[This page is outdated! See instead the wiki page: https://wiki.project-tamriel.com/wiki/NPC_and_Creature_Guidelines#NPCing_Claim_Workflow]

 

Getting Started

Before starting your claim, there’s a few things you should keep in mind and be sure to have on hand:

Planning Documentation

Your first task is to review the planning documentation for your claim and make note of any important NPCs, locations, or plotlines that are going on in the claim's location. These will factor into your claim in various ways. Usually these will be linked to your claims, but you may also find relevant information in the handbook or the forums, linked below. You may also ask in our Discord.

Planning Documents | Tamriel Rebuilt (tamriel-rebuilt.org)

Planning | Tamriel Rebuilt (tamriel-rebuilt.org)

Loading Order

As with all other claims, you want to use TR_Mainland.esp (in ESP form, not ESM), Tamriel_Data.ESM, the Tamriel_Data Add-on if there is one, and the appropriate section file for your claim. Your claim’s new NPCs and dialogue will go into your own claim .esp file, naturally.

Dialogue Placeholders

Tamriel Rebuilt adds placeholders to common dialogue topics to better organize the massive amounts of dialogue in our mod, as well as to keep things from breaking upon merging claim files. Check that placeholders have been created for your claim’s area, and if not, ask a Senior or Lead Developer to add them to the appropriate section file. Do not ever place dialogue outside of these placeholders! Things WILL break.

Pathgrids

Some cells come with pathgrids included; some don’t. NPCers should check and ensure every interior has one, and that every exterior with lots of obstacles or hills in their area have one.

A tutorial on pathgrids can be found here: Pathgridding Tutorial | Tamriel Rebuilt (tamriel-rebuilt.org)

Ownerships and Merging Etiquette

Making any changes to any pre-existing objects (whether NPCs, locks on doors, object placements or stats, or interior cell names) is dangerous. In many cases, such changes will disappear upon your claim file being merged. Other times, they will break your claim and the section file very messily. For this reason, any changes to pre-existing objects MUST be left alone in the Construction Set and INSTEAD noted down in the Merging Notes part of your changelog, that you will submit with the rest of your claim. 

Alternatively, you may ask a Lead or Senior Developer to make these changes preemptively on the Section file; this is particularly useful if you don’t want to wait for a merge.

Dialogue

Besides simply placing creatures and NPCs, you will also be responsible for adding generic dialogue to those NPCs.

Dialogue Proofreading

First off, you’ll want to include a text file with your claim that has all the dialogue you've added to your claim. This makes a proofreader's job easier when it comes to catching grammar or lore mistakes. Google Docs and Google Sheets are easily shareable and free to use, while you can also create a text dump directly from the Construction Set by going into (dropdowns). TES3cmd will also generate a text file of dialogue with the command “tes3cmd dump “Data Files\MyPlugin.esp” -type info > blah.txt” (this will create a file named “blah.txt” with a dump of your dialogue) .

This must be included with the final submission of your claim, but it is often helpful to have a proofreader check your work before you start putting the dialogue into the game. Sometimes, dialogue will also already be written for your claim by other TR Developers. 

Dialogue Filtering

There are three main filters that should be used on most of your claim’s dialogue, along with special care paid to NPCs who have unique grammar and speaking patterns.

Map Scripts

All NPCs must include a map script. NO EXCEPTIONS. 

TR's map script filters dialogue according to which map in Tamriel Rebuilt the NPC resides in. A NPC's personal script assigns the map number, while each dialogue Response entry may be conditioned with the local variable TR_Map to make some Responses only show in the applicable map region. It's recommended to use this filter even if your dialogue will have another location-based condition, as this helps keep the filtering from breaking if the player brings a follower through the area.

Map scripts should already be included in TR files. Look for the ID “T_ScNpc_Mw_Map#”, where # is the number of the map. (If you are working on one of our sister mods, you may find “Mw”, normally standing for Morrowind, instead substituted for the abbreviation of another province.)

As slaves and vampires have some further scripting attached to them, for your convenience we include variations of the map script to use for these types of NPCs. 

