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GameMastery Guide / Nonplayer Characters / Villains / The Villain's Escape Kit

NPC Basics

Source GameMastery Guide pg. 82
Once a GM knows what role his NPC needs to fulfill, the character’s details can begin taking shape. While not every NPC needs to be a unique masterpiece of imagination, every character the PCs interact with—those important enough to have a speaking role—should have at least three core elements: appearance, motivation, and personality. These aspects answer three questions fundamental to every NPC, from shopkeeps to kings: how do they look, what do they do, and how do they do it? How much effort the GM puts into detailing and refining the answers to these questions relates proportionately to the NPC’s importance to a story and his time spent interacting with the PCs. As such, an NPC who appears but once probably only deserves a few notes or a moment’s improvisation to convey the most basic traits, while a major character benefits from greater details, which might be revealed or evolve as the PCs interact with him. Thus, GM should consider the following character aspects as they design their NPCs.

Appearance: Every NPC worth describing has an appearance, something that sets the character apart and distinguishes her from the faceless masses as a unique individual. This might be nothing more than reference to the color of an NPC’s hair and noting her age, or it might be a detailed account of her beauty or ugliness. A detailed description can do much to determine whether an NPC is memorable but might also suggest deeper elements. Some of an NPC’s physical traits dictate rules aspects (race, blindness, a limp, and so on), others can be merely cosmetic, and still others might reveal clues in a well-planned plot. For GMs wishing to delve past the superficial, some traits might even prove portentous. In folktales and myths, a typical example is the “mark of the hero,” which allows others to know her true identity. Such traits can lead to identification (like Odysseus’s leg scar) or provoke some kind of reaction in a monster. In the past, it was a common belief in some cultures that evil people are somehow marked, but also that a hero is born with a distinctive sign on the body or receives it during her initiation or adventures. Fantasy literature features innumerable examples of such traits used as plot devices, and whether meaningful or random, a unique description of an NPC is among the primary elements that help a character standout in the players’ minds.

Motivation: With any character, regardless of the storytelling medium, it’s vital to know what is at stake for that individual. Knowing an NPC’s motivation is the best way to have her behave in a logical and coherent manner in the game. An NPC who is out to avenge her murdered family members will be more motivated—and therefore braver— in situations where that goal is at stake. A normally timid scholar might take greater risks to recover a rare tome than to rescue a princess. Motivations need not be elaborately detailed for most characters; one line such as “family murdered by orcs” or “obsessed with gaining knowledge” is often sufficient. By the same note, not every motivation needs to be dramatic either. The vast majority of NPCs met in a campaign likely have quite mundane goals, such as “move to a new town,” “romance the local starlet,” or “work for weekly pay.” While many such goals frequently prove beneath a party’s notice, the more interesting and unusual objectives typically come to light along with the extraordinary character who possesses them.

Personality: This element describes an NPC’s basic outlook on life, and typically one or two descriptive notes to this purpose are all that are needed. Is the NPC friendly and helpful? Or is he gullible, cynical, pessimistic, sarcastic, lazy, or hot-tempered? Such personality traits govern how the NPC reacts to most situations, commands, or requests. Giving an NPC an interesting and dynamic personality means making the interaction with him more enjoyable, both for the GM, who must impersonate the NPC, and for the players, who are in for a pleasant chat, compelling argument, or good listening experience. An aspect of an NPC’s personality that deeply affects his behavior and decisions, if known by the PCs, can be exploited to win his confidence or outmaneuver her, depending on the situation.

In recurring NPCs, the GM might create more elaborate and nuanced personalities, or even change a character’s attitude slowly over time— novelists and screenwriters call this character development, and the history of literature and film is filled with works themed solely around events leading to a single change in a character’s outlook. Thus, a character who might begin with no more than the note “conniving and ill-tempered” can evolve dramatically with details like “distrustful of elves” and “sympathetic toward youths who remind her of her lost son.” How much work a GM puts into detailing an NPC’s personality should relate directly to the character’s importance to a campaign. Few PCs will care if the local smith aspires to move to the big city if he never has a speaking role, while a major villain with no greater personality than “heartless and hateful” will likely feel two-dimensional after the third or fourth meeting.