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⚠️ WARNING — OBSOLETE GUIDE ⚠️

As of Journals of Jyggalag v3.5.2, this guide is no longer in use.

JOJ no longer uses EasyNPC. This guide remains here only as a general reference for anyone who still wishes to use EasyNPC on their own.

The current system is NPC Plugin Chooser 2 by Piranha91.
Please refer to his official README for full documentation and usage.

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Welcome, Champion of Order.

This guide walks you through how to rebuild or customize your NPC appearance merge using EasyNPC. This tool gives you full visual control over how characters appear in your game.

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EasyNPC is a GUI-based tool that lets you:

• Compare NPC overhauls side-by-side
• Resolve mod conflicts easily
• Generate your own merged plugin and FaceGen data
• Eliminate blackface bugs and reduce plugin count

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We understand that people will want to mod the list, and we try to make that process as easy as possible. At the same time, there’s a mutual understanding that while support may be available for Rule 11 modifications, it is not guaranteed.

That’s why all Scrolls of Schtevie Modlists include all the NPC overhauls used in the original merge. This gives you the freedom to:

• Use the default setup
• Customize your aesthetics
• Build your own merge safely

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You are modifying the modlist at your own risk.

While support may be available on our Discord, we are not obligated to help troubleshoot issues resulting from custom edits.

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💡 Quick Tip:
If you only want to add a replacer or two—or overwrite my choices—it’s often easier to simply place your replacer plugin below NPC Appearances Merged.esp in the right plugin panel of MO2, then rerun Synthesis. A guide for running Synthesis can be found in the JOJ Tool Running Guide. If you plan to change a large number of NPCs or adjust multiple choices, please proceed with the full process below.

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EasyNPC works perfectly without mugshots — but having them makes it much easier to visually select NPC appearances during customization. If you’d like to add mugshots, follow these steps:

1. Download community-made mugshot packs from the following Nexus pages:

   • SirLach's EasyNPC Mugshot Packs
     Includes mugshots for many major NPC overhauls used in JOJ.
   • Natural Lighting Mugshots (for EasyNPC)
     Well-lit mugshots with a clean background for a variety of NPCs.

2. Create the following folder structure inside your modlist tools directory:

Journals of Jyggalag > tools > EasyNPC > Mugshots

3. Extract all mugshot folders into the Mugshots folder. Make sure each folder name matches the mod/plugin name used in your load order.

⚠️ Note: Mugshots are not required for EasyNPC to function. They simply make it easier to preview NPC faces while customizing.

🎯 If you're adding your own NPC overhauls not included in JOJ, you'll need to find or generate mugshots for those separately.

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1. In MO2, scroll to the Easy NPC separator in the left panel.
2. Enable each mod one at a time, in order, from top to bottom. Enabling mods one-by-one ensures the plugin order in the right panel mirrors the order of mods in the left panel, which helps preserve a clean and consistent plugin load order during the merge process.

3. In the right panel (Plugins), the plugins can just stay at the very bottom below Outputs:

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1. In the right panel, disable:

   • All Synthesis Patches, ParallaxGen.esp, PG_1.esp, Occlusion.esp, DynDOLOD.esp (temporarily)

2. In the left panel, locate JOJ - NPC Merge under the Outputs separator

   • Right-click > Open in Explorer
   • Delete everything inside the folder

3. Close and Reopen MO2 to fully refresh

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1. Launch EasyNPC from the MO2 executable dropdown.
2. Let it fully load.
3. Deselect all plugins:
   • Click the checkbox next to "Load?" (this will highlight all plugins), then press Spacebar to deselect everything (must be pressed more than once usually, you'll know it's working on it when the Easy NPC screen freezes while it loads).
4. Manually reselect only the following plugins:
5. Your plugin numbers may be slightly different from mine.
   • This depends on what you’ve done to modify the list, or honestly, what I’ve changed since writing this guide.
   • Either way, your numbers will still be close enough to follow along.

