Are your NPCs boring?

[Shadeus]

I never noticed how bland all over my other previous DM's NPCs were until now. What do I mean by bland? Do all your store owners have the same personality? Do all guards have a bad attitude, are interested in the same things and have the same exact skills?

That's how all NPCs I ran were and all the ones my DMs ran were, until I started playtesting for Creative Mountain Games. Mark is a very good DM that uses his NPCs to tell the story. Each has a different personality and different motivations. It worked well when he was DM-ing, but I was curious how this would translate into a written adventure (or Questus, if you use CMG's messed up terminology).

I just got CMG's The Whispering Woodwind and was amazed at how well it read. The highlight of the adventure isn't what you are doing, its the NPCs you encounter along the way. CMG uses what they call the "CMS Prose System" (which they explain in the Questus) where each NPC has ratings in five key areas: Politics, Religion, Others, Self, Economics. These rating determine the NPCs personality (largely based off of Charisma and alignment). Beyond these ratings, there's a set of key words that also help to flesh out the NPCs further.

I've never seen a system like this in a d20 product. It was amazing how the author's vision of the NPC translated so well to paper (or PDF in this case).

Do any other d20 publishers use any "systems" to flesh out their NPCs? Heck, what method to you DMs use out there? Write down a couple notes? Do you actually decide in advance that a character has a comedic attitude? Or is depressed?

Oh, in case you are interested, here's a link to Creative Mountain Games' web site with their new adventure.

 

[roytheodd]

NPCs that I've planned have distinct personalities. The NPCs I haven't planned tend to be the same. I try to keep the personality chart from the 2nd Ed. DMG at hand and I'll roll on it once or twice for those NPCs I'm improvising, but I've found that a lot of the entries don't affect the personalties on the small scale that the PCs interact with the NPCs. Fortunately I'm the kind of DM who likes to overplan, so very few NPCs get away without a personality. One good method I've found is to link NPCs to favorite characters from TV and film. Most acted personalities are robust enough to be usable as good NPCs and it's easier for me to hop into a persona that I've seen acted before then it is to make them all up.

 

[rathor]

npcs

bland npcs have been a major problem with a lot of games i play in. so when i dm i try to keep them diverse... i make my own chart of npc personalities and roll a die to see what demenor an improvised npc has... also try to mix up their looks... i try to describe npcs fairly well, and don't just refer to people as the barwench, the shop keeper, or the guard. i give them a look and a personality... if i don't feel like rolling then i will act them out as a person i have known or a person on tv. also, i keep in mind the setting... since i am running a game with a nation at war, i keep that in mind when talking about the npcs. they are having conversations about the war around my players... sometimes the players join in and add to the conversation... most of the time the conversations have notthing to do with the storyline, but add flavor... also, i tend to have some npcs ramble on about the weather, or something that has happend to the recently.... oh yeah, and you have to have an insane person every now and then... >:O)

 

[LostSoul]

My NPCs are pretty boring, I think. It's my biggest flaw as a DM.

The only time I feel that I have success is when I write the NPCs up beforehand, give them a decent motivation, and "role-playing tips". Like, "Glom is a big guy, a bully, but knows when not to pick a fight. He is the alpha male. Talk from the diaphram, sit up straight, stick the chest out, and hold your hands behind your head to give him that sense of power." When I do that, it works okay.

But my on-the-fly NPCs are usually boring.

 

[Crothian]

It depends. The little NPCs that they PCs run into once for five mitues do seem pretty boring. But that's no different then real life. I do plan out and use a lot of NPCs. However, only the players can really say if they are boring or not.

 

[Shadeus]

Wow, I'm encouraged to think the groups I played in aren't a-typical. I can tell you my personal experience is, unless the NPC is key to the plot, they get zero personality.

And the problem is even worse is in published adventures. In most instances, you have no idea what the author was thinking when they created the adventure. That's kind of why I started this thread. CMG is actually providing the DM with some guidance of how to run the NPCs in their adventures.

I wish more d20 companies would go to this length. Admittedly, since I am mostly a player, I don't spend my money on too many adventures. Do other d20 companies do this in published adventures?

I'm also interested in what the every day DM does.

 

[Shadeus]

It depends. The little NPCs that they PCs run into once for five mitues do seem pretty boring. But that's no different then real life. I do plan out and use a lot of NPCs. However, only the players can really say if they are boring or not.

Do you use published adventures? (that's a question for anyone I guess)

If so, am I the only one thinking it is hard to get a feel for the NPCs?

 

[Crothian]

Do you use published adventures? (that's a question for anyone I guess)

If so, am I the only one thinking it is hard to get a feel for the NPCs?

I use published adventures, but I placea lot of time in making them work for the campaign. So, I'll take their NPCs and redefine them and make them my own so they perfectly fit what I need. So, I'm not the best person to answer that question.

 

[roytheodd]

I very rarely use published adventures for anything other than idea mining. When I do use them, though, I will put enough effort into them to infuse the printed NPCs with personality. I try to capture the feel of the author, but if I can't then I make up my own.

 

[Shadeus]

I use published adventures, but I placea lot of time in making them work for the campaign. So, I'll take their NPCs and redefine them and make them my own so they perfectly fit what I need. So, I'm not the best person to answer that question.

Actually, that's exactly what I was looking for. It's interesting that you DO have to spend a lot of time going through the adventure, picking it apart, and then rebuilding it to fit into your world. I've done what you've described...and even for a short adventure THAT'S A LOT OF WORK!

It sounds like you too use NPCs a lot to build the adventure. I've found that my DM's tell the adventure as the DM and not as the distraught king who's daughter has just been ransomed (to use a cliched example).

Don't suppose you run a PBEM Crothian and need an extra player?

Anyone else pick apart adventures and rebuild them?