NPC random statistics roll chart?

[Ragitsu]

Does anyone here have a random statistic roll chart for NPCs? One part would have Sexuality, the other might have Political Affiliation, Theological/Religious belief, Income Level, and so forth. It probably uses a d6, but other die types are fine as well.

This would be most helpful for Advantages, Disadvantages, skills that affect NPCs, and, aren't usually thought of ahead of time by most GMs (at least for minor NPCs that is).

[Qoltar]

Originally Posted by Ragitsu

Does anyone here have a random statistic roll chart for NPCs? One part would have Sexuality, the other might have Political Affiliation, Theological/Religious belief, Income Level, and so forth. It probably uses a d6, but other die types are fine as well.

This would be most helpful for Advantages, Disadvantages, skills that affect NPCs, and, aren't usually thought of ahead of time by most GMs (at least for minor NPCs that is).

There used to that kind of chart in 3rd edition GURPS. The 4/e does not have an equivalent page or two .
When I ran my GURPSD: Traveller casmpaign I concocted my own dice roll chart for that sort of ting.

- Ed

[tanniynim]

When I'm running a game, I either make these things up as I go, or make a custom roll grid for that game.

So, unfortunately, my suggestion is "make one."

[Ragitsu]

I don't like to always choose on the spot, because that runs the possibility of unfairly biasing certain PC benefits. Having a random list to pull traits from makes me feel better.

Exceptions are another matter :-).

[Bruno]

Usually these things are campaign specific, and usually region specific within a campaign.

For a town, you can probably get away with one table. For a large city, you should have one per district or region or whatever (Watts vs Beverly Hills vs Chinatown - quite different ethnic layout) but even if you have a generic "City" table, it should be more cosmopolitan than a generic "Country" table, and both should be different from Europe to Africa to Asia.

Never mind Fantasy or Sci Fi games, where you might have Elves in L.A., or Cardassians on the space station (or in L.A.).

[Dwarf99]

Originally Posted by Ragitsu

I don't like to always choose on the spot, because that runs the possibility of unfairly biasing certain PC benefits. Having a random list to pull traits from makes me feel better.

Exceptions are another matter :-).

um... there's something unfair about each character optimizing for different roles???

[Gigermann]

Maybe not exactly what you're looking for, but it might help. It will require some "interpretation" to use. See this post.

[Collective_Restraint]

Originally Posted by Dwarf99

um... there's something unfair about each character optimizing for different roles???

Not necessarily unfair but it's cool and realistic that when PCs face a group of enemy thugs, they don't end up all with the same ST, DX, IQ and HT.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Dwarf99

um... there's something unfair about each character optimizing for different roles???

No, but there IS something unfair about the GM knowing that the party is poorly set up to deal with wizards, and "randomly" picking to give magery to encountered NPCs 50% of the time in a game world where he declared that Magery is a 1/100 thing.

Using a somewhat combat skewed example, but substitute any Intolerance or Social Stigma or Enemy or whatever on the players part that makes running into one kind of person unexpectedly often a potential problem.

[Fish]

Originally Posted by Ragitsu

Does anyone here have a random statistic roll chart for NPCs?

Yes, I did create a random statistic chart for NPCs. It covers ethnicity, education, income, and occupation, based on the relevant year-2000 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the United States.

It doesn't cover sex or sexual preference, politics, or any Advantages or Disadvantages.

I've been thinking of trying to do a similar thing for America in the 1950s, America in the 1920s, England in the 1880s, America in the 1860s, and so forth, but there's not much hard data to go on.