Character Sorting Systems are systems that can categorize characters in terms of personality. They range from simple (Hogwarts Housing) to complex (SBURB classpects).

As a game designer, as a player, as a DM, as a worldbuilder, have you ever considered using a character sorting system to easily make NPCs and PCs, and perhaps even their powersets?

I've sorted characters by general power archetype (e.g., speedster, powerhouse, shapeshifter, etc.) in a Mutants & Masterminds game. Is this what you're asking?

No, unless it also sorts them by personality. In the Classpect system, a character sorting system, Aspect is base personality traits and what you do, Class is how you do it and how those traits are expressed.

Let's give an example. A Thief (class) struggles with wanting more and more of their Aspect to the detriment of others. Those bound to Time are detail-oriented and fatalistic people. Time is associated with inevitability, destruction, and fate. Therefore, a Thief of Time is a fatalistic person who wants more destruction, inevitability, fate, and literal time in their life. In terms of powers, the Thief of Time can steal those things. They can literally steal 50 years from your lifespan. They can steal the small details from the narrative, thus turning the story into broad strokes.

Honestly? I don't have enough ongoing NPCs at any one time when I run to make such a system necessary.

The couple of settings where I do have that many NPCs, it was the result of natural aggregation as groups of surviving PCs were retired to NPC status and a new campaign set in the same world and home city started. Do that for over 20 years across probably a dozen campaigns and you get a super rich tapestry where the need for me to create many brand new NPCs is pretty minimal.

Also trying to sort them would be fairly meaningless as their existence as PCs for campaigns that stretched 30-60 bi-weekly sessions made them far more nuanced than anything a sorting system could produce.

It didn't hurt that the first campaign run was at college with a near-LARP level of PCs (approx 12-15 at its height) the first time through which resulted in about 10* solid and well rounded (48 sessions) NPCs to build upon for the next campaign when I got home, then an average of 4-6 new NPCs adding layers each time.

At this point I barely need to prep anything beyond making sure my "conspiracy flowchart" (essentially a map of all the NPCs (and their goals) with lines to others where they align (rare) or conflict (common)) is up to date. Whatever the players want to do will result in natural allies and enemies and opportunities on the chart and eventually their particulars will end up added to the chart (while older ones that were permanently dealt with in some fashion get removed).

* the campaigns were low-combat exploration and interaction Urban Fantasy (Mage the Ascension) so the odds of survival (though not always success) to a logical stopping point were pretty good.

Quote from: Chris24601 on April 18, 2025, 10:51:09 PMHonestly? I don't have enough ongoing NPCs at any one time when I run to make such a system necessary.

The couple of settings where I do have that many NPCs, it was the result of natural aggregation as groups of surviving PCs were retired to NPC status and a new campaign set in the same world and home city started. Do that for over 20 years across probably a dozen campaigns and you get a super rich tapestry where the need for me to create many brand new NPCs is pretty minimal.

Also trying to sort them would be fairly meaningless as their existence as PCs for campaigns that stretched 30-60 bi-weekly sessions made them far more nuanced than anything a sorting system could produce.

It didn't hurt that the first campaign run was at college with a near-LARP level of PCs (approx 12-15 at its height) the first time through which resulted in about 10* solid and well rounded (48 sessions) NPCs to build upon for the next campaign when I got home, then an average of 4-6 new NPCs adding layers each time.

At this point I barely need to prep anything beyond making sure my "conspiracy flowchart" (essentially a map of all the NPCs (and their goals) with lines to others where they align (rare) or conflict (common)) is up to date. Whatever the players want to do will result in natural allies and enemies and opportunities on the chart and eventually their particulars will end up added to the chart (while older ones that were permanently dealt with in some fashion get removed).

* the campaigns were low-combat exploration and interaction Urban Fantasy (Mage the Ascension) so the odds of survival (though not always success) to a logical stopping point were pretty good.

Fair enough, especially the point about too much nuance for the sorting system. I think the best sorting system is the classpect system, where it gives you powers based on your personality and such, but even then, It has some problems. It doesn't map neatly to non-Homestuck characters, and it assumes you're a child going through development. It can't be used for real life people. At all.

I don't know how to make a nuanced non-character sorting system to determine powers based off of personality yet without being too soft.

EDIT: OH MY FUCKING GOD I JUST REALIZED HOW TO