Taking 20 Podcast - Ep 9 - Realistic NPCs

Episode Date: March 15, 2020

Jeremy ventures into NPC territory now, discussing how to make your NPCs multidimensional and realistic.  We talk about how to make NPCs memorable and how to give them primitive character arcs.   EPISODE RESOURCE:  https://www.reddit.com/r/DnDBehindTheScreen/comments/81le54/a_suggestion_on_adding_depth_to_npcs/

This episode of the Taking20 Podcast is brought to you by our faux sponsor, The Roof. It keeps the sun and rain off of you and keeps the moon from watching you pee. And that's its fetish. Thank you for tuning in to the Taking20 Podcast. This is Episode 9, Realistic NPCs. Please take a moment to like, subscribe, rate us over on iTunes or Stitcher or Google Play or wherever you happen to be listening to this. If you're so inclined, please let a friend know about us because we'd love to build our listenership and eventually become insanely wealthy from this so

I can retire and live a life of luxury. Thank you so much to those of you who have provided feedback on taking20podcast.com. Two that I've received in the past week, for example, Brad H. from Indianapolis. Seven words. Good shit. Enjoying it. Keep it up. Thank you, Brad. Appreciate the feedback.

Another piece of feedback I received this week was from Parker in New York, who said, quote, you sound like you have a deviated septum, end quote. Nope. Sorry, Parker. This is my real voice, and I wish it wasn't. So if you want to leave some feedback for me, please head over to the website, taking20podcast.com. I read every single piece of feedback that I receive, and I use them to make the podcast better. Unfortunately, maybe my voice would sound better with a deviated septum, but I'm not going to take the risk of experimenting with that. So this week, we're going to talk about NPCs, non-player characters. As a reminder, this podcast is mostly geared towards newer GMs and newer

players. So a quick explanation. Non-player characters or NPCs are everyone else in the world that are not the characters that are being played by the players sitting around the table. When I started doing research about making realistic NPCs, I had a whole lot of topics written and a whole lot of individual bullet points written, and I stumbled on a great post on Reddit from user Kezbom, the title being a suggestion on adding depth to NPCs' dimensionality. I reached out to him, and he was very gracious and allowed me to quote some of his material here, so thank you, Kezbom, I appreciate it, and I hope you're listening to this. I'll have a link to his original post on the resources page for this episode on the website,

so go take a look at it. It has a lot more detail than I can provide here. The first type of NPC I want to talk about is the zero-dimensional NPC. They are points. That's all they are. There's nothing unique about them. They exist for one purpose and have one state of existence. They are a shopkeeper. They want to buy the party's stuff at 50% and sell it for 100%. a shopkeeper. They want to buy the party's stuff at 50% and sell it for 100%. They're a face in the crowd. They probably don't even have a name. They're really just there. The one-dimensional NPC has one or more quirks that stand out but maybe aren't explained. The shopkeeper has an axe over the counter and no one's allowed to touch it. Sounds interesting, but usually it's only interesting for a moment and no real substance and depth there. The two-dimensional NPC has a quirk, but with an

explanation. The shopkeeper has an axe over the counter, and if the party asks about it, the shopkeeper will tell him that his father fought with it in the militia. After his father died in service to the town, his comrades brought it back and presented it to young Baltus and told him how his father had saved others. The axe is now an heirloom and he doesn't want anyone else to touch it in case they disturb the bloody fingerprints his father left on the grip. That's an interesting reason for having an axe over the counter, and if you explain that reason to the PCs, I'm sure it would at least be memorable to them. Finally, let's talk about the three dimensional NPC.

We usually don't get this far with most NPCs, but it's good to go to this level of depth for important villains or maybe friends of the party. Having a three-dimensional NPC turns an NPC from just a stat block into a fully fleshed out person, or at least the appearance of a fully fleshed out person. This is where your NPC has a quirk, has a reason for that quirk, but has a reason to go against that quirk when it comes up. Back to Baltus. The party is good friends with

Baltus and have earned his trust. They're currently in the shop when the militia enter and demand the party's arrest. Baltus grabs the axe that neither he nor anyone else is supposed to touch from above the counter and helps the party in the ensuing fight. He's breaking his own rules and quirks for the sake of the party, and I guarantee you if the party has bought into Baltus at all, that moment will be memorable and talked about throughout the campaign. So what else makes good NPCs? I believe good NPCs have three major features.

