It's the ninth day of the challenge and let's circle back to Old School Essentials. This time, I'm filling out details for a NPC in the Nostalgia Tour campaign - Wigglewort. He was randomly encountered while leading an expedition into The Lost City. This gnome entrepreneur-explorer will be playing a role in the next installment of the campaign. Filling out some details are in order.
"We were sent out from our town on a simple mission: explore the underworld. To seek out new markets and trade partners. To boldly go where no gnome has gone before!"
- Wigglewort to anybody standing still long enough to listen.
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| Jax Wigglewort, not a GMPC, page 1 of 2 |
Jax Wigglewort is a level 2/2 gnome Illusionist/Thief. He prefers to rob people at the negotiating table or gambling hall. However, he recognizes the value of a long term trading relationship over any single deal. His spell selection makes up for the weaknesses of a thief build by giving him options to get away when he misjudges the strength of his bargaining position or hand of cards. It also comes in handy when he decides to do some old fashioned larceny.
Although Wigglewort is a NPC, I rolled him up as a PC rather than pick out his stats. All OSE characters generated for this challenge use the Advanced Fantasy rules and the Advanced Method of character creation. A list of optional and house rules I use are provided in my day two post.
My dice rolls for Wigglewort's Ability Scores resulted in a flat, but decent set of numbers. As an Illusionist/Thief, his highest scores are Intelligence and Dexterity. This grants him an additional language - I selected deep common - and a bump to Armor Class. The next best score went into Charisma to reflect his skill at negotiation. I put an 11 into Constitution to bump up his Magic Resistance.
As a gnome and a thief, Wigglewort has a long list of things he can do outside of combat. And a few sneaky things he can do in a fight. He has access to all weapons as a thief, but being a gnome places some limitations to what he can wield (no two handed swords). I selected short bow, hand axe, and dagger as his weapon proficiencies to give him a plenty of options. Unfortunately, both illusionists and thieves use d4 when rolling hit points. This makes a stand up fight undesirable even when using the optional "re-roll 1s and 2s for hit points" rule.
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| Jax Wigglewort, still not a GMPC, page 2 of 2 |
Using the (optional) Advanced Spell Book rules, Wigglewort started with three spells in his book of illusion magic. I used GM fiat to give him one more to reflect something he found (or acquired) in his travels.
Wigglewort's Spell Book:
- Color Spray
- Glamour
- Read Magic
- Spook
I gave him a set of weapons and armor, but didn't bother with the rest of the equipment. He's a NPC, so I didn't see the need.
Jax Wigglewort is an ambitious young gnome with a keen eye for opportunity. He represents a wave of gnomes sent to explore the underground river network discovered under his home town. Trade has always been the lifeblood of his community. Going underground is simply an expansion of their existing river and coastal mercantile operations on the surface. Wigglewort's recent success in finding trade partners in The Lost City has elevated his status and validated his decision to leave the family farm. He now leads a bigger crew on a proper ship on a new mission. A large island has been discovered in the tropical regions to the south. There is potential for trade, but significant danger as well. Perhaps that adventuring party he met in The Lost City might be persuaded to lend a hand?
The character sheet I used is by William Braidis Lee and is available on itch.io. It's serviceable, but doesn't seem to support ascending Armor Class. There's also no place for spells.
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