A non-player character—normally abbreviated to NPC—is any character controlled by you, the gamemaster. You decide on an NPC’s motives, their nature, and the Actions they take. There are two main categories of NPC: creatures and characters.

A creature is a simpler kind of NPC, normally used to represent mutated animals, feral creatures, and similar bestial foes. Everything from mole rats and radroaches to feral ghouls and deathclaws are creatures. Creatures use a simplified set of statistics.

A character is an intelligent being, little different from a player character. They have a full set of S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Attributes and Derived Statistics.

• Like player characters, all NPCs have a level, indicating how dangerous a creature is or how challenging a character is.
• NPCs often have a keyword that notes something specific about them. Rules may refer to these keywords, and they describe an NPC’s underlying nature or allegiance.
• Types of NPCs describe how powerful and important they are. Normal NPCs are the most common while Mighty creatures are more potent, and Legendary creatures are more even more powerful. Notable characters are significant individuals, while Major characters are some of the most influential people in the wasteland.
• Special Abilities listed in the NPCs entry describe unique abilities they have, much like perks for player characters.

Defeating or Overcoming NPCs

Enemy NPCs reduced to 0 Health Points are dead unless the attacker chooses otherwise. Major Characters start dying in the same way as PCs, and you must start making END + Survival tests (see Combat).

Enemy NPCs are overcome if the threat they pose is conclusively avoided, such as sneaking past a group of foes to get at what they’re guarding (and getting back out again) or persuading them not to fight. Enemies are not overcome if the PCs only avoid them for a short time—sneaking past a Mister Gutsy on guard duty doesn’t earn any XP if it catches the PCs later.

When an Enemy NPC is defeated or overcome, each PC receives the total XP for the scene based on the combined XP values of the NPCs present.

Creatures Don’t Use S.P.E.C.I.A.L.

While NPCs use the same S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Attributes as player characters, creatures use Body and Mind. These statistics are usually a number between 4 and 12, used in place of any S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Attributes for Skill Tests. Body is used for Skill Tests that require STR, END, or AGI, while Mind is used in place of any SPECIAL attributes for mental skill tests: typically, those using PER, CHA, or INT.