Hi everyone,
In this dev-blog, we will talk about the NPCs in Terra Randoma.
You will meet NPCs all over the island. There is a shop keeper and a tavern keeper in each settlement. There is also a tavern patron, a regular at the tavern, happy to give you a quest. This person changes everyday. She or he may need you to escort her to ensure a safe journey to another settlement, or to rescue someone close to her, or to retrieve an object stolen from her. Helping an NPC also increases the prosperity level of the settlement. So by helping one, you help all. Also your reputation increases and the shops offer you goods at cheaper price. With enough reputation you may meet the lord of the settlement who has special quests for you.
NPCs can be rich or poor. You can pickpocket them. If you succeed, then fine, you get away with it. If you fail, however, your reputation decreases. If you do this repeatedly, you may be banned from entering the settlement altogether.
You also can come across to NPCs on the overworld. They can be traveling merchants, selling you food or potions at more affordable prices than shops, but offering less variety. We will also add hunters, bards and noble people who you can interact with. You may also sometimes bump into someone who is in need of help. A boar is attacking a traveller or an old man suffering under a fallen trunk. You can overcome some of these incidents with a skill check or fight your way out through a battlefield.
The NPCs are procedurally generated. Their hair, clothes, names and occupations are all allocated randomly. This is a work in progress. We will enrich them with more traits. There is an adjective for every NPC like angry, fearful or humble. This helps generate amusing stories. Say you meet a greedy tailor asking you to retrieve a family heirloom which is golden scissors or you can meet a weeping housewife whose husband is kidnapped by a ratman chief.
As mentioned above there is a lord in each settlement who you can meet if you have enough reputation. He may give you a hint about where to find a fragment of an ancient tablet which actually is a map of... well that is a subject for another dev-blog :)