NPC Nobles?

[JohnB]

We are just coming to the end of Stolen Land, and I am about to drag every one back to Restov for a social event. It started out as a ball, but now has a Noble investiture, awards ceremonies for the PCs and a wedding between a PC and an NPC (who started off as a PC)

I have a dozen PC's split across two groups and each of them will receive a few BP personally.

In a few weeks time I will need to describe 30 or 40 individual nobles - who may (or may not) have some sort of Venture Capital type offer to make to the PCs.

That is an awful lot of descriptions I need to come up with. And I know I get repetitive and stale. If anyone has any Noble / Courtier / Celebrity descriptions knocking around - I would appreciate it if you would share :)

I know there are some in earlier threads, and I will go back and collect them later - but I would still be grateful if anyone has anything they can share.

Thanks.

[pennywit]

You don't think small, do you? I wouldn't start with the actual 30-40 nobles. You'll drive yourself crazy. Instead, I'd start with the factions, describe them and their agenda, and adapt them for use with the influence rules. Then I'd build the representatives from each faction.

I'd write up a social stat block for each representative, then use the PCs' interaction with those representatives to build the group's social stat block to use long-term.

Within this forum, your obvious starting point is the [url=http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2l9a9?Venture-Capital-aka-A-Deal-with-the-Devil">Venture Capital[/url] thread. IF the influence system is too much, some darn fool suggested another system that might do you some good as well.

I'll try to help you with more later. And don't forget the Aristocrat NPCs thread.

[Mondragon]

If you work with people from restov. You can import game of thrones characters or disguise them with another aspect as you prefer

Oh! And change their families and mottos to appropiate for brevoy.

You can include some nobles from pitax (spys of irovetti, enemys of iroetti...) And people from diferents river kingdoms, give the players chances to ally or not with a faction in each river kingdom. And same with brevoy politics.

Even you can introduce npcs from book 3 or/and 4
: The other group of explorers of the stolen lands

[Isabelle Lee]

Now seems like a good time to remind folks about the Dragonscale loyalists. ^_^

[JohnB]

Pennywit - Small is no fun :) It started out as the almost obligatory 'social event' to allow the PCs to meet Drelev and Varn etc. Then as the In-game story developed (partly driven by the PCs) it grew and grew ...

I have the factions. Loads of them, with some tailored to individual player back histories. I have a streamlined (house ruled) version of both the Kingdom Rules and the Influence Systems, as well as some Investor rules for Characters who are not interested in building their own stronghold / domain.

I will be going back to trawl the Venture Capital thread for descriptions and personalities then tweaking them for my game - the game stats aren't important as it will all be played in a more free-form way at a formal party.

BTW - I am still grateful for the suggestions you made the first time I ram Kingmaker. A 12yr old L1 Aristo you suggested morphed into Galine - who became a recurring (minor pain in the neck) NPC for that group. She became great friends with Tig (another recurring pain in the neck) - and they eventually settled down together to run Whiterose :)

Mondragon - I have never watched or read GoT - to busy doing my own stuff now-a-days. But I have customised The Brevoy Noble families, developed a political system for Brevoy and populated it with primary nobles and minor families. I also have a slightly customised version of Mivon and quite a few, lower ranking, New Stetven families (in various depths of development)

Isabelle Lee - Dragonscale Loyalists don't fit my game well :) I do, however, have a number of minor factions made up from the remains of House Rogarvia after everyone "of the Blood" disappeared. All those wives, a few husbands, adopted members, A bunch of villages whose leaders are descended from Iobarian Barbarians who came with Choral. And House Khavortorov, who were added after the AP was written.

I have all of the factions, politics, groups etc in place. I just need enough descriptions to that I can flesh out a lot of nobles who will be in attendance at one of the social gathering of the year.

*grin* However, seeing as it is in Restov, miles away from anywhere and organised at fairly short notice, many of the attendees will be junior house members etc etc.

