GMs, how do you prep your NPC sheets?

[WeekendWarriors]

So longtime GM, first time trying to be great at it lol. Now that school is long finished & my career is looking to be on autopilot I'm trying to use my newfound free time to improve my game running abilities. I like to use modules & adventure paths, but I want to pull things out & build up a campaign journal. Let alone I'm new to that in general, I want to also fill out NPC, Kingdom/Army, & Settlement sheets (another project I'm trying to do in Adobe right now).

As I go through & see either monsters or named NPC's, what do other GMs fill out? Just the named NPC's? If the mosters have class levels do you fill out some for them? Do you just make one for everything?

I want to get away from simply using the block in the scenario. As my entire collection is in PDF, it's too cumbersome to flip back & forth like I used to with the old 3rd/3.5 books. I'd like to put things that actually fit into a sheet of somekind that I can print off & have on hand during my sessions, leaving my iPad to just run the scenarios or lookup rules quickly. Am I making this more difficult that it needs to be haha?

-CJ

[Eltacolibre]

I just write it down and use links or google doc to access it during the game.

[chbgraphicarts]

NPC Codex is my answer for non-important NPCs.

That book has over 500 stat blocks for NPCs; that's more than enough to populate an entire world with generic characters.

If a character is important enough to warrant a custom design, I just make a Character Sheet or Stat Block for the NPC in question.

[tonyz]

I tend to write down a summary stat block using the stuff I think will be used. For real mooks, you just need AC, hit points, saves, and attack modifier (maybe Perception for guards); you may need more for other creatures. I have my own format (came up with it in the early days of 3.0 and just never changed). I can generally get everything I need about the monster into 3-4 lines unless it's particularly complicated.

[WeekendWarriors]

Well, I guess what I'm getting at is taking the ones already in the modules & adventure paths. I'm not trying to create new ones, just want to have the npc's, the monsters, the settlements etc on some kind of quick reference sheet that I can keep in a binder between sessions, so that way I can just keep where we are in the module/AP on my ipad & not have to go back to scrolling through to find the stat blocks.

So that clarifying a lil, when is a monster/npc warranting it's own character sheet? Or do I only need to pick out key things from the stat block to write down on some 3"x5" not cards?

Thanks for the quick replies!

[voideternal]

I only put NPC notes on index cards when I plan to give PC temporary control over some NPCs. I fill them out pre-session and make them simple, with, say, attack, hp, ac, saves.
The NPCs I hand to Players are usually helpful NPCs. Sometimes I prepare hostile NPCs notecards if I suspect a PC might be disabled / killed and otherwise unable to enjoy the combat.

For Mosters / NPCs, I prepare different things.
For combat-encounter NPCs, I prepare a googledoc with summarized combat block that is concise and color coded so I can look at it and find the attack modifier with just a glance.
For non-combat encounter NPCs, I mostly memorize their plot relevance, but I note down concise distinguishing features and talking habits that help make the NPC more memorable.

For all notes, I try to be concise as possible. The last thing I want to do in a session is spend 5 minutes reading long notes.