Central Casting (a.k.a NPC ideas)
 

Hey guys I thought I would share some ideas for NPCs.

Up first is Dan the movie guy.
Dan is a film buff, either he worked at the local video rental store or in 2013 found the local Netflix mail center and now goes from town to town either selling the films that he has or showing them in the town. If the second option he needs to be well equipped with a generator and projector.
Twist to keep you PC on their toes.
1) He really is a spy for the local bandits, he can get in to the town easily and get the lay of the land.
2) He just as he is give the PC a night at the movies for some much needed R & R.
This idea came from an aunt who grew up during the great depression in South Dakota. A traveling movie theater came to town every so often.


Up next is Stacy the road house owner.
Stacy owns and runs the towns only "restaurant", bar and "Hotel" Granted it is not the Four Seasons and it may not have a Michelin star ranked chef but for a post war world it is dam great.
Twists
1) She dose have a Michelin ranked chef working in the kitchen.
2) the booze is pure rotgut, those who drink too much may not wake up.

Ryan was a cruise director on a cruise ship that was travelling the off the coast of France when the nukes hit. The mainly east European crew rebelled and dropped off the passengers at the nearest port and sailed the ship to Albania where the ship lays rusting in a port.

1) Ryan is still on board the ship and is running it like a hostel for refugees.
2) Ryan was a Russian agent and his job was to track the US fleet while cruising the waters of the Mediterranean.

The mayor of crazy town.
The PC pull into what looks like a empty town, only to see a person dressed in a 3 piece suit come walking up to them. This person thanks them for stopping in and is glad to see the "the government has sent help".
Twists.
1) He hits them up for a food "donation" for his campaign.
2) They have to sit in on the court case that he is holding. He will pick one PC to be the prosecuting attorney and one to be the defense attorney. The court room is in session. The entire room is dresses with corpse, with the mayor is the judge. Now you can have your own reason for the "court case" but a good one is this town had a refuge camp near by and the old mayor and most of the other town people "ran them off" (killed them)
The new mayor was part of this but during the raid he snapped and then started in on then old mayor the others and now wants to see justice done.

A diplomat from another country (could be neutral, could be friendly, but definitely not from around here).

1. He's got a stash of intelligence information (mostly pre-war) around here.
2. He's got a collection of refugees from his nation, that he's been trying to get out. Option: they've given up on getting out, and have settled into an abandoned village. A quiet little corner of Mexico (or whatever) in Poland.
3. He's a KGB officer, in disguise, hoping to infiltrate the players' group.
4. He's a KGB officer, who was running a scheme to smuggle weapons from that country to this one.

Richard the poser.
Meet Richard he is in charge of the village defense force, due his years with SEAL Team A or the SAS' 27th Ranger strike force. You never heard of that unit, well they were super black ops don't you know.
All of this guys training is from "camp x-box" or he washed out of the armed forces and now after the end of the world as we know it he reinvented himself.

Twists
1) He means well and the lie just got out of hand and is in the deep end of the pool. He could be the unit leader if you are running an all civilian PC campaign.
2) He just left the village after the crap it the fan and was show to be the liar he was. The PC now have to pick up the pieces.
3) He knows just enough to be a danger to is men, the PC have work with him and his men.

A Video Projector which would make more sense that a movie projector; which would are big and bulky to transport; and because they can be connected to VCR (or DVD in 2013) getting movies for them would be easier also.

Yeah the idea was a video projector, but I suppose he could be using an old projector found in an abandon school. And If he is a big enough film geek he could have a bunch films for it.

Another thought concerning VCR/DVD. Yes the VCR was well developed if you start the War with V1 or V2.2. So that can work. But with the war starting in the 90's, I wonder if DVD would even exist?

I have never read 2013, so I can not comment on that, I do not know the timeline of start...

My $0.02

Mike

The Twilight 2013 has a personal DVD player in the equipment list. When I first posted this list of NPC it was for T2013 but feel free to adjust the ideas for your game and if any of you other guys have ideas for NPC why not post them.

NPC
 

Hanna the Whore: She was orphaned at 16 during TDM. SHe drifted into prostitution shortly there after to help keep a younger sibling alive during the food shortages.

Twists:
1) Hanna is a "swallow" for the KGB. Her parents were 1960's radicals who were subverted by the KGB after they were involved in the bombing of a ROTC at a local collage campus.
2) Hanna is a "swallow" for the CIA/FBI/NSA. Or some other Alphabet organization. For the same reasons as above.
3) Hanna is a "Typhoid Mary". She contracted HIV/AIDS. She knows about it, and as long as she can, she is determined to kill as many men as she can.