A goal, a memorable feature of some sort, and something they can do for the PCs. Let's break this down one by one. A goal. We as people have goals. We have something that we're trying to accomplish, both short-term and hopefully something long-term. Reconcile with a loved one. We may want to get through the day at work without murdering anyone. Make it to Friday when we're going out with our friends. We may be trying to get that promotion at work.

Get better at frisbee golf. Whatever it is, we all have goals that we're trying to accomplish. Good NPCs have a goal. Maybe her goal is she's been stopped by the party and the party's asking her questions and all she wants to do is get back to her life and get away from the PCs at all. Maybe there's an NPC who wants to see the PCs succeed or fail. They're not strong enough to directly oppose them, but they feel slighted or wronged by something the PCs did in the past and maybe they want to see the PCs fall on their face and would help a strong NPC make that happen. Maybe the PCs are famous and the NPC just wants an autograph or a selfie. Maybe the NPC wants to clone a PC by getting some hair or skin or blood. Maybe an NPC wants to make

it to work on time so he doesn't get yelled at for being late. Maybe another NPC's goal is to have enough money for rent this week. Maybe another NPC's goal is to have enough money for rent this week. Maybe another NPC's goal is to marry a rich widow. Goals for the NPC will affect their interaction with the PCs. Think about how an NPC would react if they just want to get to work on time and a PC says, excuse me, may we ask you some questions? No, I'm late to work. Get out. And just walks on by. Maybe one of your PCs is a rich widow and that NPC wants to marry a rich widow says, well, how are you doing? I've got two tickets to the pig wrestling competition that's coming up later tonight. I don't suppose you'd be my plus one. Pig wrestling plus one sounds like a

name of an indie band. Anyway, giving NPCs a goal will help flesh them out and make them more memorable. They also should have a memorable feature of some sort. There are tons of random tables for these online. Google is your friend here. Go find one that you like and use it. Examples of memorable features include things like changing the voice. A lot of us GMs are busy. It's hard to come up with a unique voice and a unique characteristics for every single NPC, so this is not something you want to overdo. Maybe he or she has an accent from an area of the world. Just start there. Can you do a really good Swedish accent? If so, do it. Can you do a really good Irish accent? Dutch? Japanese? But Jeremy, why aren't you doing accents to demonstrate these? Because my accents are awful. That's why.

I'm scared if I did a Swedish accent, the three people from Sweden who will ever listen to this podcast would go, no, and turn off the podcast and never listen anymore. But if you can do an accent, whether that's Indian, Japanese, German, what have you, do an accent. Try it. Practice it on your commute, assuming that you

don't ride the subway. People on the subway may look at you weird when you're sitting over there going, can I help you? Ask me what accent that was. I don't know. Moving on. Your voice could also change by going high and low pitch. Roll with the type, but occasionally against it. You could have the big burly dock worker with a really deep voice. Yeah, I've got to put this salted cod up there on the deck. What can I do for you? You could also have the petite lady with a nice, quiet, soft voice. So roll with the type sometimes, but occasionally against it. Imagine the party rolls up to this beautiful lady carrying a parasol in finest Paris fashions.

And they say, excuse me, we have a question. And she goes, can I help you? That'll be memorable. Or flip it. You've got the big burly dock worker who sounds vaguely like Mike Tyson. A little bit of a higher voice and he kind of talks like this. Yeah, what you need. Again, would be memorable. So you could vary the pitch to make it unique. Another thing you can do is make your voices loud and boisterous and brash or soft and demure, breathy. I'm sorry you're listening to me talk like this. Somewhere, someone's throwing up.

Anyway, but you could change the volume of your voice to change it up as well. You could move your voice more to the front of the mouth. So it comes across mostly you're speaking about at your teeth level. Every time I do that I always want to over emphasize a lot of syllables so it sounds very precise. All of a sudden I'm slightly British. Or you could go to the back of the throat. Talk a little like Batman. So you get a front of the mouth or back of the mouth. It just kind of changes the voice just slightly. So the voice will tell the PCs a lot about them. So will the words that they use. By no means am I suggesting you go out and study a thesaurus, but start thinking

about words that, for example, very educated NPCs would use versus NPCs who have not received a lot of or maybe any education. Example, someone who talks a lot. Maybe somebody who is very educated would use a word like grandiloquent. Maybe stepping down the education, someone would say talkative or chatty or they just won't shut up. Someone who is very hairy may be described as hearsuit by someone who is educated and intelligent Versus unshorn versus shaggy versus hairy in your mama's upper lip I pulled my 10 year old son aside and said hey finish this phrase And you're not going to get in trouble no matter what you say I said hairier than blank and he thought for a minute and said a vagina

