Forums of the Megaverse®

Hi everyone,

I'm pretty new to this whole gaming world, and I'm just starting to get my feet wet with creating my own campaigns. I'm disliking all the time it takes to make NPCs!

I was wondering, does anyone have some NPCs that they've created before and wouldn't mind sharing with me?

Feel free to email me pdfs, too.

Thanks so much in advance! I'm excited to see what all of you have!

there are many NPC presented in the adventure books, and the rifter's adventure articles. just change their names and do tweeks on them to fit the game you're running.

There are light outlines random NPC tables in the HUGMG from mooks to mid-level badies.

Depends on the game you are playing.

Hotrod did an amazing job for Rifts NPCs...

Hotrod wrote: https://palladium-megaverse.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=154206

thank you both for your help.

As a side note, if you have any type of generic NPCs you'd like me to do up as an NPC generator, please let me know. It's a slow-burn project I plink away on from time to time, but it's still active.

What are you finding that is taking up the time to make the individual NPC? In theory you don't need the NPC to be fully fleshed out, in fact depending on their prominence in a campaign you might be able to get by with just the bare minimum of information on the NPC and others with varying sized "missing gaps" in terms of information you have worked out (example, you don't necessarily need to know what every skill slot is being used for just the "main" ones and maybe a few auxiliary). You might also be able to get by with a core template that shares the OCC/RCC and just make minor changes to it to suit individual NPCs (example a CS Dog Pack, they all have the same OCC so really you only need to focus on the differences between the members instead of reinventing the wheel each time).

Palladium used to have "buggy" and Database program for Rifts that could speed things up (it was for RMB-era, and you might have to spend time updating the tables beyond the few books included in it). Even w/o it, you might be able to automate some aspects of the NPC creation depending on your programming skill level.

I think I want npc's fleshed out more so I understand better what they can and can't do. And whatever gear they might be carrying. And I kinda wanna see what other people are making with their npc's and chars. Im currently trying to run Rifts, but i like alot of the systems. I feel a more complete npc is easier for me to get into the personality of for better role playing. I fear I am making all mine generallically similar and boring.
Also, I'm not good at programming

Oh, jumping through books is harder than having a page for an npc. And chars run together in the books, too. I like the way Machines of doom do theirs.

Chloe wrote: ↑Thu Apr 18, 2024 12:24 pm I think I want npc's fleshed out more so I understand better what they can and can't do. And whatever gear they might be carrying. And I kinda wanna see what other people are making with their npc's and chars. Im currently trying to run Rifts, but i like alot of the systems. I feel a more complete npc is easier for me to get into the personality of for better role playing. I fear I am making all mine generallically similar and boring.
Also, I'm not good at programming

This right here is *exactly* why I made my disposable NPC generators. Many NPCs are similar, and the developed NPCs I see all over the place in the sourcebooks are almost always exceptional NPCs, usually with highly improbably attribute rolls.

The NPC generators I've made scale up with level, and most offer some variants with additional skill and equipment packages so they're not all generic. You can certainly take these and make an exceptionally powerful NPC by having that otherwise-average NPC be level 15.

I only like to invest the time to roll up NPCs that I plan on using as recurring characters, especially villains.

For which setting are you looking for NPCs (Rifts, Heros, Fantasy, etc.)?

Which kind of NPCs are you looking for: Mentors, Super Villain, Henchmen, hired hands for the party, support personal, ....?

Ice Dragon wrote: ↑Tue Jul 16, 2024 10:27 am For which setting are you looking for NPCs (Rifts, Heros, Fantasy, etc.)?

Which kind of NPCs are you looking for: Mentors, Super Villain, Henchmen, hired hands for the party, support personal, ....?

I want to try the various RPG's in Palladium. Rifts is of primary interest, though. Also Heroes Unlimited.

Hotrod wrote: ↑Thu May 16, 2024 6:52 pm

Chloe wrote: ↑Thu Apr 18, 2024 12:24 pm I think I want npc's fleshed out more so I understand better what they can and can't do. And whatever gear they might be carrying. And I kinda wanna see what other people are making with their npc's and chars. Im currently trying to run Rifts, but i like alot of the systems. I feel a more complete npc is easier for me to get into the personality of for better role playing. I fear I am making all mine generallically similar and boring.
Also, I'm not good at programming

This right here is *exactly* why I made my disposable NPC generators. Many NPCs are similar, and the developed NPCs I see all over the place in the sourcebooks are almost always exceptional NPCs, usually with highly improbably attribute rolls.

The NPC generators I've made scale up with level, and most offer some variants with additional skill and equipment packages so they're not all generic. You can certainly take these and make an exceptionally powerful NPC by having that otherwise-average NPC be level 15.

I only like to invest the time to roll up NPCs that I plan on using as recurring characters, especially villains.

Those are really detailed. I think I might be able to use them. Thank you.

Prysus wrote: ↑Sun Sep 01, 2024 5:08 pm

Chloe wrote: ↑Sat Apr 13, 2024 10:32 pm Hi everyone,

I'm pretty new to this whole gaming world, and I'm just starting to get my feet wet with creating my own campaigns. I'm disliking all the time it takes to make NPCs!

I was wondering, does anyone have some NPCs that they've created before and wouldn't mind sharing with me?

Feel free to email me pdfs, too.

Thanks so much in advance! I'm excited to see what all of you have!

