Confession time: I am not overly enamored of “rules-lite” RPG systems. As long as the system is coherent and well-thought out, I prefer it when the system has rules for all sorts of things - from tactical combat to running chases to social encounters to falling damage and so forth. I like GURPS, I like D&D5E, I like Pathfinder 2E (although I haven’t gotten a chance to try it as much as I’d like).

However, one thing that I want to be as simple as possible: NPC/monster creation. When I am the game master, I want to churn out the stats for enemies that the PCs can overcome as quickly as possible. Any time I spend on building NPC stat blocks is time I can’t spend on working out fiendish adventure plots.

Here are a few examples of NPC creation in different systems:

Horribad: D&D 3.X, Pathfinder 1E. Too damn many derived values, templates, and so forth. Far too much math for far too little to show for it.

Bad: Exalted 1E/2E. NPCs have all the same stats as PCs, of which there are lots. Plus lots of charms with overly long texts, in the case of Exalted NPCs.

Decent: GURPS, D&D5E. The math isn’t too complicated, and you can easily recycle and modify existing stat blocks - though you have to be careful so that these NPCs are balanced in a fight. Exalted 3E edges into this territory with their “Quick Character” concept - but they spoil it with insisting that “significant NPCs” should be built with all the same rules as player characters.

Good: Storypath System, Exalted Essence. I love how they boil down all skills to: “This dice pool is for what the character is good at, this is what the character is okay at, and this dice pool is when they have to do something they have no real competence at” - and the GM can define these however they like, and even improvise this. Then you have a very few other stats like Health and Defense, and you are set apart from a few special qualities! I’ve started running Scion very recently, and I am very impressed with this.

So, what other examples do you have of RPG systems that do NPC creation well - and which do it badly?

  • ReCursing@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    13th Age - monster creation is so easy once you get a feel for it that I rarely even bother with the bestiary any more, and when I do it’s more as inspiration for things like what sort of features should a zombie have, or whatever. The game also features a multitude of PC facing options, and a semi-tactical combat system (I say semi-tsctical because it doesn’t care about specific movement, just whether things are engaged, nearby or far away). It has its flaws but it has a lot of good too. It and pf2e are my favourite versions of dnd