[Senko]

First off please no obvious answer of "As plot requires" this isn't intended for specific NPC's who are made to suit the game I'm more looking at a worldbuilding aspect of generic person working a day to day lifestyle. In the past I've used karma as a general guildeline of person X has this much karma and this kind of skillset. However I was thinking recently life modules could work well as a general guideline for a quick generic (not plot related) NPC creation tool tossing out the karma limits and just purchasing modules based on suggested age. For example a general manager of a stuffer shack (29 years old) would be able to purchase nationality, childhood, teen years and then additional modules to bring them up to their age limit i.e.

UCAS: Seattle
Corp Drone
High School
Community College - Business
Regular Job
Corporate wage slave

27/29 no more modules can be taken. End result a 29 year old  manager with a good etiquette (7), negotiation (5), leadership (4) and perception (5 to spot problems in the store they manage, could also split with artisan for some basic life skills e.g. cooking), a solid understanding of economic theory, business management, conflict resolution and other skills. It may be necessary to remove a few things e.g. limited corporate SIN but it does seem to work.

Only problem is that very old people can purchase a ridculous number of modules so I may need to cap it at 30/40 maybe. Anyway what do people think for a quick generic citizen generation method can life modules work like this?

[fseperent]

I could see it working to create a baseline for attributes and skills.
Would advise adding another module or 2 for important NPCs to mark them as better than John Q. Public.

[Senko]

Could work of course most important NPC's would be ones you'd stat specifically for storyline purposes, still maybe for the ones who aren't instead of extra modules give them a flat 100-200 karma to spend in order to specifically adjust a desired value?

[Glyph]

Life modules tend to result in skills that are too high (because it is made for creating shadowrunners) and attributes that are too low - at least the non-core ones (because it assumes attributes will be bought up with remaining Karma).  It is good if you are making corporate types who are better than your average wage slave, but doesn't make a typical wage slave very well.

[Senko]

Hmmm I may have gotten a skewed perspective of what's an appropriate skill value given the dice pools this forum seems to feel are "appropriate". I know I always seem to have too small a dice pool in the 10-14 range for new characters.

[Glyph]

12-14 may not be the very best dice pool you can get, but it is a good, respectable dice pool for a shadowrunner.  But for your average wage slave, I would consider such a dice pool far too high.

[Tarislar]

First off please no obvious answer of "As plot requires" this isn't intended for specific NPC's who are made to suit the game I'm more looking at a worldbuilding aspect of generic person working a day to day lifestyle. In the past I've used karma as a general guildeline of person X has this much karma and this kind of skillset. However I was thinking recently life modules could work well as a general guideline for a quick generic (not plot related) NPC creation tool tossing out the karma limits and just purchasing modules based on suggested age. For example a general manager of a stuffer shack (29 years old) would be able to purchase nationality, childhood, teen years and then additional modules to bring them up to their age limit i.e.


Anyway what do people think for a quick generic citizen generation method can life modules work like this?

I had this same idea back when I first read about Life Modules when RunFaster was released.

Now, a year later when I finally got around to purchasing a copy of it I am using it to give stats to my "Contacts" instead of using the basic Priorty or Karma methods.
I feel Life modules is a great way to fill in the story for an NPC.
I wouldn't do it for every random person in an adventure, but since Contacts are supposed to be made the same as PC's, this is the method I'm using for them.
Not to mention the bonus Knowledge skills most life modules come with really fluffs out what each NPC knows.

I think your method of creating a "Template" if you will in this same method for generic NPCs that you can meet "versions" of many times over is also a great idea.  Toss in some quick rolls on the "Contact Quick Generator" stats tables & you could have the same "stats" for 4 NPCs but have them be Male/Human/Old,  Female/Human/Young,  Ork/Male/Young,  Female/Elf/Middle Aged

[Blue Rose]

12-14 may not be the very best dice pool you can get, but it is a good, respectable dice pool for a shadowrunner.  But for your average wage slave, I would consider such a dice pool far too high.

12 dice is a good standard for "a thing you're good at."  For a wage slave, it might be "the thing you're good at."  Which may be less negotiation, perception, and shooting, and more engineering, software, or knowledge: paperwork.  For a competent mall or park guard?  I'd still give them twelve dice with their taser and perception, because those are the things that they do.

You can go up and down from there.  I'd stick with increments of 4.  8 is decent, 4 is bad, 16 is great, 20 is elite.  But those rule of 12 arbitrary dice pools are much more practical than statting out a wage slave.

[Senko]

@Blue Rose
Definately gotten a skewed idea of it then I was under the impression generic people (cops, lawyers, doctors, laborers, etc) were all around the 12-14 range and elite's were in the 20+ with the best of the best ranging into the 30's and 40's. I like what this will mean for any games I run/play in.

@Tarislar
I had random generation tables once they could generate everything height, weight, hair colour, eye colour, distinguishing marks, sex, gender orientation, penis/breast size, kinks, family members, important events growing up even for quick games your character class. My players were afraid to use them which I thought was silly if they didn't want to put the effort in themselves.

[Blue Rose]

An elite generic and a named NPC have different standards of "elite."  Generic elite black ops goon #3 throwing 20 dice for Sneaking and Automatics is reasonable.

When the players are being hunted down by legendary Johnny Two-Legs, the one-legged rigger, the named NPC who you actually build and stat out in full?  Maybe she could swing the 30-40+ range once the runners are novahot drek.

[Senko]

I'm not even sure how you'd go about getting there but I've had way too many "less than 16 is not pulling your weight" and "7-9 for a secondary skill is a waste of points" to avoid that view.

[Blue Rose]

I'm not even sure how you'd go about getting there but I've had way too many "less than 16 is not pulling your weight" and "7-9 for a secondary skill is a waste of points" to avoid that view.

Getting to 16 dice or getting to that viewpoint?

[Senko]

Getting to 20-30 dice on a mage.

[Blue Rose]

On a starting character?

Starting with Exceptional Attribute, for Magic 7 and Spellcasting 6, with a specialization in whatever spells you care about most.  That's 15 dice without much effort.

Elemental Focus is another +2.  Rating 3 Power Focus, Rating 4 .Spellcasting Focus for your specialized class of spells makes another +7.

There's 24 dice before spending edge.  If you can swing an Edge 6 human with Magic 7, then when you spend edge, you're throwing thirty dice to cast your spell.  With explosions.  Ignoring limits.  And then you die of drain.

[Senko]

I see so power focus and spellcasting focus stack. Expensive though buying those and I've never heard of elemental focus.