Never create NPCs like this (and what to do instead)
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- Опубликовано: 3 окт 2024
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Spending tons of time creating an NPC for your D&D game does not guarantee that your players will like them. No, time is not the answer; there are more effective and efficient ways to craft NPCs and villains that your players will love.
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This experience is a good laugh about NPCs... The party needed to travel a river, so they hired a barge. On the journey they spoke to the barge captain, asking his name. I never named him past barge captain, so I answered Harry Paratesticles (long e at the end there).
After a few fights on the river and a safe arrival at the destination, they paid Capt Paratesticles to wait and give them a ride back home. A few river pirate encounters on the way home, and safe arrival.
Later, they hired him again. And again. Every time they needed a river trip, they hired Harry Paratesticles. By his third hire, he was on retainer. Eventually he joined them on a few adventures. His barge business was booming so his son Long captained a second barge. His company grew to a fleet from the loot he got accompanying the players, when he did. Also his name grew because of his association to them.
And now, a couple hundred years later, Paratesticles Shipping is a major company in the business of river trade. And the names Harry and Long Paratesticles have gone down in history as the greatest river captains to take the helm, and great heroes among the river trade.
And I can't ever use those names again for NPCs.
ROFL - just awsome NPC names.
It's time for a great grandson to rise up and take a stand. A cunning and daring man full of spunk, being thrust into the world. His name? Hugh.
@CatoNovus Hugh was the son of Long. The current Paratesticles is named Braz. Yes, it's a real name.
This is just it. You never know who your players are going to single out, and the first time it happens it will be a bit challenging to think of something off the top of your head. Eventually you are ready though, and you create something beautiful. Long live Harry Paratesticles.
@@thetwojohns6236 This is getting better and better! 🤣
Also, how long-lived are those adventurers that their adventuring loot financed four generations of Paratesticlés? Are they all elves and dwarves? Or is it already _their_ offspring adventuring, too?
The amount of time and energy it took me to make "Boblin the Goblin" is a feat I will never strive for again
i immediately love Bobblin the goblin. There's also a lizardfolk in my party called Mizzard the lizard wizard so there may be a trend to this.
That is literally what my character is called.
Well people call her Boblina now due to testing a misty doorway by walking into it. Yeah, she eventually learned not to test things on yourself, because she's a ghost now.
I went through a decade of merchants all being named Fred, with a vast variety of spellings.
Fred, Fredd, Phred, Phredd, Ffred, Ffredd, Kfred (the K is silent)...
I have a Boblin too. He owns a chain of restaurants (named after himself of course) that's basically D&D Chuck E Cheese.
So... He's "Bob little the mouthy little one".
I'm sorry, but you put it in my language...
Just imagine if other races knew the names the Freemen gave them.
Meanwhile, the random dude they met along the side of the road whose name you had to make up when one player randomly asked for it has been accompanying the party since that session and is about to slay a god alongside them.
yep, that's the way it works! lol
My boyfriend summoned a cat familiar in the game named Aster, but eventually someone called him Assblaster and it was over 😂😂
Tremors 3 ftw. lol
@@theDMLair
That was a weird film series.
A good one but still a weird one.
Ahahahahahahah
Let me tell you something. I was in a campaign once where we had to clear out a zombie infested mine. Purely as color and scenery decoration, the DM decided to throw in a zombie mine canary fluttering around in a cage. Guess what, the party decided to adopt it.
Fast forward a couple sessions and we get into a fight with a wild magic sorcerer. Now, the DM had decided to use a d10000 wild magic table. And one of the magic effects that came up was that the nearest nonsentient creature would be given human level intelligence. This was, of course, The zombie canary.
Over the course of the next few sessions with us teaching it how to read talk and giving it our warlocks pact book, it eventually became a warlock. And it was a pretty good ally, until it decided that it wanted to make all of us "like him", that is to say, dead.
In the resulting fight, we found that it had actually taken our warlock as its own familiar, so every time we hurt it our warlock would take damage. We eventually defeated it but with our warlock dying in the process. He was revived, but came back half undead.
And on top of that, the bbeg of the campaign took interest in the canary's soul as it passed until the afterlife. Seizing upon it and making it a general in his army. So that ended up not being the last we heard of it.
@@Mark73 incredible
Moral of the story: Always destroy undead
😂😂
My teenager players fell in love with a horse.
One of them had “speak with animals”, so of course they spoke to their hired horses.
GM (ie me): (in head) Oh Crap! Wasn’t ready for this!
Horse1 - aloof and indifferent. PCs like.
Horse2 - an idiot “Who dat talkin’ to me? Where are you?…Oh, you on my back.”
Players LOVE the idiot horse.
They plan on stealing him from the stables to take him on their adventures.
oh dear gosh you poor soul
When you say the pc fell love with the horse, you just mean the pc was fond of the horse right? Nothing more right?
Reminds me of my players casting speak with animals and then awaken on the extra large Clydesdale horse. Introduce the thick southern accented Bud the Wiser
…who later sacrificed hisself to rescue his arms brother, the Paladin, and now the Paladin uses Bud as his showing of divine power and after Paladin contracted lycanthropy it got changed to him being a werehorse due to Bud’s help…
Update: they raided the treasure room of the keep, bought a 2-horse cart, bought the idiot horse…
and bought a horse from the Duke’s stables.
I have had time to develop this one’s voice.
Next session they will have to tell me if they bought a stallion (posh English accent, has to be referred to by his “full name” every time) or a mare (Valley Girl, “like, literally the best option”)
… they brought this on themselves!
@@unfortunate_error this sounds awesome
Here is the thing, you had 5 pages of backstory and a character sheet. You obviously can't show this when introducing the NPC, so the created material doesn't matter at that particular point. An introduction to the NPC needs to be a banger to be memorable. Meeting the coolest NPC sitting in the tavern and sipping beer will be boring. It doesn't matter if you have just "Boblin the Goblin" in your notes or an essay and custom character art. But maybe when you meet that NPC in the tavern sipping beer, the entire glassware explodes and then you learn he is a psychic with uncontrollable powers.
I have a very simple method of creating NPCs: 3 character traits, 1 secret, 1 relationship with other NPCs, simple backstory and the most important thing, goals and achievements. It takes me approximately 10 to 30 minutes to make a cool NPC, so even if PCs don't care about them, no big deal.
Stealing this thanks!
Exactly! If you're gonna put in all that effort for an NPC, you kinda have to be their hypeman. They're the talk of the town, name gets dropped in casual conversations and hushed whispers alike, everyone and their grandparents heard of this bundle of badass. But, until then, KISS method - keep it simple, stupid.
Good formula! I'll be sure to write it down.
Also just have an adaptable backstory ready for NPC's without one. So when they adopt that random bandit or whatever, you have something ready.