Examples: T_ScNpc_Mw_Map2VampAundae, T_ScNpc_Mw_Map2Slave, T_ScNpc_Mw_Map2Nolore

Note that if you change any of the above scripts (for instance, if you are a Quest Developer and are adding a code to check for the NPC’s death), you must save the modified script under a new name, so as not to overwrite Tamriel Rebuilt’s scripts. Be sure that any new scripts still have the code that sets the map variable somewhere inside it. The code consists of a “short TR_Map” variable declaration at the beginning of the script, and the following block at its end:

if ( TR_Map == 4 ) Return Endif Set TR_Map to 4

(This is for map 4; likewise for other maps.) Make sure not to put anything after this if-block, for the “Return” prevents the rest of the script from running!

Which Map?

Choosing a map is easy. Locate your claim's location on the below master map and use its corresponding number for your script. For towns or NPCs near the boundaries between maps, consider what locations your NPC is more likely to be interested in and talk about. Note that being on the borders is never an excuse to not assign a map script. All NPCs must have a map script. NO EXCEPTIONS.

Beyond a geographical location, maps are also roughly divided among political and faction lines, as so:

Map "0" or no script	Solstheim and Vvardenfell
Map 1	the isolated Telvanni lands to the northeast
Map 2	Telvanni, Indoril and Temple lands primarily. Politically it involves the quarrels between these factions and between the Empire, which has some outposts in the area.
Map 3	the Indoril heartlands and also deals with the Thirr River Valley conflict
Map 4	badlands, some Ashlanders, and Hlaalu making land-grabs from Redoran
Map 5	the Redoran heartlands and may deal in their conflicts with the Nords in Skyrim
Map 6	the Dres heartlands
Map 7	the decadent Hlaalu homeland

NoLore

NoLore is a method of filtering out the Wikipedia-like dialogue that is meant to explain the world and its lore. Most NPCs who star in quests are tagged NoLore so their quest-specific dialogue doesn't get buried in the topic list, while many of your NPC claim NPCs will not be.

To properly use NoLore, you must include the code “short nolore” (no quotations) in your NPC's attached script, AS WELL AS conditioning any generic and lengthy lore-discussing dialogue with NoLore. This is done with the condition Not Local, NoLore == 0. For your convenience, we have included NoLore versions of the map scripts that satisfy the first requirement, but you still must remember to properly condition any new dialogue you write as well.

Disposition

Finally, almost all NPC dialogue should carry the Disposition filter of 30. This prevents the NPC from talking to the player when they really dislike the player, and makes for a more realistic world. (Note this should not be applied for most quest dialogue and certainly not for ForceGreeting dialogue.)

Special Grammar

Khajiit and Argonians often talk weird, Ashlanders sometimes speak with simplistic grammar, and mute NPCs don’t talk at all of course, so be sure to filter these NPCs’ dialogue appropriately with race, class, or unique ID variables. These filters will need to be tested out ingame, to be sure no other topics slip through that have non-accented dialogue. 

Dialogue Topics

Your primary role is to flesh out the local greetings and generic topics for your NPCs. Most of these topics’ purpose is to give an overview of the local area: its landmarks, its people, its politics, its overarching plotlines, and a few things that the player may find of interest, such as shops, dungeons, or miscellaneous points of interest.

There are three main categories of topics that you will need to either check or write new dialogue for. For more information and advice on how to write for these topics, review the Guidelines for Generic Topics, here: Guidelines for Generic Topics | Tamriel Rebuilt (tamriel-rebuilt.org)

Static Vanilla Topics

The below topics come to us from the vanilla game. You don't necessarily have to write more dialogue for these if the filtering is fine; that said, always test the filtering ingame!

• little advice
• little secret
• Solstheim
• Morrowind lore
• my trade

Modified Vanilla Topics

These topics also come from the vanilla game and will require new entries in your claim:

• services
• someone in particular
• specific place
• latest rumors (Keep in mind quest claims will add more entries here, so you only need to add 1-2 more.)
• Background (Unlike vanilla, TR convention is that more text goes in here beyond "I am %Name, %Class" since TR-specific classes have the TR_ prefix in their name, and thus look rather funny in dialogue. This is the best place to add a little more personal flavor to each of your NPCs.)

Tamriel Rebuilt Topics

Finally, these additional topics are added by Tamriel Rebuilt. For the specific names of landmarks, towns, regions, leaders, shops, etc, please refer to your section file's planning documents.

• local area
• local economy
• name of the NPC's city/region and important NPCs in the area (refer to planning documents for these)

Greetings

You will also need to check the filtering of Greetings and add a few new ones. In an NPC claim, you will usually only deal in Greetings 7 and 9, as these categories handle NPC class Greetings (for instance, slaves and publicans, the latter of which may need to be specially worded for a new inn location) and location-based Greetings, respectively. The below list shows what the other Greetings are used for, but in most cases, what is given to us by vanilla in these categories is sufficient for these and don’t need any further work done by you.

