Hi there,

On 29 June 2015 at 15:40, Knapp <magick.crow@gmail.com> wrote:

Is there not some computer program to build random characters fast?

That would be great if someone knew of one. I think the folk over at 13Mann might have something, but I don't believe it's public (or for sale) any more. IIRC they found they got more interest by churning output from it into PDF booklets bizarrely!

Unless there is a fight I don't see the need for stats.

OK, let's say the PCs arrive in a village/asteroid/passenger liner. Something's going on in the plot which means interaction with these people rather than just passing through. Who can help with X? Why does Y have 'gambler' skill? How strong/educated... is Z?

I 'cheated' with the passengers here (for the sake of speed and energy) by asking permission from BITS to recycle and slightly revise NPCs from one of the 101 books. The times I've run this adventure, much of the fun has been in interacting with those passengers and knowing their skills gives the referee points of contact to help role play them.

I once heard someone say just make a list of all the characters you know from TV and movies, change the same and or sex and use those. Players never catch on.

Well I suspect this is fine for on-the-fly games, or a regular group where you've got loads to prepare and little time, but the adventures I'm putting together are (hopefully) for publication so I can't really take that route.

And yes, I can just make it up, but as I said, I was trying to reduce the strain by having some of the thinking automated. Which is largely why we have rules in the first place!

But thanks for the thought.