I should sleep so I haven’t started the video, so egg on my face if this is mentioned or a major part of the video: I think a big issue is DMs taking the techniques in film, books, and video games and using them in a cooperative storytelling game. In a video game the code keeps you from attacking certain characters and decides who your companions are. That means even if a companion seems uninteresting, you assume there’s something more to them because they’re a companion NPC.
With DnD there’s an infinite amount of possible companions so you *need* to make your players like them. Making them have a lot of cool things to reveal later is fine, but it’s useless if you leave nothing out front to make the players go “Ooh let’s keep this one”
I had an npc that the party tried to kill and literally the only reason they didn't is because I said "This is a literal child, if you kill them you will all become evil aligned."
Wow, yeah...
My Home-brew Race would love you then free shielding
Worth it if the NPC was annoying
@@Keram-io8hv 🥴
@@espiritucallejero9127 I left campaign becaude DM gave us immortal kid lizard to say constantly in the most annoying voice: "Can I taste you? Oh you must be tasty? Can I taste them?"
Secrets that aren't necessarily bad! I love them! One of my favorite things was when an NPC was pregnant and hadn't told the party yet. They were in a war zone, and the Druid cast a healing spell that didn't require sightline. I told the Druid, listen, you can sense two creatures in the same space, which one are you healing? It took a moment, but the realization at the table was priceless.
Have 2 villains.
1 bbeg and a second who is trying to take over, but isn't as powerful. This second one will help and hinder the party based on what the party does.
Same here. The party definitely has a strong love/hate relationship with him.
Don't be afraid to pull a Secret of NIMH occasionally!
So a starscream like figure. Sounds useful.
so starscream and megatron?
@ChristopherHogan-oi9ll yes and no.
That is one example, but the one trying to take over doesn't have to have had any connection with the superior one, much less work for them.
It's to go from ww2 was axis vs allies and instead to go, there were two major groups in ww2, but in each group, say axis, and show a power struggle between imperialist japan, n@zi germany, and Italy (I'm not sure what they were called so pardon me).
Basically the idea of one bad team fighting one good team isn't as good as a set of more complex forces that aren't in complete opposition to one another acting for what suits them best.
Players are like cats. You can build them the coolest thing ever, and they'll want to play with the box it came in.
2:40 Bungie touched on this in a similar vein in a 2022 GDC conference (what follows is a paraphrasing because i'm too lazy to find the slide online) - Anger is - not - the opposite of loving a game. Loving and Hating are only like 2 degrees removed from each other, and they both come from passionate, engaged players. The opposite of loving a game - the thing that will absolutely kill your game - is Apathy
apathy is the worst. better to have love or hate than indifference. that's probably true for most things.
"Apathy is death!"
I have a BBEG that I still try to casually reference by name, and my Fiancee is just like "Oh yeah, I freaking killed her and had NO intention of learning her name"
The players tend to do that
They latch on to an NPC that you created in that session on the fly.
Npcs I make on the fly or intend to be one and done I'll give them 1 syllable sounding name (pat, Bob, frank, steve,may, ect) and they always become big hits.
Pete the herbalist became so big/important npc it got to a point they wanted to protect pete from the horrors of the world (he was a stereotypical hippie)
@@scoots291 This, this right here. Chip, the tabaxi alchemist, was just a quest giver that I pulled out of my ass. Now, she has become a staple in my campaign and I've had to add so much story to her.
I think a bit of that perception is success bias. 80%+ of NPCs are made up on the fly; it makes sense that most successful NPCs are made up on the fly.
One of the players in our current campaign has collected 2 NPCs so far found in a dungeon that I'm 90% confident the DM had no plans on keeping around. We keep making fun of his character and saying that she has a habit of collecting strays. They actually ended up writing into the campaign that one of the other PCs she showed up with in the beginning of the campaign is in fact, also a dungeon spawn stray she collected from a different dungeon but our PCs don't know that yet, not that we would bother to ask and at this point, if it gets revealed, I think at least half of our PCs would not be surprised at all.
Another player has accidentally killed several named NPCs in town which ended up mildly upsetting our DM to the point where he was hesitant on naming their replacement NPCs and a few other random NPCs. The player didn't intend on killing those people, he just wanted to hurt them a little bit, but when they only had 4hp...
He might have possibly killed another NPC and who knows how many potental others by selling the bartender some slaad eggs as caviar. The bartender ate one before buying the rest of them to sell at his bar. As far as we're aware, the PC didn't know how dangerous those things are and figured they look like caviar. We aren't sure yet how that is going to play out.
Yeah. One player in a game I ran romanced a city guard so he became a member. Didn't expect to have a game where the elf went through the whole moral dilemma about elves and humans becoming couples on account of the elf, almost inevitably, having to bury not only their spouse but their children due to old age but hey, ain't complaining
i played a rogue named Francis in a deadlands game that ran a "2nd hand store" in the campaign. the a DM liked it so much in many of his campaigns their is an NPC called Francis that helps PCs with supplies.
For NPCs I always just come up with a name and a personality quirk. If the players latch on to that then I'll work on filling it out more down the line.
My two greatest examples:
1) Alchemist that insists on correcting people on how to say his name even though they're saying it right. As the DM I roleplay him correcting them at least twice before finally saying they got it right even though in all instances they've said the name the same way, lol. They loved it, latched on to it, and now I've got him in the pocket for a reoccurring encounter.
2) Three siblings that started off as bandits but have a fondness for green beans; their mother's green beans specifically. The party decided to bribe them with food, the siblings asked if they had any green beans, and the party decided that for some inexplicable reason the majority of their rations were green beans, lol. They loved the situation and so later on they ran into a restaurant the siblings decided to open that served exclusively green beans; but with fancy, 5 star style service, and every single item is made entirely of green beans.
I've found a great way to flesh out an NPC is to ascribe to them the likes/dislikes, & mannerisms of a celebrity, person from history, or character from fiction. It does so much to inform how the characters talks and behaves, and it's really simple to remember.
One of my DM's recently decided to infuse the party with 3 DM NPCs. His theory was that rather than creating the encounters for a party of 3, he'd include his DMPCs also. One character was somewhat amusing, a dwarf that talked like an Italian "made guy" from Brooklyn. Another was a wizard with all sorts of cool stuff. The third was a swashbuckler. ALL 3 of them were so uber powerful, and the DM was constantly having them save the day. The rest of the party was SO under impressed. When the adventure finally ended, and we were supposed to go into the NEXT chapter, where the swashbuckler was going to introduce us to his ultra rich family who would take us in while we explored in their city, my only question was, "Can't we just kill him off and go on our own adventure?" Despite how COOL the DM thought the NPC was, he was actually annoying as heck, and taking away from party agency.