My $0.02

Mike

Here's a character I created as my own personal PC, changed for NPC use:

Dutch the DJ. used to run his own personal 'radio station' back in his Vermont hometown. He got drafted, and was the personal radioman for some REMF. Now he's still carrying his manpack, hoping from a 'call from on-high'.

Twists:
1. His radio hasn't worked for months, and he lies about orders received
2. His radio does work, but he's gotten a bit unhinged from all the Russian chatter.
3. His radio does work, but he thinks any orders given are from 'Commie Saboteurs'.

I designed him with the 5th ID in focus, but I'm sure he could be anyone, even a Civvie DJ in some town inside CONUS somewhere.

NPC I created

Duke is a blacksmith who runs a small shop, doing repairs on farm equipment, tools and shoeing horses. He dresses in very old fashioned clothes and walks around with a Colt Dragoon strapped to his side at all times. He is a very good blacksmith and people come from miles around to make use of his talents.

Twists
1) Duke is not his real name. During the TDM he was injured by flying debris and now believes he is the Duke - i.e. John Wayne. His blacksmith skills are very much for real and were not impaired by his injury.
2) The Colt Dragoon is an authentic Civil War pistol and he is dead accurate with it, with a PST of 90.
3) If he feels himself offended he will challenge them to "meet him in the street at noon!", a challenge that so far has resulted in him killing over a dozen men foolish enough to take him on.

I'll look through my notes, but "Hannah" could work for the marauders as well. Keeping an eye on troops and merchants then passing the intel on to the final customer that night.

VERY nasty!!

My $0.02

Mike

Amy Smith, Banker.
Amy thought she would be running this town, not the fools who are now in charge. She has the "right skills" to run this place, well she acts like it at lease.
Twists
1) she and her side is just one of 2 (or more) sides fighting for control of the town. See the movie "A fistful of dollars" or "Yojimbo"

Dr. Dave Dovack DDS
The good doctor is a dentist. "Have bad tooth will pull" He is traveling in the same convoy as the PC.
Twists
1) He is not a dentist, he just likes putting people through pain.
2) He is after the same thing as the PC, if he catches one of them well you did see that part of the movie "the marathon man" right?

The "True Patriot"
He is the last true member of the rightful government what ever government that maybe. And he has the guys with guns to back it up.
Now you can use this guy as the local bad guys, heaven help your PC if they get captured by him. Especially if any of them are foreigners.
Or they can come to the rescue of your PC if things are going south.

Is it safe?

yeah that was the seed for that NPC.

The reverend.

The PC have come across the good reverend and his flock. Now this group has a odd take on thing, best way to describe it is, man had relied too much on technology, and god brought down his wrath to bring us back to the way that he intended for mankind to live.
So there calling is to destroy anyone and those items that is an affront to god.

Twists.
1) This is a splinter group from the main church, the reason for the split is the church is going too far or not far enough. Example the main church is ok with a 1900's era level of tech, but this splinter group is ok with a 1940's or the other way around, or pick your own tech levels.

2) The reverend is using technology to destroy technology when they reach their goal then they too will get rid of what they are using. (Or not)

The Librarian.
Remember the old 'reading is fundamental' van well it is back.
This guy travels with the a merchant caravan as the local lending library.
Or he runs the town library.
Twists.
1) "For a bookworm you do know a lot about killing." He was not always one, before this he was a special forces solider and had enough of killing and destruction, now he wants to rebuild things.

2) The "good reverend and his flock of religious nut-jobs" are after the Librarian because she is teaching people the "wrong things"

Stan the Sentinal:

Location, Gettysburgh, PA

In a quiet museum, a lone figure sits in the gloom. He has his back to a display that has (?) one of the original copies of the Gettysburgh Address. The sentinal has decided that HE must guard one of the seminal writings in American History. He is dressed in Vietnam era camo, he has a Browning Semi-Auto 12 ga. shotgun. On his hip is a Colt 1911 .45. He has PLENTY of ammo for both weapons. Plus a really wicked looking Bowie Knife.

Stan has stockpiled a large amount of Vietnam era "C" rations, water, a sleeping bag, and various other camping articles. He has rigged the entrances with alarms. (Mostly very fine fishing line attached to tin cans with rocks, bells and other noise producing items.)

