What makes a great NPC great? I think that every DM has a few go to perfected NPCs that are there all-time favorites. These are the NPCs that have shown up in your campaigns over and over through the years and may have even crossed over into new campaign settings. Because there just too good to leave behind. So who are your all time favorite cast members (NPCs) and why are they your favorite. I am fishing the boards for ideas and inspiration here are a couple of mine presented in 5e terms.
Sara Small Female Halfling sorcerer with the charlatan background likes to pass herself off as a human child sometimes the lost daughter of a noblemen and will rob the party blind at any opportunity.
Tarka the famous wandering dwarven armorer with the folk hero background has a portable forge and smelter he drags around on a wagon. He makes arms and armor to order, anything you want for a fee. And by the way you will have to supply the materials if you want anything fancy.
Names, virtues, vices, fears, & goals.
Yeah, memorable name's a big one for me.
Some NPCs:
Questgiver, the gnome warlord that rules Startertown. He gets a cut of every quest adventurers go on or he embargoes them such that they can't buy or sell anything in the open market. He rides on the back of a mute half-orc of scary proportions and legendary strength.
Redscale, the black dragon. The night before he was to present himself at the Chromatic Council to become a consort of Tiamat, a single red scale appeared on his face. This made him the laughing stock of the conclave and his great draconic pride was severely wounded. He's drowned the town of Workaday (now called "The Tannery") in a flood of acid in his rage and he's been plaguing the Bog Standard and surrounding environs ever since.
Asperdn wrote:
NPCs that are created to facilitate player fun.
Not because the DM had an awesome idea for a super-cool character.
That are often flawed, are defined by their relationship with the player's characters, not the world as a whole and don't overshadow the players with their awesome.
-
If they're a villain, then they can take a beating, let the heroes win.
-
If they win then it's because they later fall.
And are willing to be killed off at the drop of a hat, if it serves the plot or player engagement.
In short, NPCs that the Players care about, not ones that the DM cares about more than the player's characters.
i find that the greatest NPCs, no matter which side of the screen i'm on, are those who: 1) are uniquely memorable, 2) are clearly defined from their first second "on-screen", and 3) inspires a visceral reaction from the players.
A high-quality BBEG will be in the first steps of his Master Plan when first met. He will show up as a help to the PCs to accomplish some task, for a share of the treasure (he has a specific piece in mind). Then he leaves the scene for a while. Later he is the boss of a group of rivals, competing with the PCs to get to the treasure first (think Indiana Jones and Belloc).
Memorable BBEG's master plan will have some aspects that the PCs will find grand and glorious, but be stained with dangerous / reckless / contemptable features. (For instance, he will quell the lawlessness with his mercenary army, but he buttresses its strength with undead made from the bodies of the bandits they kill.)
I have a couple of recurring nemeses that I use in my campaigns...
Aardmoore Shadeskill has been a mid-level threat since my first D&D campaign. His signature weapon, a scythe of incarnate darkness, stores his soul upon death and infuses it into the body of the next person to pick it up, granting him a form of immortality. He also has what's called "The Divine Eye," an ability to flood his eyes with mana, granting him transcendent visual ability. He has made at least one appearance in every D&D game I've run, and has been everything from a minor foil to the Big Bad. Players who have played in more than one of my campaigns seem to really enjoy seeing him again, and *really* enjoy hating him.
What if you make more interesting NPCes than the player made his actual character? :P
TrueManiek wrote:
My experience has been that great NPC’s are almost always accidental. I’ve got three main categories.
Henchmen Heroes: These are the 1HD Kobolds or random minion that for some reason was blessed with good roles or benefited from bad player decisions. Usually it’s the last enemy standing that just won’t go down. During these moments I take advantage of the situation and give them a little personality, like taunting the player and have them escape with a scar only to show up in a later game.
“Do you remember ME Jake?”
nope
“RAAAAAH!”
The Underdog Rises: These are usually NPC’s that for whatever reason join the PC’s in combat. Sometimes their redshirts, other times their regular folks who got caught up in the fighting. For whatever reason they RISE to the challenge becoming something greater than they were written to be. I’ve found that NPC’s designed to be badasses tend not to leave much of an impact.
You survey the stable yard and see the goblins are all dead or fleeing. Near the shed where you freed the prisoners you see a large dark skinned man wearing a bloody stableman uniform, and wielding a dented shovel. The corpses of no less than 4 goblins lie at his feet.
