Roleplaying game

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Chapter 8: Non-Player Characters
adjectives is enough to describe a one-off NPC).
Honor, Glory, and Status: A minion’s honor, glory, and status attributes 
are included here. Non-human NPCs typically do not have honor, glory, 
or status values.
Demeanor: Demeanor is a simple reflection of an NPC’s likes, dislikes, 
and priorities. It means that certain social tacks will work better on the 
NPC than others, and it helps guide GMs when running these NPCs in 
intrigue conflicts.
Abilities: Minions often possess abilities. These abilities can encompass 
everything from innate quirks of creatures (like a boar’s fury when it 
is wounded) to battle techniques of sentient beings (like the forma-
tion training possessed by ashigaru), but they are generally simpler 
than techniques.
Gear (Equipped): This section details any items the minion is likely to 
have on their person and prepared for use at all times.
Gear (Other): This section details any items that the minion possesses 
but might not have on hand or prepared for use at a moment’s notice.
Adversaries
Adversaries are NPCs of substantial narrative significance. These might 
be rivals or powerful allies to the PCs, and they generally stand on the 
same footing as player characters. Their profiles are organized somewhat 
differently than a PC’s profile for the GM’s convenience, but each adver-
sary is a match for one or more PCs in the adversary’s arena of expertise. 
Adversaries behave like standard characters.
Adversary Profile Breakdown
Adversaries have an altered profile, as discussed below.
Silhouette: The size of the NPC.
Derived Attributes: The resilience, composure, focus, and vigilance de-
rived attributes are at the top of the adversary profile for easy reference. 
Note that these are set at specific values based on the intended function 
of the NPC, rather than generated with a formula as they would be for a 
player character.
Rings: Each of the NPC’s ring ranks is included.
Skills: Adversaries usually have ranks in entire skill groups, such as “Mar-
tial skills 1.” This means that the adversary possesses 1 rank in each Martial 
skill (Fitness, Martial Arts [Melee], Martial Arts [Ranged], Martial Arts 
[Unarmed], Meditation, and Tactics). Adversaries can also have ranks in 
individual skills that exceed their ranks in that group, as the GM sees fit.
Void Points: Adversaries can accrue and spend Void points in the nor-
mal manner (see Void Points, on page 21). They always start with 1 
Void point, like PCs, and they may gain more during scenes in which 
they appear.
Advantages and Disadvantages: The relevant advantages and disadvan-
tages are included under each ring. One distinction, one adversity, one 
passion, and one anxiety is usually enough for a given adversary, and 
some NPCs might not even have one of each.
Demeanor: Demeanor is a simple reflection of an NPC’s likes, dislikes, 
and priorities. It means that certain social tacks will work better on the 
NPC than others, and helps guide GMs when running these NPCs in 
intrigue conflicts.
Honor, Glory, and Status: An adversary’s honor, glory, and status attributes 
are included. For named characters (rather than archetypal examples), this 
section often includes the particular character’s ninjō, giri, and titles. Non-
human NPCs typically do not have honor, glory, or status values.
Abilities: Adversaries can also possess abilities. These abilities can encom-
pass innate quirks of a creature (like an oni’s thick hide) or battle tech-
niques of sentient beings (like a skilled courtier’s vast pool of knowledge 
of clan politics). If the NPC has any school abilities or special techniques, 
they are listed here as well. For ease of use, adversary abilities are often 
simplified (or empowered) versions of standard techniques that have 
fewer (but more potent) options for  than the versions used by PCs.
Gear (Equipped): This section details any items the adversary is likely to 
have on their person and prepared for use at all times.
Gear (Other): This section details any items that the adversary possesses, 
but might not have on hand or prepared for use at a moment’s notice.
Demeanor
Each NPC profile includes a demeanor. A demeanor is a common per-
sonality type for characters of that sort, and it makes some Social skill 
checks easier while making others harder. Each demeanor lists an in-
crease to the TN of Social skill checks with certain rings (“+1” or “+2”) 
and a decrease to the TN of Social skill checks with other rings (“–1” or 
“–2”). This is to reflect the fact that some characters are much more resis-
tant to particular avenues than others, and prone to certain types of out-
bursts when things do not go their way. Of course, GMs are encouraged 
to give individual NPCs unusual demeanors (or even invent new ones) to 
keep the PCs on their toes! Some of the animals included in this chapter 
have unique demeanors that represent their personalities as beasts.
Some common demeanors are as follows:
NPC Squads
Having a large number of NPCs in a conflict can make it pretty cha-
otic for you as a GM, especially if each one has an initiative value. If 
you want to streamline handling a group of NPCs of the same type, 
you can treat them as a squad. Generally, you’ll want to make squads 
of minion NPCs, since they’ll be the bulk of unnamed participants 
in a skirmish, but there’s no mechanical reason you couldn’t have a 
squad of adversaries—they’d just be more complex to manage and 
likely more dangerous to the PCs.
Initiative: A squad consists of two or more NPCs with the same 
name and profile. They generate a single initiative value, and in 
any order within their group that you choose at that initiative value 
each round.
Group Actions: If you want to reduce the number of rolls the 
squad makes, simply have all members of the squad but one take the 
Assist action targeting the one member who performs a different ac-
tion. Having more than six NPCs in a squad is not advised, simply due 
to the size of the dice pools involved when they make assisted checks.
Group Stances: To help reduce complexity, all members of a squad 
should assume the same stance each round.
Group Strife: You can track strife individually for members of a 
squad, but if you prefer not to track each member of a squad’s strife 
individually, you can give them a squad strife value equal to 2 or 3 
times an individual member’s composure (depending on how brave 
and organized they are). This can be helpful as a means to determine 
the point at which a group of undisciplined minions, such as bandits, 
might break and run, or at least fall back to lick their wounds.

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