NPC Tracking

[tbug]

I must have about a hundred new NPCs for Korvosa already, and we're only just starting the second volume. Normally I can just have a few sheets listing all the NPCs and I'm able to hold them all in my brain, and when I haven't been able to do that (at least in recent years) I've made a wiki. I might still go that route, but I thought I'd see what the rest of you do.

Any suggestions?

[DM Jeff]

We're in the same boat. My wife finally made an excel sheet to share with the group to keep them all in mind!

-DM Jeff

[Big Jake]

Are there really all that many to track?

I've been reading through them, and I actually thought there weren't enough! Maybe I just haven't noticed all of them, or maybe I'm just looking at ones that will pop up again and again.

But then, I fell in love with Age of Worms Overload. I could use a huge PDF of NPCs like that.

[DM Jeff]

There's the ones Nic Logue invented for ch 1 who all get involved, and then there are the dozens my PCs wanted as contacts from the Guide to Korvosa, then...

There's the outside module I'm running tandem with the first three... :-)

-DM Jeff

[Robert Hawkshaw]

Tiddlywiki is pretty handy for sort of thing.

We (the players) made this http://obakai.tiddlyspot.com/ in response to our DMs 3+ year campaign. Only way to keep track of the information.

[tbug]

Big Jake wrote:

Are there really all that many to track?

I've been reading through them, and I actually thought there weren't enough!

You're right, most of my NPCs aren't from the source material. Because all of my PCs are nobles we've detailed the families involved (though some, such as the Arkonas and the Carowyns, had a lot of that work already done). So call that about fifteen NPCs for each of seven families. Then there's the character with his intelligence network that involves over fifty agents and contacts. Then there's their host club, with about a dozen staff and its twenty-five or so customers. Each of the seven PCs has a publicly known contact and a secret contact. They're members of a young aristocrats club that has more than twenty members and staff. Their rival club hasn't had its full membership roster determined yet, but we've seen (or at least heard of) seven members so far (and I want to detail more, but I need to keep everything straight first).

This is (mostly) over and above any NPCs listed in the Korvosa book or the adventure path. There are interconnections between many of these groups. I'm trying hard to keep track of everything, but I'm losing ground.

[Big Jake]

tbug wrote:

You're right, most of my NPCs aren't from the source material. ...

Ohhhhh... I get it.

Yeah, my PCs don't have such involved back stories, but still I have four different NPCs just for them.

In one of my SCAP campaigns, one of the PCs started her own guild, and she had about a hundred people in her organization, too. We kept them unnamed until someone was needed to fill a niche.

But it seems you're well involved already!