Taking 20 Podcast - Ep 104 - 3 Bullet NPCs and Backstories

Episode Date: December 19, 2021

It's easy to come up with NPCs.  What's hard is coming up with NPCs that feel like more than a one dimensional cariacature of someone real.  In a topic suggested by Michael K. in Illinois, we discuss a simple 3-bullet technique for GMs to make realisitic NPCs and a similar technique for players to make compelling backstories.   Also, Jeremy gets sent to horny jail.

This week on the Taking20 Podcast. Three-bullet technique requires you to know three quick facts about your NPC, their goal or purpose, a memorable feature, and something they could possibly do for or to the PCs. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to episode 104 of the Taking 20 podcast. This week about the three-bullet NPC method and using that for backstories. Since it's the season, this week's sponsor is Weird Holiday Traditions. Want to make someone feel obligated to kiss you even though they don't really want to? Hang up a leathery-leafed parasitic poisonous plant with berries.

Mistletoe. Making parties uncomfortable is shit since the time of the druids. First of all, thank you Michael K. in Illinois for the idea for this episode. He asked how to come up with good NPCs quickly. I'm not sure how to come up with good NPCs, but I'll tell you how to come up with NPCs. If you like content like this or have a suggestion for a topic, please consider providing me some feedback to feedback at taking20podcast.com or contact me on various social media platforms at Taking20Podcast. First of all, players, I will tie this technique into backstory generation, but that's in the second half of this episode, so you'll just have to be patient. We DMs and GMs are constantly having to come up with

new NPCs. Even those that run pre-written campaigns may have to come up with new NPCs on the fly. The adventure defines the Salt and Spray Tavern in the seaside town of Coral Kiss Bay. It gives you the tavern owner, the bartender, and two serving staff, and then just says, oh, and three tables are occupied by locals, that otherwise the bar is empty. The PCs are supposed to go sit at an empty table until their contact arrives with details on their next assignment. But one of your PCs utters the dreaded line, I'm going to go talk to the nearest table and introduce myself. Oh, fuck. Now what? I got to come up with three believable NPCs to interact with Carolyn the nosy elf PC. Damn it. So you panic. One of them is named Kragnar. He's a dwarf. The other is named Nandi. She's a human. And the third

one is named Kragnar. No, shit, I've used that one already. Their name is Nagnar, and they're a dwarf too. And you're thinking to yourself, Kragnar, Nagnar, and Nandi, God, Jeremy, really? Wait, was Kragnar a dwarf? I can't remember. Really? I'd love to find out more about that place. Who's your boss? Are you hiring? And so it goes. Shopkeepers, nobles, bandits, rock climbing enthusiasts, dwarven dance club

owners, alien archaeologists, we're constantly coming up with NPCs to meet whatever tonight's adventure needs. Sometimes whatever benevolent and wonderful god you believe in will make the players at your table forget that NPC exists, and you can flush them out of your brain and reuse parts of them later on for new NPCs. But that hasn't been the case with my groups. They will take good notes and remember Kragnar the table dancer and want to meet him again next time they head to Flappers. Building good and memorable NPCs that you can keep track of is extremely difficult. There have been a lot of airtime and electrons spent on writing NPC and background generation techniques.

John Fore has a great article on the subject called Practical Methods for Making Your NPCs Come Alive. Matt Mercer has a great video on the topic, and there are a ton of ideas floated around about NPC generation. The Seven Fact NPC, Ideals, Flaws, and Bonds Method, the Tendency and Obligation Method, the Purpose and Mot, the purpose and motivation theory. I've read a lot of these, and to be frank, I don't have the memorization capabilities to remember seven facts about every damn NPC I have to generate. I just don't have the gray matter anymore. I could try to memorize more facts about NPCs, but then how can I possibly remember the lyrics to Jukebox Hero by Foreigner or Baby Got Back by Sir Mix-a-Lot?

That's why I use what I call the three-bullet technique for building NPCs. This three-bullet technique lets DMs remember or write down just a few things about NPCs and then improv everything around it. It's exactly what it sounds like. The three-bullet technique requires you to know three quick facts about your NPC, their goal or purpose, a memorable feature, and something they could possibly do for or to the PCs. And I don't mean sex. I guess it could be sex, but that's not what I mean by to the PCs. Go to Horny Bar Jail. Go on. No, I'm not continuing the episode. Get in there. Go. Alright, so let's break down the three bullet technique into its component pieces.

