12-21-2011, 06:24 PM | #11 | |
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Minneapolis, MN, USA
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Re: GM Time Savers--basic NPC "bestiary" or archetypes
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Herein lies an issue: you can't just have a generic set of NPCs for a generic game. They must be genre-specific. Action foes lack many stats; they're almost always men and women, and their look and personality are more important. For something like Dungeon Fantasy or Monster Hunters, they're going to have lots of game stats to handle their unmannishness. And they are keyed for different power levels. Thus, each genre should have its own set of foe archetypes. |
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12-21-2011, 08:42 PM | #12 |
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Ann Arbor, MI
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Re: GM Time Savers--basic NPC "bestiary" or archetypes
This thread comes up every so often. The answer is always the same: YAGNI, You Ain't Gonna Need It.
It's so easy to generate a throw-away mook that it hardly makes sense to generate a book of them. I can populate a whole campaign of them on a sheet of notebook paper. I typically do it over lunch, often from a copy of a genre or core book on my phone. That includes a few mooks, a couple of important NPCs for the next adventure, and maybe even a key scene for that NPC.
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12-22-2011, 04:37 AM | #13 |
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Not in your time zone:D
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Re: GM Time Savers--basic NPC "bestiary" or archetypes
and another monster thread
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12-22-2011, 06:56 AM | #14 | |
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Canada
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Re: GM Time Savers--basic NPC "bestiary" or archetypes
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The problem is usually that they're basic creatures (that, and they're not all in one book). But aside from that, that thread is a great example of a crapton of completed, written up creatures. Go read it, instead of dismissing it for not having "Monster Manual" written on it :)
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12-22-2011, 08:36 AM | #15 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Austin Texas
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Re: GM Time Savers--basic NPC "bestiary" or archetypes
I also love the thread and monster creator tool. I use the tool more than I use the samples though I would love to see an organized PDF of the monsters created. Alphabetical by type. (if it exists please point me to it. I've made some attempts to do it myself but life intruded)
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12-22-2011, 09:11 AM | #16 | |
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: SF Bay Area, CA
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Re: GM Time Savers--basic NPC "bestiary" or archetypes
Quote:
That was my mistake. I'd forgotten that Malinka had also put monsters in that thread. I read it when it originally came out two years ago and remembered the utility being in the lenses that are in that thread. My apologies for a faulty memory. |
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12-22-2011, 12:13 PM | #17 |
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: South Shore-ish, MA
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Re: GM Time Savers--basic NPC "bestiary" or archetypes
In addition to the aforementioned items (I strongly recommend the thread by Mailanka and Historical Folks/4E), there's a pair of PDF's out there:
It Came From The Forums: A Community Bestiary [download link] A Collection of creatures collected from the GURPS forums. The Natural Encyclopedia [download link] This looks like a worldbook for the author's campaign, for which the site appears down. These two are pretty much the closest thing to a D&D'esqe "Monster's Manual" for GURPS I've seen, if that's what you're wanting. The Natural Encyclopedia says it's got something close to 1,000 creatures, so... |
12-22-2011, 02:09 PM | #18 | |
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Minneapolis, MN, USA
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Re: GM Time Savers--basic NPC "bestiary" or archetypes
Quote:
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12-22-2011, 02:26 PM | #19 | |
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Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Kyïv, Ukraine
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Re: GM Time Savers--basic NPC "bestiary" or archetypes
Quote:
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12-22-2011, 02:39 PM | #20 |
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Canada
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Re: GM Time Savers--basic NPC "bestiary" or archetypes
And PCs can figure out what the cost of those stats are. It's not grab-and-go for PCs/allies/enemies, but that's not what the author was doing and doesn't appear to be what the OP needed anyways.
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