I'm, not sure what they're teaching him in school. And I'm starting to get worried. If you happen to have a hairy vagina and you're offended by this statement, please send us a note on taking20podcast.com. Another way you can make your NPCs different is the way they interact, their attitude, the way they carry themselves. Are they eager to talk to the PCs? Are they tired and annoyed? Are they distracted? Do they have something else on their mind? Are they thirsty? No matter what definition of thirsty you want to use. Angry, upset, gassy, whatever. Just come up with a different attitude so that not every NPC is generic person number two. Another thing you can do to NPCs is change the way they look. What does their face look like?

When you picture this NPC in your mind, what do they look like? Is their skin smooth? Is it splotchy? Do they have acne? Do they have freckles? Do they have a birthmark on their face? Is their face pot-marked and scarred? Do they have vitiligo?

Are they green-eyed? Do they have an eye patch? Do they have an enormous nose? Big forehead? So big it's a six head? Or at least give them distinctive features from generic NPC number three. Are they bald? Do they have long luxurious hair? Do they have a limp? Do they have a pierced eyelid? Do they wear eyeglasses? Do they have cybernetic augmentations? Do they sneeze a lot? Does she always have a drink in her hand? Give her some feature and some unique

affectation that will help the PCs remember this particular NPC. Other descriptions for skin. Light, dark, green, hairy, scaly, jaundiced, stained, dirty. What does their skin look like? What's their overall body shape? Are they emaciatingly thin? Are they fat? Are they tall, short? Do they hold themselves up high with straight back or do they slouch? Are they contorted? Are they amorphous? Just start thinking about ways you would describe their body. Another way you can make NPCs distinct is by the clothes that they wear. Obviously very fine well-kept clothes will look one way to the PCs, whereas poor and threadbare clothes may look another. Does somebody dress foppish? Do they dress piratey?

Are they dressed too fine for the area of the city that they're currently in? Are they dressed very poorly in a fine area of the city, making them stand out? Lastly, of course, have a table of names handy so that you can reference it very quickly. Have male and female, and oh by the way, not every single fantasy NPC needs to have a name that sounds fantasy-based. There's nothing wrong with a ratfolk named Steve. I once had an adventure where the party went into the sewers of a major city where the rat folk lived. They were considered lesser creatures by the city council and so they had carved out an existence literally running a black market under the ground. The PCs got introduced to a family of rat folk and they got introduced to Steve who introduced himself as Steve 4. The party was very confused until they met the rest of the family.

The dad was Steve 1. The oldest male child was Steve 2, Steve 3, Steve 4. They were up to Steve about 14. When they met the first daughter, she was Steve 15. This adventuring group is still together, and I really hope at some point we play Starfinder, because I want them to meet Steve 743 and his family, also named Steve. When you're making NPCs, try to avoid racist stereotypes, please. I went and looked up some

example racist stereotypes online, and I want to make it very clear that I do not believe any of these statements I'm about to make, but they're examples of what you should not do. For example, you shouldn't say that in your campaign that all people from the Middle East are terrorists, or all people from England have bad teeth. It's just inappropriate and wrong to say all Jewish people are obsessed with money, or all Irish people eat potatoes and are drunk. All Americans are friendly and arrogant. We're not, trust me. Some of us are just arrogant. We're not really that friendly. Or for example, that people from the South have sex with family members. I'm from the South and I can say that that is not true. Although the funny story is that when my

wife and I applied for our marriage license, the lady behind the counter said, are you any of the following? Mother, son, father, daughter, aunt, nephew, uncle, niece, and started going through this massive list. I started laughing. It's one of the funniest things I've heard in my life. She said, sir, this is serious. And I said, ma'am, let me save you some reading. We're not related at all as far as we know. So let's just skip to the part where we pay you for the marriage license. Yeah. Anyway, try to avoid some of those stereotypes. I mean, I lumped in people from the South with racist stereotypes, and I probably shouldn't have. Because there's a bunch of other stereotypes that, like, you know, for example, all blondes are unintelligent,

or all women need a big strong man in their life to save them. Or that sitcoms have to show that all men are bumbling idiots, and our wives have to take care of us like we're little kids. So try to avoid some of those generalizations like that, some of the stereotypes, because honestly, you could wind up alienating members of your gaming group, or if you happen to publish anything online, you may wind up offending someone who's listening. So if an NPC has a unique feature, one of the last things I will do to dovetail the last two topics together is to come up with a reason for their unique feature. Whatever makes an NPC unique, just have a reason in your mind, even if the PCs never ask. Anna the barmaid has freckles.

