NPC taxonomy

Incidentally, I think this makes
quite a good holy symbol.

Back in the 80s, psychologists came up with what they call the Big Five Personality Traits model for describing people. Their feelings, motivations, methods, etc. I'm not sure it's a good enough model for describing a real-world person with all their complexities, but it seems fine for NPCs.

In this model people are described by where they fall on five sliding scales:

Openness to experience

A character high on the openness scale is going to be curious. A low score will make them cautious.

Conscientiousness

A high score means being prepared, a low score means being spontaneous.

Extraversion

A high score means being outgoing and sociable. A low score means solitary and self-sufficient.

Agreeableness

A highly agreeable character will go with the flow and co-operate easily. Low agreeability means being strong-willed and independent.

Neuroticism

A high score means always on the lookout for trouble, a low score means being confident. 

I don't think that low scores are necessarily a negative thing. I've tried to present them here as being advantages in their own way. The diagram below makes no such attempt:

You, in a nutshell

I use a 10-point scale for convenience. I'm always looking for new ways to categorise NPCs for solo play. Tools to give me an idea of how they're likely to react under pressure, which way they'll jump. I think this one hits the sweet spot in terms of usefulness vs complexity. It also has two other things going for it: 

It has a neat acronym, which makes it memorable. Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism: OCEAN. As noted before, I like to do my solo play tools-free. Anything that helps in memorising is a plus for that. (It would be better if the terms weren't  multisyllabic words, but that's not how psychologists work.)

It's also broadly compatible with Traveller's planetary qualities model, with a single, simple tweak of stretching the scale to 16 digits. That means that some day a Traveller character may speak the words "Yeah?! Well I colonised YER MUM last night!" and be (mechanically speaking) correct.

Most NPCs aren't going to fall at the extremes of the scale, so for each category I make a 3M10 roll. I roll 3d10, then remove the highest and lowest scores, leaving only the middle one. Charting these rolls would give you a nice smooth curve like the one below.

For the full array that's 15 dice a'rollin', so you could also just click here:

0 0 0 0 0

For my first test I got a result of 7 3 7 4 10. This NPC is curious, spontaneous, sociable, likes to have their own way and is confident to the point of narcissism. I think it's this guy:

I would have liked to see the episode where they 'let him at it'
and he gets punted into a canning machine

That 10 score is an extreme result, occurring in just over 2% of people. There has to be an interesting story in his background to explain how he turned out that way.

New spell: Urtell's Appropriated Abode

This spell conjures a house with bedrooms equal to the number of the party divided by two. If the surroundings are cold, a fire is lit and there is a an adequate supply of wood. If it's evening, hot food is set on the table. There's a pair of boots by the door. Coats hanging from the rack... children's toys scattered on the rug...?

Wait, did you steal someone's actual house?

Spells like Secure Shelter and Magnificent Mansion are useful, obviously. A safe haven in the wilderness when you need some downtime? Perfect. But there's so much interdimensional linkage to set up. Ethereal construction. Page upon page of calculations. Ugh. It's so much easier to just reach out across folded space and yank the nearest suitable dwelling to you!

And before it returns to its owners the following morning, you can loot it. 

Urtell's Appropriated Abode

3rd Level Magic-User Spell
Duration: 8 hours
Range: level x 10 miles from abode

The spell will bring a building, but leave anything it recognises as a sentient mind behind. That means the characters will sometimes find themselves responsible for a demented grandparent or a blackout drunk tavern patron overnight.

If there are no buildings in range of the spell, it brings the closest thing it can find. A large animal's lair, an overturned cart, two big rocks leaning against each other. It's a co-operative spell and it does its best.

The abode is not in its own pocket dimension. Lights in the windows are visible from a distance. If the building gets attacked, the characters will need to defend it or escape out the back.

Once the abode begins to show signs of returning to its place, characters have one exploration turn to gather their things and leave. Stay too long, and they risk being transported back to the building's original location (3 in 6). There are probably people there who will ask difficult questions.

Roll to see what kind of building the spell brings:

House table 1 (1d6)

1. Peasant cottage
2. Peasant cottage
3. Peasant cottage
4. Artisan's house/shop
5. Artisan's house/shop
6. Special. Roll on table 2
   

House table 2 (1d6)

1. Wealthy home
2. Military barracks
3. Stables
4. Tavern
   
5. Granary
6. Jailhouse
   

Loot tables

Peasant cottage

1. Old but sharp kitchen knife
2. Fresh apple pie
3. 2d6 rushlights (shed light like candle but go out if moved)
   
4. Woollen blanket
5. Corn husk doll (not haunted)
6. Fishing rod
   

Artisan's house/shop

1. Craft tools
2. Leather apron
3. Burlap sack
4. Grease
5. 2d6 planks
6. Coal sack

Wealthy home

1. 2d6 gold coins
2. 2d6 candles
3. Haunch of venison
4. Quality cloak
   
5. Soap
6. Saddle

Barracks

1. Boot polish
2. Poor-quality helmet
3. Horse barding
4. Sack of unwashed tabards
   
5. Bedroll
6. Training dummy

Stables

1. Harness
2. Liniment
3. Hay bale
4. 2d6 horses
5. Rake
6. Colic remedy (triple-distilled alcohol and some kind of herb)

Tavern

1. 1d4 sleeping drunk patrons
2. cask of good ale
3. Cookpot
4. Barman's friend (leather-wrapped oak club)
5. Ladle
6. Set of marked cards
   

Granary

1. Grain
2. Grain
3. Grain
4. Grain
5. Grain
6. Grain

Jailhouse

1. Leg irons
2. 1d4 wanted posters
3. Slops bucket (full)
4. Straw (soiled)
5. Filthy blanket
6. Oil lamp