This one is for JR and Lucie, who were curious about NPCs, hope this’ll be helpful! And thanks a bunch again to Monsters of Drakkenheim for sponsoring this, you can find the kickstarter right here! get.monstersofdrakkenheim.com/13 Be responsible with your skin flaying, y’all!
I got sick of filling my stories with interesting fleshed out characters only to have my players focus on random fillers, so nowadays I have less of a character list and more of a character tree. Bunch of descriptions, and depending on whom they focus on, I shift the quest in that NPCs direction, and then flesh them out with a backstory from a random pile that fleshes them out and connects them to the plot
oh that's so smart! do you have an example of an NPC you did this with so i can be sure i understand how this works (or examples of the kind of stuff you have on your list/tree)? I want to try it out
@@corkboardsandcuriosities sure! Back when I was running a basic Phandalin game, I panicked when they asked who else was in the bar and I said, "um, there's a guy, here, a regular guy, called Yahtzee!" After that all the main quests went to hell & Yahtzee was forced into the party. Since then I keep flash cards of character names & descriptions, and separate flash cards of backstories and plot tie ins. So if they ask, I provide them with a few NPC examples, they pick one to talk to and depending on his behavior and their's, the conversation splits into potential narratives, so I select a flash card with a backstory to match that narrative, and a potential connection to the main/side quest. If they move to the next guy, I just repeat the process till they find a sort of frankenstein-ed NPC they can actually bond with. For Example, here's a redhead waitress named Felicia that they prefer to speak to over the scarred brooding figure in the corner, and the conversation's friendly. Selected the 'friendly' option card which says she has info on their current quest and she's got a vested interest in a specific outcome; which would have mirrored the outcome desired by the nameless brooding figure, or not, but the PCs will never know for sure. Hope this helps, and congrats on the sponsor! Love your channel so it's great to see it's doing well
@@corkboardsandcuriosities it's a bit more detailed in the cards but I recommend using Scapple software to track all of them. You can create text boxes and connect them with arrows and potential crossovers, like mind mapping. In a lot of situations, picking one specific option card will shut the players out of other option cards in the future from other NPCs. I got the idea from Mass Effect 3, so basically causes opposing NPCs to butt heads and give party alliances more consequences. So I mark the option card corners with specific ink colors so I don't mix them up
I love that advice about starting with the bones, it can be very easy to have a cool idea for a character, but at the end of the day there’s a difference between a cool character and a good NPC. Something I’ve definitely realised is that whenever I introduce an NPC, and I want the party to interact with them, there should be something to gain from it. An example I’ve recently ran, in which admittedly I made the flesh before the bones, was this old, jolly monster-hunter character, who I originally made with an idea of him giving information or advice to the players about monsters. Then, mid-session, the players decided they wanted to look for someone who would offer transport to a city, and I realised that I could give this traveller a much better, and more pressing, purpose. He’s still a monster-hunter, and his personality (the flesh) has stayed intact, but by having him be available to offer transport to the players (in return for helping deal with some monsters on the way), it made me feel a lot more confident in presenting this character and having the players like him.
“There’s a difference between creating a good character and a good npc” Damn, that’s like… the ultimate sum up sentence and now I feel dumb that I didn’t explicitly say that in the video
@@corkboardsandcuriositiesawe, thanks, glad you like that. Just something I like to remind myself when making npcs, and this video certainly nails on the head. Love the vibes and advice in all your videos!
I had a somewhat similar experience. I had once created a fire Genasi warlock to be a perfect fit mechanically with a Druid highwayman, but to have a jarring “odd couple” flavor. It was for an encounter that I never used. Later, I realized that the Genasi could serve a much better purpose. I had him appear as bounty hunter who was pressed into serving a thieves’ guild leader that the party was trying to track down. Two party members had split off for their own late-night vigilantism on the city, one was a Genasi who is very concerned with freedom, and the other is a bounty-hunter warlock. The NPC showed up and made a little bit of a fool of them at first, but they both instantly saw the commonalities they each shared with him and locked in on how they might redeem him. (Which they later did) It fit my party so much more beautifully than having him be part of just some random encounter.
happy this resonates! I think it's definitely one of those things that once said out loud makes a lot of sense, and now that I have a name for it it's easier to remember it and use it as a framework.
I have a player who's character is a kobold artificer who absolutely HATES incompetence, so I made the guild master for the adventurer's guild insanely incompetent on certain aspects just to make him angry. My players love him, my player's artificer CHARACTER hates him. Has made for some amazing moments in dialogue
Never in my life have I clicked on a video this fast. Just yesterday I used When the Swallows Fly Low as a one-shot for a party who barely knew each other, on a WoW RP server, and they really liked it! I also enjoyed so much the fact that it was so story and character focused rather than combat. Thank you so kindly for sharing that one-shot with us!
My NPCs don't even usually have names until the party cares to ask. They are Quest Giver, Temple Healer, Annoying Sidekick, Suspicious Ally, etc. Then suddenly a new player decides torture works for interrogation and wants to know every detail of some poor NPC's innocent life. She became traumatized and dedicated herself to taking down these rogue heroes, and formed a posse of other loose ends left in their reckless wake.
I've been a DM for a while now, and have discovered that I'm not an expert with voices and personalities, mine ideas are not exceptional in that regard. However, I started using my npc's as tools. They are the means to my ends. If the npc is involved with something, that makes them useful for my players. Since a pc doesn't know them personally, making them likeable trough quirks is difficult. However, we tend to like useful people. After they meet, and I can tell that the players like or dislike them, then I invest into said npc and further develop them into the good / evil thing that I need. Besides, in my opinion it's more interesting to have a nobleman who's involved with politics and espionage, rather than a goofy shopkeeper.
yes absolutely! I suck at voices tbh, and even if I found a few tricks to differentiate my NPCs without necessarily voice acting, I know that is absolutely not a requirement (or even really a key factor) in playing NPCs. Purposeful design is where it's really at!
