[ErhnamDJ]

Originally Posted by LostWormOnItsWayHome

Do most of you do critical NPCs and main antagonists in much the same way, or is this advice in regards to one-shot meet-em-and-kill-em or talk-at-em-and-leave-em sorts of NPCS?

Well, it depends on how much I think they'll come up in the story. I might only have the names for some of the major players in the world, and then I can develop them more over time as they come up.

For some of them, say the king, I might have an incredible amount of backstory for them without having any game statistics at all.

Whereas the bounty hunter that's going after the party might not even have a name, but he's definitely going to have a complete set of game statistics.

I'm always trying to do exactly as much work as necessary. If I'm not going to need to know something, then I'm not going to waste time on it.

Think of it as like you're writing a novel. The author doesn't know who the main character's mother's best friend is unless that's important to the story somehow. It's just not practical to come up with those sorts of details.