> Probably most NPCs will only have their main skills and affinities
listed, but when you get interested in them, and flesh them out for
use as PCs, they shouldn't change drastically.<
When writing episodes I tend to records characters simply: Tarshite warrior or, getting positively wordy for speed in play - Tarshite Warrior 20; Close Combat(Axe and Shield) 3w^3; leather armor + shield ^2; Combat affinity 19 (+2 augment to Close Combat).
One huge playability benefit of HW is that I can concentrate on writing the story, not, as was the experience in RQ, generating pages of NPC stats (to be frank, it put me off writing RQ scenarios completely after a while). And in commercial products, less space is taken by stats so more space is given to story (D&D was able to fit more into a 32 page folio adventure, because half of the material was not stats).
That said I would like them to be consistent with HW mechanics - after all they are not very constricting and only limiting in one or two locations for example know only one secret; initiation 30% of time, devotee 60% of time; w2 affinities to learn the secret etc. There is no need to do all those RQ style damage bonus, hp, encumberance calcs, so its not that much of a chore.
Ian Cooper
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