This video does a great job of talking about baking narrative utility into NPCs, but on the subject of how to make your NPCs "feel real", in creative writing the basis of character can be broken into 5 parts [they actually also call these the "Five Bones", coincidentally]: Strengths - [what do they excel at, what excites them, what qualities of them do others find agreeable] Weaknesses - [what do they struggle with, what are the less admirable parts of their personality, what are their shortcomings] Desires - [what do they want, usually most effective if they have short term, long term, and continuous wants, these often connect with each other] Fears - [what upsets them, what do they have to lose, think of both immediate concrete fears and long term abstract fears] Actions - [what are they doing, why are they doing it, how does it interact with their strengths/weaknesses, and how does it help them reach their goal or mitigate their fears] Those five things are seen as the critical elements to make a character "feel real" in fiction. Any other details you add to the character should feed into these aspects of their personality, either matching them or being in tension with them. This push and pull creates compelling character dynamics. For an example, here's how I wrote a random innkeeper the other day Innkeeper [example] Strengths - never forgets a face or conversation, can talk their way out of anything, reads people like books, non-threatening Weaknesses - eavesdropper, over-confident, often perceived as a pushover, greedy Desires - [long term] wants to expand business, [continuous] wants to draw more customers, [short term] resolve business conflict with new inn across the road Fears - losing business to competitor, failing at self-actualization [not making it as a small business owner], stagnation Those are pretty simple, but I started there. Then I decided on a whim they should be an exuberant goblin named Beekibee. From there, the action seemed natural: Action - Beekibee overhears PCs at a table drinking, asks them if they would be interested in starting a brawl at the Inn across the road and "accidentally" lighting it on fire in exchange for a partial ownership stake in Beekibee's Inn. And suddenly we went from generic Innkeeper to Beekibee, a grimy scheming little goblin that you mentally imagine to always be on the edge of every conversation in the bar, always listening for the right hands he might be able to employ to do his dirty work. I might flesh Beekibee out further - why does he own an inn? why is he not with other goblins? does he have a family and, if so, what's their relationship like? etc. I can think that up on the fly if the PCs ask [Beekibee would lie about all of those, which would be in-character], but just from that paragraph's worth of traits and actions I already have hooks to get the PCs interested in Beekibee, whether as a potential employer/business partner or antagonist if the PCs decide to not go along with his plan. This can seem like a lot of work, but remember that you can work backwards from where that character is to figure out what they should be like. I want to make a blacksmith who doesn't seem to like their work. Why wouldn't they? > family business, not their choice. What would she do if she could do something else? > Singer. Already from there, we've got a skilled blacksmith with a tense relationship to her family who dreams of being a singer, dreads each day she wakes up to the smell of iron, and is afraid she will die an old blacksmith with children who are blacksmith. She's looking for a reason to shut the place down, pack it in, and run away from her old life, but each day she hammers away with only the odd interruption of a customer coming in to look at her wares or place an order, her only excitement the times she gets to go off on someone trying to short-sell her for the work she already feels she's sunk too much of her own precious time into. She seems agitated - call her Brennende [Norwegian for 'burning']. Give her hard-set features hiding green eyes that seem like they are always looking somewhere beyond what's in front of her and dry brown curls held back by a delicately-shaped iron clip, wearing sweat-stained canvas clothes under a worn black metal apron, oiled brown leather boots with singed metal carpal guards, and a thick leather gloves caked with grime from constantly handling metal. When the PCs walk into her workshop, they hear her singing a song in time with her hammer strikes. She doesn't react to them entering - she has to finish hammering out the impurities in a blade before it cools too much. She keeps singing. They listen and hear a bittersweet song about longing to travel the sea. She finally quenches the blade and takes the moment to look at the party through the cloud of steam, her song gone and a frown settled on her face. She finally asks them what they want while looking over her work, her eyes on the edge with the sword extended in the direction of the party. And just like that, we have a character in about a minute.
Je découvre ta chaîne avec cette vidéo et j'adore, l'ambiance et les conseils sont super !! J'ai découvert que tu étais française dans les commentaires, je me disais aussi que je comprenais bien quand tu parlé, des sous titres en français ce serait cool ! Continue comme ça en tout cas, je m'abonne
This is great info, I love how I can also apply this to my characters I wish to make in other peoples campaigns, too. Also your accent is absolutely soothing!
I have to point out and say that I appreciate the quality of the script. It is clear that you've spent a lot of time into writing the text and making it enjoyable.
Aah thank you so much! I always worry whether I’m explaining things clearly! I sometimes struggles being concise hahah, so writing it down before filming really helps
@@corkboardsandcuriosities your likeness and vocal cadence is uncanny. Her distinct vocals and innocence is what makes her performance memorable 30 years later and it is definitely a hallmark of why your channel is so appealing. Your presentation of this material is as lovely as you. Please keep up the good work.
One of the most memorable encounters for me in a recent campaign wasn’t combat, or exploring, or a puzzle. It was trying to convince a stubborn mayor that one of his town officials was a corrupt cultist. Having npcs who challenge the player through dialogue is so fun for me. It’s great for NPCs to have personality, but if they just always agree with the players then the world and the story don’t feel as engaging.
This video deserves so much more attention, that was so incredibly well articulated and I’ve got full faith in your DMing abilities just based off of this video alone 👏👏👏👏
This is great advice. I've seen some of these techniques work in games recently, especially crafting NPCs specifically in relation to player characters.
