CLOK BBS

I've been thinking about a recent comment from a GM in chat that their least favorite activity is creating NPCs because inevitably somebody kills them to demontrate whatever. I have a two-part recommendation to handle that issue:
Part 1: <attack crowd>
This would work very similarly to steal crowd, and could likely use the same NPC generation mechanics. Once the command is sent, the NPC is generated and the attack and consequences are resolved after that. When someone wants to show off by killing a random townie, they can actually do that instead of killing an expertly crafted NPC with a name, family, tragic backstory, etc.

Part 2: <seek trainer skill>
This would have a chance to spawn a temporary NPC that could offer training in the desired skill for the normal (or possibly higher) price. Skills available would be via a white-list. Asking around about training in undesireable skills may harm your reputation. Whether interacted with or not, they then wander off and despawn similar to NPCs generated from steal crowd. Now there is less pressure to generate expertly crafted NPCs when the only real goal is to have a skill trainer available.

Cool thoughts. We actually had a pretty decent discussion about attack crowd a few years back but nothing came of it. If you want to see some of the viewpoints from back then, here's the thread: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=3929

I think for the seek trainer idea it might be more in-line with current play if the spawned NPC would rather point you in the direction of the actual trainer in town (saying something like - check the blacksmith, or stables, or general store etc.) or at least let you know if such a trainer isn't in town at all and you might need to look elsewhere (either the wilderness or another city). While this wouldn't stop the permanent trainer NPC's potential to be murdered randomly, it would make it easier to find trainers in town in case someone knowledgeable isn't available to ask ICly and it would help mitigate having to check every building or room for a specific trainer type. The wiki used to have most trainers and their general locations listed, but that's been out of date for quite some time and having a source for this information IC would be a great addition to the game.