Awesome NPC’s… from nothing?

[weem]

Awesome NPC’s… from nothing?

The last game I ran on Wednesday (session #3 in my new campaign) introduced a beggar to the players, after having just stepped off a ship, in the city of Port Winters.

In my notes, this beggar didn’t have a name. The note simply read “a beggar harasses the players”. The intention was to introduce them to the market at the pier and give them the feel of a seedy, lower income area that they may not be comfortable with staying in for long. In fact, upon departing the ship, a crewman warned them “mind yer bags”.

As the players moved through the crowd, they were approached by the beggar. In my mind, he was going to ask for money and maybe even follow them a bit annoying them with requests. But when the time came, something else came to mind… and so instead they instead encountered a struggle between two beggars, this one winning a shoving match with the other – apparently the right to the players as potential clients was at stake.

He introduced himself as “Jerit” (name off the top of my head), and before I knew it he was offering to be their guide to the city, since it was obvious they were new in town. The players thought this was smart of him – offer a service, don’t just beg, so they took him along… “where should we stay tonight, where is an armorsmith…” etc. They paid him well too of course – after all, what is a gold or two to them.

By the end of the game, it had been established that Jerit was well known in town as a guide/beggar. What he did with his money was unknown – a player followed him to his home one night, a really run down dump of a building shared with others.

Jarit is now one of the favorite NPC’s of the players, and will definitely be playing a big role as the campaign progresses… and all of this from a simple line in my notes with no intention of him being around more than a few minutes.

This result is a benefit of two major decisions I have taken to this new campaign, I think…

One was the plan to introduce more NPC’s than I usually do, allowing some to fade away quickly and others to shine (as opposed to most feeling placed there because they are important to plot). The other was to plan less and rely more on my skills of improvisation, a topic I go into in my recent “bottom-up world design” post.

I think that these cases of NPC’s exploding in glory from nothing is not too uncommon, and I’m sure most have experienced this, but my question to you is this…

Of your most prominent/popular/infamous NPC’s, what portion (or percentage) were thoroughly fleshed out ahead of time vs those who sprung from thin air (or almost thin air)?

 

[Marius Delphus]

There's a very strong correlation in my gaming history between "NPCs who were created on the spot from whole cloth" and "the most memorable NPCs of the campaign."

There's a second, equally strong correlation in my gaming history between "NPCs who were carefully crafted and fleshed out" and "NPCs who don't get much screen time and whom the players didn't care much about."

Because of my penchant for pre-game prep, sadly the ratio with which these two types appear is about 1:4.

 

[Crothian]

Most of the NPcs are very undefined. Most of the time they are a name, maybe a race and class, and vrief sentance. The only time they are more then that is when I want to stat them out becuasse I feel I need to get a feel for the mechancis of creating a character especially in a game I've not played before.

 

[Storminator]

One of my best NPCs came from figuring out his hand gesture. I decided he would be a rival Red Wizard apprentice (one of the PCs wanted to become a Red Wizard, so they were both vying for coveted apprenticeships) who steepled his fingers when he talked down to you - very Monte Burns. That's as far as I'd fleshed him out... but he was a super-jerk, and I was quicker on my feet than the player, so I could usually out talk him. After a while they would walk into a tavern, or a magic shop, or a party and I would steeple my hands and the players would blow a gasket.

And when they whacked in a dark alley... I don't think any NPC was ever more satisfying to kill.

PS

 

[Quickleaf]

Jarit is now one of the favorite NPC’s of the players, and will definitely be playing a big role as the campaign progresses… and all of this from a simple line in my notes with no intention of him being around more than a few minutes.

A trend I've noticed is that most players gain maximum enjoyment out of NPCs when (a) the DM is comfortable playing the NPC, (b) the NPC is of lesser power/authority than the PCs, and (c) the NPC has a memorable quirk.

Improvisation usually leads to you playing to your strengths, so you'll be more comfortable with the NPC. That he's a beggar is just a bonus. IMC, the PCs were fixated by a shifty halfling dockworker and enjoyed intimidating him.

Of your most prominent/popular/infamous NPC’s, what portion (or percentage) were thoroughly fleshed out ahead of time vs those who sprung from thin air (or almost thin air)?

I like to create stories with lots and lots of NPCs, along with a handful of core NPCs who are well developed. Usually (say 3/4 of the time), I known which NPCs will be more important, and they get more description before hand.

However, I never thoroughly flesh out an NPC ahead of time, in large part because I don't know how the NPC on paper will translate to the NPC in play. In other words, how my acting ability will make the NPC come across to the players is not necessarily the same as what I envision before hand.

 

[Ktulu]

Best one was the N-PIMP-C from Red Hand of Doom. I can't remember the guard's name, because no one ever called him that.

A little back-story: The party was built entirely out of non-standard class/races in 3.5. We had a half-orc monk/cleric, a half-elf bard/sorcerer/rogue, and a dwarven samurai. Due to the small size, I made sure to include any possible NPC's.

Well, the human fighter NPC joined up and was a decent meat-shield for a while, but as they kept coming across standard magic items, they gave it to the guard (armor, shield, sword, etc...). His over-all power increased quite a bit, seeing how he received a ton of items. In more than one scene, he held off against hordes of creatures, or single brute-enemies, allowing the party to survive or take down the bosses.

Story-wise, he was just a simple guard who felt it necessary to help out the heroes. By the end of the campaign, he was knighted, and was the most popular character in the group.

That was quite humorous.

 

[Ed_Laprade]

There's a good reason Jerit became popular. He started with the party having a certain amount of sympathy for him. (Poor, needs protection from 'monsters', exactly the sort of person they should want to be helping. And it works even better in earlier editions as they remember what it was like to be one stab away from death!) Then came the kicker, he was helpful! (And at a minimum cost.)

I've seen the Jerit type of character become a valued NPC on more occasions than I can count. (And the players will be mightily displeased if he turns out to be a ringer later!) And that applies to the hireling guard who gets the party's cast-off magic items and becomes a true contributing member of the party as well.

 

[pawsplay]

One nameless dwarf warrior guard who kept missing but not dying received a name, and by the end, accompanied the PCs halfway around the world, got possessed by a dead dwarven lord, and eventually died in battle against the forces of evil.

 

[haakon1]

In my live campaign, the most famous would be Meepo, who in my version was a sorcerer, joined the party, convinced other rescued kobolds to join the party, and took over the kobold tribe, making peace with the surface dwellers.

My email is a LOT more complex, with a lot of NPC's. Their main ties are to the Keep on the Borderlands -- the party leader is in love with the NPC thief (Jess) who was once part of the party, but retired to run the bar at the Keep. When they get a chance for R&R, they head to the Keep . . .

 

[roguerouge]

Max the Potentially-Redeemable Goblin was nothing more than a mook of a WotC free adventure until I had him beg for his life. Then, after the player couldn't look into my extremely wide and tearing eyes and pull the trigger, he worked his way into her heart, what with his religious holidays of chicken hunting, his desire to eat anything that might be crunchy or sugary, his use of the term "not-me" to mean "you", his desire for petty displays of power and his vacations as a garbage collector. He died a heroic comic-relief's death helping the hero when she desperately needed it against a bone devil.

Versath, the pseudodragon, was not planned either. I just decided he had a Napoleon complex and had decided that the PC was just special enough to be his equal. She was "almost draconic".