This video is really good, thank you for making it. The idea of the npc bones is very nice. I also use some tables from "Persons of Interest" its a small pdf with lots of tables and ideas on how to make the npc background. Like "what does he want?", "what power does he hold over the players", it fits very well with your meat and bone analogy 😊
Not only is your content spot-on and very useful, but the grotesque mnemonic of flesh and bones serves both to drive the message home AND make your video more memorable at the same time! Well done!
Love your videos and your aesthetic, and this is a great approach to npc's. On the last topic, I find that if you just treat them with a little respect, if not love, then you'll have little problem with your golems. They just want to be accepted for who they are. Also, they really don't appreciate when you try to make them a mate, unless they ask. Try listening to them. That's all they need. After all, the real friends are the golems we made along the way. ❤
That's cool and all but you forgot the part where you try to understand what they seek in an ideal partner and insert into the campaign an npc modeled specifically for them (then have them die/betray them)
remember there is situs inversus and situs perversus for orgen placemant. inversus (when your organs are mirror image of what they would be normally) and perversus (when an organ is placed in a weird spot)
Creating mirrors for your PCs is an excellent choice. I have noticed that my players get invested when they reflect the worst or deepest parts to a character. So that is definitely true. What has also helped me is creating NPCs that have clear goals that are counter to the PCs. I run a lot of investigation games so, having these conflicting goals, can really make the investigation feel more exciting!
i really like this. i think the part that stuck out to me was focusing on the goal of the character and not so much who or what they are. i've had a project lately where i'm trying to make a campaign module and i have to fill a small town with npc's. and it's such a tiring task to come up with useful data about this or that character. stepping back and asking 'what purpose is the character supposed to serve' really makes the whole exercise feel different.
I’ve had a handful of especially memorable NPCs over the course of my games. One was a creepy pale demon with a long drooling tongue who spoke like The G-Man and was always helpful but in a weird way, like offering to suck eldritch horrors out of the brain of a player who was suffering from information overload. Another character was a ditzy Druid with a Jackalope familiar who simply exuded the essence of filth. I made subtle references to those characters later on (months to years later irl) and the entire party instantly recognized them and shouted “No!” when they realized they might end up interacting with them again. I was so proud that they had such a visceral reaction to these characters, especially since in the case of the stinky Druid, there was no out of character reason to have such a reaction to the mere smell of her, but the impression was strong enough that they acted like it was real.
The most memorable NPC that I ever ran was named Nabione from below. She was a petite, pale, young woman that the PCs came across stranded in a dungeon, and she talked like this. "I may be a biter that was born with a sneer, but at least I am not some clueless berk that is constantly rattling their bone box. If you want to know the dark of it, you need to earn a page." ... ... ... She speaks The Cant from the Sigil/Planescape setting. So while the players basically recognized all the words, they were used in ways, and to mean things, that the players were unfamiliar with. That, and her tendency to be sarcastic made communication interesting. Her background, which the players slowly uncovered parts of, was that she was from an underground, as opposed to other plane, society. Basically Sigil, but at the center of the world. Her panic at first seeing sky was a fun exercise in roleplaying. :) She managed to be both intriguing and frustrating, and was often helpful, once they were able to figure some things out. Unfortunately the group fell apart before they ever had a chance to ride on a "skeleton skiff" and explore the underworld.
This was a FANTASTIC video! Thank you! I recognize through this what my NPCs have been missing: Their bones! They all skipped half of flesh day for sure but they've never experienced Bone day! Well now I'm running through em all to give em bones. Excited to watch my players experience the power of bonomancy!
Love the video, but I definitely only clicked on it originally because I was hoping for a reference to Brennan Lee Mulligan's NPC Avanash from Escape from the Bloodkeep. "What is crazy about wanting to keep my bones?!?"
I've never heard any advice like this on RUclips before, but I really needed to hear this. I gotta remember that this is a game. It doesn't matter how "realistic" or "deep" an NPC is if it doesn't serve the game in some way.
Kitty is the real star of this channel. He usually sits on my lap while i'm recording, but the past few videos he's decided he no longer wants to be in the shadows.
Very much appreciate the idea about how the psychological landscape of NPCS can become the locus for the conflict, rather than being elements within a conflict. Also, very much like the link between necromancy and the hermeneutic framework. The necromancer in me very much appreciates it.
Great video and advice, but the only thing I can think about regarding bones and NPCs... is the NPC Brennan Lee Mulligan used in escape the bloodkeep who was worried about his bones. Too worried probably.
You're accent and style aesthetic is amazing 👌I recently made a rival (+crew) for one of my PCs who is a proud ranger. His rival is a cocky young female ranger and he has been eagerly accepting every challenge she has thrown at him and the rest of the Party is loving it too.
I love your work a lot. I'm just sad that your such a young tube youber. I totally want you binge watch you videos all day long!! please keep up the fantastic work.
Getting my ADHD called out hard today when the three examples are exactly the kind of NPC I like to toss into scenarios. It helps that those are all great opportunities for interesting yet open-ended interactions. The decision to agree with the conspiracy theorist can spin off into a whole sseries of events that wouldn't have transpired, in the same way deciphering their theories from truth could.
