I'm about to start our first game, and I'm surprised at the lack of NPCs and villains in the game. I get that you can modify what's in the back of the book, but that feels haphazard at best, as there's no rubric for what makes a good NPC for a specific rank.

Does anyone know of a good resource for finding lists of NPCs? Is there a "bestiary" planned of a bunch of various NPCs? I have all the books so far, and hunting through them is tiresome (and I have yet to find a Shinobi, that I'm aware of).

Or, barring a good resource list, does anyone have advice for making simple NPCs on the fly?

12 minutes ago, RMDanks said:

Or, barring a good resource list, does anyone have advice for making simple NPCs on the fly?

During game prep: update existing ones. It's a fair bit of work, especially if you're not familiar with the mechanics of previous editions, but it's a good starting point. The Heroes of Rokugan modules ( https://kazenoshiro63445525.wordpress.com/content-archive/ ) have a bunch.

On the fly, as in "need something right now"? Look at the PCs in your campaign, pick the one closest to what you need, and change whatever you think is appropriate while keeping parity. Take what the character doesn't want away and turn it into xp, then spend that xp again on what the character does want - preferably skill for skill, ring for ring, tech for tech.

Shinobi NPCs are in my opinion not often all that useful; I assume that's why you won't find a lot of existing examples. There shouldn't be a lot of them in the first place, and if they're known then they arguably aren't very good at their supposed job. So, just a suggestion, but instead of thinking about what an NPC shinobi would look like mechanically maybe just think about what you'd use one for. Anything they do that happens outside a scene doesn't need stats or mechanics. It doesn't even need an explanation of how it could be done - it gets done and that's it. The only things about an NPC build that matter are the ones PCs might interact with. It's up to you of course, but I wouldn't sweat it too much in terms of creating a fully detailed shinobi. If he's going to possibly have to fight the PCs, make sure he has combat stats. If he might need to evade them, give him evasion stats. If he is potentially going to do some backstabbing, give him some stabby tech. Other things likely don't matter a whole lot. It's like creating a daimyo the PCs are going to negotiate with: maybe he used to be a famous warrior before becoming more of an administrator and you could give him combat techs and whatnot, but if they're never going to come up you can just leave those unspecified and spend that time on other things.

Thanks for the advice.

I have only played 1e of L5R. Other than that, I’m used to games like Fate or PbtA, where NPCs can be nothing more than a number to add to a roll (or even less substantial), or D&D, where you have 1,000,011 star blocks to choose from on the fly.

I don’t normally spend a lot of time in prep.

Just now, RMDanks said:

Thanks for the advice.

I have only played 1e of L5R. Other than that, I’m used to games like Fate or PbtA, where NPCs can be nothing more than a number to add to a roll (or even less substantial), or D&D, where you have 1,000,011 star blocks to choose from on the fly.

I don’t normally spend a lot of time in prep.

Then keep doing what you're doing.

So, looking at it, the human NPCs already in core are a pretty good rough guideline for about 90% of the people you will run into in Rokugan. You have typical peasants and ashigaru, you have multiple bandits and ronin, you have the three samurai archetypes and then a high ranking samurai suitable for a Lord or something. Like Nameless Ronin says, you shouldn't exactly bump into a shinobi on a lark, and unless you go out of your write it that way nobody will be fighting like 50 guys in black pajamas as they invade the castle.

If a shinobi appears disguised as someone else, that's a pretty good call for a template. Shouldn't require too much prep - you can either play it out of the book if you can remember the changes (might require some flipping) or maybe just take a little note card down to what the template affects (Trickster probably best since it can add Ninjutsu). Or, if you're looking for a more specific type of character, find a similar example NPC and knock the serial numbers off. In Emerald Empire and the adventures there are a few NPCs who have special abilities in a particular focus, if you like the stats no reason not to use them as whatever you need.

That’s what I did for today. I used Seasoned Courtier with the Trickster template, using Deadly Sting.

then I made his yojimbo a Loyal Bisho Trickster with Skulk.

In the Palace of the Emerald Champion has an assassin in it who is a bit shinobi-esque, with a very high air ring and an ability to fling shuriken mid-attack at other targets using opportunities.

I want an npc book that makes it easy to create npc, with guidelines, all demeanors in one place, all abilities etc. Or adversary cards (never thought I'd say that).

Adversary cards would be nice. Just use the art from the LCG.

I'm sure they'll eventually do the decks for L5R, they probably just need a few more stat lines to balance it out besides just "buy all the same stats you already have in our core book you need to buy to play". Decks are about 20 cards, and right now there's only like 9-10 of each NPC in any given category.

On 2/27/2019 at 11:05 AM, UnitOmega said:

I'm sure they'll eventually do the decks for L5R, they probably just need a few more stat lines to balance it out besides just "buy all the same stats you already have in our core book you need to buy to play". Decks are about 20 cards, and right now there's only like 9-10 of each NPC in any given category.

There are role modifiers, so that 9-10 can more than quadruple, easily... 7 modifiers on p.311, plus unmodified, and most templates can handle at least three of those modifier sets.