Stan feels that he is performing "A Sacred Duty". There is no telling how to "talk him down".

Twists:

1) That is REALLY one of the five known copies of the Gettysburgh Address!!!

2) Stan was a GB that was ordered to collect the G.A. and bring it to the Presidential Retreat in Maryland. The chaos of TDM unhinged his mind so that he imagines his orders are to protect vs. retrieve.

Sorry, maybe missing something here, but what's a GB in this context?

Sorry, I should have used proper nomenclature. "GB" is American slang for Green Beret. One of the US special forces that specialize in local counter-terrorism.

My $0.02

Mike

Thanks, I'm familiar with Green Berets, had just never heard the term 'GB' used to refer to them.

Cheers

Buying Bread
 

You meet a man from Brussels, He is six-foot-four and full of muscles

You say, "Do you speak-a my language?

He justs smiled and gives you vegemite sandwich

Ring Any Bells

Can you finish this off

Does he come from a land down under?

No, I don't want to "finish off" a 6'4" muscular dude from Brussells. Not unless there's a a lot of beer involved, and hopefully some cash :D

if there's a lot of beer and some cash involved you'll likely get a bit butthurt in the process.

here's one i like to use.
theres a woman going around the local villages who always has something to trade that is in critically low supply wherever at whatever village she stops at.

a) she's sitting on a large supply cache left built and forgotten about during the cold war
b) she's been stealing supplies from the villages at night and then openly comeing in the next day with supplies.

From where the beer does flow and the men chunder?

Uh oh, can you hear the thunder (from the mushroom clouds on the horizon)? You better take cover!! :saevil2:


On a side note....vegemite, gah! :dead:

Perhaps that "large supply cache" could in fact be similar to the one found in the module Allegheny Uprising?

Vegemite's good for you. A potent source of iron. Don't you want to grow up big and strong? I understand if you can't stomach it though, it really is a food only for the hardiest of people (such as Australians). :D

A source of iron, maybe. But aren't there better sources of iron than yeast that's been scooped out of beer vats and marketed as a spread? Ugh! Waste not, want not I suppose...

Ahem, back to topic. Here's an idea for a character....Bloody Mary.

"Bloody Mary" may sound like a boogeyman (boogeywoman?) or ghost, but Bloody Mary in this case happens to be a very buxom and desirable NPC who runs her own brothel full of surprisingly high class, well paid "escort girls".

Possibilities:

A) Bloody Mary is in fact just a tad crazy, she just doesn't let it on. And her brothel is in on it, apparently finding her craziness rather infectious (think of Manson's "children"). For any number of reasons from war-related trauma, hidden insanity, PTSD, etc. she may promise to give the NPC's both entertainment and shelter for a "reasonable price" which unfortunately includes their deaths, or, perhaps even worse, they become the main course for dinner! Hence the name Bloody Mary.

B) Bloody Mary is in fact a KGB agent, and her "girls" are in fact part of a spy apparatus either still working for the Soviets (and may or may not have a rather nasty encounter with the PC's), or just trying to survive or even try to acquire enough resources to make their way back to what's left of the Soviet Union.

C) Bloody Mary is in fact an intel operative for CivGov/Milgov, or any number of NATO/WEstern intel agencies along with her girls, and they happen to have a mission they need the PC's to perform...they may even tag along to provide some interesting....er, support. After completion of the mission, the girls may promise the PC's an interesting evening, feeling they've been a bit freewheeling as of late and may require "discipline"...

Bloody Mary appears to said PC's in a dominatrix outfit with a riding crop. "Have YOU been a naughty boy?"

I think I need brain bleach now. :o

"Bubba": Bubba and his crew of trash loved 4X4's and firearms before the war. Now they are the 21ST century version of bravos, getting into trouble and testing to see if the thin blue line is broken under the collapse of society.
These young men and women are from powerful families and are tolerated.
Bubba's crew are convinced they could be better than any "soldier boys".

There was a Challenge adventure with a similiar group in it. Bubba may be smarter than he appears. And ca be a horrible PITA.

The Professor.
Meet Professor Jones, he was a history professor at the local university and now he is either the power or the real power behind the figurehead.
He has started reshaping the town to be like Rome with himself as ceaser. Now he is not calling himself that that would be crazy, but he has structured the governing consul like the roman senate with "just enough" of an opposition to his power block to make it look good. (they can be in on it also you know have to keep the masses in place.) During the upheaval the good professor had the foresight to organize the campus police and the ROTC unit to secure the university's: hospital, power plant, nuclear power plant, machine shop to build his base up from and he also has a group of "praetorian guard" to do his wet work.