With NPC creation, and PC creation, I tend to start with job. What does this character do for a living. The second question, always, is "Do you enjoy it?" The rule is that single word answers aren't acceptable. There must be a reason. Daeric, Captain of the Elfguard in Farkeep, loves his job, but hates parts of it. While he enjoys being in a foreign place, he is jealous of the adventurers flowing through. They speak of great tales, of giant monsters in the desert, or sail in from the homeland, reminding him of where he came from, or sail in from the Southlands, telling stories about wicked snake people and their battles for survival. As you can see, he's an adventurous soul, but he does enjoy his work. As such, he's going to want to do things that get his blood flowing. So, how does he do that when he's doing office work or tending to the keep? Simple! He has unique modes of transportation, resulting in ziplines, fireman poles, and ropes dangling from windows. This character, by being an adventurer at heart but stuck in place, modified his environment to have fun. Now, the party can explore this odd keep, a mix of adventurous fun with unique modes of transportation. That sounds like a great place to have a battle in. This NPC, without being complete at all, now has given me an idea for a combat encounter. They did something illegal, got called out for it, and now needed an escape route. They knew hidden paths existed, and that they could easily go from high to low, so Daeric's office is as high up as I could put it, without being in a silly location like atop a tower. A few sessions later, after fleeing, the party returned, triumphant after slaying the dragon what was causing problems in the area and learning of a greater plot that threatened Daeric's home, but they still were in trouble for breaking the law earlier. Daeric, with his adventurous spirit, knew what they were doing was important, and knocking out the dragon made his supply issue vanish. However, he also knew the party fought back hard against the guards who were just doing their job in trying to arrest the party. Again, conflicted by his free spirit and the job he has to do. My players didn't know what he'd decide, so of course, a persuasion check is initiated. Roll, tension as the die fumbles across the vtt, and... Cheers all around. A high roll. I think 17 or 18 plus their persuasion. Easily enough to convince him to go light, so Daeric brokers a deal with the party. They help repair and heal the folks they injured, and for slaying their dragon, he won't submit his report on their actions.
This one is for JR and Lucie, who were curious about NPCs, hope this’ll be helpful! And thanks a bunch again to Monsters of Drakkenheim for sponsoring this, you can find the kickstarter right here! get.monstersofdrakkenheim.com/13
Be responsible with your skin flaying, y’all!
Help I followed your instructions and now my NPC is cursing me as their creator and begging me to create a grotesque companion for them
@theadhdm we have historical records of great doctor Frankenstein making a bride already, my good sir. Shall we follow his esteemed blueprints?
@@jackorion8590 Eeeh what's the worst that could happen, sure
You should have gotten the flesh golem extended warranty
Did I request thee, Master, from thy dice to mold me NPC?
Did I beseech thee from stat blocks to promote me?
@@TheADHDM GOOD NEWS! The blueprints worked! BAD NEWS...the blueprints worked
I got sick of filling my stories with interesting fleshed out characters only to have my players focus on random fillers, so nowadays I have less of a character list and more of a character tree. Bunch of descriptions, and depending on whom they focus on, I shift the quest in that NPCs direction, and then flesh them out with a backstory from a random pile that fleshes them out and connects them to the plot
It's always good to be ready to let go of any NPC the players aren't interested in, no matter how much work goes into making them.
@@TheLoveTruffle Quantum NPC prep!
oh that's so smart! do you have an example of an NPC you did this with so i can be sure i understand how this works (or examples of the kind of stuff you have on your list/tree)? I want to try it out
@@corkboardsandcuriosities sure! Back when I was running a basic Phandalin game, I panicked when they asked who else was in the bar and I said, "um, there's a guy, here, a regular guy, called Yahtzee!"
After that all the main quests went to hell & Yahtzee was forced into the party.
Since then I keep flash cards of character names & descriptions, and separate flash cards of backstories and plot tie ins. So if they ask, I provide them with a few NPC examples, they pick one to talk to and depending on his behavior and their's, the conversation splits into potential narratives, so I select a flash card with a backstory to match that narrative, and a potential connection to the main/side quest. If they move to the next guy, I just repeat the process till they find a sort of frankenstein-ed NPC they can actually bond with.
For Example, here's a redhead waitress named Felicia that they prefer to speak to over the scarred brooding figure in the corner, and the conversation's friendly. Selected the 'friendly' option card which says she has info on their current quest and she's got a vested interest in a specific outcome; which would have mirrored the outcome desired by the nameless brooding figure, or not, but the PCs will never know for sure.
Hope this helps, and congrats on the sponsor! Love your channel so it's great to see it's doing well
@@corkboardsandcuriosities it's a bit more detailed in the cards but I recommend using Scapple software to track all of them. You can create text boxes and connect them with arrows and potential crossovers, like mind mapping. In a lot of situations, picking one specific option card will shut the players out of other option cards in the future from other NPCs. I got the idea from Mass Effect 3, so basically causes opposing NPCs to butt heads and give party alliances more consequences. So I mark the option card corners with specific ink colors so I don't mix them up
Great video! Really love the idea of making the conversation a mini-game, and designing NPCs specifically to push the players' buttons.
Thanks! My entire life's purpose is to push players' buttons.
I love that advice about starting with the bones, it can be very easy to have a cool idea for a character, but at the end of the day there’s a difference between a cool character and a good NPC.
Something I’ve definitely realised is that whenever I introduce an NPC, and I want the party to interact with them, there should be something to gain from it.
An example I’ve recently ran, in which admittedly I made the flesh before the bones, was this old, jolly monster-hunter character, who I originally made with an idea of him giving information or advice to the players about monsters. Then, mid-session, the players decided they wanted to look for someone who would offer transport to a city, and I realised that I could give this traveller a much better, and more pressing, purpose. He’s still a monster-hunter, and his personality (the flesh) has stayed intact, but by having him be available to offer transport to the players (in return for helping deal with some monsters on the way), it made me feel a lot more confident in presenting this character and having the players like him.
