If you're a regular reader (I'm sorry!) then you know I dig making stuff with Tablesmith. It's a very powerful automation tool for making all kinds of neat things. A free and very close approximation is Dave Y.'s excellent web-based version Abulafia which has the benefit of talking to other users' tables. I use it to make dungeon keys and other things pseudorandomly. I took a break from untying the knot of code I've put in to make random "weird sci-fantasy" dungeon keys to work on another project. Well, to put it more precisely I wanted to include NPC dungeon parties as planned and random encounters in the dungeon, and I wanted to do it the way I used to do it by hand from the old 1e DMG on page uhhhhh 175 or so.
Easy to make an NPC generator. It really is. You make a random variable generator, plug it into the stats, plug in the races and classes (easy peasy, it's a list), and hit it with a name maker. BOOM! Done. I'm a king amongst lesser beings.
EXCEPT! If you do it that way, you won't be making viable, valid AD&D1e "character NPCs". It was human-o-centric, you see. Gary put hard limits on the demihuman races. Without very high stats, most of the demihuman races could not climb to successful heights. The thing breaks down on entry where races have limits to stats, stat bonuses, and race/class combinations have level limits dependent upon prerequisites. An easy enough thing for a coder to untangle. I'm _not_ a good coder, though, and I have figured out some of the steps (the ones I said were easy), and I am not clearly grokking the rest but it is coming to me slowly. So! I present to you a very quick list of "level 1 character NPCs" spat out by my angry, irritable Tablesmith code. How many do you want? 99? too much text - nobody would read all that. But I will give you, uhhh, 30 to prove my concept. Please note the juiciest bits of these NPCs are not attached - quirks, tragic backstories, motives, villainous plans, etc. All that can be accomplished by referencing OTHER bits of code, but I don't want that part to muss up my problems. The next bit to hard-code is race-based stat bonuses which sounds like it should be easy. It sort of it, but my brain doesn't always do what i want it to. These are all level 1's made with 4d4+2 since the 3d6 way would of necessity make many many non-viable options (which I could winnow out with code but ehhh more steps). Making Assassins evil was a pretty easy task although I thought it would be harder. There are other class/alignment needs I haven't yet coded in, if I recall right (maybe monks?)
Wyrter, Human Fighter 1, NG, S 14, I 10,W 10,D 9,Cn 9,Ch 10, Long Sword,
Scalemail
Hallé, Elf Fighter 1, NE, S 13, I 11,W 10,D 7,Cn 13,Ch 14,
Staff, Robe
Anores, Human Fighter 1, CG, S 11, I 15,W 11,D 12,Cn 11,Ch 9,
Broadaxe, Chainmail
Maynet, Dwarf Thief 1, LN, S 12, I 13,W 14,D 10,Cn
11,Ch 14, Dagger, Furs
Nobby Quidimer, Human Assassin 1, NE, S 12, I 14,W
10,D 13,Cn 13,Ch 12, Crossbow, Hide Armor
Arenradas, Human Magic-User 1,
LN, S 10, I 14,W 14,D 13,Cn 14,Ch 15, Staff, Robe
Corela, Halfling
Fighter 1, LN, S 14, I 11,W 12,D 11,Cn 10,Ch 11, Sling, Cuirass
Rivière,
Human Cleric 1, NG, S 12, I 12,W 15,D 7,Cn 11,Ch 16, Spear,
Chainmail
Kelradas, Human Thief 1, NG, S 11, I 14,W 9,D 11,Cn 16,Ch 12,
Dagger, Hide Armor
Ippadia, Halfling Thief 1, LG, S 17, I 9,W 16,D 11,Cn
11,Ch 15, Dagger, Hide Armor
Eddavan, Human Magic-User 1, LN, S 14, I
12,W 15,D 16,Cn 11,Ch 10, Staff, Robe
Olafira, Human Thief 1, LE, S 15, I
15,W 13,D 13,Cn 14,Ch 14, Stiletto, Hide Armor
Marandia, Dwarf Cleric 1,
LN, S 14, I 9,W 10,D 15,Cn 12,Ch 18, Great Axe, Studded Leather
Armor
Godard, Dwarf Fighter 1, NE, S 16, I 11,W 11,D 12,Cn 13,Ch 12,
Hammer, Robe
Quièvremont, Human Magic-User 1, NG, S 12, I 12,W 13,D 12,Cn
12,Ch 13, Dagger, Robe
Montaigu, Half-Orc Thief 1, LN, S 12, I 14,W 12,D
10,Cn 7,Ch 9, Blackjack, Furs
Maignart, Human Monk 1, NE, S 12, I 14,W
10,D 13,Cn 9,Ch 15, Short Bow, Robe
Shadradas, Halfling Thief 1, LG, S
12, I 13,W 15,D 15,Cn 16,Ch 10, Dagger, Hide Armor
Fontemai, Halfling
Thief 1, CG, S 13, I 11,W 10,D 13,Cn 11,Ch 12, Sling, Hide Armor
Cora
Milgrimsible, Human Thief 1, NG, S 8, I 15,W 13,D 17,Cn 14,Ch 15, Garotte,
Padded Armor
Kellum, Elf Magic-User 1, CE, S 14, I 14,W 13,D 11,Cn 11,Ch
13, Staff, Robe
Gromgith, Human Thief 1, LN, S 14, I 11,W 12,D 15,Cn
12,Ch 10, Stiletto, Hide Armor
Somneri, Half-Elf Druid 1, Neutral, S 12,
I 15,W 12,D 12,Cn 10,Ch 12, Staff, Robe
Kyraatr, Human Fighter 1, LE, S
9, I 12,W 11,D 9,Cn 17,Ch 10, Axe, Plate Armor
Belpas, Human Fighter 1,
N, S 10, I 8,W 12,D 16,Cn 11,Ch 14, Short Sword, Cuirass
Cheney, Gnome
Illusionist 1, LN, S 12, I 13,W 13,D 12,Cn 14,Ch 15, Staff,
Robe
Damarary, Halfling Thief 1, CG, S 14, I 12,W 10,D 12,Cn 12,Ch 15,
Dagger, Padded Armor
Lady Knudel, Elf Magic-User 1, CG, S 14, I 10,W 15,D
16,Cn 9,Ch 10, Staff, Robe
Lindvay, Human Cleric 1, CG, S 14, I 15,W 18,D
13,Cn 11,Ch 11, Warhammer, Studded Leather Armor
Ajax Piggful, Human
Magic-User 1, N, S 12, I 11,W 12,D 15,Cn 13,Ch 14, Dagger, Robe
Looks like it works! Now, the next couple of bits - making parties of up to 9 NPCs with a certain number of character-type NPCs accompanied by henchmen and hirelings, dependent upon level with certain equipment based on random rolls according to level, I anticipate a hearty challenge and I think I almost have it sorted but I need to leave it for the weekend since Workaday World calls and I must hie away. A bad thing about doing it this way is that these NPCs get generated by machine and wither away into the aether very very quickly without ever having the substance of human effort or dice-rolling the way the old-fashioned method of doing it invests in them... I dunno. I'm an agent of chaos in this regard, I guess.
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| Is it a crime to make 1000's of NPCs and toss them away into The Nothing? Yes. Yes it is. |
Peace be upon both your houses, I commend thee to Mars and Bellona, etc.