 

 

NPCs

Characters, Character, and Not Going Overboard

Some of your NPCs will already be fleshed out in personality and appearance for you, as detailed by planning documents and the claim's design. Others are left almost entirely up to you. Beyond flavorful dialogue, this is the most impactful piece of your claim in portraying the world to the player, but it can be easy to overdo.

While you are populating your claim, keep in mind that we are creating a living world, so do not get too "special snowflake-y" with your NPCs. Unusual or counter-culture people are usually put into the game via quests; your job is to instead make the background actors, and so present an ordinary variety of slice-of-life, everyday average Joe's. They may have a little flavor to differentiate them from each other, but no more than one or two per claim should really stick out in the player's mind. 

When in doubt, ask what a town needs to sustain itself, and what your NPCs will be doing on any given day. What is their job? What faction do they belong to and how does that color their worldview? Who are their friends, their family, their bosses, their underlings? What might they think of the player coming into their town or home?

Most importantly, ask yourself: What do they offer to your world space? In Morrowind's representative game design, one house may be the equivalent of five to ten actual houses if the world was truly to scale, so consider what kind of ratio you are imparting to your claim as a whole when picking races and personalities.

Finally, though your claim design will frequently make suggestions here, you're allowed to deviate from the claim design as befits your taste and needs. That said, be aware that interiors and questlines are often planned around these NPCs, so take care in not making your changes too extreme, or get them cleared through a Lead Developer first.

IDs and Names

The ID format for NPCs is TR_m#_Name_Surname, where # is the map number. 

Slaves will get an additional “S” in their ID, as so: TR_m#_S_Name_Surname 

Dead NPCs get an additional “D” in their ID, as so: TR_m#_D_Name_Surname 

NPCs that only exist for quests are marked with Q: TR_m#_Q_Name_Surname

Finally, outlaw NPCs that are expected to be kill-on-sight (such as in bandit caves), receive an “O” to their ID: TR_m#_O_Name_Surname 

An NPC's in-world name is usually based on their race. The important NPCs in your region will already be named for you in the planning documents, but for everyone else, it is up to you.
 

Dunmer	Most Dunmer have a first name and a second family name. Typically, upon marriage, a Dunmer of either gender will take the name of the more powerful family or House in their union (such as Nerevar taking the name “Indoril” when he married Almalexia). Stylistically, there are occasionally some subtle differences between the names of Dunmer from different factions - most noticeable with the Ashlanders. There are much harder to detect trends between Great Houses as well.
Altmer	Usually only a first name. Sometimes "of [Summerset Isle location]" as a title. (e.g. Nalcarya of White Haven)
Bosmer	Usually only a first name.
Imperial	Most Imperials have a first name and a family name. These are often Latin sounding, with men frequently ending in -us and women ending in -a. Don't overdo this, but do note it as a means of maintaining stylistic consistency.
Nord	Generally only a first name, occasionally with title (e.g. Eydis Fire-Eye). Surnames following the convention of '[fathersname]son/dottir” is used in some Elder Scrolls lore, but not in vanilla Morrowind. You can still use this sparingly if you like. If you want to get 'real worldy', Nordic names sound Scandinavian and Germanic, more so than Slavic or Russian. (e.g. Beowulf rather than Vladimir) So, if you want to look for inspiration, go to the Viking Sagas or Saxon England.
Redguard	Usually only a first name. Occasionally, Redguards have 'modern' names that we would recognize in the real world (e.g. Gary, Katie). Don't overdo this, and don't use really obvious names - consider using a twist in the spelling.
Breton	Most Bretons have a first name and a family name. Often French sounding. As a general note for Bretons and to a lesser extent Redguards and Nords too, remember that they might be Imperial citizens with Imperial fathers - and thus have an Imperial name rather than a Nordic/Redguard/Breton one. (As a side note, in Elder Scrolls lore, children inherit the majority of their racial traits from their mother)
Orc	All Orcs have a first name and a last name. The last name is the name of a parent and preceded by the prefix gro- (typically taken to mean “son of”) or gra- (“daughter of”), depending on the Orc’s gender. (e.g. Dul gro-Dush, Dura gra-Bol)
Argonian	There are two types of Argonian names. Some have pure Argonian names from their native language, while others have the translated Imperial versions of these. (e.g. Jeelus-Tei, Skink-in-Tree's-Shade) As you should know from Suran's Haj-Ei quest, all Argonians have both, though typically only give one of them to strangers.
Khajiit	There is an Imperial Library document where Jobasha speaks about Khajiit names, which you could use, but don't be bound by it. Many names are prefixed by one or two letters, followed by an apostrophe (hyphens are occasionally used).

