This week, I want to take some time to help those of you who are just getting started with making memorable, or at least consistent, NPCs and other people in the game. Because you’re literally everyone else in the world besides the players (and you all win an internet nickel if you get the reference I’m making).
Let’s start off with the basics, everyone who has played a RPG more than once has noticed that NPCs tend to come in a few varieties: Important, Annoying, and Disposable. Also, many a DM has found that there’s another type of NPC: The One The Party Has Adopted OR Suddenly Wants To Hang Out With. If it hasn’t happened to you, trust me, it will.
Some parties or players tend to look at all NPCs as one type, usually “Disposable.” Sometimes, that’s because they’re terrorists or shit stirrers, and sometimes it’s because they’ve had a really bad GM that’s taught them to trust no one. Personally, I tend not to use the whole “they were the bad guy all along!” trope very much, if at all. It’s okay for NPCs to have secret motivations but having people lie to the party and manipulate them for stupid reasons is not my favor of fun. However, that also means that when I do it, it will shock the party to the core. That’s why you should use stuff sparingly, to make their suffering that much sweeter. Wait, did I say that out loud?
Ahem. Anyway. The reason why NPCs are sorted into these broad groups is because there’s a lot of people in the world (usually) and the DM has to pretend to be all of them. And not all of us are drama nerds or fast thinkers. So, we tend to make similar NPCs when we’re put on the spot and have to think quickly because the party just burned the map for the adventure and would rather fuck with some random guard or tavern keeper. When something like this happens, I just ask myself “what does this person want?” and try to act it out. For the most part, people want two things: To do what they want (or have to do) and be left alone. If you’re in one of my games and you run into a lot of surly characters, it’s because you’re chasing the wrong lead or are annoying me. They’re probably not part of some secret conspiracy or plotting to kill you (yet), you’re just pissing them off.
If you’re looking for making original characters, the best thing to do is to start at where the character is now and work your way backwards. You might want to go back to their early life, compare it to where you want them to be, and work towards the middle. Let’s say I need a town marshal to be an asshole but not a monster. Why is he an asshole? Well, maybe he’s been doing the job for too long and just wants things to be peaceful but can’t let himself retire because there’s no one else “good enough” to take over for him. Why would he think that? Let’s say that from an early age, he liked things neat and orderly. As he got older, his family also instilled a sense of responsibility in him and his parents told him that he couldn’t leave a job half finished. So, how does he end up being the marshal? Maybe he was drawn to it. Maybe he just needed work but those things he was taught made him stick with it. Perhaps there was something that happened that forced him into the job, like someone putting his name out there and he was too honorable to decline. There’s a lot of different reasons you can find. Just start connecting the dots along the way. You also want to figure out what you need for the NPC, so you can figure out how much needs to be fleshed out. If this is just the local tavern keeper the party needs to rent rooms from, don’t take too much time on him, but have a good sense of who he is and why he does the job. If he’s a pain in the ass, how could be stay in business? Maybe he’s the only one in a tiny town. Or maybe the players have been kicked out of anywhere remotely nice (it’ll happen, even to the best of parties, because your enemies don’t care about your preference for turn down service). Or maybe there’s a convention in town and he’s the only one with rooms left open and the attitude change is something recent. There’s a hook for an adventure right there, one you can leave hanging open for another time. The more realistic your NPCs, the more human (relatively speaking, of course), the more likely the players are to pay attention and the less likely the NPC is to end up flayed by the party crazy (there’s always one, mark my words).
Feel free to base NPCs on minor (or even major) characters from fiction. When you hear someone describe your crazy uncle Irving as “a character,” take note. Because your party might like an encounter with your Uncle Irving, except he’s the head of posse of survivalist nutbags that survived the apocalypse and now roam around looking for the aliens that they believe started everything. Trust me, I’ve known people like that. The only good part about encountering them is making your party having to do the same, but turned up to 11. Or combine them with people you’d like to kill, but can’t, because it’s illegal, immoral, and not nice. Like, Alex Jones. Who wouldn’t want to kill a version of him to let off some steam? And now I have a new idea for a mayor of a post apocalyptic town…
Moving on. The trick is to use a method that works best for you. Having a list of names is helpful for giving random characters some depth, along with a list of traits or accents or whatever. Use this for quick characters. If you’re going to be using a character over and over (or at least plan on it), try to have all this worked out, as well as some notes about their background or history. The more important the NPC is, be sure to give them as much detail as you can. There’s a lot of programs you can use for keeping track of character details, usually for writers. However, not everyone needs details and can make everything up on the fly, just make sure you write stuff down, as the players will probably remember even if you don’t. As I mentioned in an earlier entry, you should have a notebook handy and this is when you want to use it.
Now, let’s talk about how to keep important NPCs alive and interacting with the party. This is where things get tricky. What I suggest you do is know your party. If you know they like a particular character in a movie or video game, base your important character on them, without being an exact copy. Give them traits the party seems to respond well to. If you have a group of hard nosed private detectives, give them a mentor that has a similar sense of humor and looks out for them. Use that NPC to give them hints or clues or even the start of adventures. They’ll look out for them, and if they really start to like them, you can then have them kidnapped by a villain and watch the party go through hell to get them back. The downside to this is that they will ALWAYS go to this person for help. And they might not be able to do that every time. The NPC might be on vacation, dealing with something else, could be sick, or, if they have to find their mentor, they might not know anything that can help them. If you’ve mapped out what your NPC can and can’t do, they should be easy to explain to them. To keep other NPCs alive, like the ones you’re just going to need for just this adventure, try to make it clear the consequences will be dire if they attack or kill them. If the NPC is the king or lord of the local area, they’re going to protected by magic and guards. Even if they’re willing to meet directly with the adventuring types, they’re still going to have guards with them and/or a magic user of some kind hanging around. If the party makes some kind of dangerous move, have the guards react. If the party does end up killing or attacking an important NPC, make their lives a living nightmare from that point on. If you’re in the Old West and the party decided to kill the mayor for no good reason, have the sheriff round up a posse to chase them down. Even after they flee the town, make wanted posters turn up after a while. Maybe some bounty hunters or Federal Marshals start tracking them down. Most reasonable parties will only do that once. And only once. Note, none of this applies to killing corrupt members of government when that was what you wanted them to do. Just to clarify.
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