Tuesday is here and it has brought with it inspiration for three NPCs that we have to look at this week. Now there will be many more NPCs here in this mining town but the idea behind this series of weekly blogs is to build a portfolio of NPCs in which we can draw down from to fill in the towns, cities, mines or marshes with life and vibrancy, if it warrants it. Without too much more chatter let’s have a look at the NPCs that were created.
Art for the NPCs this week was created in art breeder. I have started to acquire quite an extensive list of character portraits in there so feel free to have a look at my Artbreeder profile which you can find here: artbreeder.com/thebrazenwolfe.
Henrietta Lummet
09TuHL
Henrietta (preferring Henry in most settings) is a tallish, slim woman of around 32 years of age and for the last 7 years she has been the owner of Henry’s emporium – a general store with a strong focus on supplies for mining and exploring the marshes nearby. Henry is a pseudo savvy business woman with more of a mind for business than for the actual sale of things. As such many of the goods she has in store are poorly organised, displayed and most of it appears to be of over priced, despite being high quality and fit for use for their intended applications.
Henry used to be part of a magic guild in Toluka where she was learning the fundamentals of magic where she was thrown from the grounds for trying to turn a guildmates spellbook into gold. Giving up her ongoing study of magic, more or less, she went in search of her fortune elsewhere, eventually stumbling into the mining town of Newtbranch.
Before studying and practicing magic Henry was the only daughter of a driven business man who never quite became successful and eventually died from a disease that was curable, but outside of the families means.
Ash Tressle
09TuAT
Ash is one of the unluckiest men in Newtbranch. He owned the rights to what was the least prosperous mines within a section of the marsh he sold them to a pair of dwarf brothers who, after a week of toiling in the same mine that he has spend 5 years mining, stuck the richest gold deposit in the area. After pleading to work back in the same mine the two brothers made him buy back a third of the mines share after a year of his pleading. After a few more weeks of dwindling returns the dwarf brothers sold their shares in the mine and left Newtbramch. The brothers must have known something because since Ash rebought his mine for double what he sold it for the gold seemed to dry up.
Ash is now in his early 40s but has the appearance of someone well into his 50s if not older. His wild hair is normally a nest for dirt and grime found in the marsh and when he he isn’t in his mine still looking for the gold that he believes is still in there he can be found squandering his meagre coins at the tavern of Newtbranch.
Sally Pondt
09TuSP
Sally is a woman in hear early 40s. She is the proprietor of Jolly Fandangles, Newtbranches Tavern and she happens to own most of the land around the town. Because of this she happens to be one of the wealthiest people in the town as she also sells rights for prospectors to mine on the land she owns, regardless if it has shown any sign of having rich veins of gold.
Sally came into the town 20 years ago with a full purse of gold and purchased most of the towns land from the prospectors before her. She then brought in a team of miners lead by a few dwarves who found where the riches mines were and she began to sell the rights to dig in the mines where gold or other rich deposits of mineral or metal were found. Within a week she owned the town.
Not much is known about her history but she appears to have backing from wealthy individuals external to the town that enabled her to get such a substantive foothold in the town.
Thanks for joining me today to continue the journey into exploring the process of coming up with an adventure a week. As I have said before the NPCs that we have in our sessions are what bring our players really into the adventure.
One such adventure that I ran for my players had Mary-Sue and her Father, Lamberge, who were survivors from a zombie attack on a temple of Torm in a small village called Renhaven. The NPCs were there to provide a story, a journal was left in the temple to explain what happened there. But the character and feelings that was portrayed in the journal entry led the players to follow the tracks the NPCs (who I had no intention of being found alive) away from the mountain peak temple that I had planed for them. They found Mary-Sue, her father (who was dying from an injury) and Smith, the town smith. The conversation then broke out between the three NPCs which, much to my chagrin, my players loved hearing my put on three different voices to talk to myself.
These three NPCs then distracted the Party long enough that the adventure that I had planned for them had shifted slightly (see Dungeon World – Fronts). Rolling several dice to determine the outcome of a massive battle that I had planned the party to be caught in the middle of between the raiding Gnolls (who worshiped the god Malar) and a necromancer searching for power within a temple (to the Gnolls deity). But the party wanted to ensure that the NPCs were safe and sound.
The key message to take away here is to make sure you put effort into NPCs. Give them at minimum 4 thigs.
- Who they were
- Who they are now
- Who they want to be
and lastly, and most importantly. - A name that doesn’t always start with the letter B.
That’s it for tonight, don’t forget to come back tomorrow to look for the twists and turns we have in stall for this week and as always don’t forget to roll with advantage!
The Brazen Wolfe
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