Skeleton Key Games are on Kickstarter right now with just a few hours left to get in on their Dossier Deck project which looks to put a bit more meat on the bones of the NPCs your heroes run into during your adventures.

The different decks - Merchants, Mages, Orcs & Goblins and Commoners gives you a range of Appearance, Trait and Story Hook cards which can be shuffled up and then revealed as above to give you a collection of interesting characters with quirks and more. Whilst Dungeon Masters are very creative people this does help take some of the scribblings out of the equation before a game and helps if you've not named everyone in your tavern!

Cards break down as so...

•  A. Appearance Card - The content of this card is perfect to share with players.
•  B. NPC portrait.
•  C. NPC name.
•  D. A short descriptive blurb, perfect for reading aloud as a first impression to players.
•  E. Traits Card - This card is focused on the character's personality and skills. It is perfect for guiding the game master in making the character unique.
•  F. Trait text gives game-master-only insight into the character.
•  G. A quote gives an example of something the character might say or a look at the overall way they speak.
•  H. Story Hook Card - This card features inspiration for side quests, treasure, and extra drama in your storyline.
•  I. This text describes an item, place, or creature related to the character in some way.
•  J. Art related to the content of the Story Hook card.
•  K. The story hook text gives game masters a subplot that can be a springboard for adventures and side quests.
•  L. Set Symbol and Card ID Number - If you decide to shuffle your sets together, you can keep track of which cards go with which set should you ever want to separate them back out.

I think this is a really good idea and it's no surprise that the Kickstarter has funded spectacularly well. A whole bunch of upgrades, extra cards and additional artwork has been worked into the campaign thanks to breaking through different stretch goals too.

If you're looking for another tool to help with your tabletop roleplaying games this seems like a nice one to have in your back pocket!

What do you think of the idea?