D&D 5E DMG Preview: Creating NPCs

[Psikerlord#]

These sorts of tables in the AD&D DMG really helped me get off the ground as a DM, when I was in high school. It's nice to see the DMG providing them.

And they're not a waste of space for experienced GMs either. There are so many tricks that one can use to make NPCs memorable, but most of us rely heavily on just a few. Chapters like this can help us break old habits.

Yeah I first saw the 2 pages and thought, ah, not what I need or was expecting... But then I read the blog examples, and now I'm actually quite inspired. It will be great fun (for me at least) to roll up some random NPCs before each session as potential contacts for the party... which is not something I've done before, I've always thought up quirks etc myself.

But I am also a great lover of randomness - so I think these tables and a bit of imagination are going to be very excellent indeed. Thanks Id DM !

 

[Drammattex]

There are so many tricks that one can use to make NPCs memorable, but most of us rely heavily on just a few. Chapters like this can help us break old habits.

This has been my experience. Just as the characters the players create take the story of the campaign in interesting directions, suggestions that come from outside the DM's head push us to consider characters we wouldn't have come up with on our own. I'll usually do this for about 5 NPCs to have in my pocket at any given time. Love the way the tables inspire different ideas.

 

[pemerton]

I was interested in the suggestion that an evil character might have beauty as an ideal. In Gygax's AD&D books it is very clear that beauty is an element of goodness, and that the evil scorn beauty.

 

[Remathilis]

I was interested in the suggestion that an evil character might have beauty as an ideal. In Gygax's AD&D books it is very clear that beauty is an element of goodness, and that the evil scorn beauty.

 

[Plaguescarred]

There are very useful tables in crafting more interesting NPCs for sure.

PS And again 5E artwork drive it home for me #Fantastic

 

[pemerton]

[MENTION=7635]Remathilis[/MENTION] - lust and regret aren't the same as having something as an ideal.

 

[Paraxis]

There are very useful tables in crafting more interesting NPCs for sure.

PS And again 5E artwork drive it home for me #Fantastic

I like the art too, but as was pointed out this is just recycled 4e artwork from Dungeon Magazine.

You would think they had the money and talent to have all new artwork with all those M:TG artists available.

 

[Psikerlord#]

I like the art too, but as was pointed out this is just recycled 4e artwork from Dungeon Magazine.

You would think they had the money and talent to have all new artwork with all those M:TG artists available.

I dont mind recycled art, as long as it's good. In fact I would prefer recycled good art as opposed to new awful art.

 

[GSHamster]

[MENTION=7635]Remathilis[/MENTION] - lust and regret aren't the same as having something as an ideal.

How about Cruella de Vil? Or the Countess Bathory (folklore) who bathed in the blood of virgins to maintain her youth and beauty? Or perhaps the wicked Queen in Snow White?

 

[pemerton]

[MENTION=20187]GSHamster[/MENTION], I don't think those people have beauty as an ideal. They long for their own beauty, but they don't care about introducing ugliness into the world, or about destroying the beauty of others. Indeed, sometimes their jealousy leads them to actively destroy other instances of beauty that they encounter.

When Gygax said that evil people scorn beauty, I don't think he meant to rule out that they want it for themselves. I think he meant that, to the extent that a character cultivates beauty in general - for instance, to the extent that the villain rides around the garden rather than tramples it with his/her horse, or to the extent that the villain doesn't use a fireball spell in order to avoid destroying the artworks - than that villain is less evil than s/he might otherwise be.

Gygax's conception of evil is someone for whom purpose is the determinant - ie they acknowledge no constraint on their choices other than their desires. Once a person is having regard to things outside his/her own desires - such as promoting beauty, or at least avoiding the destruction of beautiful things - then in Gygax's framework that person is moving towards the good.