Also a lurker, and would like to re-mention this compromise. While it would take time to make entire stat-blocks from scratch, providing a starting point and some guidelines for modification should be quick enough while still being broad and able to hand a variety of options. You might be able to present the novice / average / experienced combatant stat blocks, as well as the guidelines for choosing their proficiencies, and perhaps some sample combinations, all within one page. Sample combinations could be little boxes of themed NPCs built out of the referenced options, like:Stempest wrote:If you were going to include archetypes, perhaps it could be something along the lines of the list of different kinds of people, and then a small number of generic templates, e.g. novice, average and experienced combatants, novice/average/experienced skill specialists, etc. Each would tell you to take 7 points in their key skill, 6 points in two secondary skills and 4 points in other skills to flesh them out (or something to that effect). That could be a more efficient use of space, doable in a couple of pages.
Roman Legionnaire
Average Combatant
Spear proficiency 7, 2p/-1c Long
Tower shield
(Okay I'm just making up stuff)
Basically, something like the weapon generation system, except with less customization. Instead you're starting with a few common stat blocks, have a short list of options, and you keep the few sample weapons / characters at the bottom. Options should be simple enough to say "I need an experienced combatant, who uses bows, and is more maneuverable rather than strong", and already have some reasonable results.
And, for something like adjectives such as "Beautiful" or "Elderly" or things like that, you could have a common pool of modifiers at the beginning / end of the NPC section, applicable for all NPCs. Or they could all just be 2 dice character traits.