DM help: Personalities

[FlyMolo]

How do all of you more experienced DMs actually keep track of personalities for NPCs? I'm always getting mixed up, and write my NPCs according to my mood, which means they sound kinda schizophrenic. ( I do PbP, so NPC dialogue can be days apart.)

Does anyone else have this problem? If so, how do you solve it?

[Azerian Kelimon]

Taping sessions is, as they say, teh pwnzorz. Writing the personalities down helps, of course. Running a "You battle through the good land of Pittsburgh against the Evil Overlord Walter" also helps as a rite of passage.

And of course, acting to help you remember the style and tone of the characters in your "script".

[SilverClawShift]

I know my DM usually has a page/text file dedicated to any and every NPC.

It's usually not more than a few lines, a name, an alignment, and some notes about posessions, behavior, and where they are in the world. Obviously, the more important the NPC, the more info they get, with the biggest getting actual character sheets and a page of notes.

I know he's also got a list of "NPC In a Can" situations he can pull out if he needs someone randomly.

I don't really have any more info than that, obviously he doesn't let us players thumb through his notes.

[drengnikrafe]

That sounds like a good idea. In that case, thank you for that idea (for I, too, am a DM with problems like the host of this thread has).
I can support the point about some of the more important characters. Like every good DM should, my BBEG has a character sheet and 6 pages of backstory (front and back).

[Terraoblivion]

That does indeed sound like a good idea, Silverclaw. I do something similar, though i gather most of the minor NPCs in a single textfile and generally only have generic names to use for all the random people they might ask the name of. As for how you make personalities for NPCs it is a bit more tricky. The important thing to keep in mind is what role they are going to serve and a few obvious cues for them to have to the players. Then based on that it is a lot like making a personality for a PC.

[FlyMolo]

I know my DM usually has a page/text file dedicated to any and every NPC.

It's usually not more than a few lines, a name, an alignment, and some notes about posessions, behavior, and where they are in the world. Obviously, the more important the NPC, the more info they get, with the biggest getting actual character sheets and a page of notes.

I know he's also got a list of "NPC In a Can" situations he can pull out if he needs someone randomly.

I don't really have any more info than that, obviously he doesn't let us players thumb through his notes.

Sounds like a good idea. Reasons for having good DM notes +1.

[AslanCross]

Yeah, writing down the NPC's personality in advance is very helpful. I have a lot of my notes written down in advance on my laptop.

[Hal]

The DMG has a table of 100 personality quirks. If you need an instant NPC, it can be rather interesting to roll 1-3 quirks off the table. Of course, you could do that ahead of time and just take what fate gives you, too.

My guys were rather unhappy that the Dwarven military commander they were supposed to meet with was rolled to be both sexist and racist. Did I mention the party leader was a female elf? That was a good time.

[FatherMalkav]

My current campaign is a old World of Darkness game set in the Wild West.

Most important NPC's are decided ahead of time, with a sheet, page of notes etc.

The more important NPC's in a town who the players don't go in depth with (blacksmith, Tavern owner, etc) get a one or two line motivation to remind me of their 'feel'.

The 'faceless mob' as I call it, which is the rest of the populace, generally are stereotypical rough and tumble, very religious with a hint of racism (using period terms, and certain people dislike certain races.)

This keeps everything straight for me, and my players say I play great NPC's so, we're all happy.

[Renegade Paladin]

I keep copious notes on all my NPCs, including their stats, roleplaying notes, and any accents or inflections I gave them. I use lots of NPCs, so I have two 120 page notebooks I haul around to sessions, but it's worth it.

[SoD]

I quite often think 'x NPC is like x fictional character, only x instead of x'.

I recently had a character who I thought 'NPC is like Yuki Nagato, only depressed'.

I think it worked, and the players were happy with all the NPC's for that session.