I hope that DM changed their ways, they sound like an ass. I’ve run DMPCs in parties before (usually because no one wanted to heal or tank), but I’ve only ever run a single one to support a small party.
I've only ever run a DMPC once, when we were still looking for a third party member but we didn't want to wait to start the campaign. The DMPC did not speak and had taken a "Vow of Mediocrity" so as to not take the spotlight away from others. Once our third player was found, the DMPC was punted into oblivion.
@Riley_Mundt This is the way to do it! Nerfing the NPC not only keeps the spotlight on the PCs, but also makes them more interesting and sometimes even endearing.
Years ago, had a party in the service of the great Bahamut. We reported to an avatar of his, who projected as a slightly stout older man. One player could never remember the name Bahamut, so it turns out we were in service of "The Great Belly".
I am so glad I was not drinking anything when I read that!
Who else thought the PCs killed Luke’s precious NPC? I’m kinda disappointed they didn’t 😂
They would have given enough time...
Wow. I feel like an idiot now. I have felt the need to give my NPCs elaborate backstories & character sheets that never stay long enough to share everything. While watching this video, I just made up a pic for my newest NPC & slapped it on a generic bard stat block & he's pretty much good to go. I based him on a real person that I am familiar how the guy acts. I think you just took away about 75% of my stress DMing. 🤣
Sweet! Happy to help. But yeah, minimal prep for NPCs is usually the way to go.
I am the same. I am in my way to DM my first campaign and spent days only to flesh out 6 NPCs
Hopefully the work will be worth since those are NPCs relevant to the player characters, but I'm just speeding through the process from now on
Was playing a pokemon ttrpg. We got to the pokemart, and what my poor dm was unaware of, was that i personally love the store clerks in the games. Unlike the nurse Joys and officer Jennies, the store clerks dont get names. So as soon as we met one, i needed to know everything. And unfortunately for the dm, my speech about how the store clerk isnt a random nobody boosting jis moral while also completely taking advantage of him (becuase store) just became a great running gag. Lifting up these poor identical male merchants who never got the fame of the Joy and Jenny leniage.
In my head all the clerks in games are named Justin, to match with the Joys and Jennys. But i did not bring up anything about that when the GM said his name was Clark. Clark is cool too.
My players favorite NPC: My players were entering a temple that was taken over. There was a table with offerings to the gods on it in the form of food. One such piece of food was actually a small living cheese construct that was there as a security measure from before the temple was taken over. I intended on it just being a random enemy, but my players were so determined to tame it that I relented and let them. It wasn’t that strong anyways. It became their mascot and somehow survived the whole campaign with only 4 max HP. I used their attachment to it to gain a reaction that honestly worked better than expected when I through it off an airship right before the final boss. During the epilogue when I was wrapping up everyone’s stories, I described how the cheese lived and eventually had a family (don’t question how). Somehow, that last bit made my players tear up a bit.
I have a town in my world called Bitterstream. It's called that because of the flavour of the water, but the fish that come from the river are among the best tasting in the world. The population is mostly humans, but the tavern keepers wife was a Elf that I purposely gave a different accent. Upon being asked why she was in the village, she says the following: "Came for the fish, stayed for the company". During the second part she glances pointedly at her husband.
My go to npc is a mercenary. He might be friendly, he might be hostile towards the party but he helps move the plot from adventure to this is the true bad guy. And he is either we hate you or we love you type of npc.
The amount of time and effort absolutely affects how much your players care about an NPC. It's an INVERSE relationship... the more time you put in, the less they care.... the random tavern customer that you never even planned for them to talk too... Yeah, that's the new party mascot.
I had a junk encounter where the players were supposed to come across zombies fighting an evil group of npc's. The group was supposed to die to the zombies and then some lore stuff was supposed to happen that would intrigue the players to figure some stuff out. Well... The players stepped in to help kill the zombies, with one evil character still alive after the quick fight. That evil junk npc is now an important "necromancer-like" woman quest giver who is going to be a main part of the progression of the campaign. One of the players hates her, two of the players have had some very interesting interactions with her and are weary but friendly so far.
First time DMing, btw.
I dont even put 8hrs into my job....and i work 10hour shifts
My favorite part about this whole process is how each aspect of an NPC feeds into itself. I was designing an innkeeper, and thought it would be cool if he was a war vet. Earlier I had written his personality as "cowardly", and that seemed like a strange contradiction. I then gave him a peg leg, fulfilling his recognizable trait, but then wrote that he lost his leg when he slipped off his horse, broke it, and had to amputate, giving him an embarrassing secret and explaining his fear of mundane things.
that backstory reminds me of a anime where a dude dies by falling out of bed
instead of the slave labor of an office job lol
@@senritsujumpsuit6021 Or the guy who died "saving" a girl by pushing her out of the way of a slowly approaching farm tractor... that didn't even hit him.
I don't recall your first example, but the second sounds like "Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody".
Not the worst. Our dm made a dwarf alchemist who wanted us to find his stolen recipes. We found them, along with some unknown potions. When we showed them to the dwarf, he smashed them on the ground. The idea of our gm was for this dwarf to tell us those potions were crap and he would make quality portions for us and had these intricate questlines lined up.
... we took the smashing of our potions as an insult, and well... the dwarf did not survive.
How do they smell??? FINALLY! I put a note on how they smell every single time. EVERY single time! And it's a clue to who they are and what they've been up to every time. Fire powers? You bet they smell a little smokey. Comes from the coast? Salty notes and coastal florals all the way. My players thought it was hilarious at first, but it's actually come in handy once or twice. I've also flavored the same spell differently depending on the caster, and they love it and started flavoring their own magic more. When the fire themed NPC casts misty step, it's smokey step 😂
Tracking how NPCs smell just in case a character decides to smell their hair? 😁
@@theDMLair lol if you stand next to someone and you can breathe through your nose that day, that person you're standing beside usually smells like _something_, and I like that to be a clue about their abilities or backstory- even if the PCs never end up finding out more. But they usually do- my players love NPCs and usually want to know everything 😹
My satyr bard smells like a goat when the party comes back from an adventure and needs to visit the bath house to wash off the charisma debuff. The centaur paladin smells even worse.
@@MichaelRainey Incredible 😂
I love this, it seems very engaging for the players. Smell is such a special sense, you can smell something as an adult and remember a time when you were just a kid more vividly than your own recollection of your childhood might allow you to. Trying to evoke that feeling in players is such a clever idea.
This is great advice. Its nice to have a format and a base point for creating npcs
Happy to help!