Plugins 1–80:

• Skyrim.esm
• Update.esm
• Dawnguard.esm
• HearthFires.esm
• Dragonborn.esm
• All Creation Club content plugins
• _ResourcePack.esl

• Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch.esp (Plugin 87)
• Unofficial Skyrim Creation Club Content Patch.esl (Plugin 88)

• Legacy of the Dragonborn.esm (Plugin 124)
• 3DNPC.esp (Plugin 129)
• Wyrmstooth.esm (Plugin 133)
• Immersive Wenches.esp (Plugin 205)
• Skyrim Extended Cut - Saints and Seducers.esp (Plugin 212)
• PAN_LamaesGaze.esp (Plugin 270)
• AI Overhaul.esm (Plugin 288)

  ⚠️ Do not set this as the default data source for any NPCs.

• Better Argonian Horns.esp (Plugin 441)
• Apex_Khajiit.esp (Plugin 1844)
• CS_Visions.esm (Plugin 2583)
• ICNs_ImmersiveCollegeNPCs.esp (Plugin 2620)
• Children of the Hist.esp (Plugin 3398)
• All TSOS, MOS, first 5 Project ja-Kha'jay esps, and Modpocalypse NPCs (v3) Immersive Wenches.esp (Plugins 3399 - 3415)

• All plugins below Plugin 3459 – Occlusion
  These will include all of your NPC overhauls and appearance replacers.
  Your plugin numbers may differ slightly depending on which mods you're using.
  If you followed all the instructions under "Step 1: Enable NPC Overhaul Mods", they’ll all appear here.

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🟡 Note:
If you see a yellow warning icon next to a plugin and you’re unable to enable it, hover over the warning. It will tell you what master plugin needs to be enabled in order to load it.

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Before editing any NPCs, you need to clear out leftover data from any previous merges:

1. Go to the Maintenance tab.
2. Select the following options:
   • ✅ Reset NPC Defaults
   • ✅ Reset Face Selection
   • ✅ Delete Logs
   • ✅ Trim Autosave

Once done, return to the Profiles tab to begin customizing your NPCs.

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1. Navigate to the Profiles tab.
2. Scroll through the list of NPCs and choose the face appearance you prefer for each one.

🧩 You are free to mix and match appearances from any NPC overhaul in your load order.

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If you want to save time and avoid manually sorting through hundreds of NPCs, you can use my included pre-built profile file:

This .txt file contains my default NPC appearance selections and will dramatically speed up the merge process.

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1. In EasyNPC, go to the Profiles tab.

2. Click the folder icon in the top-right corner labeled “Load Profile.”

3. Select the included JOJ NPC Merge Profile.txt from

   Your Drive:\Journals of Jyggalag\tools\EasyNPC\JOJ - NPC Merge Profile.txt
   

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This will load my curated selections for all NPCs, including:

• ✅ Proper default sources (no AI Overhaul.esp issues)
• ✅ Balanced visual selections
• ✅ Stability-tested configurations

Once it’s loaded, you’re free to make additional changes — just scroll through or use the search to find specific NPCs you want to alter by name.
Any NPCs you don’t change will remain exactly as I’ve configured them in the profile.

🧠 Continue with the guide below for more on how to safely make changes without causing blackface or instability.

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Each NPC has two selectors:

• 🔷 Default Source (Blue Box)
  • Controls where the AI/Dialogue, data assets, meshes/textures come from.
• 👑 Face Source (Green Crown)
  • Controls the actual appearance of the NPC (based on mugshots).

⚠️ IMPORTANT:
No NPC should ever have AI Overhaul.esm set as their Default Source.
This will cause blackface and other visual bugs. This is already done for you if you use my JOJ - NPC Merge Profile.txt

1. Click the funnel icon under the Profile tab.
2. In the search bar, enter: default plugin: AI Overhaul
3. This will filter the list to show only NPCs using AI Overhaul.esm as their Default Source.
4. For every single NPC, you must change the Default Source (Blue Box) to one of the following:
   • ✅ Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch.esp (preferred — this should be used whenever possible)
   • ✅ Skyrim.esm (only use this if USSEP is not available for that NPC)

⚠️ Important:
Every NPC in your list must use either USSEP or Skyrim.esm as their Default Source. Again, this is done for you if you use my JOJ - NPC Merge Profile

💬 "Plugin not loaded" warnings can be ignored unless you are actively editing that NPC.
These typically appear when mugshots don’t load, but they will not break your merge.

