I’m not going to make any bold claims.
This is just part of my process. There are literally dozens of Game Master guides and how-to books on the subject. This is what I’ve gleaned from years of roleplaying. I just enjoy making characters.
Once upon a time, I made my NPCs the hard way. I statted them out in full including armor, gear they would never use, weapons they would never pick up, skills no one cared about, and history the group would never call upon. I still have some NPCs like that because they’re PCs that I made when I first got into the game, but I’ve learned a much faster and more efficient way to do things.
Disclaimer: Statements expressed in this article are strictly my opinion. If you disagree or have a different opinion, that’s okay. I’m not an expert on everything. I’m not always right. I’m just writing from my experience as I know it. Your mileage may vary.
Here’s how I roll now.
We’ll start with the most briefly encountered NPCs and work our way up. Much like the way I do opponents, there are different tiers of NPCs. First is the least talked-to, barely encountered. Second are the mainline utility characters such as the village apothecary, blacksmith, barber, or innkeeper. Then there are named NPCs that are just passing through. Lastly, there are the mainline named recurring NPCs who show up regularly.
Please note that as time has gone on, I have tried to stay away from what are called DM PCs, or basically when the GM runs a character in the party concurrent with the group. There are still hirelings and sometimes I’ll put an NPC with the party to act as a healer or scout. Otherwise I try to let the PCs do as much as possible.
I know one of the common criticisms of articles like this one is that people talk about their DMPCs and “telling a story to the group.” We have to stop arguing over semantics and just play the game at some point. Yes, there are some NPCs that are going to be with the group or regularly encountered enough by the group that are played by the GM (hence the “non” in Non Player Character.) The GM is still tasked with creating and playing everything in the game world the group is going to see, hear, eat, smell, or hump. Of course there are going to be some NPCs that end up lingering with the group.
The innocent bystander/extras are first.
These are run-of the mill, random background characters that barely get any notice. They might not even be written down anywhere. Innkeeper’s wife who can be heard somewhere in the background. Bank Teller number 3 during the robbery scene. Guy on the street washing his horse. These are NPCs that probably won’t even interact with the group unless someone goes out of their way to talk to them.
These NPCs are intended to make the world seem more real. They don’t need stats or even a name unless one of the PCs stops and says something to them. Tavern patron number 7 has about as much chance of being met as some goblin on the far side of the dungeon. They come up more often in superhero games because the heroes need to get the innocent civilians to safety.
Most of the time, I don’t even have any kind of stats for these characters, or a name, or any kind of motivations, goals, dreams. One hit point each or whatever is most convenient to have happen to them.
Mainline utility characters.
Second are the NPCs that exist in the local area that the group might need. I still don’t bother with a lot of detail on these characters unless its someone the PCs end up interacting with. They are probably a name on the list, possibly their location, maybe a few details such as Kin, gender, maybe appearance. I might assign them a personality trait or two depending on how much the group interacts with them.
These characters might warrant a line or two of actual game text. Maybe the village barber has Healing at 14 and Bushcraft at 12 in case we need to do some herbalism to treat poison or something. It’s good to know the town blacksmith is a strong looking human female with Crafting 13 and several examples of her better work around town. The stable boy, Billy, will groom and attend the group’s horses for 4 copper per horse. Morley the Innkeeper isn’t too picky about where he gets his stew meat, and his cleanliness standards are a bit sketchy.
Then we come to what I call Named NPCs.
These are characters the group is likely going to talk to more than once. They might be supporting roles in the group’s movie so to speak. These characters usually have a name, occupation, appearance notes, where they are located, and three personality traits. If they have any sort of agenda, I write that down as well.
Sometimes all the more motivation any NPC has is to be the village cobbler and support his family by making shoes. Sometimes they have a deeper agenda that the PCs may or may not need to know about. Maybe Sean the Cobbler is secretly plotting to assassinate the rival cobbler that recently moved into town. Or maybe he’s just the Bard’s second cousin and lets the group sleep in his shed when they’re passing through town. Maybe one of the PCs just needs shoes and stops to talk to the cobbler. While talking to Sean the cobbler the PC learns another cobbler just moved into town.
There could be some minor subplot for the group to discover with some of these NPCs or they might just be someone the group sees on a regular basis but doesn’t really talk to a whole lot. Sometimes NPC conversations are just fascinating red herring discussions that really don’t lead the group to anything significant, but just make the character endearing. If the group is taking notes or someone has a good memory, they might return to speak to that particular NPC again.
My notes always have a name, gender, Kin, three descriptive words, how the NPC is usually dressed, a line or two of history and an agenda, motivation, or goal the characters might hear about from the character. I’d also put down a weapon, armor, HP and or spells IF and ONLY IF I expect that character to be involved in combat at some point.
Francine the Innkeeper: F Elf. Tidy, Observant, Chatty. Usually dressed in a clean maid’s outfit. Sometimes seen in a nice dressing gown. Owns the Leafy Lamb Inn and lives there. Wants to be a Village Elder someday. Her husband ran away in the night 15 years ago and hasn’t been heard from since. Her cooking is truly divine for being simple peasant food.
Finally we come to the Major NPCs.
A lot of time these characters are well known to the party. The group will often refer to these characters as if they were played by another group member. They usually make an appearance at least once per session. They have names, six descriptors, skills relevant to the party, gear relevant to their jobs, armor/weapons/spells as needed. They might also have Attributes, history, and secrets as dictated by the overall plot.
Prime examples of these characters include regular hirelings (torch bearers, local scouts, and porters) family members (pretty self-explanatory through character backgrounds, and substitutes for roles not filled by actual party members (healers, rogues, muscle on rare occasions.) The NPC could also be a merchant that buys and sells the loot characters drag back from whatever adventure they just returned from. Rarely, in my fantasy games, do characters have employers. (Cyberpunk is another story.) On very rare occasions I have a quest giver, but I really try to avoid that if I can. I’m just not a “quest” kinda guy after I played WoW for so long.
Much like the previous NPC listing, these characters only really have the stuff they need on a given day to deal with the characters. Most of the time these NPCs have the skill, spell, potion, etc needed for the task at hand or know someone who can maybe help. No one single NPC ever has everything they need all the time.
On some occasions the Major NPCs have goals, agendas, or motivations counter to what the group is doing. I try not to do major betrayals often, but it’s okay once in a great while. The group discovers their last meal was drugged and the cook has made off in the middle of the night. He took the wagon with most of the loot on it including the MacGuffin the groups was asked to retrieve.
It could also be a situation akin to the Indiana Jones movies where the local guide and porters see the statue of an Elder god at the dungeon entrance and flee in terror. Even the Major NPCs refuse to go in. Again, I try not to use this too much because the party starts becoming distrustful of everyone they meet.
I also always try to include at least one NPC in every game that is pretty much pure, innocent, good, and can act as the group’s conscience. I try to include at least one or more characters that are there almost purely for comedy relief. I try to come up with Major NPCs that we will talk about out of game and what they would do as if they were real people. (It happens. I think it’s fun.)
We might discuss more statistical issues in the future.
I try to streamline my NPC stat blocks as much as possible. It works out fine in my home game and in my personal notes. The problem is that I carry a lot of than information around in my head. Not to mention my family usually gets to know NPCs out of game when I walk around in character or doing the voice. But I find that if I’m writing adventures “perfeshunally” that sometimes the memorable NPCs don’t translate as well and I’m looking for ways to improve on that without wasting too much bandwidth.
I also end up making a lot of notes, especially on characters I didn’t expect the group to become attached to. It never fails players want to adopt something or someone I didn’t expect and completely ignore or try to get rid of the ones I thought they would go for.
This might become part of an NPC discussion series here on the blog. I covered a lot of ground pretty quickly and mostly just for fantasy RPGs. I think there are some nuances for superhero, horror, and sci fi games to take into account. We also haven’t had a good discussion about names. I hope this was at least helpful to newer GMs.
Thank you for being here today with me. I appreciate you. Please embrace the things that bring you the most joy.
Jeff's Game Box 