How much do you work on your campaign's NPCs?

Do you create a detailed background for all the major ones, or do you more or less make them up as you go?

A little of both. I make up the major NPCs and then immediately throw them out the window after the PCs kill them, travel to a different part of the world, or otherwise do something I didn't expect.

You've seen the NPC section of In Harm's Way, Jong. I do it like that.

-clash

Quote from: flyingmiceYou've seen the NPC section of In Harm's Way, Jong. I do it like that.

subtext: If you haven't read my book, then fuckoff, you don't deserve to know.

To my recollection, every time I've super-detailed an NPC with the intent of wow-ing the players, it's fallen flat or the PCs kill 'em off.  On the other hand, some of the most memorable NPCs that the players truly enjoyed and even cherished were just names that I came up with off the top of my hat and for which I eventually provided stats as the game progressed.

!i!

Depends on how creative I'm feeling like being, and how late at night it is whem I'm doing it.  Seriously, if I'm doing this in bed, I tend to detail stuff more.

Doing more work than I'll need is never so bad, because I can reuse scraps later.

I'll give a few paragraphs to the major NPCs the PCs will be in conflict with.  That gives me a better grasp of their motives, weaknesses and MO.

For NPCs who serve only minor functions (say, 80% of them) I only need a couple sentences and a quote or two.

Here's an example from my WFRP campaign document:

Max Stroud the Elder, gunsmith, 32.
   Max inherited the business from his father, Skald.  Five generations of Stroud men have tended the firearms of fighting men in Kalder, and Max is well loved by his regular customers.  A freak discharge while test-firing a blunderbuss robbed him of his right eye; ever since then he has let his boy handle the talking side of the business.  Max is a private man who rarely shows his emotions around any but his relations.  Those close to him treasure his warmth and kind nature.
   "Talk to the boy."


While the PCs may only encounter Max when they need a handgun, I like having a hint of his relationship to the community and his family.  You never know what your players might want to know more of.

Some might argue that having detailed NPCs open your campaign up to railroading.  I say it doesn't so long as you don't let yourself get invested in your NPCs.  Max up there is a nice guy and all, but if the NPCs want to frame him for heresy, turn him in to the Witch Hunter and burn him alive for the sake of making an alliance with said Hunter, then that's alright by me.  Max's backstory just gives me something to riff off of after he gets to burning.

The most memorable NPC I ever had spawned an entire campaign but started out as a nameless denizen of a random "learn to play the game" dungeon.

I strive to make all the major NPCs as detailed as any PC (if not more so), in the interest of internal consistency. I also keep a small index of more generic minor characters that might come up during the game and customized to fit the occasion. One nice thing about Nobilis is that the dramatis personae ending up indiscriminately slaughtered by the players isn't much of a problem, since everyone knows that kind of behaviour will only lead to murder charges in the Locust Court.

I detail ALOT about my major NPCs... not because I really need to, just because it's my hobby and I enjoy putting in the time and effort.

Then the PCs latch on to minor NPCs... and I end up having to detail those too.

Quote from: Nicephorussubtext: If you haven't read my book, then fuckoff, you don't deserve to know.

Actually, it's a whole chapter on NPCs, kind of hard to summarize, but here goes:

I There are three major types of NPCs
 A People to shoot and be shot by
    i Pregenerate a list of likely opponents with ranges of applicable skils/abilities to select and drop in as needed.
 B Chance-met NPCs initially planned as window dressing who suddenly become important
    i Select or roll randomly from a list of quick and dirty personalities and relevant skills to create an Instant Character
      a Some Instant Characters fade away - let them fade
      b Some Instant Characters become central - let them become Temporary NPCs
    ii Select or roll randomly from lists of quick and dirty personalities & relevant skills if not done already, and add selections/rolls from NPC Missions, Objects of Missions, more relevant skills, and more non-relevant skills.
  C Purpose Built NPCs are initially planned as important. Create them like a normal character, building in the drives and conflicts a normal player character has.

Thus if I decide on the spur of the moment that the Spanish have sent out a small detatchment of marines to invstigate reports of suspicious activity on the coast near Las Palmas, I can do so instantly, drawing on the generic marines already created. If their Lieutenant is captured by the PCs, in a few minutes I have an Instant Character for them to question. If the PCs decide to take him with them, perhaps to exchange later, I can in a couple of minutes have Temporary NPC with a full set of skills, reasons for being, and internal drives. Nothing slows up the play - most of the time, my players have no clue that I'm creating the character on the spot. This vastly shortens time in prep, because I only have to worry about the really major figures before play, as the lesser ones are created on the fly as needed.

That's poorly presented, but I'm dashing this off on a forum, so hey!

-clash

-clash

Quote from: JongWKHow much do you work on your campaign's NPCs?

Not enough.

QuoteDo you create a detailed background for all the major ones, or do you more or less make them up as you go?

When I do have a detailed background, it's usually been a case of a short duration NPC that has gradually grown and grown.

"A villainous sorcereress conspiring with the drow" in one adventure who I expected would be killed in short order eventually became a major obstacle for the party with a detailed backstory. Her reasons for doing what she was doing were fleshed out, and some major plot twists were inserted (she turned out to be an evil mirror double of a good NPC, and the players ran afoul freinds who knew her who were convinced that the PCs were unjustly persecuting her.)

Even her final demise was somewhat... open ended (she was judged at, and reincarnated as a servant of, the Courts of Thunder.) It was much more exiting that someone who just heckled the party and eventually got hacked into bits.

Side note:

Two of the best takes I have seen on detailing NPCs:

1) Ray Winniger's Dungeoncraft articles in dragon (didn't John Kim archive those somewhere?)
2) The seven sentence NPC article in Dragon from years ago.

Those took the arcane art of crafting NPCs and made it much easier for me.

I kinda liked T:NE's idea of generating a NPC's motivations with ordinary playing cards. Surprisingly versatile. Not that I' currently using it. As my last two campaigns were run using D&D3, I've probably spent more time detailling their equipment than their background stories.

Not that they didn't have backgrounds, but usually only in very broad strokes. The fine details come during play and I almost always forget to write them down. Trains your memory, though...

I'll generally develop as I go.  When I first introduce them they basically have a general concept.  If the players like them and react well to them, then I'll give them some more thought and detail.