Pre-generated npc's in suppliments

[DreganHiregard]

I'm in the process of creating my very first pathfinder supplement and I'm nearing completion. I'm considering making some pre-generated npc's to add into it but I personally never use those. Am I alone in this? I turn to you gentle giants for the answer, are sample npc's a waste of space? are they very important and helpful? Or does it depend on what you include? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

[Judge_Worm]

It varies by DMGM.
Some don't have the time to build interesting npcs. Some don't have the creativity or even care to create their own.
On the other hand, some will painstakingly craft their npcs. While others just ignore them altogether(those last ones coincidentally seem to play murder hobo characters).
But, as a consumer, I do like having pregenerated npcs there whether I use them or not.

Unrelatedly, may I ask perchance, what you are working on?

[BowStreetRunner]

If you include them, your supplement will certainly appeal to a wider audience. As for how much wider, I like that you are posing the question here, as the response may help you to better gauge whether the investment of the time you put into the NPCs will be worthwhile.

Myself, I always like to use a mix of NPCs from various sources. I hate when I read a book, watch a movie, or play a role-playing game and all of the characters begin to seem utterly predictable because they were created by the same person. So not only would I use the NPCs you created when running your supplement, but I would add them to my files to be pulled out when running other games as well.

[JDL]

As a DM I usually have a stock of gingerbread NPCs in a folder somewhere. These are usually 1st level, 3rd level, 5th level etc. tavern keeper, warrior guy, thief lady, magic man, holy woman and so forth. If I need an NPC statted on the fly, I'll pull out the sheet and pick the most relevant one. Being a DM is about prep work, but once you get a bunch of templates ready you can wing it pretty easily. If someone is using your supplement and doesn't have their own stock ready then giving them an NPC on a silver platter can be useful though.

[DreganHiregard]

Unrelatedly, may I ask perchance, what you are working on?

I'm making "The Flavor Handbook". Though I might rework the title. Basically it's a pathfinder supplement all about cooking, food in DnD, and even delving into non-literal flavor such as how you style your abilities and customize your character. It's nearly done the writing phase but I'm still working on some extras, mostly articles, and maybe pre-made npc's and such and then of course playtesting a bunch of content.

If you wanna know more of stay ontop of it I'm Duckandrollblog on Tumblr and Twitter and hopefully in the next few weeks on patreon and maybe even get a kickstarter going. My company, once it's started is going to be Duck and Roll games, or maybe Duck and Roll publishing. The giants forums are a huge wealth of knowledge so you'll probably see me making more threads in the future for some creative insight.