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Message: <blockquote data-quote="haakon1" data-source="post: 5210104" data-attributes="member: 25619">Teach them.1) ROLEPLAY every NPC and monster.  Give them personalities and motivations -- even it's just "me want eat" and run with them.  Then play them as if they were your PC, and let the story turn out however it does based on the PC's actions, the NPC's reactions, and the dice, without knowing what the end will be.This means some NPCs should be generous, other manipulative, and many -- especially outside the dungeon -- having some overlapping interests shared with the PC's, so that they are basically helpful.If it's hard to imagine that in D&D, use another setting.  Imagine it's a Western.  The folks in the town are mostly interested in typical human settler things -- build a life, create a home, raise a family.  Some may be bitter alcoholic Confederate veterans bent on revenge against the world, scheming Eastern bankers and their hired guns, rustlers, or other stock villains, but most shouldn't be.  And a few should be truly benevolent -- the pastor who is trying to convert the bitter alcoholic, the old lawman who has a soft spot for wanderers down on their luck, the prostitute with a heart of gold, the Chinaman who works at the laundry and is passing on his Shao Lin temple training to the local half-breed orphan to defend himself against bullies, whatever you want.Then imagine the PC's enter town.  Are PC's known rustlers, known Federal marshals or Mounties or soldiers defending against Indian raids, or just cowboys passing through on a cattle drive?The average NPC will react to them based on their needs/desires and who the PC's appear to be.  If the PC's are clearly protectors, there's zero reason for the average NPC to want to harm them -- in the real world, small town storeowners don't try to poison or rob the local cops, they give them free coffee and donuts because it's good to have them around.  If the PC's are rustlers, the average NPC is going to be scared of them and want to have as little interaction as possible, to get the PC's out of their hair.  If the PC's are just cowboys, the average NPC is just going to want to make a buck, and hopefully get a repeat customer.Really, a decently roleplayed average townsfolk NPC has little reason to "screw with" the PC's.  The non-average NPC's, with non-average motivations, can have more complex interactions with the PC's.If you give your players interactions like that, they may change their mind about NPC's -- and raise their own level of role playing.  You may also winnow out players who just want to kill stuff, if you devote airtime to making NPC's real(-ish) people.The ANTITHESIS of this approach is to treat NPCs as tools of the movie director to move the action along, rather than characters in their own right.  If the NPC barber in the Western suddenly turns into a psychopath who wants to cut the PC's throat -- even though he was a normal person with no warning signs or previous incidents -- just because the DM decides it's time for a fight, then you're going to get paranoid players.2) Make PC actions have consequences, good, bad, and indifferent.  If the PC's kill intelligent folks, they are going to piss someone off.  If they are kind, they make make a friend, or not, or piss off that person's enemies.  Whatever the PC's do, run with it and make the world real, with feedback just like our world.Again, think Western.  If the PC's go into town -- or an Indian village -- and kill everybody to rob the place, because they are mad, whatever -- there should be serious consequences.  People wanting revenge.  The Marshall Service or the US Army or an army of braves wanting them hanged/shot/scalped ASAP, and running them down to do it.On the other hand, if the PC's save the town from the bandits, a lot of people are going to be grateful.  Maybe they'll get job offers as deputies.  Maybe the laundry owner will teach them kung fu.  Maybe the buxom widows will take an interest.Run the campaign like that -- with consequences like an actual non-RPG story -- and I think the players will start acting more serious and less metagamey.</blockquote>

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