Unique NPC personalities

[Tinker Gnome]

What are some cool personalties you have come up with for NPCs in your game. Here is one of mine.

A Gnome Tinker with a string interest in anatomy. The party likes to keep him around for some reason that I dont know. He is always dissecting their opponents and taking out various organs. One time I had him in his room in a boat with all types of Human organs on the floor after they had killed some pirates. He also cut off one of the crewmember's hair when he was asleep.

 

[LostSoul]

In one old Star Wars game, one of the PCs was a back-up dancer. He had a protocol droid (think C-3PO) that had a case of droid rot and became a pimp. Pimp-Bot thought he owned the dancer, but it was really the other way around.

Pimp-Bot saved the party at one point. They were racing away from some Imperials, and their speeder had been blasted to shreds. Another speeder caught up with them and took the fight out of the PCs. When the Imperials approached to arrest them, Pimp-Bot jumped out and knifed one of the Imperials good.

This was all based on a Conan O'Brian skit, of course.

 

[shilsen]

Marius Carlyle, high priest of Pholtus in Flen (in Keoland, in the Greyhawk CS). He was a war hero, a skilled diplomat, and an important public figure. He was also incredibly bitter about the loss of his children during the Greyhawk Wars and the fact that he was stuck looking after a backwoods town (as he saw it) while the influence of religion waned in the country. So he reluctantly set about finding a way to change that (which involved finding an artifact and possibly getting himself worshipped). I always visualized him being like Anthony Hopkins. The PCs hated him and most of the time couldn't touch him due to his position. One of the most intimidating NPCs I ever DMed (I handled a one-on-one exchange between him and a PC over email with the player, and he later told me that just reading the emails had him scared).

 

[ivocaliban]

There's nothing I enjoy more than crafting NPCs. Here's just a couple related to my lead PC:

Taurian the Black (aka Killian Roberts): The father of the lead PC, Killian Roberts was a ranger of Furyondy with good relations with the Vesve elves. There he met and got with child one Seliana Tamarel, priestess of Hanali Celanil. She died before giving birth to the child, murdered by agents of Iuz, and Killian went mad with grief. He went off into the land of Iuz and vanished for 20 years. All thought he had died there, but he managed to survive. After two decades in Iuz's land he's now a fierce warrior and slayer of fiends, but he's also lost his sanity and humanity in the process. Taurian the Black, as he is now known, is a battle-scarred, soul-tainted animal that still believes he can take down Iuz, one orc at a time.

Noah Roberts: The grandfather of the lead PC (and father to Killian), Noah Roberts was a bucanneer in service to the Sea Barons. Known far and wide as one of the best sailors and swordsmen to have ever lived, he was also one of the few honest men in his line of work. Well-loved and respected by all, his crew would have fought with him to the death. They had their chance to prove this when a ghost ship assaulted their vessel during a fierce storm. Noah, put his twelve-year-old grandson over the side in a lifeboat and fought bravely until the ship itself was torn to pieces.

Thought dead for many years, in truth he was found washed up onshore by a doppleganger who recognized him and kept him prisoner for many years, assuming his identity and pumping him for information on where treasure could be easily found. The false Noah shared a reunion with "his" grandson and stayed on with him for many months before the truth was revealed. William (the grandson), eventually discovered and set free his grandfather and together they defeated the imposter.