Creating New NPCs for my Town “Emberwood Hollow” – Easy Character Creation

I’m bringing to life a mysterious town called Emberwood Hollow, a place where adventure lurks around every corner.
To make this world feel vibrant and alive, I’m crafting four unique NPCs, each with their own stories, quirks, and secrets. These characters will breathe life into the town, ensuring it feels anything but empty and inviting players to delve deeper into the mysteries that await.

What do we need for this Character Creation? I am using the Table Fables from Madeline Hale and my favorite Dice from Dice Goblin today.

The Table Fables Booklet by Madeline Hale is Available on Amazon

You can use the Link below or you can click on the Product Picture.

Table Fables

And here are my favorite Dice from Dice Goblin. Please go and check them out, they have a great variety of beautiful Dice.

Dice Goblin

I will also use the Website Leonardo.ai to generate a few Pictures for my NPCs.

You can create a free plan over on Leonardo.ai and can generate a couple of Pictures each day. Or use one of many Plans they have for Upgrades. Check them out over on:

Leonardo.ai

My New Characters

So, I would like to welcome Martha Winthrop into my Town. Martha works at the Bakery. She makes the world’s famous Apple Pies and People from near and far will come for her Pies. But who is Martha? Let’s find out together.

Here is a Picture from Table Fables from the First Page. For this, I will Roll a few things and I will work the other things out.

The Race will be Human. Gender is Female.
The Disposition – I want her to be Kind and welcoming. Also the Alignment I don’t want her to be Evil and I don’t think she is Poor.

But let’s Roll her Age. I feel like 40 + 1d20 50+16=66
1d6 for Alignment 4 – Lawful Neutral
Religion 1d4 – 2 – Mildly religious
1d6 Financial – 3 Modest.

OK, that is quite a bit to know about her.

Now let’s roll up 4 Character Traits and let’s see if they work together.

16 – Demanding 51 – Narrow-Minded – 97 – Threatening. Wow… I don’t think, that this works with a Kind and welcoming Lady who just wants to bake Pies all day long. Tell you what we are doing. I like the 3 Character Traits together, but I don’t like them for Martha. I will keep them and give them to another NPC. But for now, let’s roll 3 more Times.

26 – Fanciful, 76 – Sassy and 50 – Morbid. No. not working… So let’s decide on 3 Traits so we can move on.
I like Helpful, Sweet, and Social. She knows everything and anyone in Town. Now let’s move on – I want to give her a Past.

d4 – 4: The character’s father is dead, but their mother is alive.
d8 – 3: Place of Birth: A modest house in the city.
d6 – 4: The character’s childhood was mostly unsupervised.
d20 – 8: Siblings 1d4 siblings – 3 Siblings.
d4 – 4: Status – Widow

Ok, that is Cool. I like these Rolls. – That could get some great stories in the Future.

Now, we have to find her Appearance

d6 – Height: 3 – Average
d10 – Build: 2 – Lean, compact
d6 – Eyes: 5 – Blue
d10 – Nose: 10 – Flat
d6 – Hair: 4 – Gray
d4 – Clothing Tendencies: 2 – The character dresses in simple, practical clothing.

I like the Pocket Filler on Page 22

7 – A piece of chalk
6 – 1d10 Gold Coins – 10
5 – 1d10 Silver Coins – 4

And, I would like to give her a Mundane Treasure, maybe it can be displayed in the Bakery. d100 – 38 – Three solid, one-inch copper cubes.

Interesting – Good to know. Peculiar Knickknacks and Flavor Items… Why not? d100 – 53 – A wineskin full of a peculiar wine…
An Idea just came to me… It could be the Secret Ingredient for her famous Apple Pie.

We are almost finished with her. But I found a Table at the End of the Book with Random Colors. That could be cool.
1d6 + 1d12 – 1 – Bright – 6 – Yellow-Green

Now let’s head over to Leonardo.ai, where we can see if it can generate a Picture for Martha.

What do you think? I like her.

I also asked Chat GPT for a few Bakery Names and it gave me some inspiration. By combining 2 – I think The Golden Crust would be great.

Now, sadly, DriveThruRPG won’t let me use AI-generated pictures in my Adventures, so I can’t put this in the PDF, but, I will link them on my Blog

I am happy with Martha and I think it is time to start generating the 2nd Character.

Old Man Jonas – The Apple Orchard

Him, I don’t really have an Idea how he is. The only thing I know is, that he is one of the Town Eldest and knows a lot about the History of the Town. So let’s start generating.

What do we know about him: Human – Male – Elderly
Age, 70+ d20 – 13 – 83 Years old.

3 – Polite

7 – Lawful Evil

3 – Moderately religious

6 – Impoverished

Ok, I think I can work with that.

I think, I would like to give him the First Traits, that we rolled for Martha. 16 – Demanding 51 – Narrow-Minded – 97 – Threatening.

Let’s give him a Disabilities and Character Quirks – d100 56 – Player feels the need to constantly change their persona. Ok. Interesting that would quite work with the Polite, Lawful Evil, Demanding, Narrow-Minded, and Threatening we rolled. Depending on the Person that speaks with him you can get Polite Old Man Jonas or you can get the Grumpy Type. This could also work with the Dice Roll. Bad Rolls Grumpy, Good Rolls Polite… Uuuh, I like that.

I will not give him a Name. No one knows because he is just Named Old Man Jonas. He can’t even remember himself.

