NPC Essentials

NPC Essentials is a collection of tips, techniques, and aids designed to help game masters inject detailed NPCs into any role-playing campaign. Inside readers will find advice on designing, role-playing, and managing NPCs during the entire lifetime of their campaigns. Also included are NPC archtypes, encounters, charts, and an example NPC centric adventure. Written by Johnn Four of RolePlayingTips.com and Dragon magazine fame and illustrated by V Shane.

NPC Essentials
Written by Johnn Forr
Published by RPG Objects
84 page PDF File
$8.95

Let me start off by saying what NPC Essentials is not. Is it not a collection of feats, prestige classes, spells, magic items and monsters to add to your Non-Player Characters to make them cool or improve their skillz. Instead, NPC Essentials is a book devoted to helping the GM master the fine art of controlling the population of a world.

How does he do this? Well, Johnn’s got a lot of experience under his belt with that whole Dragon Magazine writer credits and the every popular roleplaytips.com so he’s got some knowledge to draw off of.

He’s broken the book down into seven chapters: Introduction, NPC Design, NPC Roleplaying, Campaign Management, NPC Archetypes, Mini-Adventure and Charts and Sheets.

The important aspects for those who want better control and portrayal of their NPCs comes mainly in NPC Design and Roleplaying. Johnn talks about the different levels of detail needed for NPCs based on their type. The walk ons and bit players rarely need anything more than name, level, armor class and hit points, while the nemesis and rivals need not only to have all stats written out, but also their normal tactics and methods.

One of my favorite sections is the Roleplaying section. There are a lot of things as a GM you have to keep track of and being an actor is indeed part of that. Here, Johnn provides the reader with some tips on breathing, moving, changing your voice, using props. All the things that can help indicate which character the GM is portraying without always stating, “Hector states,” or “Liam says.” Despite the fact that most of the time as a GM your sitting on your behind, Johnn shows that there is some physical work involved in good GMing. He keeps the pace of the game going by showing GMs how to prep their work ahead of time so that they’re not always stumbling around looking for X, Y, or Z characteristics. He also shows that just because you screw up when you’re in role, that you shouldn’t stop and apologize. Just move on. I agree with him that the players want to believe and that they aren’t there to pounce on you when you do make a mistake.

A vital element though for new GMs is the section on campaign management. It talks about organizing your NPCs, updating character sheets, how and when to introduce NPCs, and my favorite part, “When PC & NPC Power Levels Differ.” I like this because there are often many times when a player assumes that anything the GM throws at him is going to be equal to his level or around it. An encounter that he can win. Of course, NPCs hail from all walks of life from the lowly beggar to the mighty noble so how in the world can the PCs always are equal?

One of the most important things to make sure of is that the players know the NPC by reputation or witness a display of his power. This insures that the players aren’t going to be ambushed by someone they thought was their level. In terms of lower powered NPCs, well, the NPCs often have allies, friends, non-combat contacts, and a host of other utilities at their command. Having said that however, it’s important to note that some NPCs are indeed just there to be beat into the ground. The hirelings, henchmen and minions often fall into this category.

Outside of their use an enemies and allies though, Johnn goes it one step further with ideas on how to make the campaign seem more alive by having NPCs die off stage. Disease, old age, assassination, and other random events can strike at the NPCs just as some of those same events can strike the PCs. This makes the world more believable as the players must accept that their favorite merchants, dealers and priests won’t always be there to save them.

About the only place I disagreed with Johnn is in his NPC Archetypes. He does a great job with craftsmen, merchants, nobles great and small, but misses the whole adventuring Archetypes. Where are the mysterious fighters with dark destinies? Where are the powerful mages who mentor the party’s progress for their own sinister purposes? Where are the evil clerics who hide behind bureaucracy? The material covered here is indeed vital for fleshing out role playing encounters with non-adventurers, or those whose main profession at least falls under non-adventuring, but I would’ve liked to have seen more on the nemesis. More on the arch-villain.

The mini-adventure is a great tool for GMs to run through to see how much of this material they’ve soaked up. When We Practice to Deceive is for 3rd-5th level characters and involves the rulers of the small village of Meremath as a power struggle gone wrong brings bandits to the town. The players get involved with it and of course, have to help set things right. Johnn makes excellent use of side bars for GM Notes and even includes a table for those who wish to use their Gather Information skill. Information regarding the three rulers is broken out into ruler, potential sources, and the DC. This is a format I’d like to see included in more adventurers.

The last chapter isn’t really so much a chapter as it is a collection of charts, tables and sheets. You pretty much get all the tools you need here like names, both for modern and fantasy games, as well as last names, background tables, appearance tables (hair color, eyes, skin tone, age, clothing, etc…), traits, quirks, secrets, and other tables that are mentioned throughout the text as ways of making each NPC unique. Especially useful for GMs always in need of quick NPCs are the mini-sheets where it contains 4 mini-character sheets to a page. Another sized mini-sheet carriers 2 characters, while regular sized character sheets are included for those who need some extra room for the big baddies.