1. Every NPC has a goal or purpose. Something they are striving for or reason for being where they are. The goal could be short or long term, concrete or abstract. Their goal may be to live through the illness they currently have or reconnect with a lost friend, finish the screenplay they're working on, get to work on time, get the boss off their ass, escape their destiny, exact revenge, find faith in something. Or their goal could be something as simple as getting away from the PCs because they got shit to do and strangers are weird. Goals flesh out these NPCs you're making in your head and make them feel more like real people.

If you ever want inspiration about this, by the way, walk down the street or at work and watch the way people are walking. The vast majority of them are walking with purpose. They're coming from somewhere and going to somewhere. Your NPC should be doing the same. And oh, by the way, if you ever want an existential crisis as you're watching these people, realize that you're an NPC in every one of those people's lives. Oh, and their lives are as rich and as varied as yours. There's a great word for that. It's called sonder, and it's a sadness for that realization. Happy holidays. And if you ever wanted to do an advanced version of this, you could decide how aggressively they're pursuing that goal or motivation and what they're willing to do to get it. I think this entire technique is best taught with examples,

so let's start with the first example. ATL, the wood elf weaponsmith. Her goal is to be forgiven for screaming at her father two weeks ago. Shantae is a human preteen who longs to stand out from the crowd and impress one of his schoolmates. Taryn is a Kinkoo Woodwright who wants to leave an abusive relationship. The second thing that you can do to build a memorable NPC is to give them a memorable feature of some sort. You're looking to come up with something unique about this particular NPC that might make them stick out in the PC's minds. This could be something about the way they look, a tick or mannerism, some unusual hobby, job, or task that they're doing. A real person would have multiple characteristics that could make them memorable, but you don't need to worry about that level of depth for the vast majority of campaigns.

You need one thing that differentiates them from the other NPCs you come up with. So come up with something unique about the way they look, something visual. It could be their haircut, hair or skin color, tattoos, height, weight, eye color, smell. Something different about that NPC. It could be something that they're wearing or carrying. Their clothes are unusually clean for this area of the city. They're wearing a bright purple shirt. They reek of stale tobacco. They have an unbandaged cut on their left hand that's dripping blood onto the street. Or maybe it's a mannerism. Some sort

of personality quirk or something that's unique about them. They laugh at weird times. They're scared to ask for help. They don't blink very often. They resist any suggestion of change very, very violently. Or maybe they have a strange accent. But use this with caution. The line between pastiche, parody, caricature, and racism is perilously thin here. You may think that there's nothing wrong with the top of the mornin' to ya, but that might offend someone at your table.

Obviously, if someone at your table has a unique feature, I'd probably avoid using that feature like a stutter, wearing certain types of clothing, or a strong personality feature for your NPCs. That person may think that you're making fun of them. You can also give your NPCs a hobby to make them unique. They're sitting on the subway knitting. When idle, they work on whittling small wooden figurines of some sort.

Or maybe something about where they work. They're a butcher, a farrier, a hairdresser, used laser rifle salesperson. They could be dressed for the job they have, and that makes them memorable. Give them a task that they're doing. Whether you catch them at work or at home, they might be working on a particular task that needs to be done. They could be unloading a shipping container, feeding the space pigs,

or maybe it's some sort of fantasy world and there's a brunette using an old-fashioned wooden butter churn while talking to you on the front porch. Her hair falling in soft curls around her face and beads of sweat dripping down her neck into her ample decolletage as she makes long, smooth strokes with the shaft up and down and... Right, so I'm back from Horny Jail. That place is freaking filthy. I need to see if I can get Butter Turn Girl down there in our hands and knees

and scrub everything back and forth with a stiff brush and maybe a little bit of water hose. Okay, thinking about baseball, frolicking puppies, 3D6 statistical distribution. There, okay, I think I'm back to normal. Sorry, everybody, I'm back. Remember our three sample NPCs we started earlier? ATL is a wood elf weaponsmith who wants to be forgiven by her father. She has a tattoo of an eagle taking flight behind her left ear, and her clothes smell like hot metal. Shantae is a human preteen who wants to stand out. He likes wearing purple clothes and pays extra to have them dyed. Terran is a Kinkou Woodwright who