 

For other ideas, TR's in-house naming generator can be found here: Just A Simple Name Generator at Morrowind Nexus - mods and community (nexusmods.com)

Another method is to check the UESP's list of all NPCs by race and then choose a similar name. These lists can be found here: Category:Morrowind-NPCs-by-Race - The Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages (UESP)

Picking Races and Faces

The race and gender of important NPCs will already be chosen for you, and your claim design will often include more information on who can be found in each part of your claim. For everyone else, it is up to you!

Some things to keep in mind: while on vanilla's Vvardenfell the ratio of Dunmer to outlanders is around 50:50, on the mainland outlanders are much less populous. In TR's towns the ratio will be more like 75:25. (Obviously, this will change a bit depending on the location and purpose of your claim.)

 Some races are more common amongst slaves in particular. In general, Indoril prefer men and mer races for house servants but beast races for field servants. Hlaalu keep mostly beast races, Dres keep almost exclusively Argonians, and Telvanni and wealthy Velothi generally keep a mix of all the races. (It should be noted that Redoran very rarely keep slaves, though they are not against the practice itself.) Sometimes Dunmer are also enslaved, though this is usually implied to be a less harsh sentence than it is for the other races of Tamriel.

For gender, males and females are about equal in population, profession, and general politics. (Children, outside of older teenagers, are by the choice of the original game's developers not represented in-game, and so any mention to them in dialogue should be used sparingly, if at all.) Ashlanders are the exception and have strict gender roles, where men are warriors and both types of 'khans, while women are wise women, healers and soothsayers. (Both may be hunters.) 

For ease of use, a visual guide to NPC faces and hair styles can be found here: Designamatic--Morrowind

Tamriel_Data includes more face and hair options for NPCs. A visual guide to these can be found here: Tamriel Data Visual Index.7z - Google Drive

In general, the faces for Project: Cyrodiil, Skyrim: Home of the Nords, and the other province mods will not fit the style for Morrowind, so don’t use these in Tamriel Rebuilt. Similarly, do not use any faces with either “UNI” in their ID or that contain an NPC’s name, for these are unique to a single NPC.

Picking a Class

A NPC's services, ability list, and some dialogue topics are all based on their class.

Services

Services is everything (beyond dialogue) that an NPC can offer to the player. Most classes that have services are special classes with "Service" in the name, but there are some exceptions.

Picking the right class and clicking Auto-Calculate in the NPC window is usually enough to set up services for your NPC, but there are exceptions, as found below. You can also manually set which services an NPC offers through their AI window, though this generally isn’t recommended for vendors.

Vendors

Vendors are based out of a shop or stall already present ingame, so it is generally not feasible to add more of these than your claim already dictates. Vendors will sell everything they "own", but that is not currently equipped, including stuff in their inventory and stuff lying about their shop (including inside containers).

Note that Pawnbrokers and Trader Service are the only classes that sell (almost) everything. Pawnbrokers are usually used for cheap and sometimes illegal goods while Trader Service is more applicable to a general store. (Despite their names, Merchants and Traders do not sell anything at all and are instead to be used for the non-service version of these classes where needed for dialogue and questing purposes.)

The classes for Vendor and what they sell by default go as so:

• Alchemist Service (Potions, Ingredients, Alchemy Apparatus)
• Apothecary Service (Potions, Ingredients, Alchemy Apparatus)
• Assassin Service (Thief Tools)
• Book Seller (Books)*
• Clothier (Clothing)**
• Enchanter Service (Weapons, Armor, Clothing, Books*, Magic Items, Miscellaneous)
• Healer Service (Ingredients, Potions)
• Pawnbroker (everything)
• Priest Service (Books, Ingredients, Potions)
• Publican (Ingredients, Potions)
• Savant Service (Books)
• Smith (Weapons, Armor, Repair Tools)
• Thief Service (Thieves Tools)
• Trader Service (everything but Thieves Tools and Alchemy Apparatus)
• Wise Woman (Ingredients, Potions)

*Books include Magic Scrolls and Papers.

