Chrysogon's Coterie - 288 NPCs for your Campaign

[toddlyons]

Question for everyone:
There are quite a few characters with gender-neutral names. I struggled with this as I was writing. As has been pointed out, using "they" is a violation of the Style Guide.

What do you think about using an asterisk or some other symbol on these names that invites the GM to choose a gender? I'm open to suggestions.

[Solomoriah]

Use of "they" is a violation of the style guide... but there are no style police. Explicitly mentioning that you are using "they" in that fashion in an introduction would be acceptable.

Also, why supply "gender neutral" names in this situation? Offer alternative names. For each character, choose randomly (or however you like) the gender you think best suits the character, and supply a name for that gender; then, in parentheses, or on the next line under the "given" name, offer the opposite gender version of that name.

[Dimirag]

To me the "gender neutral name" can be used on a gender specific characters.
But if a character, in character wised some specific pronoun used, it should be noted and used in the description.

[Solomoriah]

Editing your document now. I'm not sure how this happened, but your BoxedText styles aren't working right. The borders transgress the margins. I don't see a way to stop them from doing that, and I don't understand why they would. As an experiment I copied and pasted your text into a new document made from our adventure template and they work fine.

Did this start out as a Word document? Because it kind of looks like one that's been converted.

Regarding the flow issues you were fighting with: First, while you are making stat strings as MonsterBlock, the hit point checkboxes should be laid out HPCheckBoxes and HPChecksEnd (with all lines except the last being HPCheckBoxes and the last being HPChecksEnd). When working with our current adventure template, when you press ENTER at the end of a MonsterBlock the next paragraph is automatically HPCheckBoxes, and when you press ENTER at the end of that the next paragraph is HPChecksEnd. With a little practice and experimentation you can use that to get the styles right while only pulling down the style list once, but of course you should do it however is comfortable for you. Any Spells, Equipment, Ability, etc. lines between the stat string and the first line of hit points should also be MonsterBlock for consistency.

Also, the HP lines don't have tabs in them. There should be a tab (that is, you should press TAB) after typing HP and again after entering the number, before adding the boxes. The checkboxer tool creates them this way automatically, so I'm guessing you did all 288 character's hit point boxes manually. Wow. I have fixed a few but will leave the bulk of them for you or James. I'm not feeling well right now and don't have the energy to do that much.

NOW... usability comments. As a GM I'd prefer a boxed text that describes how the character looks when encountered in the most likely environment (dungeon, town, whatever) followed by unboxed text describing the character for the GM. Just like adventures, the NPC info should be partitioned between what anyone can see and what only the GM knows.

I'm uploading an R2 version built on the Adventure Template for further work. I think I have the page styles hammered out, and I've done some of the changes mentioned above.

[Solomoriah]

BTW... this is an amazing work. There is much yet to do, but the content is solid and seems quite good.

[toddlyons]

Did this start out as a Word document? Because it kind of looks like one that's been converted.

It was originally LibreOffice (the My Adventure template), then something corrupted somewhere and it started taking longer and looooonger to open. Exporting it to DOCX fixed that, but then I exported it back again for submission compliance.

With a little practice and experimentation you can use that to get the styles right while only pulling down the style list once, but of course you should do it however is comfortable for you.

I'd like to say I'll grasp it better in time, but... 95% of my focus was writing it, with 5% devoted to Does it look okay?

I'm guessing you did all 288 character's hit point boxes manually. Wow.

I started with one from the My Adventure template. The rest are copypasted from the website because all the characters were rolled with your NPC generator. Thanks for that. It made it possible for me just to concentrate on backstories.

I have fixed a few but will leave the bulk of them for you or James. I'm not feeling well right now and don't have the energy to do that much.

I'm very grateful for you doing it. I didn't realize you were sick. I hope it passes quickly.

As a GM I'd prefer a boxed text that describes how the character looks

Ouch. Now that's probably where this will be disappointing to some people. I really, really want people to imagine what the character looks like based on the mini-bio. There are exceptions in the book where how they look is completely part of who they are -- and I specified in those cases -- but for the most part I want to pencil-line the characters and let GMs colour them in the way they imagine.

I'm uploading an R2 version built on the Adventure Template for further work. I think I have the page styles hammered out, and I've done some of the changes mentioned above.

Thanks, Chris. I'll try to tread carefully and not break anything this time.

Todd

[toddlyons]

BTW... this is an amazing work. There is much yet to do, but the content is solid and seems quite good.

Thanks Chris. As someone who loved your game at first sight, I've wanted to give back for a long time. I just needed a clear head and a clear schedule.

Let me know if you're still not satisfied with my voice recording. My health took a plunge about a year and a half ago and I'm nearly recovered, so I probably could put more gusto into it if it needs that.

[toddlyons]

Revision 3 is attached to the first post. Thanks Kyle, Leon and Chris for diving in.

[Bumblepig]

Todd,
If it's OK, I'm going to give you my feedback in the form of comments on the r1 doc (which is the one I started with). I hope me working with an earlier version won't be an issue because you can just review the comments and incorporate them as you like in r3, or r4, or whatever r you're on when I'm done. Does that work?
FWIW, I'm about halfway through at this point. I can give you what I've got so far or just wait to upload a completed version when I'm done.
I'm really enjoying reading this. There are so many clever tidbits… the guy who talks to his mirror, the smelly Bird Man, someone carrying a letter to open upon death, a cleric from the Temple of the Death Moth, the elf-bear victim of a self-inflicted Polymorph accident who lives in fear of casting mishaps due to lapses into bear speech… So many descriptions contain cool adventure hooks.
This is a very unique compilation, and as-is it's usable. If I needed an interesting NPC on the fly, this would be what I'd use.

[toddlyons]

If it's OK, I'm going to give you my feedback in the form of comments on the r1 doc

Hey Kyle. I'm glad you're finding some bits that you like. I'd hoped that there would be enough variety that there would be a good hit-to-miss ratio across a wide range of personal tastes.

Sticking with your previous version is A-OK. The changes so far have been to fix formatting, minor rewording and typos. No dramatic changes are likely given that it's already a complete book.

Posting your fixes here line by line is best so other people can see what's been flagged already.

Todd