One of my biggest worries as a DM was the thought of players lore diving on random NPCs. Asking insane questions. I used to over prep for every NPC which was torture. Instead I resorted to having a list of template background infromation that I would just pull from. However, this was also time consuming ... So eventually I took a narrator role and just said "The NPC relays a tragic story about their past, though nothing they said seems to spark any interest to you" and go full on video game notification. While it felt cheap ... I realized that players putting pressure on me was also cheap. Now they know if I go "Video Game Notification" mode, they know not to dig. I guess it's a bit meta, but saves my breath and a headache.
NPCs are not obligated to tell Players their whole life story. If your players went/go beyond that they are showing interest in your world and character writing. Are you not then betraying their interest by just going generic on them?
If it's malicious on their part then sure... but if they are just absorbed into your world then isn't it a good thing that they want to know more?
@@Valsorayu Context is everything, I always make an attempt to fill in blanks where possible, but if I can tell they are pushing buttons that's when I go NPC on them.
I think it's just feeling what's right in the moment. I've even pulled them up about their intense questioning as well as the NPC, I mean it's really odd when people randomly ask for your whoile life story when you don't know them so I'll give it the whole "I don't feel comfortable sharing those details about my life right now, but if there is something you need we could discuss it over a drink sometime" Then that gives me some playtime to come up with stuff. Just gotta feel what works out best.
I absolutely love putting in hours and hours of time into character building for npcs, giving them short little backstories, creating a look for them in heroforge, figuring out how they fit into the world... and of course these are my players' favourite NPCs:
- the nameless flumph who's only purpose was guarding a temple (it was cute)
- the scottish orc pirate who's only purpose was to ferry them from point A to point B (he's like shrek)
- Obligatory random goblin
- The nameless orc who's only purpose is to run a minigame stall (he's a hot I guess? Maybe they have a thing for orcs...)
- Three kobolds in a trenchcoat (that one's entirely my fault)
After they wanted to adopt the flumph I adapted my game to allow for hirelings and many sessions later they've amassed their only little guild full of blorbos they found on the street and I balance encounters around everyone having a little buddy with them.
Not what I had planned but very happy with this outcome actually, it's a cute setup.
I actually use character sheets for IMPORTANT NPCs. Like the main villain, quest givers, generals, captains of the guard, bandit leaders, etc. Why I do this is to give a "equal footing" to the players, where they (the players) are NOT the most powerful people around and give a solid challenge when I need the fight to be challenging.
Having one of my players, who was a ranger, suddenly have a barbarian get in their face and start smashing them made everyone go "OH CRAP" which was the goal. They had to fight smart, as the barbarian was going to win a physical brawl.
Another tried to pick a fight with the captain of the guard, who was actually meant to be a friendly, primary quest giver to the party. He was a multiclass forge cleric and fae wanderer ranger. Heavy armor, magical weapon, shield, and searing smite made it clear that this captain EARNED his position. The player, whom the others left to his own devices because they DIDN'T want to fight the NPC, got bodied, nearly died, and arrested. The other players were glad they didn't join the fight, as they weren't sure what else the captain could do. The guard captain actually became fairly liked, and definitely respected.
You have found the right way to utilize fully fleshed-out NPCs, as people that will be unavoidable who have actual reasons to be so effective.
I've fleshed out a few notable enemies, as you have, but I also created an entire class of students for a solo Strixhaven game I'm running for my wife.
I find character creation to be among my favorite aspects of the game, so if she only interacts with a few of the students, fine, they're all ready to interact with her as deeply or shallowly as she wants. She could ignore them all, and I wouldn't mind, I had fun making them and will still be able to incorporate them into the story regardless of how she views them.
@@seanmadson8524 I've also learned to wait to give characters player levels until they've gotten my player's attention. My most recent one is named Sigil. Basic young tiefling, he was essentially an escort quest for my party to help a commander in a war. His mission was to gather a magical box from a forest spirit, who was guarding it but is actually harmless (a talking manatee). The players decided not to take the box, but lost their insight and perception checks. They had a long rest and went back to the commander with Sigil, who was acting skittish but none of them paid him any mind. Once they got to the commander, Sigil gave him the box with a sad look on his face - he was aiming to be a paladin and this was the test of his oath. Sigil had killed the forest spirit and stolen the box when the players long rested. This completed his trial and became the paladin he sought to be. The commander used the box to warp his entire army with demonic energy - Sigil included - and sent the army to attack a peaceful village. The players attacked the commander, defeated him, and realized Sigil was nowhere to be found. They followed the army and helped the town defend against it. Once again, no Sigil anywhere. Now they are tracking him (ranger player is SUPER happy he gets to track something!). What they don't know is Sigil couldn't handle the dark price for his oath and immediately broke it. He is now a feral tiefling hexblade oathbreaker and sees himself as a monster for the party to slay. He actually looked up to them and wants them to be heroes, but also wants them to truly earn it from him.
I like to spend some of the time I use creating each adventure creating NPC's. The catch however, is that the NPC has to be an Integral Part/Element Of The Adventure, be it Villain or Hero, Innkeeper or Tailor, Cobbler or Candlemaker, Town Guard or Gung/Gong Collector (Person who collects the waste and urine from the local latrines for use by others post refinement), etc,. While stat blocks, I am as apt to use them as I am to have detailed the NPC's stats, kit, personality, history, etc,...however a maximum of (3) - 3"x5" index cards. My most recent gnome alchemist/rogue, Schneibel-Beb-Lebienhcs , or Schneibee for short among friends. Standing 2'4" tall, with a short flat-top cut black hair, deep-set steel grey eyes, a thick goatee mustache/beard. All Hill Gnomes have names that are the same forward as they are backwards. Our campaign STRONGLY disapproves of common modern names, Ned, Mary, Bob, Denise, ,Joe, Sue, Max, Jim, etc,... and those suffering such find a very short lifespan in most cases as they find favor only among demons and their ilk... As My/Our Campaign World Of Midoris is generally slower and far more detailed and character driven than many campaigns, if not most, yet this works well for this group.
All of these are extremely good points. From my experience, a "sticky" NPC needs to be loud (personality-wise), but not too loud (doesn't seem like a PC in disguise). Loud in this sense doesn't mean they can't be quiet-I fondly recall an NPC from a game I played in, Rachel Miller, who was very curt and used few words when she spoke at all, tended to stare at people until they found it unnerving, and whispered to her bow when she thought no one was looking... because it actually contained the spirit of her dead mother. If an NPC is just a chance encounter, a table of names and two personality traits is probably all you need. But if you're trying to make a recurring character, then review the backgrounds, ideals, bonds and flaws of your PCs to see what sort of NPCs might work as a potential ally, rival, foil, or enemy of one or more members of the party.
