My Approach to NPCs

I'm not a good player. Or rather, I am not an invested player. I've learned that I find it hard to remain invested in piloting a single character, and ended up vastly preferring the referee's role over the years due in no small part to my enjoyment of playing through a myriad of non-player characters. Making the mundane come alive, and sprucing up the set dressing of the game world--that's the stuff. It's the world-building I enjoy most of all, but not through arduous campaign planning... it's through the needs, desires, and machinations of NPCs and their related random tables.

After coming across Joel Haver's short films about a year or so ago, I've enjoyed them greatly, and recently, he's put out several animated bits that resonate with my approach to NPCs a great deal. Let's watch them and see what we can gather.

It is no surprise that I am not an avocate for full murderhobo mode. It's a quick way to get your characters into a lot of trouble if approaching the world with any modicum of realism. It can be a lot of fun to hack and slash with reckless abandon, but then innocent town rats and young adults with skin conditions everywhere end up deaded, leaving unfortunate blood on the hands of hapless adventurers everywhere.

Observations:

• The town NPC is sensitive to threats against the status quo, and is shocked to hear the adventurer suggest there is murder to be solved or chaos to be ordered. Sometimes a village is just a village.
• In lieu of a crisis to be solved, NPCs can still provide value to an adventuring party through local rumors, thoughts on regional goings-on, and hooks regarding nearby commerce and opportunity.
• If the adventurer met an actual ghoul, most old school adventure logic suggests that there is nothing but mindless violence behind undead NPCs. Screw that. Give them reactions and goals.

Player Bonus Note: Just because you break out of prison doesn't mean everyone in the prison complex has to die on your way to freedom.

I'm confident that not every fantastical creature or cohort requires complex justification as to what they're doing at any given time. Certainly if the crux of the locale relies on the motication and action of specific NPCs to function, they ought to be movers and shakers. But what if you meet someone else? Or what if you meet the local Very Important Person but they're taking the day off, or killing time between objectives? Even an impressive giant sitting on the rise of a vale might be chillin', and that's all there is to it.

Observations:

• If you're trying to conceptualize an average person in a game world, think about average people you actually know, including yourself. What are your needs, wants, and idle daydreams?
• If modeling a game world with realism, think briefly about the ecology of a workplace or community. Immediately I imagine practical jokers, the pet person, that one Weird Guy™, etc.
• Even super-nifty fantasy/sci-fi/[your-genre-here] VIPs have some combination of families, memories, hobbies, interests, and weaknesses. Steve Martin is a rad banjo player on the side.

Player Bonus Note: Sometimes the most meaningful and useful question you can ask an NPC is "are you okay?" Empathy wins more often than otherwise.

Villains are sold short when they exist only to twirl mustaches and do "bad stuff." The most compelling villain doesn't think themselves a villain at all (rare exceptions such as Ian McDiarmid's portrayal of The Emperor suffice). We tend to write and run adventures where antogonists live in a vacuum--their influence abounding and power unchecked by any means but the occasional hero. It's easy to do, but it's not very immersive, and it undermines the juicy intricacies that develop between rival factions and conflicting goals.

Observations:

• Think about hierarchy and influential walls for "middle management" antagonists, and various check & balances for those operating at the top. What are in-fiction roadblocks for scheming?
• Ripple effects are real and should be leveraged at all times. Maybe the nefarious plan succeeds, but what ire would be aimed at the villain in the aftermath? Enemies of enemies become friends.
• Lackeys are underutilized and afford a tremendous opportunity for depth and variety. Are they brown-nosers? Manipulators? Budding usurpers? Infiltrators interested in aiding the party?

Player Bonus Note: Understanding the relationships between different members of the same faction, whether positive or negative, affords leverage and social capital.