By Larry Granato
Art by Bradley K. McDevitt
1. The Activist -This person is always vigorously promoting some cause. Equipment: clipboard with petition. 2. The Tough Cleric - Grew up on the mean streets. Now working in a higher cause. Very hard to fool. 3. The Mystic - A flaky individual with supposed psychic powers; forever going on about auras, crystals, star signs, etc. 4. The Compassionate Cleric - A real softie, always ready to lend a hand. Quote: "Can I help?" 5. The Idiot - A twitching, shrieking ninny. Stumbles into danger or causes chaos by accident. Quote: "Did I do that?" 6. The Groupie - obsessed with a "star". She talks about nothing else. Equipment: photos and souvenirs. 7. The Motormouth - You'll be sorry you met this one. They don't know when to shut up, and couldn't even if they did. 8. The Housewife - Bored with her dreary existence. Equipment: cigarette, housecoat, hair rollers. 9. The Philandering Husband or Lothario - Always brags about his conquests to male characters, and "comes on" to female ones. 10. The Boy Scout - Clean, reverent, loyal, brave, always prepared. Equipment: swiss army knife. 11. The Wild Thang - This girl is uncontrollable trouble, and she's probably underage. A car wreck is the usual result. 12. The Flirt - A tease who leads PCs on but isn't serious. Equipment: Big, jealous boyfriend. 13. The Girl or Boy Next Door - A fresh-faced, honest innocent. Equipment: White teeth. 14. The Dingbat/Geezer - An elderly woman/man whose ditziness is extreme. Quote: "What year did you say it was?" 15. The Know-It-All - A bigmouth who thinks he's got the answer to everything. Quote: "I told you so". Another version is The Big Talker - a friendly guy has always got some story - been there, done that, etc. But when it comes down to gatting real work done, that's all he can do talk. 16. The Jokester - Constantly playing practical jokes, never serious. Someday he will go too far. Equipment: bucket of water over the door. 17. The Sunday Driver - This NPC is only found behind the wheel of a vehicle, and is usually a bewildered elderly or student driver. The result: an accident waiting to happen. 18. The Hick - A county bumpkin, easily recognizable by his backwoods accent. Very suspicious of "city slickers." 19. The Artiste - Poor (because he's too "sensitive" to work a regular job,) temperamental, creative, and erratic, the artiste suffers, as does anyone he comes in contact with. 20. The Workaholic - Their job is everything to this person. They talk of nothing else. They believe that anyone not 1000% dedicated to their work is a loafer. Quote: "Get a job, you beatnik." 21. The Whiner - All this nasally voiced flapjaw ever does is complain. Quote: "Shut the window, it's too cold!" A variant on The Whiner is the Martyr - one who's always suffering due to their sacrifices and lets you know about it. Quote: "You won't believe what I've been through." Another variant is the Nit-Picker/Critic - someone who can always find fault, no matter how trivial. Quote: "Well, maybe you saved the city from total destruction, but my petunias are wilting from the backlash." 22. The Musclman- This obnoxious jock is more interested in himself than anything else. Equipment: dumbbells (best friends.) 23. The Tough Guy - Taciturn, always ready for a fight, the tough guy's an excellent hand-to-hand combatant. He usually doesn't start trouble, but he often ends it. Quote: "Do you have a problem?" 24. The Nerd - A wimpy guy with pocket calculator and thick glasses. He can usually solve any moderately difficult scientific problem. 25. The Party Dude - Noisy and tipsy. Likes to invite his friends over without asking. Quote: "Can I have some of your beer?" 26. The Good Ole Boy - A squinting redneck. Doesn't like anyone different from himself. Equipment: pickup with shotgun rack. 27. The Professional Student - Been in school forever, and avoids graduation at all costs. Equipment: textbooks 28. The Husband-Hungry Female - A conniving woman who will attempt to entice or entrap any eligible man into marriage. Equipment: tasty home-cooked food. 29, The Whiz Kid - A young genius. Typically irresponsible, and often gets into deep trouble. 30. The Simpleton - He seems normal, but a bit slow, and is profoundly naive. Sometimes people mistake his guilelessness for great depth of character. 31. The Old Woman - This elderly lady seems frail and polite, but she is actually quite observant, determined and sharp. 32. The Battleaxe - This old witch is a busybody with a bad temper. Equipment: a very heavy purse, which she uses as a weapon. 33. The Dreamer/Misfit , A starry-eyed youth with unreachable goals and little common sense. Another variant is The Visionary, whose goals are a little more reasonable. 34. The Farmer - Laconic, hard- working, and full of earthy wisdom. Equipment: agricultural implement. 35. The Nosy Neighbor - A local meddler who's always spying on the PCs. Quote: "What have you been up to today. 36. The Revolutionary - A wild-eyed radical who's determined to overthrow something. Quote: "Down with the (insert institution of GM's choice)!" 37. The Mechanic - This grease- covered technical type can fix anything. Quote: "Let me take a look at it." 38. The Beleaguered Parent - A tired, distracted individual who is constantly hounded by his relatives and boss. 39. The Paper-Shuffler - A minor government official who can't see beyond his nose. He likes red tape. Quote: "It's against the rules." 40. The Oblivious Obstacle - A harmless innocent who is always in the wrong place at the wrong time and somehow thwarts or interferes with the PCs. If the party tries to harm the obstacle, some bizarre chance will cause them to hurt themselves instead. 41. The Loudmouth Salesman - This guy continually shouts about the qualities of his merchandise. Equipment: tacky suit. 42. The Loner - A quiet, seemingly strange individual who avoids all encounters. Despite his outward weirdness, he is actually an O.K. guy. 43. The Skeptic - This guy is extremely hard to convince. Quote: "I'll believe it when I see it with my own eyes." 44. The Jinx , The mere presence of this hapless person is enough to ruin any activity. Reduce die rolls accordingly. 45. The Neighborhood Menace - A kid who is constantly causing or getting into trouble. Equipment: slingshot and bike. 46. The Buffoon - A clumsy, clownish person whose answer to everything is brute force and stupid questions. 47. The Zealot - A wild-eyed religious fanatic. Equipment: sign saying "The End is Near." 48. The Household Conniver - A spouse whose dreams and schemes outweigh their common sense. They are forever getting mixed up with bogus deals and zany products. 49. The Psycho - They seem normal perhaps a kindly retiree, a gentle old lady, a angel-faced child, a mild-mannered hotel manager - but they're actually deadly maniacs. Equipment: sharp instrument, poison, etc. 50. The Tightwad - An annoying penny-pincher, whose main topic of conversation is how cheaply he is able to buy things and how much money he's saved. Cattle Call Archetypes for Non-Player Characters Back to Shadis #20 Table of Contents Back to Shadis List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master List of Magazines © Copyright 1995 by Alderac Entertainment Group This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. |