Knowing your players also helps, since a player's interest will have is a pretty big factor in whether an NPC is effective or not. If a PLAYER immediately likes an NPC when they show up, then they'll find any reason or excuse for why their PC might decide to talk to them, even if they normally wouldn't ;)
The perfect way to create an NPC is to give them a really stupid quirk. I made a fairy archwizard NPC who didn't want people to know she was a fairy, so she dressed in normal human clothes and floated around as though she were a five-foot-tall human woman, but anyone who really paid attention would notice that her arms were too short and you couldn't see her feet moving under the bottom of her dress. Other than that, I kinda just came up with the rest of her personality on the fly.
My players *_loooooooooooove_* Rowena Rainbowspirit.
Silly voices work quite well too I've found.
"A player usually only has one character that they're running..."
Well, now I know! Lol
I was running a Fallout New Vegas campaign and my players' favorite NPC was a ghoul prostitute working in the Gomorrah casino named "Julie the Ghoulie", she had a Jersey accent and a menthol smokers voice and treated the party like they were all her favorite nieces and nephews. I was so surprised how much they loved her, but they latched onto her nearly instantly.
Giving an NPC a unique appearance and/or name is a surefire way to get the party to really embrace them, I think.
Remember-DMs never have to kill their darlings- the players will do it for them
I just created a new NPC. I haven't gotten to his stat block, but he's an ogre named Crumblebones who managed to get out of the gladiator pits in the neighboring country.
I had no idea how or where I was going to use him, but then it hit me that he's part of the Shankill Butchers who get their kicks by terrorizing small local towns and are wanted by the crown.
This also led to Shankill being an orc barbarian who gets his kicks from terrorizing people.
Still have to do stat blocks for everyone, but the idea is planted.
I made a doctor NPC to help my party during a split, and he became so beloved they always ask me to bring him in.
An eccentric plague doctor with a cheery attitude, flair for theatrics, and uses necromancy to "heal" people!
"I mean, he's moving again! Oi, oi! No biting now big guy!" He says as he stuffs a gag in a freshly revived zombie's mouth "There, much better! Now, lets get back in the fight, eh?"
And of course, I played him like a horror villain in combat. Using Prestidigitation to add to his style of green necrotic flames. Glowing with a green fiery aura as he sucked the life from his foes...
"Everyone alright? All yer bits still attatched? If not, I *do* have a tailoring kit! I'll even make the stitches your favorite color!"
Okay, okay...I can sneer and talk bad about your ideas, but I would like to say you are far more helpful than I could ever be in your place. My NPCs are basically trash no-names unless they survive a couple battles.
Thank you! :D
In my experience I think that one of the most important and fun parts of roleplaying NPCs is that they can have flaws. For example playing a real coward can really help you become a better roleplayer, so that you can play a more complex NPCs with more subtle fear. It also helps create nuance in the world so that the heroic adventures can shine through all!
From my experience with a great DM, the best NPCs are the ones that get fleshed out after the party starts to like them
Great advices!
Hey there, fresh new blood to DnD here! Just finished my third session a couple days ago. Anyway, love the format and delivery of your content. Haven't tried my hand at game mastering yet but a lot of the information on your channel is just really insightful. Thanks for the awesome resource!
Fun Stats:
By the time you finished saying, "..letting me know how many times I say "NPC", I had already counted up to 58. ( 13:27 )
By the end, I counted 87 times ( 26:20 Last one ) with a heavy shift to using "character" and "villain" for the latter half of the video.
Cheers!
tip 1: if your players are ruining the vibes at the table, then kick them out
yawing and hating on the DM is absolutely inexcusable
The players when you make a very interesting NPC: *ignores them*
The players when Glormpus the random goblin is introduced: Entire party instantly falls in love with the character
When creating Major Villains, I like including plot twists, my favourite is when I had the BBEG be an accidental product of the main person who wanted the 'evil' defeated. Essentially the main villain used to be a normal guy who was relatively poor, forced into a position where he had to do dubious work to get paid so he could look after his family. The at the time human BBEG was working for one of the major lords, the lord was acquiring eldritch artifacts and materials to further his own goal, hiring men to smuggle the 'goods' into the city, to his private estate. Inevitably something goes bad while escorting the materials into the city, which lead to an incident that killed dozens of people, leading to the entire area to be quarantined to stop the spread.
The players figured this out when they were eventually let into the infested area (ground zero) to investigate, leading them to the four men who were tasked with handling the eldritch materials, which three are dead with heir corpses laying about the wreckage. They find out who these people were, searching their houses etc, realising their was a 4th guy. They go to the fourth guys place and find his family, according to them the husband (the guy you're looking for) has been missing for weeks and have no clue where he is, to keep things short, the players pretty don't find anything of use, but one of the players realised that the young daughter was referring to the BBEG with a particular name which they picked up on, realising that this kid just so happens to have a children's book about the creature (the BBEG) that the father made up for his kids.
(The BBEG isn't any preexisting fantasy monster, it is something I custom made for this adventure, most people refer to it has a snake demon, hellspawn etc, but the child referred to it with an actual name.)
My go-to, regardless of the system I'm using, is to lift from Fate's Aspects. Any NPC that is intended purely for social interaction just need to be defined narratively, so I give them 1-5 short descriptive phrases that sum up the key points. a random cop that's intended to just show up and got away just gets something like Polite Cop or Bent Cop, a slightly more important one might have One Day From Retirement if things are about to go sideways. A more important NPC gets the full set - one is their core concept, one is their biggest flaw or problem, and three others that cover their main values and personality traits. Just... never more than 5, at least for anything lasting. I'll allow temporary extras that are temporary or situational, but I find going much over that starts to water down their utility in keeping a character reasonably focused.
By way of example, Bob is a Bartender With A Heart Of Gold, is In Debt to the Mob, feels Family is Everything, is Too Old For This Shit, and Keeps His Friends Close And His Shotgun Closer.
It gives pretty clear hooks for things that will go over pretty well or very poorly if tried. Like, with Bob here, he's going to be a bit more susceptible to financial motivation or the idea that he's putting his family at risk, but will react very poorly to somebody who threatens his family and friends. Similarly, they can tell you what sort of things you can just assume about a guy, or places where their job in the story might call for flexing the rules a tad. Like, if a guy is A Master Of Hidden Weapons, you can just assume he'll be able to get /something/ past a search.
Easy to expand, easy to modify. Even just one that ties into whatever situation the PCs are dealing with will do a lot of heavy lifting in terms of making them feel relevant. More details can be provided in a paragraph form, but these are the high points that define who the person is, and how they relate to others.
I also use them for other things - locations, organizations, etc. Who hasn't described a place as a Cesspool of Scum and Villainy at least once? :)
Just like in writing, use seeding for your NPCs and for your quest hooks.
Seeding is where you supply your reader (your PCs, in this case) with only the very basics. If you later find that this particular plot hook/NPC works really well (or if the PCs have latched onto it), that's the time for fleshing it out. This way you don't waste time and effort creating elaborate NPCs for your party to completely ignore and trying to force an NPC on them just because you, the DM, spent a lot of effort on them, never really works (unless they're the BBEG haha).