is in an abusive relationship. They wring their hands a lot when talking. So you can see these three NPCs are already starting to take a little shape and feel like fully fleshed out people. But if you really want to complete them, let's jump to the third thing, which is something they can do to or for the PCs. I'm not just talking about quests. Not every NPC has a quest for an adventuring party. They're not all walking around with giant exclamation points over their heads and ready to throw gold at the party for bringing them 10 giant ant carapaces. This isn't an MMO. They could have information if the PCs asked the right questions. In previous episodes,

I've talked about DMs adjusting the adventure on the fly behind the screen to keep action moving. You, GM, know what needs to happen to keep the adventure moving forward. Maybe you had planned, or the pre-written adventure says, that the PCs need to talk to Mara the Coffin Maker to get this one piece of information. If this information isn't unique to Mara, consider allowing the NPC the players are currently talking to to have that information and pass it on. Or at least use the current NPC to point the party towards Mara. This can be a great way to keep the story on track, provide detail and history that otherwise would have been missed, or to perhaps give the PCs false information that gives the big bad more time to further advance their plans. Besides having information, the NPC could alternately buy and sell goods or know someone who does. Make this make sense, though. The slaves on

Akiton probably don't have 20,000 credits to buy that laser rifle the PCs are dying to sell. But the NPC who's going to open her pawn shop might be willing to escort the PCs there and take that off their hands. Or the produce salesman would happily sell some of the unsold apples he was taking home, probably at a good price. They're not interested in buying weapons, but they heard that old Atticus Meriworth up the street was buying up used swords for some big-ass throne he's making. Another thing the NPCs could do for the PCs is they could have a connection to some group. They're secretly a member of the Thieves Guild. They know how to get a fake ID very quickly. They work in this castle and they know

how to sneak people in and out of the servants entrance. They know Tina who can help acquire some of the stuff that they need that might be best brought in without the guards knowing, you know what I'm saying? Or it could be a quest, adventure, or plot. Something for the players to do whether it's related to the main plot or just a side quest so they can get more experience points. A kill quest, a fetch quest, or whatever your world needs. I should do a quests episode. There's a lot of different kinds of ones. Anyway, here's the thing. No matter how many different interactions you come up with, there's a limited set of choices here, so don't be afraid to reuse one or two. you come up with, there's a limited set of choices here, so don't be afraid to reuse one or two.

I keep a table of about 20 goals, 20 features, and 20 things that NPCs can do for the PCs, and I grab them when I need them. If you put them all together, that's like 8,000 possible combinations. Whenever I feel like I'm starting to repeat quite a bit, I'll generate a new set of tables behind the DM screen, add some unique characteristics that have been bouncing around in my head, grab a few off a random generator, base a few on characters from shows and movies that I'm watching, bang, I've got a brand new set of tables. Those three things give depth to an NPC. A goal or purpose, a memorable feature, and something they could do for or to the PCs. Just those three things will make your NPCs feel more like real people, more fleshed out, and will add a feeling of realism to your games. Let's go back to those three NPCs we were making. ATL, that wood elf weaponsmith with the tattoo, knows where the

rare blue plasma power source is that can power the new vehicle cannon that the party needs. Shantae, the human preteen who wears purple is a member of the Bellflower Network secret society who works to free Halfling Slave from Chelliacs. And Terran the Kinkou Woodwright has 50 gold to their name and will pay it all to anyone who can smuggle them out of the city. These are now three NPCs who feel more fleshed out and can make your game world more interesting. Maybe that's all you ever need to know about these NPCs because they appear in your game world for a session or two and then fade into the background. If the PCs interact with them for an extended period of time and they become

important NPCs in your game world, you can come up with more details later. But then again, you may just need to write down these NPCs' names, the three bullets that associate with each one, and that may be all you ever need to know. Shifting gears though, let's talk about how this same technique can be used by PCs to generate a three-bullet backstory. Like I said previously, I recommend players keep their backstory short. There's nothing wrong with coming up with a good-length backstory, but we GMs just don't have time to read nine pages of every character that we run. Three bullets is a method of coming up with an extremely short backstory that can still fill out character details and make them feel real.

