Author Topic: NPC levels consensus? (SM:P)  (Read 1516 times)

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Offline Gallowglacht

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NPC levels consensus? (SM:P)
« on: March 12, 2015, 03:24:52 PM »
Hi forumites. I hope nobody minds my random, stream of consciousness questions as I snatch breaks from a programming project. I have another one.

Is there a roughly agreed upon level that people use for NPC's in the universe? Like how in old D&D most NPC's were level 0, or how in Traveller 20 NPC's tended to be 3/6/9/12 for rookie/professional/expert/elite. Or does everyone pick their own defaults to match their universe. I tend to like Sci-fi settings where the PC's start a bit more experience and competent than in Fantasy setting where I am more likely to go all "heroes journey"/"zero to hero". Any opinion on what level that experience competent should be, roughly?

Offline Cory Magel

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Re: NPC levels consensus? (SM:P)
« Reply #1 on: March 12, 2015, 04:17:38 PM »
There's been lots of discussion of this elsewhere.  I'm one of those who do not believe there is a simple answer to this and that a generic answer is of very little use.  It's going to depend on GM/Player play style, genre, the setting within that genre.

From a design standpoint my opinion is that the average joe is going to be 'zero' or first level and that various sets of adolescence skills or maybe one level of bought skills will determine what that is.  A child raised on the street is going to have a very different set of 'zero level' skills than a child that went to your settings equivalent of Harvard.  From there it's a matter of their experiences.  Star Trek, Star Wars, Firefly, Battlestar Galactica... each of these settings will result in different progressions.  Even within, let's say Star Wars or Firefly there will be variations.  If you started off as a moisture farmer (Luke) on a backwater planet you're going to look very different than an imperial drop out turned smuggler from Cosecant (Han).
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Offline yammahoper

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Re: NPC levels consensus? (SM:P)
« Reply #2 on: March 12, 2015, 04:27:41 PM »
Late tweens/young adults 10-15 are level 1-2.
Young Adult/adults 16-26 are level 3-5.
middle age adults 27-45 are middle age, levels 6-12.
The silver years are 46-65, levels 13-15.
Elder is 66+ and is level 16-20.

Standard NPC's will never access magic over level 20.  Their magical exposure is typically prosaic and training package magic, though guilds often guard those with an intense jealousy.

Using EV and OCC, a single spell list can easily reach level 20+ by middle age, so the higher level prosaic spells are not rare, yet remain just out of everyday on availability.  Waiting list, contacts, good reputations and bribes are common routes players ply the game with to gain such worthy audience.

Also, most skills are developed one ranks per level.  With only 50 dev, NPC's cant afford a bunch of 4/12 cost.  Insteasthey excel in their skill set relying on the EV ratings all Laymen apply to the skills of their hosen/born into profession.
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Offline markc

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Re: NPC levels consensus? (SM:P)
« Reply #3 on: March 12, 2015, 05:31:50 PM »
 I  can speak for my fantasy game in which most average people are level 5-10, I would bump that up by 1-4 levels for a future game depending on the " stresses and experiences" of the population.
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