Friday Fun: Let's Share Weird NPC Ideas

[Reynard]

Just for fun: what weird NPCs have you used, or hope to use, in your games? What inspired them? How did their introduction go, or how do you plan to introduce them? Did they become important, or were they a one off?

I thought of a fun one this morning, while listening to the most recent episode of Freakonomics: a treant laden with a massive honey bee hive, that travels from village to village selling honey and pollination services. If I used that NPC for my long gestating "generational village" campaign, I would make their arrival an important annual event marking the coming of summer. If I used them as a one off in something like D&D, i think I would have them appear but then be attacked by massive killer wasps trying to eat the hive (or maybe a mutant bear...). In either case, I think they would be a fun play on a "Treebeard" type: Beebeard?

 

[payn]

In a Traveller game I had an A.I. that was stunted in its development. It was incredibly powerful, but operated like a child. Often, it would want to be helpful, but cause a lot of harm by mistake. It was also indifferent to the results despite trying to be helpful.

The background is the A.I. was created by the Ancients, but they never finished forming its development. The A.I. basically sat for thousands of years on its own, going insane. Now that it has met people, its very eager to bond with them, despite not exactly having the tools to do so.

I figured the players would understand how dangerous this thing is and isolate it and forget about it. What I didnt anticipate was their eagerness to try and work with the A.I. and develop it into an ally that wouldnt get them all killed. So, it sort of became like a crew member and was the perfect jack in the box when the game needed a good push.

 

[MGibster]

Just for fun: what weird NPCs have you used, or hope to use, in your games? What inspired them? How did their introduction go, or how do you plan to introduce them? Did they become important, or were they a one off?

My first campaign for D&D 2014 was somewhat tongue-in-cheek. The PCs all graduated from adventuring school where they learned how to be Barbarians, Fighters, Wizards, Sorcerers, or whatever. The first adventure had them going through their final test which was a mock adventure where they rescued a princess. The NPC playing the princess refused to participate on the grounds that playing a damsel was demeaning. The PCs ended up rescuing their goblin instructor who was wearing a blonde wig.

Anyway, I had an NPC named Lady Cinnamon. She was a noble who went to university and majored in Barbarism.

Picture this woman wielding a giant club. Lady Cinnamon was the girliest of girls who loved cutesy clothes, doing hair, cute animals, pumpkin spice latte, and avoided gross stuff. Except for blood. She delighted in nothing more than raging and beating her enemies to a pulp with her comically oversized club. Especially if her victims were mean to animals.

 

[MGibster]

For my current Greyhawk campaign, the PCs all got a whiff of some magical herb burned in a large brazier which caused them to perceive reality in ways they had never done before. This was all accompanied by me playing Inna Gadda Da Vita by Iron Butterfly in the background. They end up going to another plane of existence that looks suspiciously like a Gold's Gym and run into Heironeous, the god of chivalry, justice, honor, valor, and war.

I role played Heironeous as if he was Hulk Hogan. "Brother, you look that lich right in the eyes and ask him, 'What'cha gonna do when Heiromania runs wild all over you?'"

 

[Koloth]

As a player, my Bard pretending to be a Rogue somehow and unknowing at the time impressed a mimic in a dungeon that decided to follow us home. Everyone failed the "see the mimic" perception checks while in the dungeon. We found it outside our base of operations(a tavern) the next morning. After a few moments of confusion, figured out that it likes my Bard. It is now a variable ornament in the tavern. It has been used to dispose of some bodies after ruffians broke into the tavern. Free Food for the mimic NPC!