Even if you want to use a longer method than the three bullet, definitely don't stretch it longer than about three paragraphs. Whatever method you use, please leave gaps for the DM to fill in and make connections. It allows adventure hooks to be tied into your backstory. to fill in and make connections. It allows adventure hooks to be tied into your backstory. The three bullets, by the way, you need for your backstory are your character needs to come from somewhere, your backstory needs to show how your character wants something, and your backstory should include conflict in some way. But what does this mean? Your character needs to come from somewhere. Despite the fact that you came up with this character in your mind, you need to figure out where this person, goblin, kinkoo, whatever, warforged, came from.

What's their family, parents, children, siblings? They weren't adventurers from birth. I mean, they didn't come out of your mom's birth canal with a sword and shield, and if they do, I feel very sorry for your mom. Before they were adventurers, though, they had jobs and lives and hobbies and friends. Where were they born? Were they a small-town country boy, or were they an urban city girl? Did they come from a backwater planet or something that's close to the heart of the system?

Your GM will likely have some feedback on your choices. Every game world is different, and even if you're playing Pathfinder on the world of Galarian, every GM's Galarian will be a little bit different. Second, use that backstory to show how that character wants something. It speaks to character motivation. Do they want to become rich and see adventuring as the way to make that happen? Because remember, adventuring is dangerous as shit. Did the dwarven soldiers kill his mother and he wants revenge? Does she want to help others because no one was there to help her when she needed it the most? Are they looking for the lost blade of Io to reclaim it for their family? Whatever that character's motivation is, your backstory should say why they are adventuring and how this dangerous career will help them get

what they want. Third, include conflict in some way. You can certainly use the first two bullets to help come up with a third. He wants revenge on the dwarven soldiers. That will naturally show conflict with the dwarven sovereign in the past. If the family had the Blade of Io at one point, who does the character think stole it, and where do they have it? That's just built-in conflict with that group. All of us have conflict in our history, whether it's with an individual like a rival adventurer, someone you grew up with, a former boss, family member. It's obviously better if this person has resources available to make your life difficult and can tie into the adventure. But the good

conflict could be with an organization, not just an individual. Entire group of people who know who you are aren't at odds with you for whatever reason. You broke into the temple of Miracle, the god of death, and stole their most holy relic. Now the entire church, its inquisitors, and leadership want you dead. You left the underground thieves' guild of Magnemard, and no one leaves the thieves' guild alive. You know what I'm saying? And lives to tell the tale? Go find this schmuck and stab him in the face. You were a noble soldier but went AWOL. You stole a starship from the intergalactic banking consortium. You have someone or some group who dislikes you or even hates you and wants you dead. Examples from popular culture. Gamora was the adopted daughter

of Thanos before she rebelled against him. The bride's baby belongs to a man named Bill and his henchmen tried to kill her. V understands the corruption of the government being a survivor of a concentration camp called Lark Hill. Or John Wick was a weapons-grade badass who was an assassin for hire. He tried to have a normal life and leave that assassin world behind, but was brought back in when someone robs him and kills his dog. These three quick facts will give your DM an opportunity to tie your character's history to the adventure's future. This makes the story not just a sweeping arc of world-saving heroics,

but something personal that can be resolved about your character's history. And working together to have an adventure with a huge scope and a small scope as well, hopefully you and your DM will have fun doing it. Tune in next week when, by overwhelming demand, I'll be covering part two of the Blood War. Seriously, I received four separate suggestions to cover more about the Blood War. Seriously, I received four separate suggestions to cover more about the Blood War. I guess y'all love your demon and devil wars, and who am I to judge? Let's do this. Before I go, I want to thank our sponsor, Weird Holiday Traditions. This year, let's try a new holiday tradition. Your kids will marvel at the short-bearded person

fishing at the dock in different places every morning. It's better than elf on a shelf. It's dwarf on a wharf. Buy yours today. This has been episode 104, three bullet NPCs and backstories. My name is Jeremy Shelley, and I hope that your next game is your best game. The Taking 20 podcast is a Publishing Cube media production. Copyright 2021. References to game system content are copyright of their respective publishers.