I'd like people to discuss what methods they use when creating NPCs for their adventures.
Do you ad-lib? Create binders full of detailed backgrounds with color pictures? Roll randomly on a traits table?
When fleshing out a new location dungeon/city/castle/etc. I use one of two methods.
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The first is called 3x3.
After I've made my list of all the NPCs in a location I take each one and do this.
- List of 3 traits, quirks, or goals
- A link to 3 other NPCs in the location (or larger world)
- List of 3 facts/secrets
Here's an example:
Moira Firehammer (dwarf)
Traits: Pius, quick to anger, puts the safety of Yorheim above all other concerns
Links: Daughter of Bronn Firehammer, frequently adventures with Faelin Greenleaf, has sworn vengence on Teela Greenleaf
Facts: Worshiper of Moradin, Wields family warhammer (secretly an ancient artifact), the only one who knows Teela Greenleaf killed the mayor.
The advantage of this one is that it creates a community that feels connected and alive. Everyone is linked to the local community in some way through a web of links.
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The second is what I simply call "Five Fun Facts".
These are 5 items that can be discovered by the players through interaction, investigation, or observation.
Two will be common facts that are easy to discover.
One will be an uncommon fact that will take more digging to find out.
One will be secret that is difficult to discover.
Last, I have a pattern after where I tell myself how to behave in RP with the character. Usually it will mention a character from a movie, book, or TV show.
Here's an example:
18. Wizard's Gate
Sergeant Murgeddin (dwarf)
Common: Fought in the war against the orcs in the Bloodspear War. Loves to tell war stories.
Common: Is best freinds with Teldorthan, the blacksmith.
Uncommon: Was present at the Battle of Gardbury, where Fallcrest's army was defeated
Secret: Is secretly married to Kemara Brownbottle, owner of Blue Moon Alehouse.
Pattern After: Captain Shaw from the movie Jaws.
"There we were...six and twenty of us. Survivors of the horrors of battle lost in the woods. And that's when the land sharks came."
The advantage of this method is that it allows players to reveal NPCs layer-by-layer. It creates the illusion of depth that exceeds even this level of detail. Everyone they run into - shoud they so chose - has something that could be dug into.
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Share your secrets and tips.
Help me (and everyone else here) improve my game!
I am all for improvising... even when I plan out a game and pregenerate things, I have basically only planned up to a "this is the scene, this is why it exists in the story, and I'll improvise from there," point.
So when I make up an NPC I do so with as little initial effort as possible, and usually as a response to a player seeking to interact with an NPC.
- The player (even if it is me) establishes what the NPC is (bar maid, merchant, noble, etc.)
- I think of why that character is where they are (usually as simple as "is at work," or "is running errands" and the like)
- I then think of whether the NPC should be helping, hindering, or completely indifferent to the PC's goal in their interaction.
Everything else I complete improvise, just going with whatever happens to strike me at the moment or is supplied by the players (like when they want to seek out a particular sort of person like by saying "I need to find a shady merchant that is less likely to ask about where I got the items I am trying to sell," or "I check to see if there are any dwarves in here," or when the players are talking out-of-character about what would be entertaining like the random comments sort of like "great, yeah... go find a really shady merchant... he'll probably try to rip us off in some way, or worse he'll be the one merchant that is actually an imperial informant and he'll pass on our descriptions to the guard.")
Even the above "process" is often further improvised, I just put it in a numbered order so that there was some semblance of procedure to the "I just make up NPCs on the fly using whatever the players supply me with and whatever is bouncing around in my head that day - which all seems premeditated and perfectly fluid because I've been doing it forever."
I wish I could teach my zero prep DMing methods... but I'm sure the difficulty is apparent, I can't stay true to the method if I prep a lesson!
For me it depends on the situation in which the NPC comes into existence.
If it's something pre-planned, I put a lot of though into it and figure out various things about the NPCs goals, etc.
If we're playing and I really need an NPC to do something and it wasn't planned ahead of time, I do something similar to what Dungeon World has. Instinct+Knack. That's enough to at least have a story hook with an NPC and is easy enough to create in about a minute or so if more details are needed. http://book.dwgazetteer.com/appendices_npcs.html
NPCs need to have a need (in DW it's the instinct). What do they want in life? The knack helps to bring the NPC to life by telling you something it does that may reinforce it's instinct or contradict or neither. I do think just those two qualities alone is not enough for full fledged, reusable NPC, but for a one-off or for a NPC-seed it's pretty good.
I'll admit my approach is very front-loaded.
But I know my limitations and strengths. I work very well if I feel overprepared. It's more a confidence thing than anything else.
Fortunately I enjoy spending hours fleshing out villages, castles, guilds with NPCs and plots. The more I put "behind the scenes" the more my players can sense that they are in a living world.
I wish I had your gift for improv, Aaron. 
It certainly would help in those crazy times when the whole session takes a left turn into uncharted waters (c.f. "I go into the next room and teleport to the other side of the world!").
autolycus wrote:
I like your process. I might have to give it a try.
My current procedure is has been pretty convoluted. I didn't put that much thought into following a standard practice. Usually I document only enough to remember the NPC. I spend most of my time developing my NPC by thinking about them and where they might fit in. I usually go back and forth between this and fleshing out the region their from in my campaign. It becomes an iterative process that usually ends up with me going back and forth between fleshing out a few NPCs then fleshing out the campaign world. So everything usually comes together all at once.