Creating NPCs

By jwalser3, in Zombie Apocalypse

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Still pretty new to this whole GM scene. Can someone give me pointers on how to create NPCs for this game. Like what would be their features, stats, equipment, and ideas for special abilities.

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Well, use the ones from the book as guidance and then your creative brain for the specifics.

Exactly what kind of NPCs? Like plot characters, plug-n-play mooks, other creatures? The only limit is your imagination/ability to conceptualize what you need to do.

I'm mostly done with my my Last of Us-styled zombies, so when I get home in a few hours I'll put em up and linky here.

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I would recommend you keep the stats very average for most NPCs, just with maybe one stat higher to represent the thing that they are best at. There are usually at least 2 positive features and 1 negative feature. Beyond that, just like emsquared says it is pretty much up to you.

If you posted what kinda NPCs you wanted to make I could post a few ideas / examples. Were you going to use one of the scenarios in the book?

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I would recommend you keep the stats very average for most NPCs, just with maybe one stat higher to represent the thing that they are best at. There are usually at least 2 positive features and 1 negative feature. Beyond that, just like emsquared says it is pretty much up to you.

If you posted what kinda NPCs you wanted to make I could post a few ideas / examples. Were you going to use one of the scenarios in the book?

Hoenstly anything you could think of. From Cyborgs, to giant snakes, to minigun wielding super dogs. The system seems loose enough to add just about anything.

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If you understand the mechanics well enough, you should be able to translate anything you can conceptualize roughly into an NPC. If they're super-human they're not gonna be balanced with regards to a human... here I made this in about 2 minutes. What specifically are you finding challenging about the process?

Vampire

DEX – 5, VIT – 5, LOG – 3, WIL – 5, CHA – 4, EMP – 2

Posi.Feat. Phys- Super Speed, Super Strength Ment- 1,000 Years of Un-life, Studied Under DaVinci Soci- Hypnotic Gaze

Neg.Feat. Phys- Burns in the Sun, Repulsed by the Crucifix Ment- I Must Feed Soci- Palor of Death

Def 2-Physical Stress

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If you understand the mechanics well enough, you should be able to translate anything you can conceptualize roughly into an NPC. If they're super-human they're not gonna be balanced with regards to a human... here I made this in about 2 minutes. What specifically are you finding challenging about the process?

Vampire

DEX – 5, VIT – 5, LOG – 3, WIL – 5, CHA – 4, EMP – 2

Posi.Feat. Phys- Super Speed, Super Strength Ment- 1,000 Years of Un-life, Studied Under DaVinci Soci- Hypnotic Gaze

Neg.Feat. Phys- Burns in the Sun, Repulsed by the Crucifix Ment- I Must Feed Soci- Palor of Death

Def 2-Physical Stress

I'm glad I was on the right track. I mean those a pretty high for just a Vampire though. My Dracula stats are very similar. Do you think 6s for Dex and Vit would be too much? I know the horrifying abomination has that much damage.

Also, why did you add more for Willpower, just curious?

Then this brings me to another problem. Like what are some good tips for abilities. Like in "Under the Skin" a lot of NPCs have a bunch of bonus text.

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Fact is there's just not a whole lot of granularity to this game (for instance, no stat can go over 5, because that would mean you could never fail - so no 6 STR/DEX for Dracula, instead you have to add Features to represent that above and beyond), so if anything is at the peak of or above the normal human range I'm gonna stat it a 5.

When thinking of WIL strictly as mental defense (as opposed to say, resisting drinking blood), I think vampires are pretty classically considered to be mentally resilient, dropping it to a 4 wouldn't be out of line though either. Again, just whipped those up without much thought.

The abilities is kind of where I was getting hung up with my creatures. Not coming up with them, conceptualizing the ability just requires understanding of your subject and how that translates into the system, but where to draw the line between Feature and ability or characteristic.

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For special abilities I would say to keep it to this formula: "When the NPC does ____ ; _____ happens if a PCs doesn't pass a test in a certain category."

so for example:

"When a basilisk successfully bites a character the character turns to stone unless they can make a Vitality save."

As for Dracula having 6s that will mean he can't fail, since on a d6 he wont roll over his stat (unless of course his dice are cancelled). I just wanted to point that out, it may be what you are going for, particularly since Dracula would probably be much stronger than a human.

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Or you could do like a few other games...

If you roll a 6 it is still a fail, but you get to reroll it once if your stat is 6, on a 6 it still fails. So you have to roll two 6s to fail.

Make sense?

I also like Vinge's ability formula. Its basically what it is in the book. "If a zombie causes a player physical stress, roll a dice, on a 1 they get infected from a bite" that sort of thing.

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I'm jut letting it be said that I wasn't actually going to max him out. Just saying an NPC like that already exists in the book.

How about this kind of ability:

"Children of the Night" : Dracula preform a charisma test, if successful, one(1) Feral Vampire will spawn to aid him.

Does charisma sound like an appropriate one? He's their master so they should always come but then he could spam it.

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How about "If there is a dead body nearby" then Dracula can summon a Feral Vampire? Or maybe instead of dead, a dying NPC, or something. I dont know vampire lore like I know zombie lore....

Or do you mean that he just summons them from wherever they are to come to his aid? Which could work too.

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I mean if say, they're fighting on the roof of a castle, one will climb their way to the top. Or something like that, but raising the dead would be cool.