Amazing news, explorers. My rules-light DM exploitation simulator tabletop roleplaying game Exploration and Exaltation, previously only available on Itch, is now in png form
When the players are about to visit a new town, pre-generate several NPCs who fit the demographics of the town, but don't give them jobs. Your town is Mostly human, with a number of halflings and gnomes? Make a list that's mostly humans with some halflings and gnomes mixed in, with names that match the vibe you're going for and maybe the barest description + a quirk of some sort.
So the list would look something like this:
Ophelia Bracegurdle, older Halfling woman who laughs a lot
Norabecka Johnson, a young human woman who seems tired
Geraldofinio Babblecock Nimsy, gnome gentleman who takes pains to maintain a fabulous mustache
Etc.
Then, when the players are like, "Can I go to the blacksmith?" You look at your list of NPCs and the one at the top is Ophelia Bracegurdle. She's your blacksmith now. Then they want to go to the tavern, where Norabecka is the innkeeper and Geraldofinio is a patron having a drink at the bar. He's using a straw so he doesn't mess up his mustache.
If they had gone to the inn first, Ophelia would have been the innkeeper with Norabecka as the patron, and then Geraldofinio should have been a blacksmith with some sort of mustache guard to keep the sparks off.
Making the list ahead of time doesn't take much time, and you can often re-use the people you never got to at the next town.
Your world will seem vibrant and interesting and like you have everything planned out.
Since this post has been getting a lot of notes, I would like to clarify a couple of points. This method has a few different benefits I would like people to note:
This prep is fairly simple and easy. You could use a random name generator and find lists of character quirks online or you could just make your own shit up. Because no one has any jobs or stats, you have very little you have to decide ahead of time.
It removes in-the-moment decision making from your game. Because you assign NPCs to roles as the players meet them, you don't have to pick who is gonna be the blacksmith or make up a blacksmith ahead of time.
This third point is the heart of this method for me: Randomization thwarts stereotyping. Some DMs struggle with this more than others, but I know I have made my fair share of gruff burly man blacksmiths! How many of us would really pick Ophelia Bracegurdle, older halfling woman who likes to laugh, to be the blacksmith? Honestly I probably wouldn't. But since in the example the players wanted to go to the blacksmith first, there she is. And now we have the option but not the requirement to think about why and how old Ophelia got her job. Maybe she's a widow who took over for her dead husband. Maybe she just always wanted to be a blacksmith or this town just has always had halfling ladies be their blacksmiths. Or maybe you don't think about it at all, and she's just the blacksmith because she is.
I've been in games where literally every NPC except the pretty barmaid is a man, and pretty much everyone is a light skinned dwarf, elf, or human. I've also been in games with awesome diverse characters who bring the game to life. I know I want to be a DM who creates the latter, and this system helps push back against our unconscious biases. When you have the list of everyone in the town, you can see ahead of time if you have a good gender ratio, whether your descriptions include any people with disabilities or people from different points of view.
Hey! Welcome! Since my silly garbage truck anglerfish post is getting me a bunch of attention right now, check out a post I'm actually proud of while you're here
ttrpg player pro tip- just tell your GM when you have a plot in mind for your character. Ask for events to happen. Walk up and say "I want my evil brother to show up and be a huge fight and I try to save him from himself." Your GM will ADORE having a whole encounter outlined for her, you'll get to have an awesome scene play out, you'll be invested, your GM will be invested, it'll be memorable. Hopefully, just don't be foreceful.
The idea that you and your GM will be able to like, psychically intuit each other's ideas for character arcs is bullshit. This is a collaborative relationship; communicate!!
Also get comfortable undoing shit if you're the DM. If you made an off-hand comment that didn't fit the world you want to weave or if you realized an event would have long-term consequences you don't want. You can just pause and tell everyone "wait I changed my mind, forget I said that! it didn't happen." and go back to the previous scene.
Ultimately ttrpgs should be a fun play time; ask yourself if you're following invisible rules, and if those rules help or hinder your game experience.
*Dom Hildegard was the anointed cellarer of an isolated monastery. In a day, a sudden and rapid outbreak of infestation caused the entire infrastructure to be overtaken by a mass of pupae, covering the buildings like a sea of mold. Known as a recluse who was rarely seen outside of the underground cellar, he was unknowingly left behind in the monks’ evacuation as hundreds of thousands of multiplying ghostly chrysalides caked over the exit door, sealing him inside with his young apprentice.
