The Joy of Creating Townsfolk

While I was spending time with my husband working on our current campaign we decided to generate some townsfolk for the town in which my party just ensconced itself. It is collaborative storytelling after all, and we only have other players off and on, so we try to get the most out of every aspect of the game. In this particular instance, the NPC generator we use threw up a story thread.

We use an NPC generator to round out our campaign world. The first name, amongst other important information, for the new shepherd we had been working on that it gave us, was Abed. Anyone who has watched the television show Community will recognize this name. We immediately latched onto it in order to fill out this character. We didn’t go with your everyday Abed, we went for the video game Abed from season 3 episode 20 “Digital Estate Planning”, since he was married with children. His lovely wife Hilda had previously given birth to 3 Identical sons Abbin, Tobbin, and Bobbin. Her father is, of course, the town blacksmith. His smithy being set ablaze by depraved adventures passing through town has now been added to the town’s random encounter table as a single-use event.

Of course, this character is just a framework. Except for using the possibility of the blacksmith burning down, we won’t be using other events from that episode or any other episode. We haven’t built our entire game world on memes, television characters, and musicians. It just helps when some of the things, art, and people you interact with are literally recognizable. In almost every occurrence we chose one aspect to borrow. The actual physical appearance, but not the personality talents, or past, etc…; the personality or talent, but not the physical appearance, or past, etc…; the backstory, but not the physical appearance or personality or talents, etc…. This helps keep the real person separate from the fictional character being created for the game. Many times, especially not artists, are renamed.

That is what made this character creation so comical and exciting. Not only was the name generated by the program but the personality traits of awkwardness and logic were also assigned to him, while carefree and talkative were given to Hilda. When we rolled identical triplets the character was sealed. It was THAT Abed.

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This is another “song” I wrote while playing with my husband. Since I wanted to play a more bard-heavy, and arts-inclined campaign, we decided that we would include real-life musicians and artists, and their work to fill the world with relatable identifiable art.

Assigning them to places in the game we felt they fit in. This allows PC’s to “cover” songs at no bonus, or create their own works for a set bonus. since many people can not write music, or have alternative artistic talents, it gives some fun opportunities. That bonus isn’t tied to how well the created piece is liked, only to the effort expended to make something yourself. I really enjoyed this homebrew mechanic, if you want to or have tried something like it, I would love to hear your ideas!

No Ones Number Two

V1:

I was never fierce before,

the day I was put in second place.

That was the day I never lost again!

Chorus:

I walked away from that loser streak.

Head held high, star ready to fly!

(With backup singers all together)

Dyed my hair,

dumped his ass,

picked up my pick,

strummed out a blast!

V2:

I AM NUMBER ONE!

Second to absolutely none!

If I fail, I’ll live with that,

nobody puts me behind someone else’s back!

CHORUS

V3:

A life in the light, that’s for me.

Ladies throw up your hands if you’re coming with me.

Don’t be overshadowed some tiny dick,

blow his candle out,

laugh it off, and run out into the sun!

CHORUS

V4 x2: Nothing can slow me down baby,

My eyes will glitter forever (backup singers)

Now we’re picking up speed

My toes will torch the sky (backup singers)

Just follow my lead!

PRISM

K.B. Silver