The online Champions Campaign which has steamed through two sessions now has me thinking I would benefit from a personality generator. One for the on-the-fly NPC, your newspaper person, your real estate agent, appliance salesperson, etc. The characters which are incredibly disposable, and will have no further interaction with the PCs moving forward in a consequential manner. This bunch surely could benefit from one quick handle for the GM to hang their hat on and pin this character in everyone's mind for their short-lived appearance. The theory here is; just because the encounter is singular and not a big deal in the grand scheme of things doesn't mean it shouldn't be played out with some depth like every other damn scene in the game.
More to the point, grab for descriptors and conditions to make the encounter stickier in your player's brains.
The text to generate these lists for the NPC Personality Generator has all come from the 1e DMG. So these are Gary's building blocks. I've just punched them into these HTML buttons so you only have to make two rolls instead of twenty.
Here is the way I've been using these two buttons. Any facts and/or traits which, in my opinion, conflict with each other, pairings which cause me to much dissonance, I cancel out. Cross out both of them. Because I'm not intent on utilizing the entire generated description. I'm interested in coming up with a rather complete personality profile for the new NPC which somehow has become required to the scene.
Sometimes when I hit these generators I'm only looking for, or needing, one description to use. NPCs fleeting in nature seldom require much more. The other way I will use these buttons is to try and use as many of the descriptors as I can. This exercise I employ when the NPC needed deserves more nuanced, complex character profiles.
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Lay it on the Line