**Clothing includes Jewelery and Shoes (not boots).

Trainers

A trainer offers training in their three highest skills (it’s not clear how tie-breakers are managed). The below classes offer training by default. Note that specific races get high bonuses to certain skills and attributes, which may change what is taught. As you can see by the short list here, most trainers need to be manually set.

• Agent (usually Acrobatics, Light Armor, Short Blade, Sneak, or Speechcraft)
• Assassin Service (usually Acrobatics, Light Armor, Marksman, Short Blade, or Sneak)
• Drillmaster Service (usually Acrobatics, Athletics, Block, Hand-to-Hand, or Unarmored)
• Master-at-Arms (usually Axe, Blunt Weapon, Long Blade, Short Blade, or Spear)
• Monk Service (usually Acrobatics, Athletics, Hand-to-Hand, Sneak, or Unarmored)
• Savant Service (usually Alchemy, Athletics, Mercantile, Speechcraft, or Unarmored)
• Scout (usually Athletics, Block, Long Blade, Medium Armor, or Sneak)
• Thief Service (usually Acrobatics, Light Armor, Security, Short Blade, or Sneak)

Publicans

Publicans are the class that owns taverns and rents out beds. To offer beds to the player, special dialogue, scripts and a new global variable are needed, as detailed below. Note that the publican NPC must be placed in the same cell as the bed for these scripts to work. By default, Publicans also are vendors for Ingredients and Potions.

Adding the Bed Renting Mechanics

First, you will need to write out the appropriate dialogue in the topic beds. The game’s basic dialogue already has Responses for everything but the acceptance dialogue (when the player agrees to take the bed), which you will need to add yourself. Your acceptance dialogue should include directions to where the bed is located in the inn, as well as the following code block in Results. (Obviously, change out “BALMORA, South Wall” for the actual name of your claim’s inn.)

set rent to 1 ;this does everything in the publican's script BALMORA, South Wall additem, gold_001, 10 player->removeitem, gold_001, 10 moddisposition 2

Your acceptance dialogue will also need the following Conditions if you are using the defaults for the rest of the beds dialogue:

ID (the ID of your publican NPC) Function Choice = 1 Item Gold_001 >= 10

Next, you’ll need to create a global variable (also called the “flag” in the Publican script). This controls whether the player has successfully rented the room and so is allowed to sleep in the bed and open any doors that lead to it. Name this global “TR_m#_Rent_InnName” (where # is the appropriate map and InnName is a shortened version of the inn in question). Set its default value to “0” and its type to “Short”.

For this to work properly, the global variable will need to be applied to the bed and the locked door of the bedroom (if applicable). Since changing the stats of existing objects will break upon merging your claim, make a note to your Merger to add this global variable to the bed and any doors under the “Global Variable/Rank”  field in these objects’ Reference Data. Note: while the bed’s ID can be generic, any locked doors MUST have a unique ID so that the renting script knows which one to unlock. (The merger will have to replace the door to do this, as well as edit the Publican’s attached script.)

Finally, you’ll need to create a new script and attach it to your Publican NPC. Below is a template. You’ll need to change the names and IDs throughout this script to match your claim. Name the script as TR_m#_Pub_InnName (where # is the name of the appropriate map and InnName is a shortened version of the inn in question). Although this template includes this, always be sure to add your Map Script at the end of any scripts for TR NPCs.

Travel Services

Travel services must be set manually through the AI window of your NPC. In TR, for the most part, these are already handled in TR_Travels, and so you do not have to worry about that step. However, dialogue may still need to be added to the destination topic that details what places this particular NPC offers travel services to. It is a good idea to add a comment in the Results field of your destination topic that says which town your NPC is in as well, for easier reference.

The following NPC classes pair with the listed types of travel services:

• Caravaner (silt strider, river strider)
• Gondolier (gondolas in Vivec)
• Guild Guide (mage portals)
• Shipmaster (boats)

Misc. Services

NPCs may also be set to sell spells, repair items, and give spellmaking and enchanting services. Just as with trainers, these can be restricted based on the player’s faction and rank. Be sure to check an NPC’s spells list if you intend them to sell spells, as they are able to sell every spell they know. 

• Battlemage Service (sells spells)
• Enchanter (enchanting services)
• Healer Service (sells spells)
• Mage Service (sells and makes spells)
• Nightblade Service (sells spells)
• Priest Service (sells and makes spells)
• Smith (repairs items)
• Sorcerer Service (sells and makes spells)
• Trader Service (repairs items)
• Wise Woman Service (makes spells)

Other Class Restrictions

Aside from services, some classes have very specific roles to play in the game world.

