Memorable NPCs

Non-player characters, typically referred to as NPCs, are the characters that appear in any roleplaying game who are controlled by the game master (Dungeon Master in D&D) instead of the players. If the players’ characters are the protagonists of the story, then the NPCs are everyone else. If the players’ characters are the lead in the movie, then the NPCs are the supporting cast. 

NPCs come in all sizes and flavors. Over the years, through the various games that I have run, I’ve created many, many NPCs. Truth be told, it’s one of my favorite tasks as a game master. Some of these fictional folks still knock around in my head at unexpected moments, commenting on what’s going on and reacting to what’s going on around me. What has always surprises me, though, is which NPCs become memorable favorites and which fall into obscurity. 

In thinking on this for a bit, I believe every memorable NPC I can recall shares four basic aspects:

• They were appealing to the players right from the get go
• They were a living, breathing part of the campaign world
• They had their own lives apart from the characters
• They were not planned

Let me explain each of these in a little more detail and you can use that information to perhaps create a few of your own.

Appealing to the Players

First and foremost, a memorable NPC must appeal to your players. It doesn’t matter if you spent days creating a backstory, inject the NPC  into every scene, or make constant callbacks to them. If the players don’t care about the NPC then that NPC will (and should) fall into obscurity. 

I’m using “appeals to” in a very broad sense here. Players might love an NPC, hate them, feel protective of them, identify with them, fear them, or simply be entertained by them. It doesn’t really matter what emotion the NPC conjures in your players. The players simply must feel something, in a noticeable way, and want to experience that feeling again.

Of course, there is no silver-bullet standard to ensure your players will feel anything for an NPC. I can give you a few tips though:

• Don’t be annoying for the sake of being annoying
  An NPC can be evil, duplicitous, taunting, or have any other of a whole inn’s worth of negative traits but they cannot be your proxy to troll the characters (and by extension, the players). There’s a fine line between interesting antagonist and jerk. You know when you’ve crossed it if 1) your players are truly disgusted with the NPC (and by extension, you) or 2) you catch yourself using the NPC as a way to “get back at” the players.

• Don’t force it
  I think we all know of or have been that person who keeps trying to befriend someone who just doesn’t want to be their friend. Relationships click. They can’t be fabricated. If an NPC isn’t clicking don’t try to force it. Maybe try back later when the characters (and players) have had a chance to grow and change a little. Or maybe you should just retire th NPC no matter how much you like them.

• Tap into your players’ feelings
  The power of story lies in its ability to evoke emotions. Introducing NPCs that immediately plug into the player’s needs, wants, and desires helps to establish that NPC in their minds as a living, breathing entity. For example, in the aftermath of a battle, I introduced a child who had lost both parents to the fight. One of the players, a parent himself, immediately felt a need to help the child and even had his character return to the village to check in on them from time to time. 

• Do it for them, not for you
  The hardest reality to face as a game master is that ultimately your creations are not for you but for your players. Every element you build into a story arc is there for your players, and while there is nothing inherently wrong with including events, locations, and NPCs that are interesting to you, they must also be interesting to your players.

Part of the Campaign World

In real life, we are not just a product of our biology. We are also a product of the world around us. For example, as a human I do not have wings. My biology therefore dictates that I cannot fly as a bird flies. However, in our world, at this time, flight is a technological reality. Moreover, my job has required that I use that technology from time to time. That experience has affected me in a number of ways. On the other hand, I know many people who have never flown and that experience affects them in a number of ways as well.

What’s the point of that last paragraph? Well, knowing that an NPC is a gnome, goblin, drow, or aarakocra gives you the game mechanics you’ll need to play that character. For most of your NPCs that’s probably all you’ll need. For a memorable NPC, you need to know much more. You need to know how the world you created has affected that NPC throughout their life. For example, in your game, gnomes might be unheard of. Putting aside the fact that this idea makes me very sad (GNOMES FOREVER!!!), a gnome NPC in that world will have a very different life than a more common race. What exactly that experience is really depends on your world, its history, its geography, and its politics. 