“There’s a difference between creating a good character and a good npc”
Damn, that’s like… the ultimate sum up sentence and now I feel dumb that I didn’t explicitly say that in the video
@@corkboardsandcuriositiesawe, thanks, glad you like that. Just something I like to remind myself when making npcs, and this video certainly nails on the head. Love the vibes and advice in all your videos!
@@eaglelord145 thanks so much! and that is indeed a very good rule to GM by!
I had a somewhat similar experience. I had once created a fire Genasi warlock to be a perfect fit mechanically with a Druid highwayman, but to have a jarring “odd couple” flavor. It was for an encounter that I never used.
Later, I realized that the Genasi could serve a much better purpose. I had him appear as bounty hunter who was pressed into serving a thieves’ guild leader that the party was trying to track down.
Two party members had split off for their own late-night vigilantism on the city, one was a Genasi who is very concerned with freedom, and the other is a bounty-hunter warlock. The NPC showed up and made a little bit of a fool of them at first, but they both instantly saw the commonalities they each shared with him and locked in on how they might redeem him. (Which they later did)
It fit my party so much more beautifully than having him be part of just some random encounter.
i’ve been ignore Bones in my NPCs too often cause I didn’t have a good definition for what they needed. thank you. this helps a lot
happy this resonates! I think it's definitely one of those things that once said out loud makes a lot of sense, and now that I have a name for it it's easier to remember it and use it as a framework.
I have a player who's character is a kobold artificer who absolutely HATES incompetence, so I made the guild master for the adventurer's guild insanely incompetent on certain aspects just to make him angry. My players love him, my player's artificer CHARACTER hates him. Has made for some amazing moments in dialogue
It's wild to see a creation of the Dungeon Dudes now becoming a sponsorship for newer D&D/TTRPG channels. Thank you for this video, instant subscribe!
Great video! Love the gothic body horror motifs and happy to see you getting the sponsorship.
gothic and body horror is everything i live for
_deep bow_
Never in my life have I clicked on a video this fast.
Just yesterday I used When the Swallows Fly Low as a one-shot for a party who barely knew each other, on a WoW RP server, and they really liked it! I also enjoyed so much the fact that it was so story and character focused rather than combat.
Thank you so kindly for sharing that one-shot with us!
omg I'm so happy you played it! I haven't heard much back from this one so I'm really happy it went well!!!! haaaaaaaaa I'm so glad you liked it
Way too useful and thought-provoking AND I love your hair
My NPCs don't even usually have names until the party cares to ask. They are Quest Giver, Temple Healer, Annoying Sidekick, Suspicious Ally, etc.
Then suddenly a new player decides torture works for interrogation and wants to know every detail of some poor NPC's innocent life. She became traumatized and dedicated herself to taking down these rogue heroes, and formed a posse of other loose ends left in their reckless wake.
They weren't even interrogating the right NPC!
I've been a DM for a while now, and have discovered that I'm not an expert with voices and personalities, mine ideas are not exceptional in that regard. However, I started using my npc's as tools. They are the means to my ends. If the npc is involved with something, that makes them useful for my players. Since a pc doesn't know them personally, making them likeable trough quirks is difficult. However, we tend to like useful people. After they meet, and I can tell that the players like or dislike them, then I invest into said npc and further develop them into the good / evil thing that I need. Besides, in my opinion it's more interesting to have a nobleman who's involved with politics and espionage, rather than a goofy shopkeeper.
yes absolutely! I suck at voices tbh, and even if I found a few tricks to differentiate my NPCs without necessarily voice acting, I know that is absolutely not a requirement (or even really a key factor) in playing NPCs. Purposeful design is where it's really at!
This video does a great job of talking about baking narrative utility into NPCs, but on the subject of how to make your NPCs "feel real", in creative writing the basis of character can be broken into 5 parts [they actually also call these the "Five Bones", coincidentally]:
Strengths - [what do they excel at, what excites them, what qualities of them do others find agreeable]
Weaknesses - [what do they struggle with, what are the less admirable parts of their personality, what are their shortcomings]
Desires - [what do they want, usually most effective if they have short term, long term, and continuous wants, these often connect with each other]
Fears - [what upsets them, what do they have to lose, think of both immediate concrete fears and long term abstract fears]
Actions - [what are they doing, why are they doing it, how does it interact with their strengths/weaknesses, and how does it help them reach their goal or mitigate their fears]
Those five things are seen as the critical elements to make a character "feel real" in fiction. Any other details you add to the character should feed into these aspects of their personality, either matching them or being in tension with them. This push and pull creates compelling character dynamics. For an example, here's how I wrote a random innkeeper the other day
Innkeeper [example]
Strengths - never forgets a face or conversation, can talk their way out of anything, reads people like books, non-threatening
Weaknesses - eavesdropper, over-confident, often perceived as a pushover, greedy
Desires - [long term] wants to expand business, [continuous] wants to draw more customers, [short term] resolve business conflict with new inn across the road
Fears - losing business to competitor, failing at self-actualization [not making it as a small business owner], stagnation
Those are pretty simple, but I started there. Then I decided on a whim they should be an exuberant goblin named Beekibee. From there, the action seemed natural:
Action - Beekibee overhears PCs at a table drinking, asks them if they would be interested in starting a brawl at the Inn across the road and "accidentally" lighting it on fire in exchange for a partial ownership stake in Beekibee's Inn.
