I have had some really helpful and thoughtful responses on this thread , looking for some input on how people create their chars, but as someone GMing and playing (in different campaigns) I'm very curious as to how you go about creating NPC's. Not talking about backstory, really about how to decide what skills and talents to give them, and how to go about the actual creation. I have seen OggDude's tool, but do you create the NPC as a char, then modify them in the "Adversary" section later?

All responses appreciated, sorry for all the questions recently.

Inquisitive Monkey

Depends on the type of NPC, honestly.

For Minions, I keep them pretty straightforward. I keep their soak and wound low enough that they typically go down in 1-3 hits (depending on how persistent I want them to be). I keep most of their stats at 1s or 2s, only bumping a combat-relevant stat to a 3 if I want them to be semi-challenging. Then I give them one or two group skills that might pop up in combat.

For Rivals, I typically give them soak and wound comparable to the average of my party members, or slightly above the average if I want them to be a challenge. I'll give them one stat at a 4, and one or two 3s, depending in what I feel is appropriate. I'll give them a couple relevant skills outside of just combat skills, but seldom more than two ranks of any skill, aside from their main combat skill, where I give three ranks, typically.

For Nemesis characters, I usually either build them in a similar manner to how Force and Destiny builds Inquisitors (this is pretty quick) or I build them as PCs with two to three times the XP of the party. Four times if I want a major challenge.

20 hours ago, Underachiever599 said:

For Minions, I keep them pretty straightforward. I keep their soak and wound low enough that they typically go down in 1-3 hits (depending on how persistent I want them to be). I keep most of their stats at 1s or 2s, only bumping a combat-relevant stat to a 3 if I want them to be semi-challenging. Then I give them one or two group skills that might pop up in combat.

perfect, thank you. how do you decide on which skills to give them for combat?

20 hours ago, Underachiever599 said:

For Rivals, I typically give them soak and wound comparable to the average of my party members, or slightly above the average if I want them to be a challenge. I'll give them one stat at a 4, and one or two 3s, depending in what I feel is appropriate. I'll give them a couple relevant skills outside of just combat skills, but seldom more than two ranks of any skill, aside from their main combat skill, where I give three ranks, typically.

Excellent. This really helps. Again, as with Minions, how do you decide on which skills to give them?

20 hours ago, Underachiever599 said:

For Nemesis characters, I usually either build them in a similar manner to how Force and Destiny builds Inquisitors (this is pretty quick) or I build them as PCs with two to three times the XP of the party. Four times if I want a major challenge.

I have the F&D CBR but haven't even cracked it open (as our campaign is so EotE/AoR heavy) so I will go back and check that out. Building them with 2-3 x the party's XP makes total sense.

I have pretty much all of the adversary cards, I have just been modifying those to my needs (and they are AWESOME for that) but this was very helpful in getting me started in creating my own Big Bads.

Thanks again, any other feedback is very welcome

1 hour ago, MonkeyInSpace said:

perfect, thank you. how do you decide on which skills to give them for combat?

Excellent. This really helps. Again, as with Minions, how do you decide on which skills to give them?

I have the F&D CBR but haven't even cracked it open (as our campaign is so EotE/AoR heavy) so I will go back and check that out. Building them with 2-3 x the party's XP makes total sense.

I have pretty much all of the adversary cards, I have just been modifying those to my needs (and they are AWESOME for that) but this was very helpful in getting me started in creating my own Big Bads.

Thanks again, any other feedback is very welcome

For minions, I typically just give them the main combat skill they will be using as a group skill. For example, if the minions use a blaster rifle, I'll give them Ranged (Heavy). If it's a group of thugs with crow bars, I'd give them Melee as a group skill instead.

I do the same kind of thing with rivals, giving them two or three ranks of their main combat skill. Usually Ranged (Light) or Ranged (Heavy). I also typically give them a secondary weapon, and two ranks in that skill as well. So, for example, I might make an enforcer-type rival who uses a suped up blaster rifle of some sort, but he also has a heavy duty blaster pistol in case he gets disarmed of the rifle. I also give rivals a rank or two of vigilance or cool, and other skills that might be relevant for the setting that the players find them in. So, for example, if said enforcer-type character from before were stationed on a harsh planet like Tatooine, I'd give him a couple ranks of Resilience.

I'd strongly recommend looking through the Inquisitor section in the F&D CBR. It's got some great information on how to quickly build a powerful Nemesis to fight your party. In general, I like reading through as many sources as I can, regardless of whether or not they seem like they're a fit for my campaign. I usually end up finding two or three things in each book that's perfect for my game, even if the book itself is out of theme.

I'm happy I've been able to help out! Hopefully my advice comes in handy

I use much the same method as Underachiever599. When it comes to picking skills, it entirely depends on what the NPC in question does, both in the universe, and in the story.

For instance: I want some "extras" for a brawl, I might make a group of laborers (Brawn 3, all others 2; group skills athletics and brawl; Soak 4, WT 4), a group of street toughs (Agility 3, Cunning 3, all others 2; group skills melee, perception, ranged (light), streetwise; Soak 3; WT 5), and a group of mechanics (Brawn 3, Intellect 3, all others 2; group skills Brawl, Computers, Mechanics; Soak 5, WT 5). Depending on the circumstances, I would have all of them have 3 NPCs per group and no relevant equipment (everyone uses broken bottles, chairs, thrown ashtrays, etc); I would up that to 4 NPCs in each with the street toughs armed with vibroblades and light blaster pistols and the mechanics wielding tools if I wanted the fight to be gruesome -- or if I wanted to drive home that the world in question was lawless and dangerous.

If you're really stuck for skills, look to the closest career specialization tree. Give the minions those four skills. If one seems inappropriate, delete it or swap it with something that makes more sense.

Don't forget to give your NPCs some cool talents!

For a Nemesis, I'll often just say that the NPC has all the talents from one or two specialization trees (eg, this dark Jedi has all the Shien Expert talents). You also want to give important NPCs strong defensive talents so they don't go down too fast. Adversary is a good start, but Coordination Dodge, Durable, Enduring, Sixth Sense, Defensive Training... these are all really useful for nemeses or important rivals.

I like Johnn Four's "3 Line NPC" and I use that for every NPC I create. Every NPC has a name, and those three criteria. Seems like the bare minimum requirement to play the part. If it's just some random NPC I often take one of the Adversary Cards and just paint over the existing description.

If the NPC warrants more attention, I'll still do the 3 lines but I might add some story. I try to keep it minimal, bullet points really, so that I can refresh my memory while we play without having to read 3 paragraphs of my excellent prose. I definitely do not constrain my builds to the same rules PCs must follow and I am happy to throw Talents and Skills around to make things interesting. Often an NPC of this magnitude is meant to be a foil for the PCs, so I will often try to build NPCs that will nullify over-used Talents and weapons so that I can have more interesting challenges. I don't flat out go for foiling the PC's hard-earned goodies, but I do like to mix things up if we start to fall into a less-than-fun pattern.