I'm glad you changed from "since high school" to "30 years experience". That tells us so much more. And although 30 years may not be that much to some old neckbeards, it does speak more to your experience and is more descriptive.
I hadn't noticed this till now, but I also appreciate the change. LOL dude, you were in diapers when I first started DMing, so the "since High School" always made me chuckle. But I had to take a bit of breaks between groups, here and there, so I'll grant you probably have more years in the game than I do. All due respect.
I could tell a couple of stories about npcs I made as a DM, but probably the funniest is about an NPC I made as a player.
I'm currently playing a battle smith artificer, no tech, rather flavoring it as a magic item crafter, using bones or discarded pieces of armor for his gizmos and then echanting them. He is a rather scrawny and grim looking fellow called Mr. Gloom, tax collector and adventurer extraordinaire (see, he used to live in the feywild and has been depressed since he moved by accident to the material plane).
His partner in this venture is Mr. Marrow, a giant of a man, clad in armor, always silent, imposing and vigilant. Mr. Marrow is a steel defender, fashioned as a living armor with a skeleton inside, fit with cogs and enchanted machinery.
My party treats Mr. Gloom well, but they friggin LOVE Mr. Marrow. He has the personality of an average great dane, silent strong type but loyal and friendly (although there are little ways he can show that friendliness). The contrast of the party trying to play with him or talking with him and him only answering with "..." are gold, and I'm enjoying every second of it.
You should only spend a minimal amount of time creating an NPC, In the time you spent creating your Gnome you could have created 30 or 40 NPCs with just the minimum personality and backstory to make them part of the world. Your players will latch onto some of your NPCs and ignore others, so spend time detailing the NPCs they start to care about a bit at a time, each time they spend more time with them, spend more time detailing their character. Eventually you will have NPCs that you've spent 8 hours creating, but they are all NPCs that are important (one way or another) to your players.
We had an ork prince npc who later we learnt was ment to die in the first combat to give the ork nation a reason to pursue and try to kill us, needless to stay combat didn't go the way the dm had hoped and all the orks survived and after a campaign that had been a pressure run no matter what the dm throw at the Prince we saved him and kept him alive no matter the odds or obstacles to the absolute hatred of the dm.
Then finally fight we are fighting the many villian and 2 generals while the fight goes down the prince sacrifice himself killed the main evil and his uncle spear tackling him of the top of a very high tower we did still try to save him But the dm managed to block it and he died
I ran a campaign a while back, and the most beloved NPC from the party was a shopkeeper I whipped up on the fly. He was a general store manager, a Lizardfolk named Ben who ran the store Ben and Buckets. The players loved him.
Personally I make character sheets for my NPC's all the time, but never with a backstory. I then condense that sheet into a stat block because using a character sheet is a perfect way for me to get an idea if what each NPC's kit is about at it's core
I find the best approach is to use lots of NPCs, give them a name & maybe a distinctive trait, & if the players take interest in one then develop them in play. I would suggest no more than 3 bullet points for an NPC unless they're the campaign main villain or similar.
20:30 No, don't, full stop, don't encourage that, your examples are very poor in choice to prove a point in this on all three fronts. Anakin is more a tale of a very very hurt man rather than even a remotely good example of a well intentioned villain, Magneto's bad decisions in his fight to protect metahumans are the failings and mistakes of his writers past Lee who failed to understand the concepts around civil liberation that magneto's arcs try to paralel, and The terminator franchise's main point is based on the anxiety about sentient ai and its capabilities, an important reminder being that skynet nuked the earth when its creators tried to deactivate it, that's not very benevolent or well intentioned, nor is the fact an AI willing to nuke the planet (No empathy) is somehow supposed to be the well meaning operator of a defense network.
Point is, A well intentioned villain is an incredibly difficult character to pull of properly in writing, and I am sorry to say, that if your reading of these characters is like you described? you are not equiped yet to write them even remotely decently. What you will end up doing is writing tropes like "Boiling kittens in lava", where you and your players will realize that your supposed villain is in the right and shouldn't be a villain, or that their actions severly contradict their benevolent intent.
Listen, Well intentioned villains, when done right, are most often a lie, because in stories like those, it will turned out that the villains of the story are actully the player characters, most likely realising they are fighting for the wrong thing.
Anyway, a problem with your npc that you didn't really address is in your retrospect, would be that your concept of an interesting npc is rather dull. I do not know how you introduced Thimbledore, but it very much appears you didn't even think about it enough for it to be an important part of the character, that certainly isn't a benefit. first things first though, The idea of a gnome Alchemist is, and sorry to say, uninteresting whether you like it or not. That is just a thing when it comes to dnd as a whole, like any other genre, it will have tropes and clichés, and unfortunately for dnd a lot of the premises of what's really intresting just aren't there, because the position it holds in fantasy is boring, just look at the main game races. you have humans and 5 human variants that are just, humans but differently tall and ofc the veiled human supremacists (Elves). Now while they all might have an associated stereotype and affinity towards something, Those affinities are also increasingly clichéd since they're so common, so an artificer gnome on his own is destined to fail.
I also highly suspect your gnome lacked striking features that can immediately convey both history and personality. for example, if he's an alchemist, would he test his own concoctions on himself? Maybe he has a swollen belly and belches fire because of what he ingested, or has a prostetic hand because he decayed his own by working with acid so much, or his skin is turned into a very irregular color from ingesting some materials. All of these characterize your liitle guy immediately as someone with no self-preservation, and someone devoted to his trade in its fullest, and a plus, belching fire is a helluva way to introduce a character in a setting like a tavern, or even in the more appropriate situation, in action.
Lastly and most importantly, the pcs need a good reason or a connection to the npc in question. It doesn't have to be deep, just something that can tie them together, an immediate reason for a gnome halfling would be for example the fact that the party needs to blow up a blocked cave to progress and are in need of an explosive, ergo they might hear in a nearby village of a tale of a fire burping gnome with a boisterous attitude and love for the volatile, which can set up a nice scene of the party finding the Npc in question rather then the npc being hoisted upon them, by for example spotting him in a tavern because he just belched out a flame cloud or is the only gnome sitting in a booth charred black from fire. You get the point.
My thoughts on the topics from the video:
1. Use the correct tools for the job: Don't use character sheets and backstories for NPCs those are for player characters, do use random tables to generate NPC names, physical descriptions, motivations, secrets, and/or obstacles (e.g., The Game Master's Book of Non-Player Characters has a table in the back of it that does this very nicely). I just roll random NPCs when I'm bored and keep a log of the ones I like.