And suddenly we went from generic Innkeeper to Beekibee, a grimy scheming little goblin that you mentally imagine to always be on the edge of every conversation in the bar, always listening for the right hands he might be able to employ to do his dirty work. I might flesh Beekibee out further - why does he own an inn? why is he not with other goblins? does he have a family and, if so, what's their relationship like? etc. I can think that up on the fly if the PCs ask [Beekibee would lie about all of those, which would be in-character], but just from that paragraph's worth of traits and actions I already have hooks to get the PCs interested in Beekibee, whether as a potential employer/business partner or antagonist if the PCs decide to not go along with his plan.
This can seem like a lot of work, but remember that you can work backwards from where that character is to figure out what they should be like. I want to make a blacksmith who doesn't seem to like their work. Why wouldn't they? > family business, not their choice. What would she do if she could do something else? > Singer. Already from there, we've got a skilled blacksmith with a tense relationship to her family who dreams of being a singer, dreads each day she wakes up to the smell of iron, and is afraid she will die an old blacksmith with children who are blacksmith. She's looking for a reason to shut the place down, pack it in, and run away from her old life, but each day she hammers away with only the odd interruption of a customer coming in to look at her wares or place an order, her only excitement the times she gets to go off on someone trying to short-sell her for the work she already feels she's sunk too much of her own precious time into. She seems agitated - call her Brennende [Norwegian for 'burning']. Give her hard-set features hiding green eyes that seem like they are always looking somewhere beyond what's in front of her and dry brown curls held back by a delicately-shaped iron clip, wearing sweat-stained canvas clothes under a worn black metal apron, oiled brown leather boots with singed metal carpal guards, and a thick leather gloves caked with grime from constantly handling metal. When the PCs walk into her workshop, they hear her singing a song in time with her hammer strikes. She doesn't react to them entering - she has to finish hammering out the impurities in a blade before it cools too much. She keeps singing. They listen and hear a bittersweet song about longing to travel the sea. She finally quenches the blade and takes the moment to look at the party through the cloud of steam, her song gone and a frown settled on her face. She finally asks them what they want while looking over her work, her eyes on the edge with the sword extended in the direction of the party.
And just like that, we have a character in about a minute.
Je découvre ta chaîne avec cette vidéo et j'adore, l'ambiance et les conseils sont super !! J'ai découvert que tu étais française dans les commentaires, je me disais aussi que je comprenais bien quand tu parlé, des sous titres en français ce serait cool ! Continue comme ça en tout cas, je m'abonne
Haaa merci et bienvenue!
8:06 lol Oh wow you're evil! And in the context of you being a DM you should take that as a compliment. 😆😁
finally someone sees how evil and dangerous I really am
This is great info, I love how I can also apply this to my characters I wish to make in other peoples campaigns, too. Also your accent is absolutely soothing!
I have to point out and say that I appreciate the quality of the script. It is clear that you've spent a lot of time into writing the text and making it enjoyable.
Ooh thank you so much! I always worry that I spend too long in the script writing phase.. so this comment feels really good to read! Thank you!
I have never before subscribed to a channel after watching only one single video. I did so today! This video is absolute gold!
this makes me so incredibly happy
New video! 🎉🎉🎉
Congratulations on the sponsorship.
I didn’t know even writing NPCs can make my skin crawl with gothic horror.
yayyy! skin crawling, mission accomplished!
Always looking forward to your content. Well-written, well-produced, tons of inspiration! Thanks. 🙏
I watch few of your contents, but you really explain well what you trying to say. Thanks for all the help you are telling us and keep the good work.
Aah thank you so much! I always worry whether I’m explaining things clearly! I sometimes struggles being concise hahah, so writing it down before filming really helps
Now I feel I need a black market flesh golem dealer. The parts are fresh, just don't ask questions.
That sounds like a cool creepy NPC just by premise alone!
I can’t tell if you meant IRL or as an NPC. Either way I’m all up for it.
@@corkboardsandcuriosities as an NPC of course... I would never condone black market flesh golems... Never...
Butch, who's motorcycle is this? It's not a motorcycle, baby it's a chopper. Who's chopper is this? Zed's. Who is Zed? Zed's dead baby... Zed's dead.
y'know, you're not the first one to make that comparison hahaha
@@corkboardsandcuriosities your likeness and vocal cadence is uncanny. Her distinct vocals and innocence is what makes her performance memorable 30 years later and it is definitely a hallmark of why your channel is so appealing. Your presentation of this material is as lovely as you. Please keep up the good work.
This is a fascinating chanel. Your approach to DnD intrigues me.
Yeah this channel is a real gem. Hard to believe how few subscribers she has. For now, anyway.
@4saken404 Hahaha I’ve been posting videos for less than a year, I’d say that the channel is already doing pretty good!
I'm so happy you got a sponsorship, your videos are nuggets of gold
Just saw the shoutout to your channel on DnD Shorts' new video. Congrats on making the big time!
One of the most memorable encounters for me in a recent campaign wasn’t combat, or exploring, or a puzzle. It was trying to convince a stubborn mayor that one of his town officials was a corrupt cultist. Having npcs who challenge the player through dialogue is so fun for me. It’s great for NPCs to have personality, but if they just always agree with the players then the world and the story don’t feel as engaging.
This video deserves so much more attention, that was so incredibly well articulated and I’ve got full faith in your DMing abilities just based off of this video alone 👏👏👏👏
I think this was one of the most usefull videos about NPC creation that I saw. Loved it ❤
Always great to see another of your videos pop up! Food for thought (what do Golems eat?)
In time, they eat you!
@@corkboardsandcuriosities a comforting thought, that I will live on in my creations.
I've seen a few of your videos now and I always find them helpful and fun, thanks for all you do!
This is great advice. I've seen some of these techniques work in games recently, especially crafting NPCs specifically in relation to player characters.
