Confessions of an Average DM 4 (The Life of an NPC)

One of the most important things for a campaign is it's NPC's the thing is they also can also be the hardest thing to get right.

Depending on the campaign depends how much NPCs factor in of course some times they are treated merely as quest providers and that's fine if that's the campaign you are going for then you don't need to go develop them any further then go to cave and kill X amount of goblins (the problem with that is well it's too much like a computer game in my opinion) now I'm not against Dungeon Crawls they are fun but require a great deal of work and we are talking about NPCs anyway. but then one day you suddenly have an idea for roleplaying that could greatly change the way the group plays the campaign (make sure that this is a good idea before doing so or you may regret it) and so you produce a very plot relevant NPC with a personality and  mannerisms and everything else you could think of what could possibly go wrong...

Well a lot can, firstly you must try to make a personality that isn't automatically irritating.(stupid speech pattern, overwhelming urge to perform "zany" antics) in one case (I was a player) we met an NPC who was prone for crazy antics such as stealing a wagon for us to travel in and causing the ere of the city guards. he then found a pair of shoes that allowed him to teleport (soon after the party jumped him , knocked him out and stole his shoes he then woke up and ran away crying like a baby) it later turned out he was the mayor of the next town we came across (much to our unending joy).

Then again they have to at least be a little bit original (well most of the time) it soon becomes obvious if they are a Drizzt clone or even if they are a clone of any other campaign or literary character (well unless the party have no clue about the setting in that case clone away).

Oh Drizzt how many DMs and players have copied you I wonder.

One thing is for certain when it comes to at least important NPCs (doing it for every NPC would be needlessly complicated) you should probably note down certain things about them (appearance how they speak, how the present themselves any important secrets that will be possible plot hooks later on etc).

Another thing some people might not do which is a shame is develop ideas and change things to fit better as long as something hasn't been well established yet it can be changed I had a fairly important NPC start off with  a very weird background after a couple of times having that character interact with the party I realized it would spoil too much of future plot points (and other characters that were yet to be introduced) I also changed their backstory for a another reason they had a strong link to the current party of characters but then, I thought what if so and so died then, shit too many plot holes. so I changed it and it worked  a lot better, pity the campaign died (my own fault).

The final thing I can think of that could be an issue with NPCs is the possibility is the creation of a Mary Sue character. Most people know what these creatures are and are rarely liked especially if the campaign becomes centered around them and not the PCs (great way to kill a campaign there if it gets too over the top).

so um yeah I think I've rambled on long enough on NPCs, next entry will be about Villains. until next time this is Owler signing off for now.