npc's vs NPC's!!!!

[Greygor]

Hi,

It's my first post so be gentle with me :)

I've done some browsing and searching and can't seem to locate an answer to this.

In any campaign you have npc's, you know, the bartender CG commoner 3 and then you have NPC's, the 3 Goblins that will be leaping out at your players.

I can see in setting up the campaign the later is catered for very well, but the former not so much.

Or have I missed something? Is the NPC option just for NPC's that will be needed in the Combat Tracker?

What's the best approach for the former if that's the case. Any advice for a newbie FG2 Pathfinder GM would be much appreciated.

[Trenloe]

As the npc's you are referring to are usually more background/story based and rarely include statistics you can create a story entry for them - include links to a picture if you want.

If you need statistics for them, then there are generic ones available in the Gamesmastery NPC module found in this thread: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16074

If you need to quickly put them on the combat tracker (CT) but without statistics you can right-click in the CT and create a new entry, label it Bartender and quickly add any stats you need, e.g. initiative score; then they can run away on their turn! :-)

[Malkavian_Andi]

In most cases, NPCs like a bartender don't need any stats. This is true for both online roleplaying and offline tabletop gaming.
There's no difference wheter the bartender is a level 3 commoner or a level 4 expert if you just want him to be a typical bartender, serving drinks and spreading gossip. All you need to know is what he will act like towards the PCs, and that's just a roleplaying decision, and nothing you need stats for.
Even if you want to have a fight to take place at that bar, you don't need to have stats for the bartender unless you want him to attack the PCs. As long as you just want him to defend himself against attackers (like a bunch of goblins), you just have to know if you want him to survive. You don't have to roll that kind of fights between NPCs, that helps keep the focus on the PCs' fight, and it's the PCs' actions that should be the focus of the game.

[Leonal]

Unless they are needed in combat, I don't (usually) have npcs in FG. Either just in the adventure book itself or in a separate note of npcs.

You could always just list their basics in a Story sheet, if you want it handy.

edit: As Trenloe mentioned, if I need quick stats I just find a fitting one in the gamemastery npc module.

[Greygor]

Yeah I can see what your saying, I was possibly coming at it from the wrong angle.

Here's my thoughts.

Your running a big campaign that centers on a Town that the players will be using a lot.

My thought was to create an Adventure module just for the town itself. Include a Map of the town. Have the houses/locations as encounters and the inhabitants as NPC's.

And then you pin each location on the Map and export the whole thing.

Then you can use that within your campaign whenever you need it. You have whose where, what they look like, house descriptions all at your fingertips with a single click.

Of course maybe I'm over thinking this.

[Trenloe]

That's okay, you can do that with a story entry being the link (pin) on the map, describe the house in the story entry; have links in the story entry to pictures, other story entries if needed (npc descriptions, etc.), maps, encounters, etc.

This is a standard that most commercial modules will do. There are videos on building campaigns in the downloads section.

[Greygor]

That's okay, you can do that with a story entry being the link (pin) on the map, describe the house in the story entry; have links in the story entry to pictures, other story entries if needed (npc descriptions, etc.), maps, encounters, etc.

This is a standard that most commercial modules will do. There are videos on building campaigns in the downloads section.

Looks like I'm taking a common approach then.

My initial thought was when you choose to add an NPC it would be nice to have another radio button for "minor NPC" which would then just allow you to enter basic info and not even bother to present "Combat" options.

[Trenloe]

My initial thought was when you choose to add an NPC it would be nice to have another radio button for "minor NPC" which would then just allow you to enter basic info and not even bother to present "Combat" options.
You can put notes in the "Other" tab of an NPC. But, this doesn't allow you to link pictures, etc..

Have a look at adding NPCs in story entries - accessible from pins/location story entries and adding pictures, etc. links to the NPC story entry. This is really more flexible than having another option in the NPC entry.