This video is really good, thank you for making it. The idea of the npc bones is very nice. I also use some tables from "Persons of Interest" its a small pdf with lots of tables and ideas on how to make the npc background. Like "what does he want?", "what power does he hold over the players", it fits very well with your meat and bone analogy 😊
Not only is your content spot-on and very useful, but the grotesque mnemonic of flesh and bones serves both to drive the message home AND make your video more memorable at the same time! Well done!
Great tips! I think it can be so easy to lose sight of the fact that our NPCs ultimately serve a purpose!
purpose flavored bone stew!
Some fantastic tips in here, and great use of infotainment.
On an unrelated note, your voice and accent is wonderful to listen to.
The mirror reminds me of the multiple and most intriguing functions a foil serves. Self reflection and inspection.
The videos keep getting better! Very fun analogy to creating an NPC as some sort of Flesh Golem 🤣
aaah thank you that makes me so happy to hear! I was really unsure right before uploading this one hahahaha
@@corkboardsandcuriosities You have the gift as a talented teacher and dungeon master
Instantly subbed when I saw the manual subtitles
Love the editing!! Keep up the stellar work :D
Love this channel!
What a beautiful voice you have, I need to roll save for Constitution to prevent my heart from melting
I love this style of video. Great information conveyed efficiently. It kept my interest the whole time
Your videos are just so good! I'm taking all of this for my next campaign for sure ^^
Beautiful & lovely accent. Your advice couldn't be more helpful. I'm working on my first campaign. :)
Strange concepts, but it's always nice to improve our NPC's.
Love your voice, keep the videos coming!
"strange" to me, is always a compliment
thank you!
Congrats on the sponsorship! I'd use your link if I wasn't already backing it :-D
hell yeah! I'm super excited they reached out, the kickstarter looks so goooooood
Congrats on the sponsorship! And thanks for this really helpful video, I've been struggling with NPC's as of late so this was perfectly timed!
I found your channel today and I love all your videos! 😊
Just discovered your channel. This video alone is well worth subscribing.
I like start with where an NPC is, why they are there, what they want and how they will receive the party. I then flash them out. Great ideas here 🫡
Great and practical advice! The idea of turning info dumps into active conversations is one I'll need to try in my next game 😁.
Great ideas and you made them very clear. Thank you :)
Love your videos and your aesthetic, and this is a great approach to npc's. On the last topic, I find that if you just treat them with a little respect, if not love, then you'll have little problem with your golems. They just want to be accepted for who they are. Also, they really don't appreciate when you try to make them a mate, unless they ask. Try listening to them. That's all they need. After all, the real friends are the golems we made along the way. ❤
I absolutely love your content! Extremely inspiring! Please never stop
Amazing video. as always. Helped me a lot with my world building. Thank you!
Love your editing style!
In this thumbnail you look like a Greek statue 🧜🏻♀️
that's because I am one
_hair flip_
Another thought provoking and insightful video. As always…. Thank you!
Going to have to watch this again to make a checklist/recipe for NPC creation.
Best npc video I've seen! Keep making content you're great!
Amazing stuff. I am stealing this right away.
Thanks for another great video! Useful info, entertaining presentation, and I love your humor. Also, you have a good voice for asmr
Interesting and useful thoughts as always, Val, thanks. Your sophisticated fashion is quite contrasted to your dark theming of your script, ha!
Amazing tips! Really love all of your videos😊
I love this framework! To the point and helpful, thank you
This is excellent, thanks for the advice!
That's cool and all but you forgot the part where you try to understand what they seek in an ideal partner and insert into the campaign an npc modeled specifically for them (then have them die/betray them)
remember there is situs inversus and situs perversus for orgen placemant. inversus (when your organs are mirror image of what they would be normally) and perversus (when an organ is placed in a weird spot)
damn, thats plain amazing advice. Thank you very much
Creating mirrors for your PCs is an excellent choice. I have noticed that my players get invested when they reflect the worst or deepest parts to a character. So that is definitely true. What has also helped me is creating NPCs that have clear goals that are counter to the PCs. I run a lot of investigation games so, having these conflicting goals, can really make the investigation feel more exciting!
i really like this. i think the part that stuck out to me was focusing on the goal of the character and not so much who or what they are. i've had a project lately where i'm trying to make a campaign module and i have to fill a small town with npc's. and it's such a tiring task to come up with useful data about this or that character. stepping back and asking 'what purpose is the character supposed to serve' really makes the whole exercise feel different.
I’ve had a handful of especially memorable NPCs over the course of my games. One was a creepy pale demon with a long drooling tongue who spoke like The G-Man and was always helpful but in a weird way, like offering to suck eldritch horrors out of the brain of a player who was suffering from information overload. Another character was a ditzy Druid with a Jackalope familiar who simply exuded the essence of filth. I made subtle references to those characters later on (months to years later irl) and the entire party instantly recognized them and shouted “No!” when they realized they might end up interacting with them again. I was so proud that they had such a visceral reaction to these characters, especially since in the case of the stinky Druid, there was no out of character reason to have such a reaction to the mere smell of her, but the impression was strong enough that they acted like it was real.
This is great advice! It's easy to fall into the trap of just making a cool person -- and forgetting that they need to serve and in-game purpose
yes! I think with NPCs is the moment we tend to forget that the most easily, and i've definitely made that mistake a lot haha
Glad this resonates!
New to your channel. This is excellent advice!!