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Once you're happy with your selections, it's a good idea to save your NPC merge profile.
That way, if you want to make changes later, you can just reload your custom profile and continue — rather than building it from scratch or relying on mine again.

1. Click the Save icon in the top-right corner of the EasyNPC Profile tab.
2. Save the file as something like:
   My JOJ NPC Merge.txt (you can name it whatever you want)
3. In the future, just click the Load icon to reload this file and make changes directly to your existing selections.

This is especially helpful if you're making small tweaks later on or revisiting your NPC setup after a long break.

💡 Pro tip: Save a copy before and after major changes, so you can revert easily if needed.

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1. Go to the Build tab

2. Review the Alerts tab:

   • Warnings about "suspicious masters" can typically be ignored unless you're encountering build errors
   • The Archive Wintersun - Faiths of Skyrim - Textures.bsa, alert can be safely disregarded.
   • If any required NPC records are missing or unresolved, resolve those before continuing

3. Under Output Settings:

   • Mod Name: JOJ - NPC Merge
   • ✅ Pack files into archives (recommended)
   • ✅ Attempt conversion of wigs to head parts

4. When ready, click Build in the upper right corner

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After the build completes, you'll get a success message:

“Your NPC Merge is ready at:
YourDrive:\Journals of Jyggalag\mods\JOJ - NPC Merge

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1. Close EasyNPC
2. Refresh your MO2 panels (click the refresh icon or restart MO2)

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You’ll now see 6 new plugins added to your load order:

• NPC Appearances Merged - Textures0.esp
• NPC Appearances Merged - Textures1.esp
• NPC Appearances Merged0.esp
• NPC Appearances Merged1.esp
• NPC Appearances Merged2.esp
• NPC Appearances Merged.esp

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1. Move all 6 plugins into the NPC Appearances plugin group
2. Place them directly underneath Modpocalypse NPCs (v3) Immersive Wenches.esp (you cannot move them higher than this)
3. Make sure they are ordered exactly like this:

4. Why some plugins are above and some are below the merge:
   • Plugins above NPC Appearances Merged.esp are part of the merge file, but must remain enabled so EasyNPC can fetch the correct resources from them.
   • This is especially important for beast race overhauls.
   • Certain plugins, like TSOS and MOS, caused errors when their master files were disabled. These errors were resolved by leaving them enabled above the merge file.
   • Plugins below NPC Appearances Merged.esp are there specifically to overwrite the merge data with their own changes, or are patches for the Master plugins.

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Once the new merge is active:

• Disable ALL mods under the EasyNPC separator
  These were only needed for the merge. Leaving them enabled will cause plugin duplication, blackface bugs, and instability.

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Once your new NPC merge is built and organized, you must run EasyNPC Debug to resolve FaceGen conflicts.

1. Launch EasyNPC Debug from the MO2 executables dropdown.

2. Allow it to fully load.
3. In the yellow box labeled "Conflicting overrides detected", click the dropdown.
4. Click the red "Apply Workaround" button.

5. Wait for the process to complete, then close the window.

⚠️ This step is required.
Skipping it may lead to blackface bugs, mismatched NPC data, or missing headparts in-game.

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1. Rerun Synthesis after your new EasyNPC merge is complete and the debug fix has been applied.
   📘 See my Tool Running Guide for instructions on how to rerun Synthesis.
2. Don’t forget to re-enable all plugins in the Outputs plugin group once everything else is complete!

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You're done!

Your NPCs are now fully customized with FaceGen data, clean plugin architecture, and no blackface bugs.

You chose to modify the modlist:

• You are responsible for any issues this causes
• Re-read this guide carefully if something breaks
• Support is not guaranteed

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Thanks for taking the time to customize your experience — that’s the spirit of modding. Enjoy your tailored adventure in the Journals of Jyggalag. 👑

-Herr Schtevie