Confession time: I am not overly enamored of “rules-lite” RPG systems. As long as the system is coherent and well-thought out, I prefer it when the system has rules for all sorts of things - from tactical combat to running chases to social encounters to falling damage and so forth. I like GURPS, I like D&D5E, I like Pathfinder 2E (although I haven’t gotten a chance to try it as much as I’d like).
However, one thing that I want to be as simple as possible: NPC/monster creation. When I am the game master, I want to churn out the stats for enemies that the PCs can overcome as quickly as possible. Any time I spend on building NPC stat blocks is time I can’t spend on working out fiendish adventure plots.
Here are a few examples of NPC creation in different systems:
Horribad: D&D 3.X, Pathfinder 1E. Too damn many derived values, templates, and so forth. Far too much math for far too little to show for it.
Bad: Exalted 1E/2E. NPCs have all the same stats as PCs, of which there are lots. Plus lots of charms with overly long texts, in the case of Exalted NPCs.
Decent: GURPS, D&D5E. The math isn’t too complicated, and you can easily recycle and modify existing stat blocks - though you have to be careful so that these NPCs are balanced in a fight. Exalted 3E edges into this territory with their “Quick Character” concept - but they spoil it with insisting that “significant NPCs” should be built with all the same rules as player characters.
Good: Storypath System, Exalted Essence. I love how they boil down all skills to: “This dice pool is for what the character is good at, this is what the character is okay at, and this dice pool is when they have to do something they have no real competence at” - and the GM can define these however they like, and even improvise this. Then you have a very few other stats like Health and Defense, and you are set apart from a few special qualities! I’ve started running Scion very recently, and I am very impressed with this.
So, what other examples do you have of RPG systems that do NPC creation well - and which do it badly?
I’m not a huge fan of complicated rules-based NPC generation. Mostly this is because 90% of my NPCs don’t end up in combat with players. So most of the time spent generating stats is wasted. To me, 5e is too complicated in terms of generating NPCs. I tend to focus on an NPCs personality, their voice, their background, generally speaking their stats are irrelevant to me. But I will also admit that I prefer streamlined rules (not so much rules-lite, but systems that are efficient and where I don’t need to reference a section for every situation that arises). Rules-lite games can certainly also be fun.
So, in any case, I guess I’m saying I prefer the story side of NPC generation to the crunchiness.