Super cool. Ça me donne de super idée pour mes futures parties :)
The most memorable NPC that I ever ran was named Nabione from below. She was a petite, pale, young woman that the PCs came across stranded in a dungeon, and she talked like this. "I may be a biter that was born with a sneer, but at least I am not some clueless berk that is constantly rattling their bone box. If you want to know the dark of it, you need to earn a page." ... ... ... She speaks The Cant from the Sigil/Planescape setting. So while the players basically recognized all the words, they were used in ways, and to mean things, that the players were unfamiliar with. That, and her tendency to be sarcastic made communication interesting. Her background, which the players slowly uncovered parts of, was that she was from an underground, as opposed to other plane, society. Basically Sigil, but at the center of the world. Her panic at first seeing sky was a fun exercise in roleplaying. :) She managed to be both intriguing and frustrating, and was often helpful, once they were able to figure some things out.
Unfortunately the group fell apart before they ever had a chance to ride on a "skeleton skiff" and explore the underworld.
This was a FANTASTIC video! Thank you! I recognize through this what my NPCs have been missing: Their bones! They all skipped half of flesh day for sure but they've never experienced Bone day!
Well now I'm running through em all to give em bones. Excited to watch my players experience the power of bonomancy!
Love the video, but I definitely only clicked on it originally because I was hoping for a reference to Brennan Lee Mulligan's NPC Avanash from Escape from the Bloodkeep. "What is crazy about wanting to keep my bones?!?"
I've never heard any advice like this on RUclips before, but I really needed to hear this. I gotta remember that this is a game. It doesn't matter how "realistic" or "deep" an NPC is if it doesn't serve the game in some way.
Excellent advice. I’m taking notes 😇
2 mins into the video. So far, excellent. Then kitty makes an entrance. That's when I subscribed.
Kitty is the real star of this channel. He usually sits on my lap while i'm recording, but the past few videos he's decided he no longer wants to be in the shadows.
Such weird and alien thoughts! I will have to watch the video again to gain sufficient understanding.
“weird and alien”… I feel seen 🥹
hands down one of the best ttrpg channels!
this video is lovely
Great video, as a new DM I've been focusing on the roleplay/fluff part too much...time for me to tackle the meta 😂
May we all have the calcium of player character relatability and and vitamin D of engaging social encounters to avoid osteopenia in our NPC :)
And feed your NPCs enough milk, for heaven’s sake!
Very much appreciate the idea about how the psychological landscape of NPCS can become the locus for the conflict, rather than being elements within a conflict.
Also, very much like the link between necromancy and the hermeneutic framework. The necromancer in me very much appreciates it.
You made me feel more secure in my creations
As any good necromancer will tell you, the real treasure was the friends we made along the way
Great video and advice, but the only thing I can think about regarding bones and NPCs... is the NPC Brennan Lee Mulligan used in escape the bloodkeep who was worried about his bones. Too worried probably.
That's definitely an interesting thumbnail to catch my attention
You're accent and style aesthetic is amazing 👌I recently made a rival (+crew) for one of my PCs who is a proud ranger. His rival is a cocky young female ranger and he has been eagerly accepting every challenge she has thrown at him and the rest of the Party is loving it too.
I love your work a lot. I'm just sad that your such a young tube youber. I totally want you binge watch you videos all day long!! please keep up the fantastic work.
Absolutely useful insights ❤
Great video, as usual!
Getting my ADHD called out hard today when the three examples are exactly the kind of NPC I like to toss into scenarios. It helps that those are all great opportunities for interesting yet open-ended interactions. The decision to agree with the conspiracy theorist can spin off into a whole sseries of events that wouldn't have transpired, in the same way deciphering their theories from truth could.
With NPC creation, and PC creation, I tend to start with job. What does this character do for a living. The second question, always, is "Do you enjoy it?" The rule is that single word answers aren't acceptable. There must be a reason.
Daeric, Captain of the Elfguard in Farkeep, loves his job, but hates parts of it. While he enjoys being in a foreign place, he is jealous of the adventurers flowing through. They speak of great tales, of giant monsters in the desert, or sail in from the homeland, reminding him of where he came from, or sail in from the Southlands, telling stories about wicked snake people and their battles for survival.
As you can see, he's an adventurous soul, but he does enjoy his work. As such, he's going to want to do things that get his blood flowing. So, how does he do that when he's doing office work or tending to the keep? Simple! He has unique modes of transportation, resulting in ziplines, fireman poles, and ropes dangling from windows.
This character, by being an adventurer at heart but stuck in place, modified his environment to have fun. Now, the party can explore this odd keep, a mix of adventurous fun with unique modes of transportation. That sounds like a great place to have a battle in.
This NPC, without being complete at all, now has given me an idea for a combat encounter. They did something illegal, got called out for it, and now needed an escape route. They knew hidden paths existed, and that they could easily go from high to low, so Daeric's office is as high up as I could put it, without being in a silly location like atop a tower.
A few sessions later, after fleeing, the party returned, triumphant after slaying the dragon what was causing problems in the area and learning of a greater plot that threatened Daeric's home, but they still were in trouble for breaking the law earlier. Daeric, with his adventurous spirit, knew what they were doing was important, and knocking out the dragon made his supply issue vanish. However, he also knew the party fought back hard against the guards who were just doing their job in trying to arrest the party. Again, conflicted by his free spirit and the job he has to do. My players didn't know what he'd decide, so of course, a persuasion check is initiated.
Roll, tension as the die fumbles across the vtt, and...
Cheers all around. A high roll. I think 17 or 18 plus their persuasion. Easily enough to convince him to go light, so Daeric brokers a deal with the party. They help repair and heal the folks they injured, and for slaying their dragon, he won't submit his report on their actions.
A very profound video! Hopefully the cool D&Dudes gave you a shout out too ☺️
Awesome video. Side effect: this really makes me want to roll a Necromancer for my next campaign. Oh well.