2. You have no idea what your players might do with or to an NPC. Give yourself guidelines for an NPC not a massive description you wrote upfront otherwise you'll be devastated when the players find them boring, or murder hobo them in 2 seconds of meeting them. Flesh out what you feel you need, the notes and descriptions are for you. I personally started out with the concise detailed descriptions as bullet points and then I slowly reduced that down to random NPC tables as I got more confident in my ability to improvise.
3. Be efficient. Concepts and tools can be used to reduce a lot of information down to a quick consumable bite. For example, an image via Google search or AI Art can make the NPC descriptions quick and easy. Another Example, if you understand the alignments you can use them to help tell yourself how an NPC would behave, but remember it's a tool to reduce the burden of reading and fleshing things out; don't pigeon-hole your NPC into behaving a certain way just because you assigned them a particular alignment. "It's what my character would do" is a bad reason for player character actions and the same applies to NPCs.
Feedback for theDMLair: I always feel that DM Lair videos leave me feeling like there is too much fluff or all of the dots were put out there, but some were left unconnected. I suspect this is partly because you're trying to be entertaining, partly because RUclips algorithm crap, and partly because once you fully understand a topic and have known it for a while it's really easy to forget the small key bits of information that got you there in the first place (I know I struggle with this last one). Good luck on future videos!
I have three types of NPCs:
1) Generic NPCs which perform the mundane aspects of the universe (shopkeepers, town guards, etc.)
2) Quest NPCs- These get a one paragraph bio and an original name. They are introduced for a specific quest and only return if it makes sense when making new quests. Their personalities are more involved, but still simple.
3) Campaign NPCs- These get a full page bio and probably also a custom stat block. These will repeatedly reappear during the campaign and receive more fleshed out personalities and voices.
I happened to came the rogue in Sinister Secret of Salt Marsh, Ned. This is the one in a bad spot in the main house. I had him just want to leave. They kept assuming their problems were the result of Ned. So I had one of the Lizard folk in the basement say "Ned tells us there are adventures in the Manor" just to go along with their assumptions. If I say the name Ned they howl with frustration years later. I only gave him a name because they asked and Ned came to mind.
I don’t think you done anything wrong while creating this npc. If your players don’t care about him, just let it go. Reintroduce him later, with something the party need done, but only this npc can help them with. There are lots you can do to move them to care about him.
Also, i love to make npc sheets. It is an enjoyment for me, not a pain.
I really appreciate what you are trying to say here. I do think thw majority would appreciate, but still, develop npcs are very enjoyable and cool
I flesh out an NPC if the players are already interested in them lol the only time I do more work on fleshing them out before hand, is if they're going to be the main focus. Like this one time they joined a caravan going through the desert, the trip was going to take several in game days just because of how large the caravan was, alongside how many people there were, so since they're jack squat in the desert to look at or interact with. They got really interested in a few of the members of the traveling party.
"Most NPCs should have an ancestry that is native to or close by the location where they live." 11:30
Yeah. Please say that to the makers of, say, The Wheel of Time and their bumpkin village that has been cut off from the world for a thousand years or so.
Also, hard disagree on the focus of villains who think they have a just cause that players can understand. Make something different for once. Look at Jack Horner, for example.
Do you have a video of you doing this? Would be fun to watch.
torture... :D
I'd have to put a caveat on hating an NPC. If the CHARACTERS hate an NPC, or if the players like to hate an NPC, that's good. If the players hate an NPC for out of character reasons, that's not so good, banking on frustration or disgust with an NPC can provide boosted engagement at first, but it will rapidly fall off as they realize that any comeuppance that said NPC might get is never coming, just a carrot on a stick dangled to try and force engagement, which causes detatchment and annoyance instead.
I only specify this because a lot of people seem to have the takeaway on such advice that basically ends up like the "No publicity is bad publicity" take that advertisers love to spout. And then they create some frustrating, unsatisfying interactions with villains or just random 'town jerk' type NPCs that end up dissolving all the great enthusiasm and investment their players previously had by having a gimmick meant to engage overstay its welcome.
My players adopted a minor (as in teenage) criminal that was doing low stakes Robery crimes from a board job. She’s now one of the main NPCs
Something similar happened to me. I created an NPC to thinking they would become a beloved ally to the party and a potential love interest to one particular player . . . and the player just didn't take to her like at all. He had exactly 0 interest in her as a person. I spent so long on her, and was absolutely convinced he would fall in love with her based on who the player was and the character he was playing but just nadda. Rest of the party liked her well enough, and another player decided to try to romance her but that initial outright rejection was just bewildering and crushing.
Don't forget that unjust laws exist. Is a slaver a villain if slavery is legal? Is a merchant who controls the government and had them pass unjust laws a villain? Complexity depends a your table. If all your players cared about is murder hoboing, then complexity doesn't matter.
Dm lair: if you have that much backstory for each npc...
Me: then go write a book!
I like Schrodinger's NPC: Write up a set of backstories and multiple NPCs those backstories can potentially be associated with. The deep backstory can be applied to a particular character later, when and if an NPC happens to take off.
I'd say something somewhat related to the fancy name part, it's ok for NPC to be mundane in fact I'd say it might even be vital, since having every NPC you encounter be exotic or otherwise special may break the setting badly (or at best make the special mundane if there's a theme with NPCs).
For example if your setting is based on medieval Europe it's ok to have an NPC called "Bob the bartender" who is a fair skinned human male, his role in the campaign is not to stand out, but to be the bartender (probably in an inn), save the special/exotic names and looks for NPCs who are suppose to stand out so that they stand out more (and for the sake of fairness if you running a campaign that's based on pre-colonization Africa then having fair skinned NPC would be similar exotic and should be used with care).
My players's favorite NPC i've made is named Sad Greg. He's a merchant and everything goes well for him, but he just sounds really sad and low energy.
I started DMing back in the 80s and my NPCs have always been just notes on scraps of paper... right up until the party takes an interest in one. That's when I start to flesh them out and make them more than just "shopkeeper #5" and they become a person, and I will occasionally make them a character sheet, but usually not. I try my best to keep them simple so I can use them quickly.
I personally like statting out the occasional NPC with a character sheet; if i know theyre going to be important and reoccuring!
Before that, i stat them out with one if the generic sheets from the Monster Manual or the Monsters of the Multiverse books, modified to my liking. And heck, even the DMG suggests using PC sheets for NPCs from time to time.
Same with backstory. I'm a worldbuilder at heart. I enjoy complex stories behind characters, I like doing that as a pasttime. but I am also well aware that it may never come up in detail, so I just dont expect it to come up unless they ask more questions or dig into it.
Basically my golden rule is: Be prepared if you want to be, but dont count on it to be relevant. If you so complex things, do them for yourself, but dont expect your players to care.
But Sauron had poured too much of himself, too much of his very own essence into the Ring, and it became a vulnerability to him.