Loremasters

Savants and Scouts carry the role of being the game’s loremasters, and so are never marked NoLore. Savants have something to say about almost every topic, while Scouts have information about locations, regions, and some monsters. If you want a NoLore Scout, instead use the Hunter class. If you want a NoLore Savant, instead consider classes like TR_Scribe or Pilgrim.

Slaves

Slaves are all given the “Slave” class. Slaves that are to be sold or set free need special dialogue, scripts, and a key item placed in the world somewhere. All slaves wear at least one slave bracer, either Slave_Bracer_Left or Slave_Bracer_Right.

Enslaving Your NPCs

To add mechanics for owning and freeing slaves, you will first want to attach a script with the following blocks of code inside it. For your convenience, our files include generic map scripts combined with the slave script. These are named T_ScNpc_Mw_Map#Slave , where # is the appropriate map number.

 

Buying slaves, ordering them around, and freeing them is then handled through dialogue and the setting of the variable “slaveStatus”. There are many ways you can do this to add flavor, but in general, any and all freeing of slaves should make use of the dialogue topic go free and require a key.

There’s four different statuses to Slave NPCs, as follows. These can be set in dialogue Results or in scripts with the command set slaveStatus to #, where # is replaced with the desired status.

slaveStatus
0	Owned ( default state... does not indicate who they are owned by )
1	For Sale ( someone in the game can "sell" this slave via dialogue )
2	Owned By the Player ( the player has purchased this slave and the slave follows the player )
3	Freed ( the player has freed this slave, the slave eventually disables himself)

 

Guards

Guards are, well, guards. There is hardcode attached to them that drives their law-enforcing behavior, so any NPC you want functioning in this capacity has to have the Guard class. This class affects some dialogue too. The Ordinator Guard class is an Ordinator with Guard capabilities, and should be used for Ordinator Guards found in Temple-based locations. The below table lists the IDs you can use for generic guards of each faction. Note: if you need to change the stats, equipment, or scripts of these, you must save your edit under a new ID so you don't overwrite all generic guards in the game.

Guard IDs
Imperial Guard	Imperial Guard
Hlaalu Guard	hlaalu guard or hlaalu guard_outside
Redoran Guard	redoran guard female or redoran guard male
Telvanni Guard	telvanni guard or telvanni guard_stand
Ordinator	ordinator stationary or ordinator wander
Indoril Guard	TR_ind_guard, TR_ind_guard_f (female), TR_ind_guard_s (stationary), TR_ind_guard_f_s (female and stationary)
Dres Guard	Currently does not exist. Talk to a Lead Developer if your claim needs one.

Dialogue and Faction Restrictions

Some of the classes from the base game have dialogue entries that are specific to Vvardenfell or a certain faction. If you are considering an NPC that doesn’t match this my trade dialogue, you should consider picking a different class for them or correcting the my trade entry specifically for that NPC.

The affected classes:

• Hunters, Publicans, and Witches have Vvardenfell-specific dialogue in my trade.
• Dreamer is a servant of Dagoth Ur.
• Champion is an Ashlander-only class, often used for ashkhans and gulakhans. Mabrigash and Wise Woman are also Ashlander-only classes.
• Miner is typically for egg miner, not ore miner (they get some special dialogue about kwama). Tamriel_Data adds Ore Miner for glass, ebony, silver, etc.
• Battlemages, by lore, are usually Imperial or Breton, or at least connected to the Imperial Legion.

Gender Restrictions

Witches are always females. (Try Warlock for guys?) Wise Women and Mabrigash are likewise always females, while Champions are male.

Equipment

Everyone needs clothes! After creating your NPC, you will have to give them something to wear. While choosing items, note that NPCs automatically put on equipment that is best for them, based on the item's quality and their own skills. An equipped item also cannot be pickpocketed or sold.

Clothing

A good rule of thumb is to clothe your NPCs based on their implied wealth. Most commoners wear common clothing, merchants wear expensive, while nobles wear expensive and extravagant clothing. Usually, only unique NPCs like faction leaders wear anything exquisite.