For his Background, I feel like he is alone. No Family, no Parents, no Siblings. His whole life, he lived on the Orchard Farm that he inherited from his Father. The Sales he makes with the Apples each year, have to keep him alive for the Rest of the Year. The Rest of the Town helps him without him noticing it. Giving him “Free” Things that they “could not sell”

Now for his Appearance

2 Tall, 3 Barrel-chested, 1 Brown Eyes, 2 Delicate Nose, 2 – Had Dark Brown Hairs, now White.

Does he have a Scar? Let’s roll a d20 1-10 = Yes, 2 Yes he has a Scar. d20 5 – White scars run in even lines across the forearms. This could be because of the heavy work with the Apple Trees when he cut himself on the Branches once a Year…

For Clothing, I would like the 3 – The character wears whatever cheap clothing they can get their hands on.

OK – We are back at the Items – Let’s fill some Pockets:

10 – 1d10 loose buttons 4, 15 – Flint and steel, and 20 – A shiny acorn. Even if he is poor, let’s give him a Mundane Treasure that he guards with his life. 28 – A wide golden bracelet etched with dancing bears. And, I think he would have a Handaxe next to his Entrance Door at home to feel secure at home.

His Color is Pastel Blue-violet.

This is the Picture Leonardo.ai came up with.

The Program is amazing for generating these Pictures. when you type in the right Text. You need to be specific…

Amazing – Now we have 2 People in our Emberwood Hollow. How about a young Farmer Boy?

The Local Farmer Tommy

Now we move Tommy into our Small Town. He is the local Farmer and I want him to be Lawful Good. Quite Young, That is all I know at this Point.

What do we know? Human Male. 15+d20 – 15+6 so 21 Years old and Lawful Good.

1 – Kind and welcoming
3 – Moderately religious
5 – Poor.

I would like to roll for the Character Traits but I feel this is mostly not that accurate. But let’s roll anyway and see what we will get. We don’t need to take it.

72 – Reserved, 80 – Sloppy, and 57 – Out-Spoken. I like Reserved for him. So let’s keep that and we give him Honest and Shy. Why not? What is his Quirk? d100 – 17 – Poor memory. Oh no… 🙂

His name is Tommy Talmar, but everyone calls him just Tommy. Because he was born there. And this is his Background.

4. The character’s father is dead, but their mother is alive. Was born on the Farm, 4 – The character’s childhood was mostly unsupervised. 13 – 1d6 siblings 3 Siblings. Didn’t we roll the same things for Martha… He is Single.

So here is the Story. Tommy was raised on a Fruit and Vegetable Farm. He is the youngest of 4 Kids. His older Brothers are all away on Adventures of their own. He stayed back to help his mother on the Farm. His Father died when he was a Baby. Tommy and his Mam were mostly alone.

Now for the Appearance:

2 – He is tall, 6 – Muscular, 3 – Hazel Eyes, 4 – Straight Nose, 2 – Dark Brown Hair
2 – The character dresses in simple, practical clothing.

Pocket Filler – 20 – A shiny acorn, 15, Flint and steel, and 2 – an embroidered handkerchief with CT from his Dad.

d100 81 – A necklace strung with ancient coins. One of his Brothers brought that home for him.

And his Color is Faded Orange-yellow. Let’s see what Leonardo.ai makes of that.

Absolutely love it. Perfect. This is a great Tommy.

What do you think so far of the Town and the Residents? Do you have any Ideas of People that could live there? Please let me know in the Comments.

And for the Last NPC Today – Misses Penelope Deven – the Librarian

The Local Library needs a Librarian. Meet Miss Penelope

Human, Female, 15+d20 – 12 so 27 Years old. Friendly

5 True Neutral
4 very religious
6 Impoverished I don’t like this for her so why don’t we say Modest.

Her Traits – Let’s hope for some good ones.

99 – Weak-Willed, 73 – Restrained, and 26 – Fanciful
And her Quirks d100 41 – Player is very, very emotional. I have an Idea – How about her Emotions depending on the Books she is reading right now? I like that.
Here is her Background: 1 – Both of the character’s parents are alive. 1 – The character was raised in a strict home environment. – 12 1d6 siblings 2 Siblings and she is 3 Married.

How she looks like:

1 Very tall, 7 Statuesque, 4 Green Eyes, 10 Flat Nose, 1 Black Hair – Wears glasses. 1 – The Character enjoys well-made and rather fashionable clothing. I see her a bit like a 60’s Girl, with dark hair, and red and black with Polka dots.

I want to fill her Pokets now: 11 – A charcoal sketch of a woman – 17 – A dented coin with the face worn away and 4 – 1 d10 copper coins 9 Copper Coins. Her Mundane Treasure d100 17 – A wide golden belt with twelve fire opals. I was skipping over the Magic Items, but what if she found one in a corner of the Library that she never told anyone about? d100 – 05 – A small vial of yellow oil that will fade any blemish or scar. Maybe we could bring a bit of Drama into the Town. Maybe she is glad she has that Vial because she needs to cover up a blemish from time to time. That is why she always looks amazing.

There is also a Book Table in the Table Fables. This would be the Time to use it. d100 68 – Three Tales for Courage’ by Unknown. The Colors I already decided on are Red and Black with White Polka Dots.

and finally here is Penelope Deven.

Leonardo.ai is perfect. Just the Best. I just love this Town.

I have a ton of Ideas for this Town.

I have an Idea for a Solo Roleplaying Adventure in this Town, including these People. I will post a Link to the Adventure, as soon as I finish it.

Again, here are the Products, I used to create these amazing Characters.

The Table Fables Booklet by Madeline Hale is Available on Amazon

You can use the Link below or you can click on the Product Picture.

Table Fables

And here are my favorite Dice from Dice Goblin. Please go and check them out, they have a great variety of beautiful Dice.

Dice Goblin

For these Perfect Images, I used Leonardo.Ai to generate my NPCS.

You can create a free plan over on Leonardo.ai and can generate a couple of Pictures each day. Or use one of many Plans they have for Upgrades. Check them out over on:

Leonardo.ai