I want to have enough Nobles that the PCs don't know which ones have good deals for them - which ones are just trying to get into the pants of the good looking ones (boy and girls) and which ones are just there for the Free Booze :)

(The groom very kindly decided his brother was a priest of Cayden, for a laugh. So the family member who gets drunk and really boisterous in front of all the important guests was 'gifted' to me :)

[pennywit]

How about a visitor from the Colony of Immortal Arts?

OK, some real thoughts. I use these situations not just for fun, but as an opportunity to foreshadow the future.

Maegar Varn ought to be a cinch, there to beg for his own dough and find out about his new neighbors. I might also throw in the adventurer (name escapes me) who will eventually visit Vordekai's tomb.

Imeckus Stroon and his sister Pavetta Stroon ought to be good guests. It might be fun to watch them rather blatantly hang around Hannis Drelev.

If you're planning to run Courts of the Shadow Fey, it might be fun if Hidden Ambassador Thelemadrine drops in, without hinting at his true allegiance.

Grigori ought to be there as well.

Some more ideas:

Bontal Aldori, a Swordlord who's known for dirty fighting (if you have to stat him up, make him a rogue focused on Feints and the Dirty Trick and Steal lines of feats). He's a somewhat charismatic fellow who looks for any excuse for a duel where he can humiliate someone.

The Black Prince, a villain from Courts of the Shadow Fey. I rebuilt him into a Vilderavn who's created quite a bit of trouble for my PCs.

Channah Wix, a young female aristocrat (from a house sworn to House Surtova) who has a huge crush on Bontal Aldori. However, he doesn't doesn't know she exists.

Sumtel Wix, Channah's older brother, who is furious that Bontal hasn't acknowledge his sister. He's hoping to set up a fight between Bontal and somebody who is obviously more powerful than him.

Burgro Ironfell, a dwarven factotum who represents the interests of a dwarven merchant clan from the Golushkin Mountains. He is looking for iron-mine concessions, and is willing to pay handsomely. (stat-wise, players will get a large up-front BP payout when they establish their first couple mines, but will lose the mines' BP bonus for the first 2 years of their existence).

Poyla Surtova, a lesser cousin in the ruling house. She is something of a social butterfly and is full of gossip about everyone at the social event.

Charles, a winebearer. He sometimes mixes hallucenogenic drugs into the wine he serves for his own amusement.

Skix, a gnome accountant. He is willing to talk, at length, about ledgers and debts to anybody who listens to him. He is also has a strange spell-like ability: three times per day, he can cast Suggestion (CL 8) as a spell-like ability, but it is limited to "Stay here and listen to me talk to you about numbers."

Lord Brog, a minor half-orcish baron from the River Kingdoms who is in town to trade horses.

Satinder Morne (see Blood for Blood), a priestess of Calistria who is in town to make contacts before she goes to Fort Drelev.

[pennywit]

Incidentally, for this many, you might want to look to a random NPC generator for ideas:

Donjon

Myth-Weavers

Kassoon

[JohnB]

Thanks. I use these events to foreshadow and introduce PCs to NPCs as well.

I hadn't thought of this event being BEFORE the Drelev marriage. I'll have to think on that one. Terrion Numesti and his daughters will be there though - last time I ran this I managed to get one of the PCs 'courting' Tamary by sending letters back and forth. It made Kisandra's quest an absolute necessity for them. :) Tamary became our rulers spouse/consort.

In my world, Varnhold is much more a colony of Restov and part of their plan for greater influence - so Maegar Varn is more of an administrator than competition (although he will be at the event, along with his adoptive half-orc daughter). My game plays up Building a Noble House and leaving an inheritance type thing, rather than the Fey - so no-one from the any extra Fey based modules in my game :)

I think a number of the others might well appear as part of the background cast though :) I'll make them just interesting enough that the PCs might interact with them, and get caught up in their stories.