It is a very gm fiat thing as I understand it from the gm kit, mechanically speaking. That is OK, I actually like that.

I just want to know how you guys and gals do it or if you have any tips or suggestions or even would recommend some restrictions?

Do you usually start out with a nemesis adversary as your Base or make it all up yourselves. Do you develop and enhance them with xp or freely? If you go with xp, how do you match it up with your pc's if you start off with a nemesis adversary as base, they all seem to be a different perspective level to begin with? Thanks in advance for any input!

Edit: Should an Inquisitor from f&d be that much better than other nemeses? Are there published nemeses that match them?

Typically, I start with an adversary that is close to what I am looking for, and start adjusting from there.

another (but more complicated) way is to build a pc with a similar amount of xp to the players. then give him some trees that fit his role, and maybe ignore or skip talents that are not needed.

also, the inquisitorius rules from force and destiny are nice for quickly designing a nemesis.

Tweaking existing NPCs is easier for me than creating ones from scratch.

(Conversely, I find it very hard to run adventures someone else has written, and I prefer to develop my own (usually based off of a mixture of my weird imagination, films or books I may have recently enjoyed, and my players' worst fears [that they foolishly speak aloud...] )

I guess I put quite a bit of faith into the "official" statblocks, and I simply eyeball them for how challenging I think it will be for the party. They haven't let me down yet, edited or unedited. I am never quite satisfied with the ones I make myself.

I suppose I have made a few odd Inquisitors, but since that is a specific and rather rigid ruleset, I don't think it counts towards "making my own NPCs"

Half the time I just wing it. Like, "This creature/NPC should have a Brawn of about 4."

For recurring nemesis characters, I usually use the Inquisitor array (5 4 3 3 3 2) and hand out skills and a few talents as fits the character. Other times I create a full up PC, but that's probably just because I love making PC's!

Depends on the situation. If the Adversary in question is going to be a one-shot type, I might just flip through my Adversary cards and pick one that is close enough, and then be done with it. If the Adversary is one that might get re-used a few times, then I might start with an existing spec and make some modifications.

OTOH, what I found is that I can frequently do stuff impromptu and then note down later what choices I made that felt right at the time, and so the actual stats will evolve over time.

But for me, I found that the most important thing was tracking the motivation of the Adversary, and what they would be doing when the players weren’t around, and how they might approach solving the issue when the players do decide to interfere.

From a role-playing perspective, knowing the motivations of the parties in question helps me much more than any stats written down on paper or dreamt of in my head.

But for me, I found that the most important thing was tracking the motivation of the Adversary, and what they would be doing when the players weren’t around, and how they might approach solving the issue when the players do decide to interfere.

From a role-playing perspective, knowing the motivations of the parties in question helps me much more than any stats written down on paper or dreamt of in my head.

^This. I develop their personality, motivations and goals first. Then come the stats. Usually just pick and choose what I think they should have with an eye on their total xp level (thanks Oggdude's Character generator!).

I also tend to save Nemesis characters for VIPs. Rarely do my PCs face a Nemesis for I believe a Nemesis to be a character that is just as integral to the story as the PCs. So most of the time my PCs will face strong Rivals with ranks in Adversary while I save the Nemeses's for those special encounters.

the one Nemesis I have made so far I altered an already existing stat block. I then gave it a unique "charge" ability as it was the bull in a heard of large herbivores.

depends on what I'm needing...

a impereal Officer, General, Moff? I look up in the books and maybe tweaking a little bit to better fit the roll (e.g. like when the story demands that he is a very charming person I'll ram up presence)

a Stormie Cpt ars nemesis for the day taking the Sgt Rival stats put in some more talents and skills (like cool or perception... gosch why are all stormies so low on initiative... )

the smaller in between Inquisitors -> using the rule for fast creation.

The real BBG, the one that dominates the campaign with his evil sheme? -> 100% selfmade, He'll get slightly higer characteristics than the players (as long as hi type allows it... a mad sicentist won't get a highly brawn... but a sith warrior... )

Next step the skills, at least 3-5 Major skills to determin his roll e.g. a fallen Jedi Lighsaber, cool, discipline, perception on 4, a mad sicentist medizin, mechanics, coolness, a wannabee stormi/nazi leader Leadership, ranged(light), coolness, charme/ coercian and so on.

3-4 Special Talents as fitting (the mentioned Leader would have something like improved Field commander, Firecontrol, Coordinated assault and Side step)

If it is a Forcy - determin 2-3 Forcepowers (depending on the skills of the PC - thinks like Enchance for force leap - Supress (when the PC's are heavy force-users) Move +2 Strength/range)

Determin adversary rank: for the BBG it is 3 or (when more than 3 players) equals Number of PC or (for a very epic BBG) PC's +1

last step: Decied if he should have minions as a squad/ meat shield (this can also depend on the situation, what did the players do before and so on)

put it at 180°C for 30 minutes in the oven

and finished is the BBG nemesis

Guten Appetit!

