Two related questions:
Can you create new NPCs during play? My understanding is that you can’t and that the NPCs must exist before the game starts, even if they’re inactive. But I’m not certain.
Can you change an NPC’s properties during play? Could you have a “blank” NPC whose properties are set on activation? If you can, is this limited to just descriptions? Or can you change more complex things like NPC dialogue, scheduling, etc?
I wrote a blog post that covers a lot of this kind of thing! In The Island of Doctor Wooby I “create new NPCs” by building them up from “blank” versions—whose properties are set on activation, like you say! I even did some more complex things along the lines of dialogue. The dinosaurs don’t talk, but they have different parts (horns and tails and stuff) and different personalities that affect their behavior. But even wilder stuff is possible, and you can definitely randomize NPCs who are more fleshed out than felt dinosaurs.
Sorry for the late response! Wow, that’s a lot less hacky than I thought it would be.
