So, I'm doing an apocalyptic campaign using D&D5 - along the lines of The Walking Dead, except that instead of zombies, there is a plague of dragons that are coming to completely dominate the surface world. The PCs are going to be part of a largish (but decreasing) group of survivors who start out as normal things like bakers, tailors, and farmers.

I'd like it if in addition to personalities, they had some distinctive abilities as well, rather than all just being identical drones.  Also, some of these will over time grow into more experienced veteran survivors - in keeping with the genre.

Anyone have experience or suggestions for this?

I'm considering coming up with something like NPC classes.

Backgrounds, skill proficiencies, and tool proficiencied can go a long way for this. Yty to avoid "NPC classes" as it is often a needless time sink in tooling out.

Chapter 4 of the 5e DMG has some useful tables and tules for how to handle non-classed NPCs.

Watch the movie Reign of Fire if you haven't already.  Also take a look at the DCC RPG's character funnel - as Omega says, you can do a lot with backgrounds and skills.  In most cases, a single skill proficiency is enough to represent a character's background.

I'd also recommend steering clear of too many special abilities, especially when the characters are just starting out.  They really don't need special abilities to be special - it's the players' roleplaying that makes them special.  IME, you don't even need to push this.  I've run DCC character funnels a few times, and I always start out with a pile of randomly-generated level 0 peasants (with 3-4 per player).  By the end of the first session, many of the starting characters are dead, and all of the survivors have started to develop distinctive personalities because of in-game events.

In WFRP2, I used to give each PC one additional skill or talent outside of any normal chargen progress as a personal quirk (yeah I know, I'm a wuss GM). Don't know how that could be used in D&D though.

Although the first time I read the Backgrounds section on PHB, my first reaction was that for the first time I could be persuaded to play 0-level character, with just racial and background abilities. So perhaps it would be enough to let the PC:s to design their own backgrounds, and leave it at that. Or maybe let them choose a Background and Feat?

Quote from: Ddogwood;863747Watch the movie Reign of Fire if you haven't already.  Also take a look at the DCC RPG's character funnel - as Omega says, you can do a lot with backgrounds and skills.  In most cases, a single skill proficiency is enough to represent a character's background.

I'd also recommend steering clear of too many special abilities, especially when the characters are just starting out.  They really don't need special abilities to be special - it's the players' roleplaying that makes them special.  IME, you don't even need to push this.  I've run DCC character funnels a few times, and I always start out with a pile of randomly-generated level 0 peasants (with 3-4 per player).  By the end of the first session, many of the starting characters are dead, and all of the survivors have started to develop distinctive personalities because of in-game events.

Yup, watched Reign of Fire. Not directly applicable, but gave some inspiration.

The players are all making 2-3 characters (all first level) for a bit of a funnel. I also have a pool of NPCs who are there as the band of survivors they are a part of. Some of them could potentially be turned into PCs as well, but that's not their primary purpose.

One thing I'd like to try for is for players to remember who everyone is in the fights. To that end, it might help if there were slightly distinct features for the NPCs in a fight, besides their primary skill. Maybe one is a little fast - one is a little slow, etc.

If they're predominantly human NPCs, they could take the 'extra feat' racial option, in which case those would differentiate them somewhat. Potentially you could somehow randomly allocated their feats rather than choosing.

Alternatively, D&D editions are always fairly different from each other but still, you could probably adapt something from (say) Pathfinder's traits that would be useful.

Would something like this be useful? D100 NPC characteristics

I use the Alexandrian's NPC "cheat-sheet" format, along with random generators for quirks, etc.

http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/37916/roleplaying-games/universal-npc-roleplaying-template

First, Justin's primer (The Alexandrian, as cited above) is a great start. You need the "role" of the NPC first, as in looks and attitude and situation context so you can flesh and breathe them fast in the middle of play. The stat widgets can wait a bit. That's just good advice regardless of system.

Second, Index Cards. Beautiful invention, especially when ruled for legible writing. Also dramatic when you rip up the card during death, as apropo to apocalyptic survival genre.

Third, boil the essentials of 5e stats. Keep it lean, yet functional; prioritize a notable advantage or two. I say things like: Skill, Tool, Language, Stat Mod, Special Gear/Feature/Feat. Always keep the Hit Points and Hit Dice, just to keep the tension about.

I have no idea what classes your using for NPCs, or patterning off of MM  commoners. Derivating the HD from the MM entry isn't hard, though. Keep it short & sweet (or stupid simple).

i.e. "Torch Boy Teen"
Bio: Dad eaten by dragonborn while they were out together collecting firewood, fled in horror. Idolizes big, strong, men; tries to ape them surrepticiously.
HD d6 (aspiring to d10 fighter). HP 7.
CON +1. Spec.: Always a Torch Ready - retains 10x torches with tinderbox regularly.