Proficient in food preparation and the cleansing techniques of the church due to his position, it is rumored that he kept him and his companion alive by eating the contaminated breads and things in storage. When food stock depleted in months, it is inferred that he survived off the bizarre pupae themselves.
Within the 600 years since the corruption, a few rare travelers may have stumbled upon the abandoned Molded Monastery, and sourced the tales of the Anointed Caterpillar living within the filth, now obsessed with tending to the ethereal pupae until their wake from slumber.
Y'know, I'm kinda surprised I haven't seen Jack Chains more in fantasy tbh, like it's a really interesting and low budget armor style, I'm legit surprised I've almost never seen it in media
Actually kind of! It's built with a very interesting principle behind it and I'm gonna explain it below because it's neat
So, say you've got a sword or axe or something and are fighting some guy who can't afford a full suit of armor, and like someone who thinks it's a good idea to protect their brain from harm, they go into battle with a real good helmet, but don't have enough money for a full breastplate
So, obviously, this guy's helmet is solid, well-built, and strong. You're absolutely not getting through that with anything short of a mace or warhammer, which you forgot at home or something. So, you want to instead throw some cuts at their torso and arms, since if you can't get at their brain or throat, the entire torso is a pretty good target, and without arms your opponent will have a much harder time both hitting you with their weapons and shielding that torso of theirs
So you start throwing cuts, probably like so, since these are usually the most common, instinctive, and usually efficient cuts to throw (or a rough MS Paint approximation of them lol)
Normally, on someone unarmored, those'd do a lot of damage! You'd probably even win the fight!
However, with even something as small as these weird little guys on, it just sort of...
Obviously these things are like, clearly less effective than most styles of armor, doing little to protect against things like thrusts or trebuchets, but even with as minimal as they are, the humble Jack Chains are bizarrely more effective than one would think just by looking at them!
They work because they close off the most common angles of attack, essentially trying to get the maximum value out of minimum materials. Despite their rarity in media they were pretty common, mostly because of their low cost, but also because they did their jobs surprisingly adequately
In a weird way, it kind of reminds me about that one post about army planes, actually
something I've recently noticed with characters -- mainly my d&d characters -- is that backstories are especially fun if you take a trope or a common backstory but change your character's role in it. Bonus points if they're the "villain" in this trope, whether by accident/misunderstanding or actions they intended to do but will/do regret after character development.
"my parents were killed by a (vampire/evil wizard/raging maniac/whatever)" but you're the one who killed someone's parents and now they're out to fucking Get You.
"my spouse/significant other died and I'm out to avenge them" but you're an undead or have the Reborn lineage or something and you're the dead spouse trying to find your revenge-obsessed lover before they do something they'll regret.
"my village was taken over by a tyrant" but you're the tyrant who's been chased out and fallen out of power and now you have to get Away From Here Fast.
"my noble family's manor burned down and I want to find the person who did it" but you're the housemaid who's been cast aside and put out of a job, and needs a quick way to make some money.
it sort of instantly gives the character more depth and makes the backstory feel more three-dimensional. Your character has done something wrong, whether by accident or on purpose, and that makes them feel more human. Not to mention the fact that many of these automatically create the easy-to-harness plot device of Someone Is After Me.
Anyways, hope that's helpful in some way :> happy character making!
New Video! This was a Whole Process (tm), so I did something a bit different and recorded a longer video in widescreen format.
This is the VERY abridged version, but if you want to see more, please head to Youtube for the full video!
(I'm not gonna do this for every video, but as I've said before, grappling arrows are too cool to be allowed not to work, so I needed to put the time in!)
my worldbuilding philosophy with ttrpgs like dnd & pathfinder is that any "monster" with enough sapience to speak at least one language should just be considered a different type of person. like, harpies can speak common. why can't a harpy have a passion for knitting? why couldn't u avoid combat with an orc by just having a chat with her? what if the succubus just wants to own a bakery? could a bugbear enjoy fishing down at the local lake with their friends? a whole wonderful world of possibilities can open up for you!
similarly, there's plenty of "monsters" that are just a weird kind of animal! that displacer beast might just be protecting her kittens! maybe the owlbear doesn't attack you because it's tired and full, and u don't seem like a threat! maybe this village has a cockatrice problem bc they built a new building on an important nesting ground!
'the GM is also a player' is something every ttrpg writer should take to heart. just becase d&d treats their GM as (as i have often said) an unpaid game designer doesn't mean you have to
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