MORE WINE! PART 2: 30 NPCs With Help From To Distant Lands

 

Parnassus by H. Siemiradzki

For a dungeon that I am writing, I need about 30 NPCs. Most likely that is too many, but it represents each major position in a roughly medieval household (or at least what was identified about 1 hour of reading on the internet). 

My main philosophy about NPCs is that they mainly need 3 things: a want, a give, and an archetypical personality descriptor. Really they don't need much more. If you want stats just make them a level of [insert appropriate class] and if you really need them to be important make it a domain level.

And with the dungeon I am writing, I really want to make it a sorta "quilt campaign" meaning that I stitch it together from existing pieces of resources- blog posts, useful tables, other adventures I have, ect. And to that end, To Distant Lands has created a wonderful set of tables for NPC generation. 

Here are my 30 NPCs from the House of Aeolos. We will exclude the first two as they are more plot-centric, so what about the others: 

NPC (want)(goal)(attitude to PCs)

1. Master Aeolos
2. Mistress Persephone
3. Marshal (A special trinket or gadget) (Sheer curiosity) (Baffled)
4. Steward (A dangerous location or local landmark) (mistakenly believe it will get them revenge) (Envious)
5. Clerk (A portent or omen) (To topple some local authority)(Furious)
6. Cook (Another NPC’s activities) (To get revenge on someone(a ward)) (Lackadaisical)
7. Blacksmith (A pet or species of animal)(To be left alone) (Baffled)
8. Carpenter (A local game or custom) (To rescue someone or something dear to them) (Fawning)
9. Mason (A special trinket or gadget) (To get revenge on someone)=Chaplin) (Mistakes them for someone else who they are (baffled)
10. Groom (A location no one else knows about)(To clear their name)(Fawning)
11. Messenger (A magic item not in their possession)(To prove someone wrong)(Doesn’t seem to notice them)
12. Huntsmen (arguing with the Mason about the Candlestick Maker)(To be left alone)(Scamming)
13. Astronomer (A local custom)(To expose their rival)(Furious)
14. Chamberlin (A dangerous location or local landmark)(To clear their name)( Baffled)
15. Herdsmen (A legendary monster) (To topple some local authority) (Lackadaisical)
16. Mill workers (gossiping about the huntsmen) (To get revenge on someone) (mistake the PCs for someone else who they find amusing)
17. Wood-cutters (A missing belonging) (To topple some local authority) (Skeptical)
18. Butcher (gossiping bout Ward 1) (To become rich) (Lackadaisical)
19. Baker (A household malfunction happening right in front of you) (To impress their crush) (ignore)
20. Candlestick Maker (Another NPC’s activity Mason) (To expose their rival Ward MU 3) (Fawning)
21. Minstral (A local custom) (To get revenge on someone) (Baffled)
22. Cupbearer (A location no one else knows about) (To impress their crush (you)) (Lackadaisical)
23. ChambermaidA household malfunction happening right in front of you) (To get revenge on someone) (mistakes you for the guard who they are skeptical of)
24. Gardener (Heard an extremely inaccurate rumor) (To rescue someone dear to them) (Furious)
25. Fisher (A portent or omen) (To clear their name) (Baffled)
26. Chaplin (Fixated on the activities of the Steward)(To become rich) (Desperate)
27. Ward (MU 1) (The latest fad) (Mistakenly believe it will help then rescue a loved one) (Envious)
28. Ward (MU 1) (Craving a specific kind of food) (To impress their crush) (Baffled)
29. Ward (MU 2) (A magic item not in their possession) (To be left alone) (Scamming)
30. Ward (MU 3) (Collects something rare but not necessarily valuable) (To prove someone wrong) (Obsequious)

For a "give", which was not in the tables, I think mostly it will be something the NPC can make or research for the PCs.

To really polish this off, I should turn these into sentences as demonstrated in the original post. But I'm not going to let the perfect be the enemy of the good (enough). So, I'll just print the above off, punch holes in it, and put it in the campaign binder.