Help me come up with many npcs for a one-shot scenario

[King of Nowhere]

First of all, I need a DISCLAIMER TO MY PLAYERS, whom I know lurk this forum.
THIS WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THE NEXT SESSION. Nothing major, mostly just the starting scenario. Still, you should not read further



The party will have to solve a political intrigue. Next session they will be at a big of the nobility, amid scheming powerful men - most of them corrupt to various degrees -, and their task will be to identify a secret agent in the middle of them.
The whole scenario is actually a magically constructed test, those are not real people, but it... well, it's complicated, but it may as well be real.

Anyway, while I know some data on the secret agent, and others who may know of him, I don't have much else. My plan is basically "and here the party will talk/interact with the people at the ball, and I will basically improvise because there's too much randomness to what they could do for me to predict anything".
of course, the party will start with people at random, and they will not be secret agents. But, in order to carry on a believable conversation, I must be able to sketch some improvised npc nobles. Many of them.
And I kinda suck at that. I can make a complex character, but quickly sketching a bunch of guys enough to entertain a conversation? not where my dming skills lay.

So I'm looking for help on how to quickly devise some random noblemen joe who is there to conduct some shady dealings and may or may not be privy to the the secret agents, and may want to help the party in exchange for something or may want to cheat them.

[Batcathat]

As a general suggestion, it might be good to both use and subvert the stereotypes. So have some of them live up to every expectation of "scheming nobleman" (sleazy, snobbish, disparaging, etc.) but also some that really doesn't, like a kindly grandmother-type or a eager and friendly type (think Elan). The non-stereotypical ones may very well be the most corrupt, of course.

[KorvinStarmast]

So I'm looking for help on how to quickly devise some random noblemen joe who is there to conduct some shady dealings and may or may not be privy to the the secret agents, and may want to help the party in exchange for something or may want to cheat them.

What system are you using? If it's D&D 5e, applying the personality traits, bonds, ideals, and flaws from the Ch 4 backgrounds in the PHB is a way to quick build some nobles with various motives and personalities.
But if it's another system, here's my usual framework.
Notes on a 3" x 5" card, or on note pad, under the NPCs' name.
1. What does this NPC want? (List three things).
2. What will this NPC sacrifice to get what they want? (price willing to pay)
3. What will this NPC compromise about? (list two or three things).
4. What won't this NPC compromise about? (List one or two things).
5. Who is this person related to, who being "someone significant to this plot/scenario/world"

That gives me, usually, 80-90% of what I need. rarely takes more than 15-20 minutes of prep.

[King of Nowhere]

As a general suggestion, it might be good to both use and subvert the stereotypes. So have some of them live up to every expectation of "scheming nobleman" (sleazy, snobbish, disparaging, etc.) but also some that really doesn't, like a kindly grandmother-type or a eager and friendly type (think Elan). The non-stereotypical ones may very well be the most corrupt, of course.

the god vecna died, and the remains of its power got sealed into its own demiplane. the party has accessed that demiplane, and is now undergoing several trials to access that power; each one of those trials is themed about secrets.
and this is why all the nobles there are going to be of the ruthless scheming variety; they are, after all, a manifestation of the power of vecna taking shape.

[King of Nowhere]

very few people that care about this apparently, but I did find the perfect solution, which someone else can find useful.
Realizing that I myself could not produce a large number of scheming nobles, I also realized I didn't need to, because somebody else already did.
Hence I took them from various other books.

During the session, the party interacted with king iadon from Elantris, lady selachii from discworld, lady colavere from the wheel of time and shan elariel from mistborn.
being this thing a one-shot magical puzzle with the nobles in question mere projections devoid of actual life, i didn't risk causing plot snags

[Bohandas]

There was a thread on ENWorld I saw recently wjere somebody had 100 NPC ideas they'd come up wih

https://www.enworld.org/threads/101-...wall-2.304939/

[Pauly]

I would go the full Paranoia mode and make everyone a secret agent, just not the secret agent you were looking for.

Having said that my go to has to be to raid the Bond franchise and do all the Bonds (Connery, Lazenby, Moore Dalton and Pierce) Felix Leiter, M, Q, Moneypenny as well as iconic villains such ad Dr No, Rosa Klebb, Blofeld, Goldfinger, Oddjob, Jaws.
The game will be to see how many of them your players can identify.

[Bohandas]

Having said that my go to has to be to raid the Bond franchise and do all the Bonds (Connery, Lazenby, Moore Dalton and Pierce)

Don't forget Peter Sellers in the original Casino Royale from the 60's