Q: How do I create memorable NPCs?
This is a GREAT question, and one I hear asked often. Fortunately the answer is pretty simple in my experience, so let’s dive right in.
Throughout the years I’ve noticed that most players remember events more than most characters. Players remember that old man who turned out to have super-human strength and how he threw the Half-Orc across the alley, not his voice or mannerisms. They remember that a shop keeper sold them an enchanted amulet that gave them immunity to fire damage, not who sold it to them. The only NPCs you really should focus your creative/role playing energies in to are the ones who will most likely be recurring NPCs. As an example, there is one shop keeper that my players like to go back to when then want to buy stuff. He’s an eccentric character who they love to interact with, so I put a lot of energy in to him. The fisherman they run in to only once to find out about the creature living in the lake probably will get less interest as it is a one-time NPC.
For my campaign I always keep a list of at least 15 NPCs, thought, complete with basic details like age, race, job, etc. This helps me keep a ready to use list in case the players decide to just randomly talk to someone. I’ll get into how this may be used later in a few minutes, for now just know that 9 out of 10 of my NPCs are spun up on the spot for a one time use.
For most of my NPCs I might change my face a little or accentuate a certain vowel or something, but I don’t put a lot in to most of them. For recurring NPCs I will go more in depth. I change my voice and even sit differently in my chair. I might hold my hands a certain way or use my hand more when talking. It really depends on the character and the background I’ve come up with for them.
When playing a session I always set up some kind of recorder on that table, even if it’s just my phone running a recorder app. This allows me to go back after the session and keep track of not only what has happened in the campaign, but also to keep track of my NPCs on the off chance that I may need to reuse someone who I thought would be a one-off NPC. This is a trick that I ALWAYS recommend, especially to newer DMs.
Remember the event is the most important part of any NPC encounter. For one-off encounters the information the players get tends to be the most memorable component, as it should be. Otherwise try to be mildly surprising, or even a little funny, and I promise the players will remember it. In one of my sessions the party had to infiltrate guarded building and attempt to kidnap a high ranking official thought to be in collusion with one of the campaign’s villains. As the party attempted (poorly) to stealth through an open gate at night they were spotted by a guard. Thinking they were certainly captured and doomed the guard became fixated on our Rogue character and wanted nothing more to impress him *cough cough*. The scene played out with quite a bit of awkward humor and he eventually let them through as a “favor” to the rogue. Months later, this is something the party still teases the Rogue about. The can’t, for the life of them, remember the name of the guard or any details about him but they DO remember the event itself.
In conclusion, after a few sessions you can pretty well devise what type of NPCs your players will like and most likely enjoy interacting with repeatedly. Focus on those and use the rest as fillers. If you have issues coming up with something unique for an NPC look to the world around you. Look to people you run in to on a day to day basis, look to movies and the characters in the movies, become a people watcher. You will always see some tick or trait in someone that you can exploit and enhance for an NPC. Have fun with it and your players will too. Make the interaction memorable (such as the Gate Guard who took a particular, romantic, interest in a certain player and let the party through without issue) and your players will always remember and appreciate that more than any funny voice or face you make.
----- Remember to drop a comment and let me know your thoughts on this blog entry and what YOU do to make your NPCs more memorable. All comments are always appreciated. -----
Commenti