NPCS: Why Samwise Gamgee Will Always Beat Samesize Gamecheat (LIVE from FateCon 2026)

AI tools are around. Ubiquitous and being forced upon us more and more into our hobbies. Certainly, they can be used for left-brain logistics...but when we surrender our right minds to generative LLMs that scrape the Internet and other peoples' hard work to deliver instant, soulless gratification...we lose that spark that make us us: HUMAN. So this panel will seek to inspire folks to write what they know, borrow what they love, steal what they'd love to emulate, and make a twist for the people at your table. Using my podcast tables, we will randomly generate a NPC, and I will show exactly how I practice what I preach to create a whole NPC with a sidequest with more heart than anything a computer could have done in 3 seconds. And note: I've included the raw transcript from Zencastr for this episode as well (will work to go back and retrieve and upload others as I'm able). Please note the transcripts are the UNEDITED version, not the final edit you are listening to. Visit our website at https://www.sidekicksandsidequests.com Facebook Page Subreddit Page Instagram Page Discord Server Music Used: "Ouroboros" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Support Sidekicks & Sidequests