The art by V. Shane fits the product well. It’s detailed but the colors are a little muted so that illustrations don’t distract from the crisp clean text. The illustrations are few and far between though which makes the book text heavy. Thankfully the person who did the layout is aware of the value of white space so your eyes don’t suffer. I don’t know what font they used for the header sections, but it stands out and makes finding different sections easier. The layout is standard two columns with no borders. I find this often works best for PDF files as you’re printing them from your own computer and ink is not cheap. The PDF file boasts the standard bookmarks and thumbnails to make looking through the product quick. The maps of the village and bandit camp are also in full color but suffer a little in readability purposes. Maybe if they were a little bigger. Editing was pretty good. I only saw two things. One was antidote spelled out as two words and another was the bard in the adventure is missing her class level under her character write up.

The book truly does cover almost every aspect of NPC Essentials. I only thought it was a little weak as far as its D20 coverage. While the adventure and the sheets are nice additions to any D20 library, some more focus on or discussion on appropriate feats, spells, and magical items for different types of NPCs would’ve made the book more immediately useful. In addition, I think that a few PrCs, like Guildmaster or Beggar King would’ve made the book just about perfect.

Hopefully if the book sees print it’ll get kicked it up 96 or 112 pages and we’ll see more D20 system specific stuff. Despite the lack of D20 information though, this book is a must have for any GM, regardless of system. If you play GURPS, Hero, Tri-Stat, or heck, even D20, you need a book like this to help remind you how to make your NPCs not only remain focused on the campaign, but also to stand out in the players mind.

How does it compare to Robin's Laws of Game Mastering?

It's much more focused on NPC development and how the NPCs can help augment the campaign. Is there a specific reference or idea you're looking for comparission with? I have to admit that I love Robin's Laws of Game Mastering as its one of the best systemless GM guides currently out there.

Johnn For does know his stuff though and gives you a lot of pointers and tips about using physical movement, breath, props and other goodies to help get the most mileage out of the NPCs.

The adventure is also something note found in RLGM nor are the numerous charts. Little more D20 specific here. Many of the charts however, which I didn't note, can be used in almost any game system.

NPC Essentials carries the d20 logo; whereas I appreciate the marketing strategy there I have to say that it doesn’t do justice to the sheer universal scope of the guide. The advice for GMs on running NPCs can be applied to any game, any setting and at any time. The use of the d20 logo is justified though since sample mechanics and attributes are all for that system and there’s an intelligent study on Challenge Ratings too.

Prices change but at the time of writing this issue of GM Mastery costs $8.95 from RPGNow and although that’s a bit more expensive than the discounted ~$5.00 products on sale there, GM Mastery is still very much cheaper than traditional dead tree products and at 84 pages in length its also at the large end of the scale in the PDF range. There’s also some rather well known names attached to it. The author’s Johnn Four of Roleplaying Tips and Dragon Magazine fame. The online publishers are RPGObjects and they set out to get the very best from the possibilities of PDFs by giving free versioning updates to those customers who have already bought the product. That means if they fix typos, add more examples or more pictures then you don’t loose out, you download the update for free. The association with RPGObjects also goes a long way to explaining the presence, appearance and technical panache of www.gmmastery.com.

Yes, yes, yes – I can hear you think in a frustrated way – that’s all very well but is NPC Essentials any good? To which I can reply; yes, yes, yes!

NPC Essentials really is a wonderful product. It’s an essential product – and even if you’re a GM with dozens of years of experience I still think you’ll benefit from NPC Essentials.

The meat of the download starts at chapter two; chapter one being given over to describing what you can expect from NPC Essentials and where you can find it. Chapter two starts in the sensible place and looks at NPC design. An NPC begins life in a number of different way; as a GM you need to be aware of how much time you have to create her. The guide looks at possible ways to put together an engaging NPC before looking at game mechanics. If you thought "NPC Design" was the politically correct term for min-maxing your NPCs then you’d be wrong. There are eight pages of useful tips, tricks and discussion before there’s any look at attributes or skills. You’re not necessarily creating a villain or key plot figure either, you might be creating a walk on character or even some unfortunate evil flunky who’s likely to come to a sticky end in almost no time at all. The chapter covers everything through the NPCs name and gender, to his allies and enemies, to his appearance, secrets, wealth, alignment, background, religious conviction and even his motivation.

