I was talking to one of my players today, and he casually mentioned that sometimes there were too many NPC’s to remember in my game, and note taking is not their thing… so I decided to come up with npc cards.
These are simple to use. The Photoshop version has a “hole” where the portrait goes, so you’d drag an image in photoshop unto it, and make it the bottom layer, then just resize it. It’ll show up in the hole.
The JPEG version is for those of you without photoshop, you just have to figure out how to add the image in the frame and all that cool image manipulation stuff. 🙂
They are simple, not too fancy, but may be useful. Find images from your modules or adventures for the NPC portraits.
Edit: I went ahead and created a second version with an occupation line and a spot for the campaign name. I guess some people would find that useful. I will not be updating them anymore though. Truth be told, you could probably find better ones elsewhere. 🙂
Here they are:
www. Newbie DM .com 
Thunderforge
December 29, 2009
I think I would add a field titled “Occupation” so that the players know that Avanathemon is the Erathis high priest and Armillary is the beggar. That way your players instantly know “Oh, he’s that beggar dude we met.” I can’t think of any reason why you wouldn’t want to include some sort of identification like that, so it seems like having a field specifically for that would be helpful rather than always having it in the notes field.
You might also consider an “Allegiance” or “Affiliation” field if you have a game of political intrigue so that the players don’t help the wrong side because they forgot who an NPC worked for, but that might not be necessary in a standard D&D game.
Oh, and I think the words “Location” and “Where” are too close together. Maybe just shorten the name to “Location met:” or perhaps “Met at:”
All in all, a great idea. I just might use it for my game! I think I’ll give them out to say “this person is important”, but I’m not sure if I’d write stuff in the notes field or if I’d just let them do it.
Swordgleam
December 29, 2009
I just print out redacted versions of my own NPC note sheets for the players. Zero extra work, unless you count stapling it (this step is essential).
I mean, it’s a cool idea, but I am starting to believe this “everything is easier to use in card form” thing has gotten out of control. (I still fundamentally do not understand the purpose of power cards.)
newbiedm
December 30, 2009
I kept them as simple as I could on purpose.
Name and location are two “must haves” for NPC’s, IMHO…
everything else is stuff that may or may not be important… the notes section should suffice for most NPC’s.
Just a couple of bullet points really… you don’t want to fill this thing up with a wall of text either.
Swordgleam, the idea is for the pc’s to fill it out, not me…
Give them the card with the picture, they can fill it out with as much info as they like…
Swordgleam
December 30, 2009
That makes more sense. I thought the problem was that your players didn’t take notes, though?
newbiedm
December 30, 2009
Right, but maybe having a card w will motivate them to be a little bit more organized.
Plus, other people out there will use them, not just my guys.
Anarkeith
December 30, 2009
Cool idea. I’ve struggled with players not taking advantage of my online material, so perhaps cards might be a good alternative. I’ve found some pre-perforated 3×5 index card sheets for laser printers that work pretty well for encounter cards for DMing, so maybe I’ll create an NPC handout card template for players. A PDF form should work, eh?
Rob Lang
December 30, 2009
I’ve been using NPC cards for years and years and years and they are a brilliant idea. I go an extra step and put the faces of famous celebrities in the picture bit so that they are ready to go contacts. You can download a load here:
http://www.thefreerpgblog.com/2009/02/players-will-never-forget-their.html
newbiedm
December 30, 2009
See. I knew you could find better onces elsewhere. Celebrity pictures? That’s awesome… who has been your most famous NPC? Medieval era chicks weren’t as hot and made up as Angelina Jolie. 🙂
Ryu
January 13, 2010
“Just a curiosity, have you tried http://www.obsidianportal.com? It’s a great campaign resource, though it can take some time to keep up to date. However, you can relinquish some control to your PCs to maintain it.”
Mark from Dice Monkey & RPG Circus
January 22, 2010
I think these are fantastic! I’m thinking of printing off a few dozen of these, putting them into one of those CCG Portfolio books, and having the players fill them out when they meet an NPC that might be important to them. Then, I’ll slip them back into the book, so when the players encounter the NPC again and say, “wait, who is he?” I’ll just pull the card out and they can see everything they wrote about him.