From the common passerby to the big villain of the piece, NPCs are an important component of a game setting. Whether you’re planning ahead and writing them up for a distinct purpose, or creating them on the fly, you’ll play a lot of NPCs as a GM, and sometimes as a player too.
The question is how do you make them interesting and distinct. It’s pretty easy to fall into a rut with NPCs, and it’s pretty easy to make some small mistakes that cause issues. Similar names can be confusing, overuse of certain tropes can be repetitive and boring, and if they lack detail they seem insubstantial.
So here’s a list of tips, tricks, and good habits that make NPCs more engaging, more distinct, and more fun.
1. Make lists of names.
You’re not always going to have an NPC ready for every situation. Sometimes you need a barfly, street kid, town crier, or clerk right away. If you’re at all like me, you can end up with several NPCs in a row named Leroy, Larry, Barry, and Jerry, which is confusing and as well as dull. Having a list of good names that fit with your setting is a great way of avoiding this. Throw in some curve balls too. If most people you meet in the immediate area have French sounding names, then someone who sells street food named Xiao Tse already sound like he has an interesting backstory.
You can use name generators you find online and other resources like that for this too. I have a copy of the Writer’s Digest Character Naming Sourcebook by Sherrilynn Kenyon and it is ridiculously useful. Just typing “name generator” into a search engine gives multiple results for almost any genre you can think of and a lot of cultures and languages both real and fictional.
You can double up these two methods as well. spend some time with a few name generators and make a list of your favorites.
Honestly, you can make lists for most of these tips. lists of names, physical features, mannerisms, and any other little details.
2. Give them a physical detail that stands out.
Let the players know how to pick this NPC out of a crowd. Give them a feature that’s recognizable. This is especially useful when differentiating NPCs in a group. A guard is just a guard until you make them a good head taller than the other guards, and this street kid has orange red hair, while that street kid is waiting for his two front teeth to grow back in.
3. Give them a distinct manner of speech.
I know not everyone is good at this, or feels comfortable doing it. This is just one tip out of a long list, so feel free to take this as you will, and disregard it if it’s not for you.
I try to make the vocal patterns and tones of my NPCs distinct from each other. If I do this well, it avoids confusion. You don’t have to be a great mimic or impressionist to do this at all. There are lots of ways to make a speaking voice unique. You can have them speak slowly and deliberately, fast and excitedly, a higher or lower pitch, odd pauses, rising or lowering inflection, or even talking through your hands to mimic a mask or helmet. I once spent a gaming session talking into a soda can every time a robot NPC would speak.
You can also make an NPC’s speech unique by altering what they actually say. Maybe they do not use contractions, maybe they use big words incorrectly, maybe they have a catch phrase, or repeat the last few words of everything they say, or just say “yeah” at the start of every few sentences.
Here’s one thing you can leave out, though. Don’t do ethnic caricatures. Just don’t. Gross.
4. Give them an item of interest.
Put something interesting in their pockets, or bag, or belt pouch… pick a container. It doesn’t have to be useful to the characters at all. Just something that if they end up going through that NPC’s things (yeah, it happens) that tells a little story. A picture of a loved one. The button from their shirt that broke. The receipt for their lunch or dry cleaning.
Think about what you carry around all the time. How much of it is because it means something to you? how much of it is because you use it often enough that you make space for it in what you wear and carry? What’s in your wallet? Yeah, people no matter what carry a bunch of personal stuff around for various reasons. That dead goblin might have a lot more than just a rusty short sword and 1d6 copper coins. He might have his lunch, a waterskin, a feather or two he was going to give to the arrow maker, a little bit of string, and a copper belt buckle he always meant to make something with.
The same goes for clothing. Is it a t-shirt, or is it a bright yellow t-shirt with a glittery starburst and the words “Feelin’ Groovy” on it? Are they boots, or are they soft kidskin boots with low heels and silver buckles up the sides?
Combine this with the three tips before this and now the bartender is Jim Glosswick, a tall man who talks quietly and has a wooden ring with leaves carved into it on a string around his neck. He’s much more interesting and vibrant now and it only took a few little bits of detail.
5. Give them a demeanor, some kind of outlook on life.
You can use this step as a shorthand for a more developed personality if this is just a bit player. Just pick a personality trait, maybe two and play to that. Are they gruff, but fair? Do they get annoyed easily? Are they bad with other people’s boundaries and ask too many questions?
6. Give them a motivation.
People do things for reasons usually. Give the NPC a reason they’re doing what they’re doing. This could be very simple. The shopkeeper is being extra helpful because adventurers are dangerous and he wants you out the door fast. It could also be more complex. The central villain is trying to ascend to godhood so that he can war with the other gods and ultimately remake the world as a place where puppies live forever, and they just don’t care what damage they do to achieve this lofty goal.
Short term or long term, simple or complex, a goal, especially within the scene at hand gives the NPC not only a reason for their behavior, but a set of values based on that goal that color their decisions. Jim the bartender just wants to get paid and get through the night without any fights. Top Jenny, who makes her cash enforcing for the Pink Neon Mob, really wants to catch that hacker alone so she can knock them out, take them to her car, and stuff them into her trunk. Jim is gonna keep an eye on things and shout down any ruckus. Top Jenny is gonna shadow that dork, keeping them unaware, until they get into an empty hallway or elevator.
7. Give them a weakness.
Everyone has drawbacks, weak points, and drawbacks. Some systems have this built in and some don’t, but it’s always good to know the things that will trip up an NPC while they’re trying to go about their business. Does that merchant have a soft spot for very pretty people? Is that assassin that’s after them deeply irrationally terrified of cats? Does the evil tyrant throw a little tantrum if you correct his grammar?
This is really good stuff for long running NPCs. The more the characters get to know them, the better they’ll understand them, and you can lay the groundwork for some great scenes this way. You can telegraph the weakness and let them plan around it. It can also be a great way to remove an NPC from a scene when you want the focus to be on the characters. Yes their mentor is very powerful, but she’s also very busy, you’re not her only students you know? You’ll just have to deal with those supervillains yourselves.
8. Share the work.
All of the above steps are a lot easier if you’re not the only one doing them. We all run into brain freeze; we draw a blank. Relax, ask the group “Hey, What’s this person’s name? What stands out about them?” Not only does it share the burden of responsibility, but it also increases investment in the fiction. Sometimes a throwaway NPC can grow some real long legs because someone came up with an evocative, interesting, or just plain funny name.
During a long running game there was a little kid NPC, he was the son of one of the party’s followers. At some point the wizard started calling him Snotgoblin simply because I hadn’t named him, but had described him as always with a finger up his nose. This very juvenile joke took on a life of its own and eventually the wizard took Snotgoblin on as his apprentice. He created a new class of spells called Boogermancy. We knew it was stupid and that we were clowns for coming up with it, but we all remember it to this day. It made a fun game more fun.
Sometimes the answers you get when you ask for help are the most perfect precious things, too. I said “Tell me about this classmate of yours?” to a group of players in a game of Monsterhearts 2*, and someone piped up with “Oh! they’re that kid that always talks about conspiracies and the occult. You know? And they really believe it in that way only awkward teen can, but the thing is, they’re right, about everything, and everyone has to be, like, super extra careful around them.” That’s pure gold, and I never would have heard it if I hadn’t asked for help.
I hope you find these tips helpful.
To tell the truth I found writing this helpful as well. It reminded me of some good habits that I’ve not been practicing. So, let’s practice making interesting NPCs together.
…and have fun.
*Monsterhearts 2 is a game of playing teenage monsters and focuses on the drama between them. It’s by Avery Alder. You can find it here.
Pens, Paper, Polyhedrals 