The Gamemaster's Book of Non-Player Characters (read for fun)

This is a book I spotted at Barnes and Nobles while browsing. It sounded useful, and it was a hardcover book at a decent price, so I decided to give it a shot. I have mixed feelings about it. 

First,

There are three one-shot adventures.  I can't say I'm a fan of them. All three are basically guided tours by an NPC, and not a friendly one either. All three are based on one NPC leading the characters through specific events on the way to a climax; the first two are deceivers responsible for the trouble in the adventure, and the third is not because they are a prison warden overseeing an earn-your-freedom ritual. It is totally rail-roading. The sidebars even try to pre-empt any attempt at deducing these first two NPCs are liars to keep the adventure on track. If a single high Insight check can derail the whole module, then, in my opinion, that is a shoddy module. 

I get that these are one-shots, meant to be completed within a single session, and so there is little room for deviation, but this is not a video game. This is a tabletop roleplaying game. Players have agency. If you're going to set up something like this, then you should have alternative routes or just remove the single point of failure all together. 

Now, the first adventure is a lot more vulnerable to this than the second. The second DOES acknowledge that the player party can call the NPC on their lies and accommodates this in a way that allows the adventure to continue basically as written.

Second,

The majority of the book is filled with full character pages. They are divided between location and then further by categories such as Rulers, Commoners, Lawbreakers and Criminals, and finally, Outcasts. There really are a lot of characters here, so the author is not exaggerating when they say the book contains hundreds of unique characters. However, I wouldn't say they are all "fully realized", as the back of the book claims. 

Some of them are, to be sure. A solid backstory, clear motives, interesting twist in their "secret" or "obstacle" section and further details in what they are carrying. Those are fun to read. Others are frustrating. 

You see, some of these "fully realized" characters have too much baggage to be easily used in a campaign. Their backstory might have certain requirements of the setting. Their goals might be vague; clear enough in concept but requiring building out in details to actually be used in practice. Who wants to roleplay the results of an accounting error?

Many of them leave dangling questions. This one is particularly frustrating because the author states at the start of the book that the book doesn't have "all the answers", and then provides characters that are more questions than answers.  

So, this character is pregnant with a "child of prophecy". What prophecy?

So, this character is attempting to keep a terrible creature sealed. What terrible creature?

So, this character wants to prevent their hometown from changing in some undescribed manner and decides to do that by flooding it, killing everyone and destroying the town itself. How does that accomplish anything?

Then there are characters that are written in a way that implies certain things rather than stating them. I think this is to make the character more flexible, open to interpretation, but it can also make the character less coherent overall. 

Some of these homebrew abilities are ridiculous, such as a lawful evil humanoid lion that enslaves humanoids. They can use this ability thrice per long rest, humanoids have disadvantage on the save, it lasts for 24 hours (no secondary save) and the reasoning is simple overwhelming charisma.  A DM would have to put a lot of context around such a character to make fighting this guy fun instead of frustrating. 

I also find issue with how, if family members are mentioned in the backstories, they are either dead or antagonistic. The former is too close to the trope "Stuffed Into a Fridge" for my taste, and the latter mandates using the family as villains if this NPC is used; to not use them as villains removes a significant chunk of characterization, thus making the decision pointless. 

Overall, a lot of these "fully realized" characters have to be modified, trimmed, adapted etc. to be used in a given campaign. It's not a plug-and-play thing, like I was expecting. There is a section for much simpler character outlines, more easily selected and used on the spot. I think those are meant to be selected during the session and the rest are meant for planning stages between sessions. 

Some characters have full page artwork, which is nice. It is good art. 

This is definitely a useful book for a gamemaster. The important thing is to set your expectations. This is useful for character inspiration, side quest fundamentals, campaign reference, and that is mostly it. During a session, it will, at best, slow things down. Use a generator app instead. 

Trickster Eric Novels gives "The Gamemaster's Book of Non-Player characters" a C+

Click here for my next book review: The Ring Breaker (Blog Hall of Fame author)

Click here for my previous book review:  Valkyrie by Katie O'Hearn (read for fun)

Brian Wilkerson is an independent novelist, freelance book reviewer, and writing advice blogger. He studied at the University of Minnesota and came away with bachelor's degrees in English Literature and History (Classical Mediterranean Period concentration).

His fantasy series, Journey to Chaos, is currently available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback.