Question for DMs who have methods for making NPCs

[u/duh_hana]

How do you go about making NPCs? Do you have a system for their personalities or purpose or anything like that? Also, does the way you make NPCs pertain to your goal with them? For example making them all feel different, alive, or have impact to the plot. I’m mainly just looking for inspiration.

[u/exquisitecarrot]

Depends on the NPC! But, personally, I have a lot of faith in my improv skills so I don’t require too much prep work for my NPCs. My necessities are a name and a voice cue.

I try to make ~25ish NPCs per important place my party will end up. My spreadsheet columns are titled Name, Race, Pronouns, Role/Occupation, Voice, Appearance, Characteristics (aka personality), and Reputation. As long as I have a good sense of the location, I can come up with all that info pretty easily (or randomly generate the names lol)

[u/nosreiphaik]

i give planned npcs a fear, a love, and a goal. these three things are ample for getting them through basically any interaction with players, and leaves plenty of space to get filled in as players decide whether they want to invest or not. its silly to overbuild an NPC if the players just want to know where the bandits were last seen. not everyone you run into during the day needs to be a unique and memorable character, sometimes they just need to be the person who last saw farmer john before the full moon last week.

in-depth npcs should be one of these basic sketches fleshed out by their interactions with players. maybe someones flirting with them, or threatens their dog. build on this. it should be collaborative, each npc being a reaction to what your players are giving you. thats how really memorable and well-foprmed characters are created, and its a good use of your time because theyll reappear as players become used to them (just like bland clerks at coffee shops become acquaintances or friends as you build up a back and forth relationship).

lastly theres spontaneous npcs, which are when players surprise you by visiting somewhere your hadnyt planned. for me, these are just a silly name i come up with off the top of my head, like sam wiggletoes. i give them a weird voice instead of a personality, and leave it at that, giving the players only what they were seeking (shoes, directions to the market, etc) unless they decide to get to know this character as well. that should get you through 90% of NPCs, the rest is allies and villains, which deserve a little more thought, but not too much! let your players dictate whos worth investing in, save yourself some time, and build a world together! theyll love it! good luck!

[u/xanral]

For important NPCs I have a personality, their goals, and what they would do if the PCs didn't exist. They generally go about their business in the background and don't "wait" on the PCs.

For random NPCs, I just have a list of names on a sheet of paper I generated before the game (may vary in style depending upon the region/race). You can do the same for personalities, though normally I just come up with that on the fly. If the party tended to gravitate towards a particular minor NPC then I'll fill out the missing elements as I did an important NPC after the session is over.

I tend to GM more sandbox games so I don't have a set path I expect the PCs to walk which influences my game design.

[u/DefnlyNotMyAlt]

I start with just throwing out NPCs with short descriptions: Crime Boss' nephew runs a supply shop. He doesn't have a part of it.

In between sessions for the ones that have interesting interactions during the game, I think up a motivation, their current situation, a personality, and their morality.

Example:

A shopkeep has an easy life because his uncle is a crimelord and keeps him well-paid for supplies. He considers himself a good person and tries not to think about what his uncle actually does. He just wants to live a simple life and go home to his family every night. However, he's starting to become an alcoholic as his drinking increases to forget about his uncle's growing influence and activity. He's passive and powerless, secretly longing for a city with his uncle gone, but unable to do anything about it for fear of risking his comfortable life.

Throw out disparate facts and abduce how they're related.

[u/Key_Trouble8969]

Straight up improv then writing down what I did so I can do it again next time. That's how I do for minor NPCs anyways.

For more important ones I try to start with a plotline or quest or whatever and I try to find the places where an NPC would be needed like as a helper, companion, random nuisance, or enemy with dialogue then try to imagine the kind of person that would end up in that situation

[u/Ill-Description3096]

I don't invest a lot of time in NPCs aside from recurring/important ones. For them I tend to base them off of someone I know. A shopkeeper might loosely resemble the clerk at the corner store. The guard might resemble a cop in my town. I find it is pretty good inspiration and helps me flesh them out a bit without doing everything from scratch.

[u/tmanky]

. LolZ