My current "villain" NPC is a real kicker. Her name is Lilith and she is a woman that was experimented on and turned into a monster. She employs the players to help take down Gods and create a better society where everyone is equal in every way. However, for the plan to work... she has to get rid of those with power.
That includes the player characters.
The only question is, does she want to make a place where everyone is equal? Or a place where she is the only one with true power.
Great video! One of my all -time memorable NPCs was a good aligned kobold named Kaggable. He formed a bond with the paladin and wanted to be one himself, someday. Mannerisms: he would hold his wrists in a sort of dinosaur (t-rex) bent wrist position and would croak out his name in a little soft voice as part of almost every sentence. "Kaggable help!" His tribe's favorite food was turnips and their way of honoring a friend was to give the friend a plate of their own poop as a gift. "Kaggable give you POOP!" (The poor pally who he'd attached himself too was both horrified and polite.) My husband, the pally, still wants to create stuffed toys and perhaps statues in Kaggable's honor.
My players got a kobold minion they names spot.
Looking to eliminate a pack of kobolds, the bard cast a friendship spell on Spot to help him infiltrate. The spell wore off mid-way through the battle, but Spot "read the room" and stayed loyal to the bard.
The quirk? Spot loved chickens. Particularly baby chickens. He would travel with a pouch of baby chicks and pet one almost all the time, muttering, 'Pretty chickee."
When the party needed stealth, he would bite the chick's head off and put the rest in his pouch "for later"
The secret part is nice. Gonna have to implement that.
For naming NPCs, most of my names i make usually just sound like they come from Skyrim. For example, i named my town courier in the game Ivor Newcastle.
I had an NPC that was a necromancer
All of them wanted her dead except one, who let her go. I had her experience some self reflection and after following them she offered her services
During my Tournament Arc she showed her power and they fell in love
Add to that she's the only one with revivfy on the team so PC deaths were thrown out the window for meow
I once created a barebones npc just to have the group have some interactions with others. I made him in 5 Minutes tops. But the group loved him so much that they now yell his name every time he makes an appearence.
I only ever bother creating a character sheet for an NPC who is an ally who will appear over many sessions, and only after the NPC has already interacted with the PCs, and been accepted by the party. I go light on the background using bulletpoints as you suggest. Because I use D&DBeyond I can quickly switch between stat blocks, character sheets and write ups, which I use for NPCs who I know will never be in battle.
There is one type of NPC that can get such treatment and still be great: the BBEG
The best bit of advice you can give any DM is dont expect your players to care about your Lore, your NPCs or your World.
Make your game about your players and they will always be engaged and care about coming back time and time again to your table.
That's why I use roll tables to generate NPC backstories, sometimes I pick them manually.
Any detail is a suggestion when playing anyway, their background is just there to give flavor to the NPCs reaction to your players action or their role in advancing the plot.
The other trick is the NPC economy if a character or enemy isn't dead, reuse them where it makes sense, until they die. Their reappearance might be a plot hook.
One lesson I’ve learned is that players will care more about some throwaway joke character you made as filler for a tavern than the BBEG that is destroying and pillaging the literal multiverse and threatens reality itself with his long path of destruction and death.
BBEG's come and go, random joke characters stay for life... Why I know if I pick up dming with my old group again certain characters will HAVE to make a reappearance lol. Nobody remembers the evil dracolich that was threatening the city, no they remember the big dumb half giant named Grogg who liked to hit things with his club.
Moral of the story, temper expectations. Only put effort into NPCs and side-content for the love of doing so, not because you expect the players to even find it let alone love it.
If you really really want your players to interact with an NPC, I say just stick em in whatever "HUB" city/town they are most likely to revisit or setup a base at.
That or just save said NPC for another adventure you can run that is based around them.
Don't be afraid to recycle "missed content" from one adventure to then place into another if possible.
The way I write all my major NPCs is to write a 1-ish page dossier that has their general outline, physical description, ideals and goals, dispositition and mannerisms, and any miscellaneous notes. This has proven extremely effective as it covers all the basics needed to make an NPC feel lifelike without getting bogged down in details that would likely never come up
So you hyperfocused on a character. Happens.
When it come to NPCs I dont olan anything beyond minimum. Name. Profession. Personality. Outsiden of that. Nothing. If thebplayers connect with an NPC, then, and only then, do I do some more fleshing out of that character.
11:00 we are playing a game where our player names are Laranlor, Lukikukushanda and Arikichariku. I started calling my charachter Lan, which he used a cover name since he was a the prince of a big country, but a half-elven bastard prince who his stepmother hires assasins to kill to secure her sons claim. The players and DM took this over and now our charachters are known as Ari, Lukiku and Lan.
like that meme
on one side, elaborate dungeon with all the design ever - just some tumbleweeds flying arround
on the other side, swarmed by the players - some cardboard cutout NPC they totally love
I really like that channel and all the cool tips, but I absolutely dislike the constant self advertising about the books. Less advertising = better videos.
In other countries you had to mark those product placements or get a strike for it.
I’ve learned never to set out to create an NPC that my players will love.
Because they won’t.
They’ll latch onto some other NPC that I pulled out of my butt in response to something unexpected that the payers did.
Meanwhile my silly fantasy stupid brain being like. BBEG Dragon Ellarithillien? No problem remembering it or saying. Super helpful ally the players have interacted with multiple times named Ruk? Me: "the one that's three letters and is slipping my mind completely at the moment..."
I had an important NPC named Chesterfield
One player couldn't remember his name and called him Chestershire once, so the party started to call him Chestershire as a joke
half a year into the campaign they gaslit themselves so much that they no longer knew which was the real name and which was the joke 😭
I had something like this happen to me in the last campaign I ran. I made an NPC who was supposed to be a personal rival to one of my players' characters. I was planning on using him repeatedly over the next several weeks: one of those "bad penny" characters. Constantly harassing the party; constantly interfering with them. I poured over everything: his name, his backstory, how he fit in to the world at large, how he related to the bbeg, his goals and beliefs, his faction etc.
And in their first little skirmish with him, my players Nat20'd that guy into oblivion. Crushed him and his entire party before I could even get to the round where the rival was supposed to call a truce. I was like "Oh, well... so much for that idea."
It did teach me a valuable lesson though that I think DMs can benefit from. We often chastise players for being "murder hobos" or making decisions that get their whole party killed even though we tried to warn them like 5000 times. I think DMs need to be equally careful about what situations we put our "favorite" NPCs into as well just as if we were playing. Before pitting them against the players ask: am I ready to lose this character? Do I have a believable out for this character? Do I have a narrative replacement for this character if necessary?
I'm running another campaign now with a similar "rival adventuring party" and I have been far more judicious with how the two groups interact with each other this time. lol