Looking for advice on DMing NPCs

[Stryyke]

I've been wanting to do a homebrew campaign. I got the world, the quests, the mechanics of magic, all the miscellaneous bits and bobs of combat and non-combat systems, and the NPCs all worked out. But on running a few test campaigns, I found that I have no skill at bringing NPCs to life. Because of that, the campaigns end up coming across a bit flat. Does anyone have some advice on how to give hundreds of NPCs life?

[Dienekes]

What I do.

For your generic NPCs

I have a list of names that work for the section of land my players are in. If I need to make a character on the fly to fill a role, I pick a name from my list and go from there.

To add life to them, I give this minor NPC a THING. The thing can be, well anything that will make them distinguishable from everyone else. It could be a special voice. It could be an emotion that runs through basically every conversation the players have with them. It could be a desire the NPC has.

For these one off NPCs you don't need too much, to get the players feeling their unique. You don't need a fully fleshed out three dimensional character. You can do that, of course, but it's a lot more work and often the player's will never get to that deeper level there. They decide to meet the blacksmith, and you don't have a blacksmith planned? Well then say this blacksmith has a very thick cockney accent and gets a bit annoyed when people can't understand them. Done, that should be a memorable enough character for the players.

Now let's say your players like one of these throw away NPCs you just made and keep coming back to them. Nows the time to add layers to them. Through their interaction with the players you can decide, do they like them, if not why? What keeps them going through the day? That's I think a big one. A nice trick to making a character feel real is that they want something other than just existing to tell the player's setting information. Perhaps your linen's merchant wants to basically gain a monopoly on the fine linen trade in this territory. And you can overhear them making plans or scribbling information. Or even see them walking about outside of the shop they saw them in. Or it could be utterly unrelated to their role in the game. Perhaps this merchant doesn't care too much about their job, but is trying to gain enough money to marry well, or provide a dowry for his daughter. Something. It doesn't have to be world changing, it just has to be something a person would want to do.

That's it for the small NPCs. For the big ones, the big bads and overlords and all that. You kinda have to start with the idea that they need to be developed. Your villains must want something to start their villainy. The easy way to make a villain memorable is to give them some dark motivation. Perhaps they lost someone. Something the players can sympathize with can work. But it isn't strictly necessary. There are villains who just want to do evil things for the sake of doing evil things.

But they still need to have personality. How they talk, matters. How crazy or bold their plan is, matters. Do they like to talk, are they a silent guy that only speaks in grunts? That's fine. Pulling off a grunting villain that is still memorable is harder, but it can be done. And you do it, by not skimping on the small details. That's what really brings characters to life. These small little details that make them, them.

Does the grunter collect little flowers from each place he conquers? Cool. That's memorable. It even gives a thing for your characters to play with, imagine getting them to burn his flower collection during the fight. That could be the difference between just a normal fight with a villain, to something that the players will remember for years.

Little details, which leads to characterization, which leads to special interaction with the players, which leads to a feeling of believability and, hopefully, fun.

[Man_Over_Game]

Dienekes did a great job here. I'll also add that picturing your NPC is really important, too. What do the players see? A giant bald guy with a scar sealing up one eye? A rotund barmaid who's far too impatient for any tomfoolery? Just taking the time to think about them for a second as a visible image is usually enough for you to find "that one thing", and draw attention to it. Even if there's nothing visually interesting about them, that can be enough in the right circumstance ("They're attractive and patient. You feel a calming and pleasant aura around them, which is rare for a place like the Thundering Plains").

[Ken Murikumo]

It takes some amount of roleplaying and improv. skills so sharpening those skills will help. One thing i do is give each recurring NPC some kind of identifying trait. It could be a speech mannerism, something their constantly doing, etc...

Sometimes i dont give non-important NPCs any real personality until the party keeps voluntarily returning to them. A good example is in a campaign im running, the party wanted to get a ship(space) operational and the engineer i arbitrarily threw at them was a dwarf with a cartoonishly full tool-belt. Bare minimum. Over time they kept returning to him to help with stuff and he eventually became part of the crew. I had nothing planned for this guy and gave him more personality on the fly as time went on. After a few encounters they saw him talk to machines, never sleep, hack computers, and just recently found out he is an android.

Bottom line is don't fret too much about making the NPCs totally real and lively but make sure that the important NPCs have character qualities that can be identified (and the can tell its the NPC in question).


Edit: basically Swordsaged by above!

[Darth Ultron]

An easy thing to do is pick a couple TV shows, movies and books that you know very well. You should be able to come up with at least a hundred characters. And there you go, you have a base for some characters.

Have you seen say, Star Wars? Think you know the characters well? Think, what would Han Solo say or do? Or C-3PO? Han, of course, can be any scoundrel npc for example. So you have the dwarf scoundrel that acts just like Han Solo. The orc death knight: Darth Vader.

And, for an even better twist: mix the characters. Have Darth Vader being the dwarf scoundrel, and Han Solo be the orc death knight.

[Malifice]

I've been wanting to do a homebrew campaign. I got the world, the quests, the mechanics of magic, all the miscellaneous bits and bobs of combat and non-combat systems, and the NPCs all worked out. But on running a few test campaigns, I found that I have no skill at bringing NPCs to life. Because of that, the campaigns end up coming across a bit flat. Does anyone have some advice on how to give hundreds of NPCs life?

Some people cant act, or tell entertaining stories. Some people can do one, some can do both. It's just how it is. You've either got it, or you dont.

If you havent got it, I suggest not trying. When your NPCs talk, dont bother with voices or accents (these do help to ensure the PCs know who is speaking) and instead simply tell the players what the NPC is saying from the third person.

Eg:

DM (You): The King looks you up and down and tells you that he needs to hire you for a mission.

As opposed to;

DM (You, as the King, in a highborn West London Public schooled English accent, while you act imperious and pompous): 'It appears as if We are in need of [can barely say the word without scowling) adventurers. We hereby require you by royal decree to travel to the Ziggurat of Unspeakable Horror and slay the foul Lich Zogdabar.'

I generally go for a mix of the two, with insiginificant NPCs largely primarily using method 1, and more important NPCs (or recurring NPCs, or NPCs designed for dramatic or comedy effect) using primarily method 2.

Alternatively enroll in a local Method acting class. Half serious here, this often actually helps a lot.

[SirGraystone]

All good advice but I'm curious of something do your players enjoy the game? Do the NPCs feels flat to them or just to you? Because you may just be too harsh a critic of yourself. I have heard new DM saying thing like "I want to run a game like critical role" forgetting that Matt Mercer is a professional voice actor with many years of practice at being a DM playing with others voice actors that have been playing together for many many years.

So take the advice given, relax, keep getting more experience and have fun.

[Stryyke]

All good advice but I'm curious of something do your players enjoy the game? Do the NPCs feels flat to them or just to you? Because you may just be too harsh a critic of yourself. I have heard new DM saying thing like "I want to run a game like critical role" forgetting that Matt Mercer is a professional voice actor with many years of practice at being a DM playing with others voice actors that have been playing together for many many years.

So take the advice given, relax, keep getting more experience and have fun.

A fair point. I've never had anyone complain, and never had anyone drop a game. Maybe I'm projecting.