upon a time). I believe they are still available in PDF form,somewhere. Yes, they are lengthy series of "roll on chart X" books, and kind of random. However, clicking a button on someone's web-based character generator is kind of random, too, but I find the dice /charts / take notes approach to be a lot more fun than "click here; receive bacon." Warning: the age of these books kind of shows. Depending on what and where your path takes you, you may have to either ignore or apply judicious use of the Ignomious Black Highlighter in order to not get worked up over some random (and bizarre) scattered bits of homophobia. Really wierd considering that the name Paul Jaquays is attached to them.... _really_ wierd. Granted, she may have still been in denial then; I dont know. Still, they are lots of fun, and they fill me with old-school nostalgia. I never used them to build actual character backstories, but I could spend am hour or two just rolling up backgrounds on a rainy afternoon... Chris Goodwin and Steve 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Goodwin Posted March 25, 2022 Report Share Posted March 25, 2022 20 hours ago, Duke Bushido said: Warning: the age of these books kind of shows. Depending on what and where your path takes you, you may have to either ignore or apply judicious use of the Ignomious Black Highlighter in order to not get worked up over some random (and bizarre) scattered bits of homophobia. Really wierd considering that the name Paul Jaquays is attached to them.... _really_ wierd. Granted, she may have still been in denial then; I dont know. For those who aren't aware, Jennell Jaquays was known as Paul Jaquays then, and yes, it was denial; I asked her about it. Duke Bushido and drunkonduty 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duke Bushido Posted March 25, 2022 Report Share Posted March 25, 2022 Yep. Found me an honest typo that comes off as a possible insult. Just about the time I start working on correxting it, I get a notification that someone quoted it. :rofl: Let"s go see what else I can goof up today.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclevlad Posted March 25, 2022 Report Share Posted March 25, 2022 And read. Incessantly. Supers fiction, by and large, is light on normal NPCs. Urban fantasy tends to be somewhat better. But note that you don't have to rely necessarily on NPCs from those stories; the PCs' attitudes and backgrounds can often be sanitized (to scale them back if needed) and reused. What's the point of the NPC? That's the starting point. How does he serve the story? Is he Angel (helpful info) or Devil (*seems* to be helping but is, in fact, feeding info for Nefarious Purposes)? How can they meet up? For full-on NPC villains, why is he a villain? Straightforward psychopath? Hosed by (wife, boss, company, best friend, society in general)? Plain old greed? Curse variant/bad side effect...Jekyll/Hyde, IIRC Green Goblin and the Lizard have things like this, classic infected vampire/werewolf but over time they start Liking It!!! The core problem, IMO, is trying to construct the whole character background from nothing...rather than a piece at a time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tjack Posted March 26, 2022 Report Share Posted March 26, 2022 53 minutes ago, unclevlad said: Supers fiction, by and large, is light on normal NPCs. Urban fantasy tends to be somewhat better. But note that you don't have to rely necessarily on NPCs from those stories; the PCs' attitudes and backgrounds can often be sanitized (to scale them back if needed) and reused. I don’t know if I agree with that. I believe that the hero is made more 3-dimensional by having other characters to bounce off of. What would Spider-Man be without Aunt May or J. Jonah Jameson? How about Batman without Alfred or Jim Gordon? Both those characters have huge casts of backround characters. The Fantastic Four have Alicia Masters and Wyatt Wingfoot to name but a few. Even a loner like The Punisher is made more interesting by having Microchip and others, as in the arc that brought us Joan the Mouse, Slacker Dave and Mr. Bumpo. Without characters like these to spice things up the story becomes bland gruel indeed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclevlad Posted March 26, 2022 Report Share Posted March 26, 2022 Then that's the point of the NPC to the story. What's the relationship? Aunt May is a DNPC guilt-inducing figure. It's why Peter's secret ID is SO critical. JJJ is there to be the burr in his saddle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duke Bushido Posted March 26, 2022 Report Share Posted March 26, 2022 N-B, I wish I could offer you something from experience, but like a great day at work, it is something I have never experienced personally. No: not a brag or condescension; give me a moment to tie this together: It is because I have never had this problem and because, back when I had time, I used to read _constantly_. Not just