The above video came out and reminded me of Austin Walker’s amazing article about this.

Real Human Beings: Shadow of Mordor, Watch Dogs and the New NPC:

And in the analog game space, one of the major elements of the tabletop, “story game” revolution has been an increase in NPC characterization. One of the core rules in D. Vincent Baker’s Apocalypse World is to “Name everyone. Make everyone Human.” No more sending your party of adventures to fight “Thug #1” or “That weird mutant.” A Dungeon World GM needs to think of these characters as real people, with real motivations.

Something to think about for tabletop games when it comes to crafting NPC’s with often surprising hidden depths and seeing the ways random results can bump into player actions creating something greater than the sum of its parts.

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