Creation Corner: Feelin' Smurfy: Creating NPCs on the fly

Do one-dimensional NPCs in your games have you feeling. . . blue? In this special episode, Rhett wants to share a really neat NPC creation technique. The original idea comes from an interview between Satine Phoenix and Taliesin Jaffe in an episode of Satine's excellent GM Tips series.

GM Tips video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQZR4smjUEc

This video inspired Rhett to create a spreadsheet version of the technique Taliesin introduced, but with a slight twist: https://1drv.ms/x/s!Ai_DSO_CT_ACg4Ao9hDNfPcymdn7rw

To use the spreadsheet, first save it to your computer. Click on the ellipsis (...) in the upper right corner of the screen, then choose to Save a Copy.

Once you have the sheet, simply type anything into the grey cell, then press Enter. This will cause the sheet to recalculate, generating a new NPC persona. Anytime you change the contents of the grey cell and press Enter, the sheet will update. If you want to make changes to the contents, just follow your spreadsheet program's instructions to unlock the spreadsheet first. There is no password.

Use it in your game, and have a great time with the result! How does it work out for you? Did it lead to any fun experiences? Let us know!

As always, thanks for sharing our story; we really appreciate your words of support and hope you enjoy what we've put together. We're having fun sharing our adventure with you each week, and we'll only get better with time! If you like what you hear, please take the time to leave us a review on iTunes, since that bumps us up in the ratings and lets others join in the fun. For quick updates on a more real-time basis, follow us on Twitter (@stackodice), where we'd love to hear from you. Or if you prefer email, send us game questions or comments at [email protected].