Once you’ve created such a richly flavoured NPC you’ll want to roleplay him well enough to bring him to life. Following this logic the next chapter provides a similar range of topics on NPC roleplaying. The tips in chapter three can be classified in two broad topics: suggestions on how to roleplay the NPC well and suggestions on how to make the best use of the NPC for your game. Playing the NPC well gives rise to sections on how to use different accents or mannerisms for NPCs, using your body language to suggest things, how to keep the small talk coming and then offers advise on how to avoid "GM Schizophrenia". The sort of discussion on how to get the best use out of favourite (those NPCs your players love to hate) NPC are more along the lines of "He Who Runs Away Lives To Fight Another Day".

Chapter Four covers everything you need to know on managing an entire campaign of NPCs. I think some of the work suggested here really begins to mount up and if you did absolutely everything suggested it would be like having a second job (or running a hungry website! Ahem) but one of the many strengths of NPC Essentials is that you don’t have to accept everything and do everything suggested or run the risk of being locked out of some "npc management system". You pick what you like and you use it. Here in chapter four we’re given tips on how to keep track of the wealth of NPCs that might appear to the players over a course of a campaign. Tips include keeping a stash of business cards with mini character sheets scribbled on the back but also mention such all to often overlooked points such as remembering to award NPCs with experience points. One of the strongest sections in this chapter, I thought, was the information on how to introduce NPCs. The phrase "the law of awe" really sticks in the mind and covers the time delay introduction – when the players, for example, discover a gnome they met ages ago is actually the secret enemy who’s been thwarting the whole time.

Some of this hard work is put together for chapter five. NPC archetypes (stereotypes?) are a really valuable GM tool. The ones discussed in NPC Essentials are; craftsman, merchant, servant, upper nobility, soldier, artist / entertainer, politico / minor nobility, guild leader, clergy and a beggar. Those are just the main categories though and each one divides up into cunning twists or takes on the archetype. The servant section, for example, suggests monstrous servants, the servant who’s actually in control or the one who’s helping himself to a little of the business. For each of these archetypes there’s a list of possible plot hooks.

I was rather caught out by chapter six. Strangely, it’s a mini-adventure! I think it’s presented there so those of us who get all enthused over new ideas and strategies for presenting NPCs have access to an adventure quickly so we can put these new ideas to test. The adventure, "When We Practise To Deceive" is in the d20 system and although heavy on the social interaction it suggests that the action parts may be rather tough for a party of 3rd level characters and may need toughening up if the group is generally at 5th level. It’s actually no token adventure! It’s rather good! The numerous maps come in full colour, there are hooks for sliding this adventure into your current game and there’s plenty of advice for GMs. Writing the adventure so it’s not for start up, brand new, level 1 characters was a wise move.

Chapter Seven brings the download to a close with twenty-three pages of charts, tables and character sheets. These tables provide quick access to succinct information and are clearly there to be used in game by a busy GM. On the other hand, some of the tables are a little hard to work out, whether it is because the text becomes just a little distorted or because the meaning or the legend is a little hard to follow. Tables include lists of names – always awkward for thinking up on the fly – presented by genre (modern, fantasy, etc) and by first or last. The name tables actually spell out some of the not-so-secret tricks behind online name generators; bringing together either phonetic or actual name components generates original names. There’s more than just names though, the tables provided can suggest quick backgrounds, families, appearance (in part; hair, eyes, skin tone, etc), personality, 1000 quirks, 100 secrets and events. If you weren’t so taken with the idea of using the backs of business cards to store your NPCs then you’ll probably relish the vast number of different styles and sizes of character sheets.

The appearance of the download is nearly as good as the content. NPC Essentials is light on illustration but those images common do appear are both high quality and refreshing in style. The problem with PDFs that are light on illustration is that as you scroll down them they become a sea of text in which its easy to loose your place but NPC Essentials escapes this because it makes extensive use of bullet point lists. These lists open up the flow of text and help to ensure that the scrolling product is easier on the eyes. Another winning design key is the careful use of bookmarks. Even the most basic PDF document should come with bookmarks but NPC Essentials goes to the extra length of expanding bookmarks so that so much more of the product can be indexed. For example, you can click on the "Chapter Four" bookmark and below it will expand a list of a dozen or more sections in that chapter you can jump straight too.

As I said at the start, NPC Essentials is an essential product. Even if you don’t agree with some of the suggestions in the download you’ll still likely to enjoy confirmation of your own strategies and you’re likely to be able to use the tables and character sheets in the back.

This GameWyrd review can also be found here.

By Glenn Dean, Staff Reviewer d20 Magazine Rack


Sizing Up the Target
NPC Essentials is an 84-page supplement written by Johnn Four and published by RPG Objects. Part of the GM Mastery Series, this full color product designed to help the GM design NPCs is available as either an $8.95 PDF product, or as a $14.95 print product.