Who the hell is THIS guy?
Bubba John Coffee, mister!
I love this guy: Dark and brooding might make for good movies but the best NPC’s are the ones who are loving every minute of being an NPC. They usually have some driving motivation or personality trait that drives them to join forces with the players, or oppose them. What sets them apart is their complete love of working toward their goal. When an NPC is hamming it up and having fun, the PC’s also start having fun. These NPC’s know what they want out of life and make sure the PC’s know it.
With so many NPC’s being (by necessity) exposition dumps or background noise, it’s refreshing for players to interact with a forceful PC who wants nothing from them except their company and to share in an adventure.
A great NPC is the one people are talking about 20 years later. Seriously. It depends on the group, the situation, etc., and it doesn't have to be a bad guy they fought, or a questgiver type.
I remember a certain NPC in a Traveller (sci fi) game back in the mid 1980's, she was flirting with one of our group/crew all evening, and finally they slipped off together, we found (our group memeber) him the next morning in his room... naked, tied to a chair with plant vines, and with a melted block of ice under the chair. We never did know her name, but we'll never forget her.
In a 2nd e D&D game I helped run back 20 years ago, the party owned a bar/inn... two of the waitstaff that worked there when the party took over were "Tina and Tamy Tortelli, the Tortelli twins"... ask anyone from that group who Tina and Tamy were, and they'd tell you. 
Compelling. The NPC has a story or a background that compels action from the players, and not by DM force. In Paizo's Kingmaker, the outpost trader Oleg was robbed and beaten by bandits (who come back for another collection when the party arrives). They stole his wife's wedding band and threatened her virtue if he resisted. She wants them dead, he wants the wedding band back. It's a compelling NPC story that players can identify with - the outrage and hatred and helplessness, and there's no one out here who can or will help them. Years later, when Oleg helps them form a village and rule on the Council, he gets publicly caught and humiliated having an affair. The party is outraged, after all they risked for the wedding ring, and they have a long, serious conversation with Oleg who let the power of being on the council go to his head.
Entertaining. Other NPCs provide comic relief and a guarantee that if there's an interlude, the NPC will have something to say. It can be the foul-mouthed magical sword "Imp" who insults its owner and opponents equally (yet holds back a special ability or two for just the right lifesaving opportunity), leading players to have convesations with an inanimate object (and threaten to break it). It can be the groveling goblin cook or fawning kobold Meepo whose over-the-top antics let the party and DM have a laugh or two.
Dastardly. For a nemesis, the more memorable ones legitimately outmaneuver the party. When the dust clears, the players are filled with a mix of anger at the NPC and a drop of respect for being had. This could be from the Lost Mines where a shapeshifter pretends to be the recently escaped dwarf and tells them the bad guys have an owlbear that can be controlled with a command word that he overheard. When the party fails to make the owlbear obey, he suggests they open the door as that was what the bad guys always did when they controlled it, the door likely blocking magic. Of course, there is no magic word and opening an owlbear's cage releases a very hungry and mean owlbear. The party is upset but entertained that it "got had" but not in a way that was forced. Plus, they later got their revenge. That's key. Also can be a subtle enemy (who wasn't an enemy to start, just an opportunist), such as the famed player warrior who funded a griffon mercenary corps but failed to supervise it. The bad guy rose in the ranks, replaced men with his own, forced "accidents" in training on those he couldn't get authority to replace, and began staging attacks so the Griffon Corps could be hired to "hunt down" the attackers. By the time our warrior figured out his own corps was attacking the kingdom he worked for and making fake missions to find the culprits, his name was being associated with starting a war. He was upset but grudgingly entertained at "being had." Plus, he eventually enacted some payback.
Theros wrote:
Use headshots
I make photos in photoshop of the leading NPCs and lean the up against the DM screen when the players interact with them. What's great is that I look for images of people that trigger prejudicial reactions from my players, that I either exploit or double bluff them on.
"Oh he looks shifty, I don't know if we can trust him." is great because it's not based on a check... it's the player evaluating the photo. Now they know I've delibarately made that image... so did I make him shifty looking because he is shifty, or is the NPC against type. Like Aragorn in the back of The Prancing Pony, he's definitely shifting looking. Of course, they can then follow up with a check and roleplay as normal - but first impressions usually stay with the player.