This all probably feels a bit vague, so here’s a few tips to sink your meat thinker into:

• Pick one or two touch points to begin with
  You don’t need a complete psychological panel analyzing the effects your world has had on your NPC’s psyche before you unleash them into that world. You really only need just enough to anchor them. For example, you might have a world where elves and humans are at war. When you introduce an elf NPC, you will want to consider how that war affects that character. Did they fight in the war? Are they against the war? Have they lost family members to it? As your campaign goes on you can add more details if needed.

• Maybe add an “extreme” experience
  Sometimes, a person goes through a single experience that fundamentally alters who they are or how they look at the world. Whether it be a war, a political upheaval, or a natural disaster, the experience leaves behind a very prominent mark. Giving one such experience to an NPC can add depth and reality to that NPC. Just be careful with this device though. It’s possible to overuse it. If all of your NPCs have had extreme experiences, then “extreme experiences” become the norm and are no longer memorable.

• Repeat appearances
  While it’s possible for an NPC to be memorable after only one appearance in your game, bringing that NPC back for repeat appearances helps to cement that NPC in your players’ minds. Of course, bring them back in a context and story arc that makes sense for that NPC. Once again, don’t force the interactions. Let them happen naturally as part of the story you and your players are telling.

Has Their Own Lives

In real life, we bump into most people in a very superficial way. We might have a quick conversation while waiting in the checkout line or share a few laughs at a performance but that’s about it. That’s the entirety of our experience with these folks and we never see them again. It’s the same for the characters in a campaign. Most of the NPCs will only be around for a single arc or even a single scene and that’s it. The characters will never see them again.

Of course, in real life those “anonymous folks” are independent entities with their own loves, hates, needs, desires, pains, and joys. (In fact, to them, we are only one of the many anonymous folks that they are bumping into.) Their lives go on without us. The same is true of a memorable NPC. While the characters are busy adventuring, the memorable NPC is out their living their life. You can represent this in a number of ways.

• Pursue their own goals
  A memorable NPC will have one or more goals that they are working toward. This can be as ordinary as trying to expand their business or as epic as summoning a legendary monster into the Material plane. The point is, they are working toward something and every time the characters bump into them, the NPC should have either made or lost progress toward achieving this goal. Something to keep in mind is that the characters might not even be aware of the goal. This can be especially fun if it will affect the characters in some way.

• Campaign events affect the NPC
  Campaign events don’t just affect the players’ characters. They will affect your NPCs as well. If the event is small or localized, it might affect only those NPCs directly involved. If it’s a larger event, it can affect NPCs not directly involved as well. The effect can be positive, which might improve their relationship with the characters, can be negative, which might damage their relationship, or some mix of both, which is usually the most interesting sort of result as it’s a rich source of story. For example, during a battle in one of my games a player critically failed a number of medicine, herbalism, and arcana rolls that left an NPC with permanent, and painful, stone skin. The NPC survived and swore to get her revenge against the character that had ruined her life. 

• Overcome stereotypes
  Dungeons and Dragons includes many guidelines for the socio-cultural behaviors of the various creatures that you might use in your campaign. For example, goblins are “black-hearted, selfish humanoids,” kobolds are “craven,” and kenku are “driven by greed.” (All quotes are from the Monster Manual.) While these guidelines are useful for run-of-the-mill NPCs, an NPC that struggles against the “norm” or who has broken away from it entirely makes for a much more memorable character. The world will, of course, react to their non-conformity which will in turn affect the NPC further.

• Overcome the odds
  An NPC who overcomes the odds, such as coming out victorious in a no-win situation, automatically makes that NPC stand out in your players’ minds. This is the sort of thing that you can be difficult to fabricate; it usually happens completely by accident. For example, during an attack on a village, an NPC continuously managed to evade capture in some very impressive ways (I kept rolling very well). Of course, this immediately had the players rooting for the NPC.