First Blood
NPC Essentials is designed to assist the GM in learning to master his craft by providing a wealth of information about designing, role playing, and managing non-player characters. The book consists of four solid chapters of NPC information, a ready-to-run adventure, and a chapter of tables, charts, and character sheets.

The first chapter after the introduction, NPC Design, provides a host of suggestions for roles that NPCs may fulfill in the campaign, and establishes a system to help the GM decide to what level of detail each NPC should be developed using a groups of four sets of information. The main villain of the story might have all four groups developed, while his guards might only have their NPC combat statistics. A player character’s mentor might have a deeply developed roleplaying background; a bit part like the stable boy might only have basic roleplaying information. This chapter also discusses the use of names, power bases, personality traits, and quirks to make memorable NPCs who stand out in the campaign world. This section of the book ties directly to the charst and tables in the last chapter, which provides voluminous lists that can be used to develop backgrounds and personalities using this system.

The next chapter covers NPC Roleplaying. It provides a wide range of tips to help the GM recreate the characters in his world at the game table. This chapter includes notes on acting, the use of gestures and props, managing your voice and tone, and provides helpful hints to enable an NPC to be played consistently and believably, without constantly having to refer to reams of notes.

The following chapter on Campaign Management provides the GM with tools to keep track of NPCs, examples of which can be found at the back of the book. NPC Essentials provides hints on introducing NPCs to the campaign and to the characters, and how to balance the power levels of NPCs against those of players to maintain a realistic setting, but one in which the players can still be the stars. Campaign Management also provides hints on creating and managing the cast of NPCs so that they interact believably with each other.

The last NPC-focused chapter covers NPC Archetypes, including the craftsman, merchant, servant, noble, soldier, artist, guild member, clergy, and beggar.. This includes a description of the archetypal character, his or her typical mannerisms and role in the campaign setting, and hints for effectively portraying this archetype. Particularly useful are the five to ten plot hook ideas tied to each archetype that the GM could use to weave an interesting story about that NPC.

The adventure, “When We Practice To Deceive”, is designed to allow the GM to put to use the techniques and skills described in the preceding four chapters. It provides a ready-to-run adventure with full text boxes, backgrounds, maps, and NPC statistics that allows players to get involved in a political intrigue in a small town that revolves around three primary NPCs with a cast of supporting characters. The event-based adventure is designed for characters of 3rd to 5th level, and could probably be run in one to two sessions.

The back of the book collects all of the tables, charts, and sheets the GM can use to implement the NPC development ideas described within. These include personality traits by type of NPC, several pages of random name generation tables; tables which allow the generation of NPC background, appearance, personality traits, quirks, and secrets; and NPC data sheets in a variety of formats.

Critical Hits
While experienced GMs may have learned many of the techniques and ideas in NPC Essentials through trial-and-error, observing other GMs, or combing through a host of gaming products, this is a wonderful resource for both novice and experienced GMs alike. For novice GMs, NPC Essentials provides an extremely detailed tutorial on character design that is part gaming aid, part plot-writing class, and part acting class. The experienced GM will be happy to find all of these great GMing hints collected in one place, and will find that the approach of looking at NPCs as a cast of characters each with a particular role to play can be quite useful. The technique is remarkable similar to that used by script or novel writers to define and build characters, and even the most experienced GM will probably find a few new ideas or tricks worth the read. The included adventure is entertaining, but icing on a well-prepared cake.

Critical Misses
Aside from the d20 adventure, this product is generic enough that GMs from a variety of game systems could use it to develop NPCs. While this is a strength of the product, since it carries the d20 label I had hoped it would tie more of the d20 rules set to the NPC design techniques. It would be nice to be able to provide the GM, particularly the novice GM, with ways to integrate an NPC’s skills, feats, and class abilities with the portrayal of his personality. While NPC Essentials will teach you to roleplay a believable merchant, it doesn’t give you ways to specifically portray a class skill, or decide when roleplaying whether a PCs Bluff or Diplomacy skill best applies, or how to translate the clever and unique personality you’ve designed into a set of skill modifiers that support your roleplay.

Coup de Grace
Three of the seven chapters of NPC Essentials (NPC Design, the adventure, and the tables/charts) are designated as Open Game Content. While this is a useful book that contains a myriad of roleplaying techniques, it is primarily a GM product – players will find other products more tied to class archetypes that might better suit their roleplaying needs. It is a useful reference, particularly for GMs who run a roleplaying-heavy campaign, or those that want to inject a great deal of realism into their homemade adventures. GMs who prefer to run a hack-and-slash game more focused on game mechanics will find less value for their dollar from NPC Essentials.

To see the graded evaluation of this product and to leave comments that the reviewer will respond to, go to The Critic's Corner at www.d20zines.com.