| strayshift |
A simple technique that writer’s use is to take a real-world figure, (their life, persona, their achievements, etc) and use them as the template for a character in their work.
I’m suggesting we ‘fantasy-fy’ them and develop an npc from them.
The benefit of this (as a DM) is that it can save time and gives you access to a wealth of free potential colour.
To illustrate:
Milesh: the head Mage of the Sun-Stave Mages Guild is a portly man with receding curly hair; he is known for his love of horses (training them to become accustomed to a rider using magic) and is an acknowledged world authority on Dragons. He can be unorthodox and suffer from mood swings but relishes imaginative uses of magic from his students.
This would be a pen-picture of the late English Chess Grandmaster Tony Miles (the npc’s name is Milesh!) and I took aspects of his character (equating a chess-player with a wizard) and made them aspects of a fantasy NPC. From this I could build his stats, etc if required.
SO, fancy having a go? As much or as little info as possible and if you want to make a game of it put the real world person’s identity behind a spoiler.
Oh and nothing slanderous!