Just like furniture, some clothing is tagged to be specific to certain factions. This is not always clear in the item’s ID, and you will have to be sure to eyeball each piece of clothing to make sure it’s fitting. Some common offenders are expensive_robe_01 which is a robe exclusive to Ashlanders, common_robe_03_b which is meant for Morag Tong agents, and expensive_robe_02 which is worn by Temple priests. Often, extravagant shirts and robes also have  _h, _r, or _t as suffixes, to indicate they are used for Great House Hlaalu, Great House Redoran, and Great House Telvanni, respectively.

Just as faces from the other province mods shouldn't be used in TR, clothing from Project:Cyrodiil, Skyrim: Home of the Nords, and others shouldn't be, either. This is mostly down to stylistic choices not matching what we have in TR.

A visual guide to clothing choices can be found here: Designamatic--Morrowind

Gold and Jewelry

NPCs generally do not carry around their life's savings (I mean, do you?), and so gold coins should not be standard issue in NPC inventories. Instead, roughly a third of Morrowind's NPCs may carry jewelry OR a sum of gold (not both) appropriate to their economic class in their inventory. An easy way to determine a good gold amount is to take the cost of the ring that has the same wealth level as the NPC's clothes (common, expensive, extravagant, exquisite), and then give them three times that number in gold. 

Other Items

Except for the following exceptions, most NPCs in vanilla also do not carry around random items outside their own clothing, and for the most part we follow this convention in TR. However, sometimes it is nice to reward an enterprising pickpocketing player, so items outside of clothes and basic equipment can be added sparingly to NPC inventories (no more than 1-4 per claim). 

Now for the exceptions:

• Though shop-keepers sell everything they have ownership to, restockable items are best put in their inventory. These will be things like common potions, arrows, or lockpicks and probes.
• Bandits, mercenaries, and Ashlanders will have one weapon and up to 4 pieces of armor, typically. The level of their equipment should be roughly based on the average level of your claim's location. (Some powerful encounters will carry better, of course.)
• Guards have standard uniforms depending on their faction, though their commanders may go a little upscale with special helmets, skirts, or shields. When placing ordinary guards you should use the vanilla version of these--and don't mess with their stats or inventory at all! Guard captains and Quest NPC guards, on the other hand, will need unique faces, IDs, and equipment.
• Miners may carry pickaxes and some of the appropriate ore (or eggs, if they're that kind of miner)
• Thieves may have lockpicks and probes.  
• Mages and priests might carry a magic item, which includes scrolls and potions. (Note that scrolls and potions are automatically used all at once should the player engage any of your NPCs in combat, so don't overstock them.) 
• Slaves always have at least one slave bracer and rarely have shirts.

Ownerships and Keys

You're responsible for what's in the inventory of your NPCs. You are not responsible for their ownership of objects in their house or shop, including any keys or locks. In fact, never touch these. They will break or double upon your claim being merged. Instead note any changes you would like made in your changelog when you submit your claim. (Alternatively, ask a Senior Developer to edit the section file with these changes beforehand.)

The only exception to this is you will need to add custom keys for any slaves you want to be free-able in your claim. Not all of your slaves need the ability to go free, but it's a nice thing to include for any players following the Twin Lamps. For guidelines on how to handle owning and freeing slaves, see the Slave class.

AI

Wander

By default, an NPC is set to Wander: that is, to move around in random directions at random times. For interior locations, shop keepers, and some quest NPCs, this is almost always set to 0 so an NPC doesn’t move and start climbing on tables, getting lost, or providing obstacles to the player in tight doorways.

Fight

Fight controls how likely it is that the NPC will attack the player when the player comes close, has a low disposition rating, or commits a crime. For most NPC claims, this should be under 30, as 30 is the rating that the NPC will only attack if the player commits a crime. 0 is also a good number, as NPCs with 0 Fight will only attack if attacked first. (Should you be creating a claim in which NPCs or creatures are to attack the player on sight, 100 means they will attack immediately, while 80-95 they will attack depending on how close the player gets to them.)

Flee

Flee controls how likely an NPC will run from combat. Note that even a rating of 100 may not cause the NPC to flee immediately, depending on other factors.

Alarm

Alarm controls how likely an NPC will take action when another nearby NPC sees the player committing a crime. The higher Alarm is, the more likely the NPC will assign the player a bounty and possibly attack (as based on their Fight rating).

Hello

Hello governs how likely the NPC is to turn around and give the player a voiced greeting when the player comes near them. A value of “0” should be used for any NPCs you want to stand still and never acknowledge the player.

