Multiplying NPCs

A lot of advice for running sandbox campaigns talk about creating lots of material beforehand, for example lists of NPCs for players to interact with. This is a rather heavy workload, of course, so one of the other options is to use a random table. But there's very little advice for making such tables, and the example tables seem to mostly be just list of NPCs, sometimes a hundred different NPCs in a d100 table. Even that's not going to last forever, and you'll be back where you started: needing to make a table.

The opposite random tactic is to have tables of traits, skills, beliefs, and so on, to roll up each NPC. This can get bogged down, so it might be wiser to use a shortcut: create a small list of NPCs, say six, twelve, or twenty, and create the rest by multiplying those starter NPCs.  What I mean by that is mixing parts of two NPCs to make a third.

Let's illustrate this with just six NPCs and just the standard ability scores to start. You roll up six seed characters, exactly as if you were creating an adventure party:

1. Str 16 Int 13 Wis 16 Dex 6 Con 12 Cha 15
2. Str 11 Int 7 Wis 4 Dex 18 Con 17 Cha 15
3. Str 14 Int 4 Wis 13 Dex 12 Con 13 Cha 13
4. Str 11 Int 14 Wis 11 Dex 7 Con 9 Cha 5
5. Str 9 Int 7 Wis 3 Dex 9 Con 6 Cha 9
6. Str 3 Int 9 Wis 5 Dex 8 Con 7 Cha 6

You get a list of names, lots of names, maybe first and last name pairs. Write them on a sheet in rows and columns, for example three columns and 20 to 30 rows. You're going to use this as a drop dice table to roll random names.

Drop 2d6 on the table. Take the first name from wherever the lowest d6 lands, the second name from where the other die lands.If they tie, read from left to right on odd results, right to left on even.

For the second part of making the character, read the d6 results from left to right, looking up each result on the table of ability scores. The first d6 is the first three ability scores from your seed characters, the second d6 is the second three scores. That's 36 possible characters.

It can get more complicated. Label the first four seed characters Fighter, Magic-User, Cleric, Thief, the last two as Merchant and Laborer. Roll a d6 for the class of common characters, a d4 when recruiting henchmen.

Or make a list of twenty random characters/ Label the first four Fighter, the next three Thief, the next two M-U, the tenth as a Cleric, and the rest as a mix of laborers and merchants. Or mix up the proportions to fit your preferred distribution. On your drop dice sheet of names, add one word traits to some or all of the names: Cruel, Gullible, Stubborn, whatever you wish. Roll 3d20 and interpret in order as first name, last name, trait (by position) and class, first three abilities, last three abilities (by value.) That's 2,000 mechanically distinct characters, with 8,100 possible names and a mix of personality traits.

Create a different list of names for each culture. If the proportions of classes change from region to region, you can change the seed character table, too. Endless character combos for your world.

NPC Phenomenal Features

There’s a discussion on G+ about making city NPCs interesting. The specific question was how to make them mechanically interesting, which was later qualified as “interesting in combat”, which I’d argue is the wrong approach for city adventures. In oldschool play, combat in general, but especially combat with the local personalities and schemers, tends to be anticlimactic. You don’t want to fight… or you do, but you want to get it over with as soon as possible, so that you get to the good stuff.
If you want to make a city combat interesting, usually it’s with equipment or allies/pets. This guy attacks people with flaming oil bombs from the rooftops. This other guy’s armor has little tiny vials of sleep gas tied all over it. The head of the merchant’s guild has a bodyguard that’s really a charmed troll wearing a ring of illusion. The high priest keeps a pack of hellhounds as pets. Occasionally, there will be environmental hazards as well. NPCs who want to attack the party will triy to lure them into trapped areas, rather than just fight them in the open.
None of this requires feats or skills, but if you really, really need some NPCs to have innate powers, here’s a quick trick I’ve suggested before: use the spell list as a guide. Not only do spells work as out-and-out powers, but they can be toned down to represent extraordinary but still basically mundane abilities as well.
Here is an expanded version of what I described in a comment on G+. For each NPC, roll 2d6 and use this modified reaction roll table. Optionally, if the result is 9+ and both dice come up even, roll for a second feature. NPCs probably shouldn’t have more than two features, however.

