NPC Vault: Half-Orcs

Half-orcs run the gamut from D&D's "the poor man's orc" to Tolkien's Übermensch uruk-hai. Personally, I use half-orcs frequently in my games because they fall nicely between the "civilized" and "savage" races, and that makes them excellent tipping points one way or the other.

So today, I'm adding a half-dozen half-orcs to the NPC vault.

Half-Orcs

1. Crimson is a male half-orc. He is a mercenary warrior-priest and obsessively cleans his armor and weaponry. Crimson offers to heal his foes if they convert to the worship of his god.
2. Serrate is a female half-orc. She is the leader of a small village and hoards food. Serrate wants to turn her village into a trading town.
3. Axiom is a male half-orc. He is an inventor and hates his orcish parentage. Axiom is struggling to invent the perfect automaton.
4. Scythe is a female half-orc. She is an assassin and has a dry sense of humor. Scythe is trying to gather blackmail information on her former employers.
5. Mace is a male half-orc. He is a merchant who hides his orcish features and talks with an affected high-class accent. Mace is looking to make contact with the thieves' guild and fence their goods.
6. Indigo is a female half-orc. She is hedgewizard's apprentice and curses frequently and fluently in orcish. Indigo is plotting to take vengeance against the Arcane College for rejecting her.

NPC Vault: Dwarves

When your players insist on talking to those dwarves drinking in the corner, what do you do? You don't know anything about them; you just made them up as you were describing the tavern. You could try to patch them together using a handful of random tables, or you could just start making things up on the fly. Those methods work for some GMs, but not for everyone.

Enter the NPC vault. A list of NPCs organized by race that includes enough cohesive and coherent detail to at least get started.

Today's additions to the NPC vault are dwarves. Whether you find them drinking in the tavern, standing guard duty outside a vast underground city, wandering the lightless tunnels deep in goblin territory, or hammering away on an anvil, these dwarves won't let you down.

Dwarves

1. Ardomas Deepstone is a male dwarf. He is a brewer who specializes in mushroom beer, and he is a glutton for his own drink. Ardomas is trying to gather enough money to buy his sister from giant slavers.
2. Kortryna Breakhammer is a female dwarf. She is an explorer and never backs down from a fight. Kortryna is hoping to find the lost smithy of her grandmother.
3. Tatirana Brighthelm is a female dwarf. She is a master chef and loathes the darkness. Tatirana wants to travel in elf lands and collect the rarest of herbs and spices.
4. Vrilis Durinson is a male dwarf with celestial lineage. He is a scholar and cannot tolerate those less intelligent than he is. Vrilis is searching ancient dwarf laws in the hope that his celestial ancestry will grant him some special political station.
5. Linras Longshield is a male dwarf. He is a doughty warrior and follows orders almost too well. Linras wants to earn the highest military merit in dwarf culture.
6. Ingra Goldenbristles is a female dwarf. She is a princess and politician who feigns naïveté to disguise her brilliance. Ingra is desperately trying to foster peace among all dwarf clans.

NPC Vault: Goblins

Scene: The PCs are wandering through town/miles below the surface/in the middle of a fight, and they stop. Suddenly, they've become fixated on a single character in your world, one which you hadn't given a second thought to.

Now what?

Your best bet is to improvise, assuming you know enough about the area and the kind of creature to do so. You could always roll on a handful random tables (I love those) to come up with names, traits, and flaws, but that also requires a lot of brainwork (e.g., take 10 seconds and try to come up with a character who is "skittish" "short-tempered" and a "pacifist at heart").

Or you could turn to your very own handy-dandy NPC vault! That's right, a list of NPCs organized by race that includes at least enough information for you to hit the ground running.

That human? He's a peasant farmer named Dale who aspires to be the town smith.

The half-orc mercenary you just captured? Her name is Scarlet and her mother vanished two weeks ago.

The dwarf whose house you were just caught breaking into? She's Marta Ironblood, and she's a member of a secret cult looking for two things: new recruits and sacrifices.

Today I'm going to add to the NPC vault the oft-trod-upon humanoids of the fantasy realm, the cannon fodder of antagonists, those whose ears are prized above all else.

Goblins? Goblins.

Goblins

1. Gabble is a male goblin. He is a conscripted soldier and a pacifist at heart. Gabble wants revenge on his brother for stealing his bronze amulet.

2. Gank is a female goblin. She is a bandit chief and has recently contracted mummy rot. Gank is desperately looking for a cure to her mummy rot.

3. Gronge is a female half-goblin. She is a tunnelmage and an arachnophobe. Gronge is always seeking her non-goblin parent.

4. Giselle is a male goblin. He is an expert saboteur and a very polite speaker. Giselle wants to be chief some day.