Creatures

Sometimes your claim will be for adding creatures, hostile or otherwise, to a wilderness exterior or a cave. Any cell that does not mostly consist of a town or farms should have creatures placed in it, too.

Which Ones?

Vanilla Morrowind is lazy and unsystematic about where it places its Hostile Creatures. We should do better.

First and foremost, we don't use automatic level-scaling! We still use leveled creatures, but these don't actually depend on the player's level; instead, the critters in TR's leveled lists are usually of roughly the same difficulty, and we then place them based on regions, as shown on the map below. Thus, if you stroll through Mainland at Level 50, you won't be walking through regions devoid of life... but you won't be finding random Daedra in non-Daedric zones, either. Similarly, Level 1 characters will encounter creatures wherever they go, and many of them will be over their level.

 

There are essentially three ways to place a creature:

• Place the creature itself (from the Creature tab). This is best used for quests in which you want a specific creature spawning, but should not be used for most other purposes. Keep in mind that most creatures placed this way won’t respawn unless the "Respawn" checkbox is checked in the creature's settings--and this usually isn’t.
• Place a deterministic leveled creature (from the Leveled Creature tab), which all start with the ID T_Mw_Cr_.  A deterministic leveled creature consists of a single creature, appearing with 100% chance in the given location. This is essentially just a way to place a respawning critter of the specific type of your choice.
• Place a random leveled creature (from the Leveled Creature tab). This is a leveled list whose ID starts with T_Mw_RStat_. The creature type is randomized in these lists, but they are generally around the same level as each other, as specified in the ID. The syntax for these is T_Mw_RStat_[RegionName]D[DifficultyLevel](orp). The "orp" means "or peaceful", which may and may not be present; when present, it means that the list includes peaceful critters (so don't use it for gatekeepers). The "DifficultyLevel" is a rough approximation of how challenging the creature is; for example, 01 means "like a kwama forager", 05 means "like a nix-hound", 09 means "like a kagouti". We will go far higher, but so far the only places using this system are some of the easiest regions in Heartland, so don't expect to find anything difficult in those lists just yet.

Our random leveled creatures are sorted by region, so that regions don’t feel all the same. Don’t make potpourris like the vanilla Grazelands! As always, the rule allows for exceptions, and it makes sense to mix near region borders.

How Many?

Vanilla cells range from 2 to 8 hostile creatures (and Bloodmoon's cells have 12 or more at higher levels, but this is best not imitated). There’s a lot of wiggle room here to use your creativity and judgment. It makes sense to place more creatures in wilder, junglier and more dangerous places, and fewer creatures in places that are more inhabited or more likely to be patrolled by guards in-world. 3 to 4 hostile creatures per cell is adequate in most cases for Tamriel Rebuilt.

Friendlies (e.g., netch and scribs) can count for 1/2 or ⅓ of a hostile creature; no one will mind too many of them (in good measure). Moreover, friendly creatures can be placed near towns and farms, whereas hostile creatures must be a good distance away (otherwise, guards will go crazy).

Bodies of water that are sufficiently large and not isolated should also have water creatures (slaughterfish, dreugh, tullies). Keep in mind that the hostile fish have huge "attack radii", so it's easy to overfill the ocean. When in doubt, playtest your creature placements in-game.

Other Creature Placement Do’s and Don’ts

Morrowind's creatures have no "team AI". You can place several wolves near each other (and it's generally encouraged to do so), but don't expect them to aid each other in combat; a player can pull them one by one with destruction spells and finish them one by one without the others realizing what is going on.

When placing packs, consider mixing deterministic leveled creatures with non-respawning creatures, so that only part of the pack will respawn. This ensures that the spot won't ever become fully lifeless but also doesn't become a too-convenient hunting ground.

Hostile “gatekeeper” creatures are needed around places that offer really good loot, particularly if these places are too close to low-level zones. These should preferably be a deterministic leveled creature (see the section above): look for IDs that start with T_Mw_RStat_ and that do not have the (orp) tag at the end.

As usual, context matters. Mudcrabs should live in swamps and on shores, daedra in Daedric shrines or in places that have been abandoned to Daedric influence, cliff racers near mountains (sparingly please!), etc.

Miscellaneous Things to Check

• It's good immersion to make sure there's a bed in town for every NPC you add. It's also good immersion to let some of your NPCs walk the streets instead of sitting around in their house all day. (Just be sure to tell the file merger to lock their front doors then, or have someone do it before.)