Unplanned

So, I’ve said a bit on what I think helps to make a memorable character and even offered up some tips on how to go about it doing it. Ultimately, though, the most memorable characters I’ve ever created (or have had the privilege of interacting with as a player) have come about completely spontaneously. It’s the classic experience, verging on a trope, of the throw away NPC getting thrust front and center in the players’ minds and becoming an all time favorite.

If you try to orchestrate this kind of spontaneous experience it will fail. It either happens or doesn’t happen. It’s out of your control. Just about the only thing you can do is remain open to embracing the experience when it happens. Do this by being aware of the reactions your players’ have to an NPC. For example, if the players frequently talk about an NPC, then chances are you have a memorable NPC on your hands. At that point, you can start applying some of the tips above to see if you can expand on their popularity.

Beavis the Goblin

One of the most memorable NPCs I’ve ever fielded was Beavis the goblin.

Beavis started as goblin #4, just another nameless goblin in an army bent on destroying a village. 

He and several other goblins were captured by the characters and interrogated. Of all the goblins, it was goblin #4 who critically failed a checked against the characters’ intimidation tactics. He thusly spilled the beans about the location of their master’s evil lair and was further convinced to lead the party on a raid. As a way to justify goblin #4’s betrayal of his comrades, I spun a backstory about how the goblins were all pressed into service by the warlord who controlled them and his own willingness to do what he could if it meant helping to liberate his people. At some point, one of the characters asked for goblin 4’s name. Beavis popped into my head and so Beavis the goblin was born.

The characters raided the lair, defeated the bad guy (a sorcerer summoning a spider demon), and went on to free those goblins who were willing to throw off their shackles for the uncertainty of freedom. Beavis was with them every step of the way, persuading goblins to flee when he could and fighting goblins when he had to. Ultimately, he took on his commander while the characters plunged deeper into the lair. Beavis survived through a series of now legendary rolls. The narrative accompanying these rolls was a brutal and so inspiring that it had the players, and me, rooting for what was once a completely anonymous NPC. When Beavis finally fell in combat, the players demanded he get Death Saves, which I obliged. Five turns later, he got his third success and stabilized long enough for the characters to use the last of their healing potions on him. At the end of that story arc, Beavis bade the characters farewell. He planned on returning home to free his tribe and lead them on a different path.

During the downtime sessions between the next several story arcs, the characters received letters from Beavis detailing his progress and discussing the effects the characters continued actions were having on the goblinoid tribes in the area. This provided a layer of detail that I never would have thought of including in the game. Eventually, I planned a story arc where Beavis was to request the characters’ help with negotiating a peace treaty between his tribe and a belligerent human settlement. Alas, the game faded away for various reasons before we got to that arc.

The story of Beavis hits almost all the points I’ve made regarding memorable NPCs. First, his rise from goblin #4 to Beavis was completely spontaneous. Second, I rooted his life in the world I had built in general and in the story arc specifically with a backstory that not only explained his presence but exposed a larger set of goals that he aspired to. Third, by complete accident, my successful rolls (I don’t think I’ve rolled that many natural 20s in a row in my life) instantly played into everyone’s feelings for the underdog fighting impossible odds. And all of that happened in a single session. I knew Beavis was something special when the players started treating him as part of their team. When the story arc ended, it seemed really unfair to all of us to just let him disappear forever. And so I kept him alive, feeding the players with updates of his own life that only fed their enjoyment of this unexpected superstar. 

Final Thoughts

Memorable NPCs aren’t planned.

They happen.

That said, there are a few things that you, as a game master, can do to encourage their appearance in your games. Making sure the NPC is appealing to your players, is appropriate for and inhabits your world, and has their own life outside of the players’ characters’ shenanigans are a good start. The rest is up to luck. And for that, I wish you all the luck in being fortunate to have a memorable NPC or two or three in your campaign.

Cheers.

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