If you struggle to bring Phandalin’s NPCs to life – give this a try: pattern them after your favorite characters in literature, cinema, or television.

In my version of the Lost Mine of Phandelver, Sister Garaele is cut from the cloth of Kara Thrace – better known as Lieutenant Starbuck in the SciFi 2000’s Battlestar Galactica reboot. Like BSG’s Kara Thrace, Sister Garaele has some baggage.

Garaele ends up in a sleepy backwater like Phandalin because, for one reason or another, she’s been exiled from every other community that venerates Tymora along the Sword Coast. There’s no stated reason. I just let her behavior in my game speak volumes:

• She’s a degenerate gambler: Even the clergy for the Goddess of Gamblers (Tymora) have commented more than once “whoa Sister, you’ve got a problem.” A visitor to Phandalin who wants to pay homage at the Shrine of Luck is likely to find it unattended because Garaele often conducts her worship at the Sleeping Giant Taphouse, where she’s always knee-deep in a card game.
• She’s got a drinking problem. She’s more likely to smell like stale beer than incense.
• She’s mercurial: Garaele is no stranger to a drunken brawl. I like to make passing references to the recent shiner she wears, or the scabs on her knuckles.
• She’s a man-eater: What’s that? You want to take Garaele home to mama? NO. She’s taking you home, where she’s going to straddle you, break her bed frame, and then break your heart when you fall in love with her.

Despite her many flaws, Garaele does genuinely care about the residents of Phandalin, and dutifully attends to their many needs. She tasks the party with her Conyberry side quest because the last time she left town, Thel Dendrar disappeared, and was rumored to be the victim of a murder. And now the Dendrar family has gone missing as well. She cares too much for the people of Phandalin to leave town at a time like this.

And when she finds the murderer, Gods help him.

What characters from literature, television, or cinema do you think would be good character templates for Sister Garaele? I’d love to read your suggestions in the comments!

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