Greetings and Salutations. Well, for Rifts, there's always the Rifts Game Master Kit with 20 pre-made characters (to be used as NPC is a very valid use):
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product ... master-kit

On my site I have a few random stuff you're welcome to use,(but it's very minimal):
https://www.prysus.com/characters.htm

If you want to start getting into Palladium Fantasy more, I'd recommend the PF NPC Sheet:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product ... -npc-sheet

With Rifts, you can always use the Automated Character Sheet (but you still have to do most of the work, it just helps save time):
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product ... cter-sheet

Hope some of that helps. Farewell and safe journeys.

Thank you.

Just my two cents.... Ive been running games since the 1990s and I dont believe I have ever fully fleshed out a NPC. I have generic stats for thug, soldier, cop.....etc.

I understand the theory behind having a bunch of NPC with skills and such, just not my style.

Hotrod wrote: ↑Sun Apr 14, 2024 11:45 pm As a side note, if you have any type of generic NPCs you'd like me to do up as an NPC generator, please let me know. It's a slow-burn project I plink away on from time to time, but it's still active.

First time in a long while I've ventured back here, trying to get my GM mojo back, and I stumbled onto this. What luck!

First of all, thanks for the work put in on those, I really like the layout! I remember doing something a little rougher, but similar this in the 90s for orc/goblins/kobalds, only with pen and paper alas.

I would love to see PFRPG sheets like those. Goblin, Orcs, Orgres, humans, Wolfen, Coyles. Again, love the work, that's brilliant for a GM. Appreciate you!

Jerell wrote: ↑Mon Dec 30, 2024 11:06 pm

Hotrod wrote: ↑Sun Apr 14, 2024 11:45 pm As a side note, if you have any type of generic NPCs you'd like me to do up as an NPC generator, please let me know. It's a slow-burn project I plink away on from time to time, but it's still active.

First time in a long while I've ventured back here, trying to get my GM mojo back, and I stumbled onto this. What luck!

First of all, thanks for the work put in on those, I really like the layout! I remember doing something a little rougher, but similar this in the 90s for orc/goblins/kobalds, only with pen and paper alas.

I would love to see PFRPG sheets like those. Goblin, Orcs, Orgres, humans, Wolfen, Coyles. Again, love the work, that's brilliant for a GM. Appreciate you!

I have made some PFRPG NPC generators focused on the north for a manuscript project that pittered out a while back: Wolfen soldiers, Coyle mercenaries, Kankoran rangers, and Iceborn raiders. Haven't looked at them in a few years. I'll see if I can dig them up.

Hotrod wrote: ↑Thu Jan 09, 2025 3:33 pm
I have made some PFRPG NPC generators focused on the north for a manuscript project that pittered out a while back: Wolfen soldiers, Coyle mercenaries, Kankoran rangers, and Iceborn raiders. Haven't looked at them in a few years. I'll see if I can dig them up.

Of you come across them, that would be cool! It sounds like it'd be very useful. My humble appreciation to you!

A manuscript you say...?

Yeah, Glen Evans and I wrote something up a while back set in the Northern Wilderness. We put it through a few drafts, and I think there were some neat ideas in there, but it never quite clicked; the central vision/theme of it shifted at several points, and it grew to a point where the manuscript got too unwieldy to keep at it; too many different ideas to make for a single cohesive product. No regrets on it, though; I had a blast working it with Glen, and he has taken some of his really good parts of it and put it into other work that might well see publication.

Please don't interpret any of this as a knock on Glen. He's good people and fun to collaborate with. His insights on my map projects and writing are invaluable. It's just this particular project that didn't pan out.

Anyway, I'll post those PFRPG NPC generators next time I stumble across them.

Not at all. Sounds pretty cool. I'm always interested to hear about how things develope for Palladium fantasy.

I've been wanting to see more Glen Evans work since Bizantiym came out.

Was that your map on the back of Bizantium? Loved it.

Chloe wrote: ↑Sat Aug 31, 2024 3:18 pm

Ice Dragon wrote: ↑Tue Jul 16, 2024 10:27 am For which setting are you looking for NPCs (Rifts, Heros, Fantasy, etc.)?

Which kind of NPCs are you looking for: Mentors, Super Villain, Henchmen, hired hands for the party, support personal, ....?

I want to try the various RPG's in Palladium. Rifts is of primary interest, though. Also Heroes Unlimited.

As a GM I'm creating the NPC and will introduce them to the players according to the setting. For beginners, it will help full to introduce a mentor early into the story, like Obi-Wan in Star Wars Episode IV. That character could die later on to move the characters forward.

It could also be the bar keeper/waitress of the favorite inn of the characters.

Jerell wrote: ↑Thu Jan 16, 2025 11:15 pm Not at all. Sounds pretty cool. I'm always interested to hear about how things develope for Palladium fantasy.

I've been wanting to see more Glen Evans work since Bizantiym came out.

Was that your map on the back of Bizantium? Loved it.

The map on the back was not mine, though he's an acquaintance whose tutorials were enormously helpful to me in making my own style, so I can see how a lot of people think that I made it.

My contribution to the Bizantium map was the interior map showing Bizantium and its colonies. You can find a color version on my DeviantArt page (link in my signature). Note that there was a scaling issue I discovered after the book got published that made the Kiridin territories far larger than they are actually supposed to be in the published map. I felt really bad about this, so I made a corrected color version.