Generic NPCs

[ways and means]

No he can't after checking wow strength power passive bonus isn't as impressive as Belial made it out to be when actually reading the tables. Though I overestimated how much even a 6ft blade would weigh even a guts sword would probably weigh a max of 100 kilos (easily lift-able at 7), probably it would only merit weapons 4 though.

[Belial666]

Inhuman Strength only gives a +3. Supernatural gives a +6 and Mythic gives a +12. The bonus isn't as impressive because it's only first tier. As for how big a weapon you can fight with, I'd say Lifting-2. Most people who can lift 200 pounds fight with weapons of about 6 pounds.

Do note that a 6-ft-long, 1 inch thick steel rod weighs 18 pounds (about 9 kilos). For a sword to weigh 100 kilos with a blade that is still sharp (and thus 3 mm thick at most), it needs to be 6 meters (18 feet) long, 60 centimetres (2 feet) wide. That gives the blade a weight of 80 kilos, with another 30-40 kilos for the grip.

[The Mighty Buzzard]

Up to Feb 2011 so far.  Turtlethrope Hermit?  No more DBZ for you!

[The Mighty Buzzard]

Ok, have all the npcs that follow the Official Sanctaphrax Template(TM) gathered up into one file.  The others I can't be arsed to convert at the moment.  I'll post a link once I write a script to get them all sorted to depth, mortal/supernatural, and alphanumerically.

[Sanctaphrax]

Yay! Progress! Thank you, Margrave!

I actually didn't have DBZ in mind when I wrote the hermit...but I suppose it could have been subconscious.

PS: The Official Sanctaphrax Template(TM) is awesome. Everyone should use it. I don't normally like to brag, but you would not believe the amount of time it's saved me. And it looks pretty professional too. So...yeah. I'm pretty proud of my template.
PPS: Like a lot of what I've made, the template is heavily inspired by DeadManWalking's work. Credit where it's due, and all.

[The Mighty Buzzard]

Sorted first into depth, then into pure mortal/supernatural, then alphanumerically.  Just plaintext for the moment.  If you have some kind of markup you'd like applied, like for say cutting and pasting into the wiki, let me know.

This is not a finished product by any means.  At any time it is likely to become empty, filled with the letter Q, change into the writings of a Lovecraftian horror that will drive you insane simply by reading the first half page, or worse.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/39806406/genericnpcdump-sorted.txt

[Sanctaphrax]

Wow. That's a lot of NPCs. I didn't realize how many I had written until now.

If you're thinking of changing the formatting, I suggest you just imitate this thread. Name in bold, subheadings underlined, refresh cost and refresh remaining on separate lines from their headings.

Anyway, thanks again. With this, updating the character section on the wiki will be much much faster.

Once these go on the wiki, it'll be necessary to apply all kinds of tags. But this probably isn't the time for that.

[The Mighty Buzzard]

Easy peasy on formatting for pasting to the board.  I'll just have to add one line to one spot in the script and rerun it.  Probably tomorrow since I've been productive enough for today.

Suggestion, add Notes: and Variations: sections to the template just above the refresh fields so anything worth saying can go in the template itself rather than above or below it.  If you do, I can have the script go and retroactively add empty ones to all the entries so far.

Let me know when you get an entry up on the wiki that you're happy with the formatting on and I'll write in an option to output that format too.

[Sanctaphrax]

Not sure exactly what you mean. What would you envision being in the "notes" and "variations" sections?

Will go to the wiki to find a good entry now.

EDIT: The wiki entries all have the same formatting, which makes sense since I used a template to make them. Here's one that will serve as an example:

http://dfrpg-resources.wikispaces.com/NPC%20Generic%20Demon%20Lord

[The Mighty Buzzard]

Notes: anything you'd normally write above or below the template describing or clarifying.

Variations: small changes that could optionally make it a somewhat different beastie but don't warrant an entire separate entry.  like one or two differences each for earth, air, and fire variants of a water fae.

Ugh, just noticed the wiki is all ajax and gui'd up on editing.  Guess I won't be writing a script to automagically post them;  learning a new api for every site on the net is a huge pain.  Ajax can bite my shiny metal ass.

I'll let you know when I've got something ready for copying and pasting directly into the wiki.  May be a few days before I find the time and motivation.

[Sanctaphrax]

Aw, that's too bad. I like it when computers do the work.

Variations seems like a good idea, notes doesn't really.

Look at Richard Chilton's character writeups. It would be really awkward to fit one of those into the template. Too big, too complex.

Though a separate template for notes might be a good idea.

As for variations, I'm not really sure how to handle them. But I agree that a standardized way to include them would be a good idea.

[The Mighty Buzzard]

Makes sense.  I'll let someone else worry about the writeups then and just collect everything between the name and the refresh total lines.

As for how to handle variations, I'd say just go with plain old English prose.  Anything that takes more than a paragraph is deserving of its own template and anything less isn't worth worrying about standardizing.

Example

Water Sprite (Chest Deep)
...
Variations: This template could also be used for earth, air, and fire sprites.  Physical Immunity and Channeling should be changed to reflect the appropriate element.
Total Refresh Cost: -10
Refresh Total: -2

[Sanctaphrax]

Hm. I dunno.

I'm also considering a slash-based method. See next post for an example.

[Sanctaphrax]

How's this look?

Water Sprite/Air Sprite (Chest Deep)

High Concept: Water Sprite/Air Sprite
Other Aspects: Nature Spirit, Elemental Body, Childish And Playful, Friend To Sailors/-
Skills:
Great: Conviction, Discipline, Athletics/Endurance
Good: Endurance/Athletics, Survival, Stealth
Fair: Performance, Fists, Lore
Average: Alertness, Presence, Deceit
Powers:
Channeling (Water/Air) [-2]
Aquatic/Wings [-1]
Amorphous Form [-1]
Physical Immunity [-8]
The Catch (electricity/salt) [+2/+3]
Total Refresh Cost:
-10/-9
Refresh Total:
-2/-1

PS: I haven't forgotten about the request for Paul Atreides stats.

[The Mighty Buzzard]

Looks like it'd work for 2-4.  Any more than that and it's going to get increasingly hard to read.  That's not a bad thing though.  It should keep people from trying to cram too much into one template.