Step 7: Retouch and Finalize (GM)
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After Step 6 has been completed, all that remains is assembling profiles and ironing out the final details. During this step, the GM should add 1 advantage or disadvantage the PCs don’t know about to each NPC. This ensures that there are still depths to the NPC for the PCs to discover.
Then, the GM should reflect on the characters who have come out of this process. What are the points of friction within this court? Which characters’ histories overlap, and how? Whose duties are in sufficient alignment that they may have made alliances—and whose secret desires threaten to disrupt those pacts and throw the court into turmoil? The GM should fill in any information missing from the court sheet (see page 144), adding each mover’s current goals and determining which other NPCs or PCs are likely to be seen as an obstacle to those goals.
Finally, the GM should choose an NPC profile for each NPC (or create an NPC profile from whole cloth, if they prefer). Movers should generally be Adversaries while Secondaries may be Adversaries or Minions as needed. If the NPC is based on an existing NPC, such as one of the ones from the core rulebook or this volume, the GM should replace their advantages and disadvantages with the ones chosen during this process and swap their Rings as needed to fit their personality and approach to life. If based on an existing profile, movers should also generally have a conflict rank equal to the starting party rank in the NPC’s sphere of expertise ( or ); the GM can use templates to adjust profiles up to make them a better match for the PCs (see page 311 of the core rulebook). If the NPC grows more skillful during the course of the story, the GM can of course use further templates to adjust their profile or reflect new techniques and tendencies they have developed. Movers should generally remain a challenge for the PCs, though eventually equaling or surpassing early obstacles is a part of many good stories.
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Courts of Stone · Chapter 3: Games of Discourse › Assembling a Court in Seven Steps › Step 7: Retouch and Finalize (GM) · p. 139 p. 142
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After Step 6 has been completed, all that remains is assembling profiles and ironing out the final details. During this step, the GM should add 1 advantage or disadvantage the PCs don’t know about to each NPC. This ensures that there are still depths to the NPC for the PCs to discover.
Then, the GM should reflect on the characters who have come out of this process. What are the points of friction within this court? Which characters’ histories overlap, and how? Whose duties are in sufficient alignment that they may have made alliances—and whose secret desires threaten to disrupt those pacts and throw the court into turmoil? The GM should fill in any information missing from the court sheet (see page 144), adding each mover’s current goals and determining which other NPCs or PCs are likely to be seen as an obstacle to those goals.
Finally, the GM should choose an NPC profile for each NPC (or create an NPC profile from whole cloth, if they prefer). Movers should generally be Adversaries while Secondaries may be Adversaries or Minions as needed. If the NPC is based on an existing NPC, such as one of the ones from the core rulebook or this volume, the GM should replace their advantages and disadvantages with the ones chosen during this process and swap their Rings as needed to fit their personality and approach to life. If based on an existing profile, movers should also generally have a conflict rank equal to the starting party rank in the NPC’s sphere of expertise ( or ); the GM can use templates to adjust profiles up to make them a better match for the PCs (see page 311 of the core rulebook). If the NPC grows more skillful during the course of the story, the GM can of course use further templates to adjust their profile or reflect new techniques and tendencies they have developed. Movers should generally remain a challenge for the PCs, though eventually equaling or surpassing early obstacles is a part of many good stories.