2d6 Roll	NPC Feature
2	Curse (Affects NPC)
3-5	Obsession
6-8	No Special Feature
9-11	Extraordinary Ability
12	At-Will Power

The At-Will Power result is pretty straightforward: the NPC can use one spell at will, but make a 2d6 reaction roll when used: on 5 or less, the power fails and is unusable for that many days (but on a 2, it’s lost completely.)
A Curse inconveniences the NPC in some way, instead of being useful. Beneficial spells are either reversed or affect the NPC’s attackers/enemies. Spells like Sleep, Confusion or Fear may be permanent or intermittent (5+ on 1d6 means permanent, otherwise roll during any encounter.) Attack spells attack the NPC (or the NPC’s property, for area attacks like Fireball) at random intervals. All of these are things an NPC might be looking for help to get rid of…
An Obsession means the NPC doesn’t have the power, but wants it, or is afraid of it being used against them.
An Extraordinary Ability is the closest non-magical ability equivalent to the spell. You can often turn spells into Extraordinary Abilities by simply making it take longer to use, require tools, and require materials. An NPC with Knock is a super-thief. An NPC with Contact Other Plane is an amazing sage. An NPC with Dimension Door can squeeze through ridiculously small openings and is probably an amazing burglar or escape artist. An NPC with Move Earth is perhaps the only person experimenting with explosives.
Use your preferred method to randomly select a spell, then consider the details: does the NPC keep the feature secret, is it vaguely rumored, or is it well known? How does the NPC use the talent? Is it for sale? What does the NPC want to do about any curse or obsession?
And more importantly: How do other NPCs react?

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Wizardly Archetypes

One of the things that I thought of as I worked out the implications behind the Simulacrum spell was that these ultra-rare, ultra-powerful 7th level and higher spells might be more than just spells, but also guidelines for types of archmagi. Consider the Simulacrum spell: the wizard who has invested a lot of time in that spell will have a tower filled with resources relevant to creating duplicates (or mixed duplicates) of living creatures. They will probably eventually research the Clone spell as well. In the tower, you would find:

• Body part "library", with date of collection and features of each source creature listed on index cards;
• "Cold Room", where ice and snow are brought for shaping simulacra;
• Cages of failed experiments.

Other spells would imply different sorts of wizards and wizard towers.

Those with Delayed Blast Fireball would be seekers of pure physical force; they would have an arsenal of wands and staves for their unique attack spells and testing ranges to see the full capabilities of each instrument of destruction they create. They will be seeking Meteor Swarm and Prismatic Wall as their ultimate goals.

Those with Reverse Gravity like to distort the physical and might have permanent test areas for gravity, time, and space warp effects. They will be researching Time Stop and Maze.

Those with Limited Wish are on a quest to eventually acquire a full Wish, and their towers would be filled with the results of botched wishes as they investigate the limits of what can be wished for.

Wizards who command Words of Power might be more interested in subtle and overt control. Their laboratories are probably simple chambers that can hold masses of people without allowing their escape. They may also research Symbol and Mass Charm.

Wizards who have Phase Door are probably interested in the ethereal state and investigating the solidity of matter. They probably already know Dimension Door and Teleport, and they are researching new ideas along those lines, including Gate and the Astral Spell. Their towers will have many chambers without doors.

Those with Charm Plants have a plant fetish and may fancy themselves druids, even if they aren't. They will have arboretums and gardens and sun rooms, and animated plant servants or guardians. They probably also have quirky higher-level versions of Massmorph.

Msss Invisibility seems like it would primarily interest a wizard with dreams of conquest. Why else would they need to make 100 to 300 men and horses invisible? They will have other spells relevant to conquest, and will probably match either the Delayed Blast Fireball mage or the Word of Power mage in style and temperament.

Those with Monster Summoning V probably have the lower level variants and are seeking the higher-level versions. They will also be interested in ways to keep summoned monsters around longer, and may have a retinue of very exotic extra-planar creatures, with zoos or lairs to keep them in.

Those who eventually attain the 8th level Polymorph Any Object spell will be interested in transmutations of many sorts. They may have objects made of exotic substances: glass swords as strong as steel, floors of solid air, columns of water that defy gravity. Some of their retainers will be humans transformed into powerful monster forms. They will be researching Shapechange.