First of all, I look at what that NPC is supposed to do. What is his job, or his function in daily life? Then I pick specializations that combine to match this function, typically from 2 to 4. Then I look at those specs and pick talents from those. I don't follow the lines, I just pick ones that match the flavour of that NPC. Finally I assign stats and skills to match, with skills (at least the ones he/she is good at) being on one of the lists of career skills.

A little from Column A, and a little from Column B.

Sometimes, I just tweak existing adversaries, especially for "mid-level" nemeses, sometimes they're made from scratch.

The way I see it, while the group may have one or more nemesis, characters may, as well. Take, for example, my wife's character - she's got a personal nemesis: the enforcer for the low-level crime boss that she got caught conning.

While there's a long-play subplot (complete with nemesis) percolating in the background of the campaign, any one of the other nemeses - personal or group - could pop up at any moment to cause trouble.How much personal work goes into a nemesis' creation depends in large part on how frequently I anticipate wanting to use that nemesis to go up against the group.

I like the nemesis character rules in the EotE gm kit, but there aren`t that much of mechanical stuff to go on. Sure, there is how you can expand a nemesis using xp or just do it freely as you want.

No problem, fits my game style fine. But when I read The Inquisitorious rules from F&D, I can see that the result will be much more potent and powerful than the nemesis adversaries in my six adversary card decks.

So are the nemesis adversaries meant to mach experienced players, or are the gm meant to make them better or harder for a stronger group of npc`s?

I'd say they should level up with the PCs.

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0581.html

Always good to see another Playgrounder here! I agree that the Haley/Crystal model of Nemesis advancement leaves little to be desired...

This is maybe a tip nobody wants to give but to be very honest:

A lot of the times I steal shamelessly.

I think about what the story need at the point I'm currently writing, sit back, think about which famous historic-, movie-, book-, comic-, or whatever- character would fit that scene, star-wars-ify and anonymisie that character and voilá

Makes it also much easier for me to roleplay a character that occurred a few sessions/month's ago. Remembering the same voice, tone or bearing gets complicated after a year sometimes, but "Sad Wookie Boris Yeltzin" stays with you for some time, same as "Rodian Cartographer Doctor 9" or "Sexy Female Pirate Lord Steve Buscemi". Okay, the last one didn't actually happen , but IF you get that character into your head you will not forget her.

This is one of those things that I'll make sound really long, but is actually the sort of thing you can outline in the time it takes to walk down the hall.

1) Determine the general concept [The NPC that's been hanging with the party is actually the assassin/saboteur they've been hunting]

2) Determine the encounter [While on jungle planet out in jungle with locals; the local lizard folk will expose him accidentally, he'll do something to stir up the lizards to cover his escape, and make a run for a ship he has hidden nearby, will run as a combat/chase]

3) Determine the character role [stealth and deception heavy character, uses poisons and traps to generate controlling effects]

3) Base abilities (Brawn 3, Agility 4, Int 2, Cunning 3, Will 2, Pre 3)

4) Skills (focus on usable ones, Knowledge rarely an issues, he knows what he knows):Stealth 4, Ranged both 2, melee 3, brawling 2, Athletics 3, Coord 3, Deception 4, Charm 2, Skulduggery 2, Vigilance 2, Cool 3, survival 2, mechanics 4, discipline 2.

5) Talents and abilities (these I try and keep to an absolute minimum to avoid forgetting ones) Adversary 2, Stalker 2, Lethal Blows 3, Utility Belt, bad motivator, shortcut 2

6) Generate WT/ST: Start with 13/12 per norm, bump up to 18/15 to increase odds of escape per encounter intent.

7) Gear: Standard gear will be Heavy Blaster pistol, Heavy Clothing, Comlink. Concealed from players: Neurotoxin Vibroblade in shadowsheath, Holdout blaster (the good one), mini tool kit (counts as "right tools for job" for most of the skulduggery/mechanics checks he'd make, Enc 1, 1 setback to detect on search, does not count as a full on toolkit).

8) Mission specific gear (this is gear the character will have specific to the encounter and conditions I'm planning) Blaster rifle, survival knife, backpack, anything else the players issue him before disembarking the ship.

After that, review and correct, and add any additional odds and ends you think the character is missing.

Whole idea is just like a major or secondary character in a movie this guy is supposed to do something specific to push the plot forward. In this case: escape to lead the players deeper into the sector they are exploring while also triggering a characters motivation, and souring a relationship with some locals to prevent backtracking. To that end he's specifically be given stats, gear and talents toward accomplishing function.

That's kinda the real deal with making most NPCs to me: Figure out their function both generally, and within the encounter, and then build to that. When you look at stock NPCs you'll often see a similar trend. Like how all Stormtroopers have extra reloads to ensure they never run out of ammo, which supports their purpose as assault troops.