fiction, but non-fiction, even technical manuals. I used to read cheap adventure modules for games I didn't even play! Today, my reading is xonfined mostly to whatever strikes my fancy on the net. I like will entries on almost any subject, mainly,because most od them can be read in ten minutes or less, which suits the amount of "me" time I have available typically, and of,course, conversations on websites such as this one. So, I think there may be something to the reading suggestion. I also used to write constantly,as well, especially when I was younger: you can't just get bored and read a book in class, but if your pencil,was wiggling furiously, you were assumed to hard at work! oddly, most of what I wrote was written specifically because I wanted something to read. Nothing like do_it_yourself, I suppose. Ha! I wanted to add, though, that getting in the habbit of just writing- without thinking about it; just write. I van't say for sure, but that might help as well. I say "might" because I still can't draw, and,I have been practicing that for fifty-some,years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech Posted March 28, 2022 Report Share Posted March 28, 2022 On 3/24/2022 at 4:19 PM, Ninja-Bear said: Hello Y’all, I’ve always had a problem coming up with backgrounds even brief ones for NPCs. Does anyone recommend either a free or cheap NPC background generator? TIA I usually just base them off a character already created, whether comic book or something else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoloOfEarth Posted March 28, 2022 Report Share Posted March 28, 2022 Not background, but has some interesting facets: Chaotic Shiny - Modern Character Generator There are a number of Fantasy NPC character generators out there (albeit for D&D, but you can always just ignore the stats) - again not really background, but may provide interesting facets of NPCs: Chaotic Shiny - Character Generator NPC Generator donjon; 5e Random Generator (bin.sh) RPG Tinker - D&D 5e NPC Generator Found this and thought it was interesting: Auto Roll Tables Ninja-Bear and Steve 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dsatow Posted May 8, 2022 Report Share Posted May 8, 2022 I know this is fairly old, but since I am learning Python (most for beefing up my resume) over Perl, I try to use the new language in stupid ways for gaming. So in that spirit, I created a random NPC generator. It creates a person in the United States around the age of 19 (14-24). Most of the values are totally random. What I am curious about, is would you add anything to the list of items? Example output below. Name: Cotton, Vanessa (Daisy) Last Updated: 5/8/2022 ================================================================================ Sex: Female Age: 21 Born: Sep 4, 2000 Zodiac sign: Virgo Chinese Zodiac: Dragon Blood type personality: (A-) Creative, clever, cooperative, stubborn, uptight Birthplace: San Francisco, California ================================================================================ Physical Description -------------------- Height: 5'8" (1.73 m) Weight: 273.6 lbs (124.1 kg) Handed: Right Hair: Dark Brown/Black, Short (dyed) Eye Color: Brown Corrective Lenses: Yes - Nearsighted Bloodtype: A- ================================================================================ Education --------- Religion: Agnostic High School: John D. Rockefeller High School - 2.0 grade average Showed a talent in being artistic Was raised with athletics in mind. Currently a Student ================================================================================ Relationships ------------- Both parents alive 3 siblings brother(age = 19) brother(age = 13) sister(age = 14) Never married. ================================================================================ Personality Characteristics --------------------------- Extroversion -> Overwhelmingly Extroverted Openness -> Strongly Traditional/Conservative Conscientiousness -> Significantly Spontaneous/Impulsive Emotional Stability -> Slightly Sensitive/Tense Agreeableness -> Moderately Unselfish/Sympathetic ================================================================================ Hobbies/Pastimes ---------------- Home improvement Team Sports (playing) Hockey Following professional team sports Basketball Bicycling Team Sports (playing) Baseball BoloOfEarth 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoloOfEarth Posted May 8, 2022 Report Share Posted May 8, 2022 Looks very good! Maybe a "distinguishing / unique feature" (birthmark / tattoo / scar / accent / personal habit)? Going through my stuff, I found the following PDF. I don't know who originally created it - wish I did so I could give proper credit. MemorableMooks.pdf Ninja-Bear 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dsatow Posted May 9, 2022 Report Share Posted May 9, 2022 Good idea! I'll add quirks and distinguishing traits to the generator. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.