The outlaw motorcycle gangs could be the barbarians at the gates.

Or the "good" professor has sent his praetorian guard to do a little wet work and take out the mayor of the town that the PCs are helping

The reenactor.

This guy and his buddies were all reenactor (say ww2) they are now the town defense force. This is a great way to get all sort of odd stuff into you game.
For example in the ww2 era unit that I belong to we have.
(We reenact the 502 P.I.R of the 101st Airborne)
3 jeeps, (well one is being rebuilt at the moment)
2 semi auto 1919 MG
4 field phones and one switchboard.
2 man pack radios (I think one works but the other is fixable)
1 field kitchen stove.
2 GP medium tents.
1 GP large tent
2 GP small tents
1 US Army code machine.
All the guys have the basic ww2 era web gear and helmet. 90% have an M1 Garand, 2% M1 carbine, 1 Thompson semi auto, various pistols. the remaining do not have a weapon.
If we were the guys that reenact the Germans their would be more MGs and more smgs (all semi auto) and a half track.

Now if it was the other group 1630's era, that group has:
several tents
5 matchlock muskets (.69 cal)
1 grenade launcher (yes this is right)
2 small mortars.
1 5 pound light cannon.
12 pikes,
various knives, swords, axes.
4 suits of pike-men armor (breast plate, and a helmet)
Granted the 1630's group as kitted out might be cannon fodder.

But think about it you have 10 to 30 members in most groups with some sort of training. Granted the drill manual could be several 100 years out of date but it is some sort of training that could form the base of defense force.

The skillsets in some of the older era reenactors is very wide and deep. Medicine and surgical tech of the American Civil War.
Cooking over a campfire, and not hot dogs and s'mores that's the wife skill. At one event she made 13 pies (various meat and fruit) supervised the roasting of half a lamb and did a venison roast and had 2 loafs of bread from scratch.
I have not gotten in to the skills that the guys that do Mountain Man or Fur Traders have.
Plus some of reenactors do more then one era.
Heck Vietnam reenacting started popping up in the early 2000's if you are using the T2013 setting, so you could have you PC stumble on a "LERP" unit or a group of American Civil War Cavalry all armed with M16s.
If you guys have any questions about this let me know I can give you more info

Some Pictures I found on the Net
 

http://imageshack.us/a/img819/8190/t73c.jpg
The reenactors; ww2 era unit

http://imageshack.us/a/img12/2456/1o6b.jpg
The reenactors; 1630's era unit

http://imageshack.us/a/img547/4338/4xkn.jpg
The Professor

http://imageshack.us/a/img585/1226/vyf7.jpg
The Professor's "praetorian guard"

http://imageshack.us/a/img42/1497/9g2k.jpg
Bubba

http://imageshack.us/a/img39/8868/oj4d.jpg
"Bloody Mary"

http://imageshack.us/a/img196/2118/si1p.jpg
Stan the Sentinel

http://imageshack.us/a/img401/4711/nmu8.jpg
The Librarian

http://imageshack.us/a/img191/3109/wwra.jpg
The Reverend

http://imageshack.us/a/img208/1497/gshq.jpg
The "True Patriot"

http://imageshack.us/a/img32/7483/9w1c.jpg
Amy Smith, Banker

http://imageshack.us/a/img9/4121/h71g.jpg
Dr. Dave Dovack DDS

http://imageshack.us/a/img197/7071/150f.jpg
Duke the blacksmith

http://imageshack.us/a/img404/1005/xspy.jpg
Dutch the DJ

http://imageshack.us/a/img46/5163/xooc.jpg
Hanna the Whore

http://imageshack.us/a/img197/5484/dvlh.jpg
Richard the poser

http://imageshack.us/a/img580/6258/ppmr.jpg
The mayor of crazytown

http://imageshack.us/a/img20/4863/qo8s.jpg
Finnish Cultural Attache; Kauko Gerhard Bohinen (A diplomat from another country)

http://imageshack.us/a/img545/6/w0tf.jpg
Ryan the cruise director

http://imageshack.us/a/img546/9495/ir.jpg
Stacy the roadhouse owner

http://imageshack.us/a/img593/4660/tgvj.jpg
Dan the movie guy

Ha ah, nice! Fun to see all the motley crew 'in person'.

Like the photos.
:D