Okay, why does she have freckles? Well, she works in the parents' barley fields all morning and then comes into the tavern to work in the evening, so she gets repeatedly sunburned, and so that's what's caused the freckles on her face. So we talked about good NPCs having a goal. We also talked about good NPCs having a memorable feature. The third thing the NPCs should have is something that they can do for the PCs.

That could be anything from be a quest giver, be able to provide the PCs information, be able to further the plot, or they could be shopkeepers. They could have something that the PCs could steal, something the PCs could use. But your big NPCs, the ones that you intend on sticking around, should have something that they can do for the PCs. PCs are kind of narcissists and think it's all about them, but it kind of is all about them, at least when they're around your table. For bonus points, give NPCs a character arc, like stages of a journey.

Maybe the NPC grows with the PCs. So as the PCs advance, maybe the NPC grows his family. Maybe she has a tragic loss. Maybe he's always had a dream of being a turnip farmer. And while the PCs have been off adventuring, he's achieved that dream. Maybe her life goals have changed. Maybe he suffers some sort of horrible injury, or maybe the next NPC is wronged by someone and is vowed revenge. Maybe an NPC discovers a benefactor or a mentor, someone who can help them along throughout their life's journey. Maybe the NPC has grown very fond of the PCs and embraces them when he sees them, even though the PCs hardly give them a second thought. Maybe she's come to hate the PCs and resents the fact that they flounce into town,

throw a bunch of money around, insult everyone, and leave. Anyway, give them a character arc. Your NPCs shouldn't be static, because they don't just unload like a video game and stay in stasis until the PCs return. My favorite example of this, and I oh so wish I could say it's an NPC that I made up, but nothing I have ever done remotely compares to Victor the Black Powder Merchant from Critical Role, voiced by Matt Mercer, you magnificent bastard. It's amazing the way Matt Mercer gave this NPC life. This NPC discovered the benefits of gunpowder,

and one of the PCs needed to purchase gunpowder. So this was really the only place that the PC could go to purchase the gunpowder he needed in order to create bullets. Matt Mercer gave him a unique, memorable feature, his crazed voice. He was excitable. He lived in this strange house. And so every time the PCs came, especially if Laura Bailey's character showed up, that NPC had taken a shine to Laura Bailey's character. And of course, Laura Bailey role-played it perfectly. So he was the only source of gunpowder that the PCs could find. They visited Victor, bought the black powder, PCs could find. They visited Victor, bought the black powder, got introduced to this crazy NPC, and then they left. Many episodes later, they come back to this NPC again, and this NPC has changed,

has undergone a character arc. When they go to visit him, he's blown a hole in his roof, which automatically you start to assume he's been experimenting with gunpowder. As they start talking to him, he admits, yes, he's been experimenting with gunpowder. As they start talking to him, he admits, yes, he's been experimenting with gunpowder and he's changed the way he stores gunpowder now. And oh, by the way, he's lost two fingers. So that NPC had a character arc where he changed as the PCs changed. Amazing example of character arc on an NPC. And I will admit Victor, the black powderchant will be an NPC that lives on in my head forever. Not every NPC needs to be fleshed out. Not every NPC needs a long, complicated backstory. It'd be a huge waste of time. My recommendation to you is to have a few fleshed out and in your mind or written down, and you can drop them in as you need to. Have general

personalities and secrets and information handy when the PCs need something to do. Make some of your NPCs quest givers. Make some of your NPCs gruff and difficult to talk to. Make some of them flirty and over the top. All of this just makes your world more believable, interesting, and varied. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Taking20 Podcast. I once again want to thank our mock sponsor the roof contrary to what the song says yours is probably not on fire this has been episode 9 realistic npcs i'm jeremy shelley and here's hoping that your next game is your best game