Chrysogon's Coterie - 288 NPCs for your Campaign

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Solomoriah
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Re: Chrysogon's Coterie - 288 NPCs for your Campaign

Post by Solomoriah »

Here's an example of the format I would use. Although now I see that the subheading needs to be larger to compete. But you get the drift.
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toddlyons
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Re: Chrysogon's Coterie - 288 NPCs for your Campaign

Post by toddlyons »

leon wrote: Mon Nov 28, 2022 9:31 pm Page 18, Alodie Weaver: whoa, a cleric that uses assassins?
Oh yes. That's just a threat so far; but she's having to take it seriously. There are some truly terrible people in this book who've lost sight of who they were. There are also people that have been treated inhumanely and broke from it. Some became predators; others decided to protect others in a way they weren't protected. And many are just very ordinary people with ordinary lives. Some are well aware of the problems around them and are choosing not to be involved. While it's fiction, it's also stuff from real life. My life has been more troubled than some, but I think that just made this an easier book to write.
Last edited by toddlyons on Mon Nov 28, 2022 11:19 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Chrysogon's Coterie - 288 NPCs for your Campaign

Post by toddlyons »

Solomoriah wrote: Mon Nov 28, 2022 10:52 pm Here's an example of the format I would use. Although now I see that the subheading needs to be larger to compete. But you get the drift.
I'm good with that. Can it be done by modifying the existing styles and not having to copy over to a new template?
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Re: Chrysogon's Coterie - 288 NPCs for your Campaign

Post by TPFox »

If you are up for any sort of additions, I think it would be cool to add some 0 level characters - tradespeople, henchmen, and even children. Hirelings with a backstory would make them much more interesting that just bringing them along to carry stuff and use as "shields" when the going gets rough. Also, imagine a GM throwing a persistent 8 year-old admirer who wants to be an adventurer before he or she grows up. Say it is an NPC boy who wants to be an adventurer with the party. The party told him to wait another 10 years and to beat it in the town, but when they are in the middle of a dungeon, the kid suddenly shows up with a dagger and leather vest two sizes too big, and they're stuck with him! I bring this up because stories can also involve rescuing, finding, or protecting someone. (Or, even trying to get rid of unwanted company that tags along and mooches food - and fame - off the party). Anyways, just a thought!
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Re: Chrysogon's Coterie - 288 NPCs for your Campaign

Post by toddlyons »

TPFox wrote: Mon Nov 28, 2022 11:22 pm I think it would be cool to add some 0 level characters - tradespeople, henchmen, and even children.
It's an interesting idea and I'd like to know what others think about it.

When I decided to finally write this book, I looked first to see if there was something I could extend through collaboration, rather than design from the ground up. I found and read Teaman's BFRPG Third Level Pregenerated Characters supplement, then read through the comments he'd received to see what people thought.

From all this, I learned that I really did need to make my own set of 3rd level characters that fit into the format of the book I imagined, and that people really wanted something that limited itself to the Core Book's 4 classes (which, fortunately, is also what I wanted).

It might be useful as an option / appendix, but not as a first section before Level 1 characters. Stuff to consider:
  • How many people would use it?
  • Do tradesfolk have a backstory, or is their story their current job?
  • Is their story complicated enough to require an author to write one?
  • Could existing stories for any of the folks in the book just be given to a 0-level character, ignoring the level in the book?
Thanks for suggesting this. I'm curious to hear what people think.

Todd
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Re: Chrysogon's Coterie - 288 NPCs for your Campaign

Post by Solomoriah »

toddlyons wrote: Mon Nov 28, 2022 11:09 pm
Solomoriah wrote: Mon Nov 28, 2022 10:52 pm Here's an example of the format I would use. Although now I see that the subheading needs to be larger to compete. But you get the drift.
I'm good with that. Can it be done by modifying the existing styles and not having to copy over to a new template?
I changed the style of the bios from BoxedText to Text Body, and created a new NPCHeader style for, well, NPC headers. Unfortunately we can't do a global change on them because it appears they are set as MonsterBlock presently. We can definitely bump up the size of SubHeading without hurting anything.

Let me know if you are presently updating the manuscript, and if not (or when you are done) I'll start the changes for you. Much can be done automatically.
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Re: Chrysogon's Coterie - 288 NPCs for your Campaign

Post by toddlyons »

Revision 5 is up. Thank you, Leon.
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Re: Chrysogon's Coterie - 288 NPCs for your Campaign

Post by Solomoriah »

Excellent! Starting a revision pass.
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Re: Chrysogon's Coterie - 288 NPCs for your Campaign

Post by toddlyons »

Solomoriah wrote: Tue Nov 29, 2022 10:02 am Excellent! Starting a revision pass.
Thanks, Chris!
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Re: Chrysogon's Coterie - 288 NPCs for your Campaign

Post by Solomoriah »

R6 added to first post. I found myself fighting with some random manual formatting, and after a bit of frustration I just galleyed the whole thing (dropped the text into a plaintext editor, then put it back into LibreOffice). I've reapplied styles and I believe it is correct.

I also did some "light" flow-hammering; if you expand or shrink any of the text and the flow breaks down, just leave that for me. Fixing the flow is an art, not a science, and I've done rather a lot of it.

BTW are these characters in any sort of order? If you haven't put them in order and don't care if they are, I might do some chunk-sorting later in the layout process to make the flow nicer.
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