Quick and Easy Friends

I am all in favour of an easy life. Although I have never played 5e it [D&D] hasn’t changed that much in past 40+ years that I cannot look at a stat block and think I know what that does.

One of the things that I don’t like having to make up on the fly when gaming is NPCs. There is always the danger that the players seek out an NPC early in a game session and before you know it you have been playing them for 3-4hrs and you have no stats or details.

Books of NPCs are always useful and the more detail the better. One of the most popular Rolemaster books was Heroes and Rogues that detailed 24 NPCs at 7 different levels complete with backstories.

Rolemaster NPCs are not much use to most people. 5e NPCs are far more accessible because, in my circles at least, D&D is a bit of a common background. If you are playing any regular fantasy rpg it will not take a great deal of effort to convert from 5e to your favourite rules. For many people of course 5e is their favourite rules. I have heard that a lot of people play it.

This week I found The Friend Folio by Sean Van Damme and Elizabeth Kost. The book details fully worked ‘sidekick’ NPCs. They are pretty much drop in and ready to go. The book contains 20 sidekicks and is very well presented (see below).

Now, I don’t know what a Shadar-kai Expert is, but I don’t need to know. I can pick that bard up and run with it/him without having to fall back on improvising something and then having to pick my notes apart after the session to build the character.

I have been gaming with the same group for 36 years now. This means that a) they know most of the stereotypes I come up with when I have to improvise and b) they know the Heroes and Rogues NPCs because they have either met them or used them themselves over the past three decades.

This set gives me a whole new set of personalities to play with.