I generally eyeball it, based on how tough the PCs are and how tough I want the encounter to be. There's no set formula for me.

That said, I did create a PDF for making a Bounty Hunter Nemesis for your PCs, based on the Inquisitor guidelines in Force and Destiny .

- Tenacious Bounty Hunters

Call me silly, but I don't actually stat my nemeses until I set the time and place they will encounter the PCs. I work more with motivations and plans and let their mooks be blaster targets. Additionally, I'm using the term "nemesis" as the BBEG, not "Nemesis," the classification of baddy in this system that denotes a real baddy. It does follow that the former would belong to the latter's classification, but I can see where the reverse would not be true.

In my EotE campaign, wherein I learned the value of not over-prepping, I started by over-prepping my nemesis (okay, nemeses, but don't tell THEM!) by building the character as a PC, and I gave it 100 extra XP and pretty much whatever equipment I wanted, then granted him XP when the players received XP. The PCs only actually fought him once, in the "season finale," after 1.5 IRL years of chasing him down, and even then only when the PCs were smart enough to evade a well-planned trap by said Nemesis.

Out of all that prep and maintenance, I rolled dice for this NPC fewer than a dozen times, and now he's dead. So in my mind, a Nemesis is best played abstractly until the very last moments. This way, a nemesis can develop outside the structure of rules and using the PCs' flaws and weaknesses as guideposts for when the time comes to put the numbers in the boxes. Now, I don't build my nemeses specifically to counter PC strengths outright, but if they frequently exhibit characteristics that a smart NPC in-game analysis might yield weakness, I have something to work with. Mindgames wherein you leverage the players' fears and weaknesses in addition to their character's can be rewarding and very fun, if done tastefully.

I like to design my nemesis as foils to the PC's usually to one specific pc or sometimes to a group with a solid cohesive concept. If the characters are making their way as merchants dealing mostly in legal goods and shipping some illegals the nemesis can start as a black sun character who is working against the group to keep illegal contracts for himself and his group.

If one of the characters is a true aim junky with specs of sharp shooter and ace gunner maybe the nemesis would be a scoundrel/gambler with cloaking and holo copy tech who out presences the character or who acts as an antagonist in a core world area where heavy weapons are not permitted.

Prey on weakness, play on rivalry, let the pc clones be the rivals your nemsis hires (eg rival sharpshooter for a sharpshooter). Fight fire with water play on the unexpected. Link your nemesis to your heroes in a way that they cannot be disposed of easily without serious reprecussions. Make it personal. Force the players to fight on your nemesis's terms or expend a ton of resources and creativity to draw him out onto their terms.

A Nemesis fight should feel entirely cinematic and get the characters invested personally in the battle. You should use foreshadowing, have other characters talk about the nemesis or be scared of him/her. Have the nemesis kidnap loved ones, bribe or threaten trusted friends into betraying the PCs. Get into the players heads and create something scary.

Mechanically you want to create a villian that can fulfil his purpose in the story. Usually this means durability, grand entrances and escapes a field of well picked rivals and minions and an enviorment condusive to the villians side and that offers oppertunities for non combat players to play an important role.

On of my recent adventure writeups has the players fighting the nemesis in a room filling with poison gas all of the enemies are wearing breathing devices and the tech minded character has to shut off the poison before everyone dies.

Statwise Is much less important just pick whatever you'd like that makes sense for what you want the nemesis to do. Give him whatever gear you want knowing that your players will get it if they win.

90% of the time you should be using rivals nemesis are really reserved for those nifty reoccuring villians

Call me silly...

SILLY!!

(I do agree with you though. I rarely put hard stats to an NPC unless I need to.)

You know your players weakness... Exploit them judiciously. If you can get them alone with their big bad guy and make them the fly in the spiders Web.

Call me silly...

SILLY!!

(I do agree with you though. I rarely put hard stats to an NPC unless I need to.)

It's a hard-learned lesson on my part. Now I take Johnn Four's "3-line NPC" to heart and roll with that.

I don't stat out my bbeg or any adversary before I need to either. I don't even use stats for non-planed combats all of the times, just rp, handwave or single skill check... I'm asking now because its about time I need to state this nemesis... Silly

I don't stat out my bbeg or any adversary before I need to either. I don't even use stats for non-planed combats all of the times, just rp, handwave or single skill check... I'm asking now because its about time I need to state this nemesis... Silly

I try to be a little more committed than a handwave on repeat NPCs, but I'm there with you. I would say stat the very minimum you think you'll need and make a judgement call if you end up rolling skills outside your block. However, Talents are a little harder to foresee.

Fools Fortune/Insane Agreement players(på Kanten av Kollen-gutta), don`t check this link!... The rest of you, does this nemesis look fair to you? the PC`s all have about 275 earned xp each.