Better NPCs are both good and bad in the same person
I also like morally grey NPCs to directly challenge beliefs or the Modus Operandi of the group. The local innkeep is friendly enough, and can provide the players with lots of leads (in fact he is the most knowledgeable guy in town), but he hates half-orcs and won't deal with them at all. The group obviously has a half orc character in it (or the innkeep would hate elves, or halflings... whatever divides the group), and together they have to figure out how to deal with the innkeep. This will probably engender an inter group chat where the half orc player wants to teach the innkeep a lesson, and the rest of the players are arguing that they need what he knows, without causing a fuss. The innkeep is not evil, in fact he's a loyal defender of the town and even saved a boy from drowning. Of course that boy wasn't an ugly half-orc. You get the idea... NPCs can be both good and bad in the same person.
The idea is to bait the players, and see if they can navigate through it. Of course, if the players don't see a hard choice, then you've failed. In the example above with the innkeep, it should be clear to the players that on the face of it only he has the info... and to get that info, they need to (for now) accept his racism. Of course, he'll make them uncomfortable with his open bigotry, might even employ them to run some half-orcs out of town (you're one of us right?)... and this generates good roleplaying conflict and friction in the party. They can pick sides.
Keep NPCs alive
Try not to kill off your NPCs too regularly, and especially not without great dramatic purpose. There is a lot of time invested in them, and the players grow attached. they become fictional anchors where familiarity is key. I've lost momentum in some stories by prematurely killing a NPC that was delivering great opportunities for roleplaying. Capture them, make them disappear, have them move towns... but try not to kill them willy nilly.
NPCs have lives of their own
One of my best liked NPCs was a pawnshop owner. The players met him, a one handed dwarf (mining accident he claims, but truthfully an ex-thief who had his hand chopped off for his crimes), with a struggling shop. The NPC wasn't prepped, he popped into being because the players had "stuff" to sell in town. I quickly gave him a name and said he was one handed just to have something memorable about him and for the first time, that's all he meant to the players... a place to convert stuff to gold. The second time, I give him some dialog. The third time the players use him, they notice that he's spruced up the place a bit. The stuff he's getting from their runs is helping him grow his business. The fifth time, he's moved locations... to a bigger shop in a better part of town. The players know they are the reason the for shop's success, and leverage that to enjoy more gold for their efforts by continuing to support him. They are now invested in the dwarf's success. They listen to his family story, the horrible fictonal mining accident. I use him to deliver clues (both false and true) about town. Each time the players interact with the dwarf, I flesh out more of his jovial likeable character.
Then, with everything seemingly going very well for the dwarf, the next time they see him, his store has been trashed, and he has been beaten up. He explains that i was the local thieves guild... he says they are upping the monthly fee for protection and he's fallen behind in his payments, because he's reinvesting his hard earned gold into the ship they've spoken about... in truth though, this dwarf has old debts from the failed job that cost him his hand, and the guild has noticed his successful business. The PCs will most likely want to at least speak to the thieves guild, if not just remove the threat them entirely, and if the dwarf gets that ship built, they'd have cheap (maybe even free) passage all along the sword coast... and all on a lie from a friend of theirs who has been good to them for 10 sessons.
So... have life happen to your NPCs as your players level up, and where possible have that life be affected by what the PCs do in the world.
Voice
You don't have to put on a different accents for each NPC, I'm not great at accents, but I do find it helps to change how you speak from your regular narrative voice. Just slow it down, or speed it up. Or correct yourself all the time. Or use simple words. Or really big words. Or think long between words. Or whisper. Or swear in another language. This helps bring the NPC to life, and lets the player know instantly that this is dialog, and not narration.
One thing is that it helps when to al NPC isen't helpless.
I noticed my players tend to get anoyed with NPC characters that seem bumbling idiots not being able to do anythig without the players help.
Most pc's that leave a lasting image are good at what they do.
I've got two NPCs that made an impression good enough to my PCs for me to use them more than once.
Sulimar is a guy straight out of the Arabian Nights (turban, fancy dress, everything) that has a magic carpet and helped the PCs travel around and saved them at the last moment a couple of times, the most memorable being when the PCs were at the edge of a pier, down to their last spells and hit points in a circle of protection with elementals running circles around them.
Gruul is an Orc meat merchant and street vendor. He sometimes offers cryptic advice that is always somehow related to meatball analogies and metaphors.
thorbardin wrote: