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© 1998-2001 Dru
Pagliassotti
All rights reserved.
Adventure Writing: Nonplayer
Characters
 "What does the
bartender look like?"
Good question. And there
you are, scouring your mind for a few cliches. "Uh, he's human, kinda
balding, and overweight, and he's got an apron on, and, um...."
Oh, come on. You can
do better than that! Why doesn't he look like Bogart's Rick in Casablanca?
Or why isn't she gorgeous? Or maybe the bartender is nonhuman—an
alien, a monster, or a creation like a magical sword or bartending android.
The nonplayer characters (NPCs) with whom the player characters (PCs)
interact are the blood and soul of a campaign. Maps and history and languages
are all very nice, but ultimately the people are what matter.
There are four kinds
of NPCs: Main Characters, Guest Stars, Walk-Ons, and Bit Parts. The time
you devote to fleshing out each NPC should depend on how much time the
NPC will be on stage.
Main Characters:
These are the NPCs who form an integral part of the PCs' social life.
They really only exist in campaign settings, so if you don't run a campaign,
you will probably never need to worry about developing Main Characters.
Main Characters show up in the majority of adventures, at least briefly.
The one important thing that sets Main Characters apart from all other
NPCs is that the players choose the Main Characters, not the GM.
It doesn't matter what
profession the Main Character has, as long as the PCs interact with him
or her regularly and, more importantly, care about him or her. Thus, a
Main Character could be (but doesn't have to be) a relative, a spouse,
a butler, a librarian, a priest, a mechanic, a best friend, a captain,
and so forth ... as long as it's somebody to whom the PC turns regularly
for help or advice and for whom a PC would be willing to take an adventure,
if you decided to use that as a hook.
A GM can never tell
who may turn into a Main Character. I've introduced NPCs who I thought
would become Main Characters but were never pursued, and I've introduced
Bit-Part NPCs who were drawn into the players' lives until they morphed
into Main Characters. If you find that PCs are returning again and again
to an NPC whom you hadn't fleshed out well, take notice! You may need
to start building that NPC into a Main Character.
Guest Stars:
These are the adventure-specific NPCs whom you don't expect to show up
again. You do need to put a good amount of work into fleshing out these
NPCs, but you don't need to build them an entire life. Typically, Guest
Stars are victims appealing for help, key sources of information, or villains.
PCs will have fairly long interactions with them, but probably not after
the specific adventure is over. Sometimes, however, they'll end up returning
to the NPC, in which case the Guest Star becomes either a Walk-on or a
Main Character, depending on the level and amount of interaction that
goes on.
Walk-Ons:
Walk-ons are NPCs who have smaller parts—a minor source of information,
a henchman or agent, anyone with whom the PCs may exchange a few words—but
no more than a few words. Walk-Ons usually begin as adventure-specific
NPCs, but if they survive and are located in a place the PCs frequent
(say, in the same city), they may become regular fixtures. Yet even though
a PC may visit a Walk-On regularly, it's unlikely that the two will get
to know each other well. For example, the shadowrunner's ammo supplier
might get to know the runner well enough to joke about "coming in
for refills again?" but the two probably won't ever get to know each
other better than that. Of course, any Walk-On can become a Guest Star
if the GM decides to make the NPC the pivotal person in an adventure,
or a Main Character if the PCs decide to deepen their interaction with
the NPC.
Bit Parts:
Bit Parts are the faceless people with whom the PCs must interact to get
a job done—shopkeepers, portmasters, government officials, bus drivers,
etc. The PCs probably won't say much if anything to them and almost certainly
won't draw the person out into a conversation. ("I tell the stableboy
that I'll need my horse at dawn." "I go to the police station
to get the records about last month's break-in.") Again, PCs may
interact with a Bit Part character regularly (say, the stableboy at their
favorite tavern), but unless the NPC is promoted to Guest Star status,
s/he probably won't ever become a "real person" to the players.
If you are confronted
with the sudden need to describe a Bit-Part NPC, rely on a stereotype
or a favorite book, TV, or movie character. If you're quick-witted enough,
you may consider choosing one that will break the stereotype—a stablegirl
who looks like Xena definitely has a story to tell, and with a little
off-the-cuff interaction, you might just find your Bit-Part NPC promoted
to a Guest Star! (Just don't do this too often; it has the potential of
derailing your adventure.)
Main Characters need
to be the most realistic to the players. Fortunately, no NPC starts out
as a Main Character, so you have time to flesh them out as the PCs keep
returning to them again and again. Ultimately, Main Characters will need
the most distinctive features.
Guest Stars need a good
bit of work from the start, because you know that the PCs will be interacting
with them for a short but intense period of time. They should get two
or three distinctive features. Walk-Ons need very little work—give
them one or two distinctive features. Bit Parts need no work—if
you give them a name, you're probably overdoing it!
In general, you shouldn't
describe your NPCs too much the first time the PCs encounter them. Spending
a few minutes describing an NPC is a tip-off to the players that the NPC
is going to be important to the game, and that's no fun ... make the players
ask for the information, first! On the other hand, you're obliged to mention
an NPC's particularly distinctive feature if it's the sort of thing that
would immediately strike the PCs as unusual—for example, you really
should mention that the shirtless street sweeper is covered with tattoos.
Admittedly, that will attract the players' attentions ... but wouldn't
it attract the characters' attentions, anyway? You don't want to put yourself
in the position of having hidden information from the players ("What
do you mean, the receptionist at our hotel has only one arm? We've spent
the entire day looking for a one-armed man!" "Well, you never
asked what he looked like, so....").
I've listed the following
distinctive-feature categories from most basic to most detailed.
Name:
A fundamental distinctive feature is the NPC's name, although it takes
interaction (at least a few words exchanged) to learn a name. Nevertheless,
I list it first because the PCs are more likely to ask for an NPC's name
before they ask for a physical description—RPGs rely on words more
than vision.
If your adventure takes
place in a certain time period, try to come up with a name that matches
that time period—there are few Ethelberts in a cyberpunk campaign
and even fewer Rip Blitzes in medieval England. In addition to the time
period, names can reflect gender or ethnicity. Names might also indicate
race ("All natives of this planet have 5-letter names that start
with a consonant and end with a K") or status in a cultural hierarchy
("You are Number Four"). Names might be extremely long or extremely
short, depending on the time sense of the people (elves could have names
that take a good five minutes to recite!). They might be pronounceable
or unpronounceable to humans.
It's worth taking a
moment to think about nicknames, too. Does the NPC only go by a nickname?
Does the NPC have a nickname s/he is ashamed of? A good exercise is to
take a moment to think about how your players might shorten the NPC's
name—players are notorious for assigning rude nicknames to NPCs,
so if you can think of an obviously horrible nickname for your NPC, you
may want to change the NPC's name before the game.
Finally, there's an
ineffable quality about names that you should consider when naming an
NPC. Not only do names mean different things, but some names convey different
feelings to the listener. In one "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"
episode, Buffy is talking to a girl who said she used to be called Chanterelle
and remarked on how beautiful the name sounded. Buffy pointed out that
it's the name of a mushroom, which squelched the girl's enthusiasm for
the name. In my campaign, I often play with names—and sometimes
the players "get it" and sometimes they don't. For example,
a mute beggar they met is named Benedict (for Bene Dictu, well-spoken
or good speaker); a folksy town guard is named Jack Straw (because he
was thin and "just off the farm"); and a self-important mage's
guild receptionist is called Narcissus Cadmium (because he was narcissistic
and nasty—cadmium is toxic). Have fun with your names!
Physical Appearance:
The most basic social category for humans is sex. Is the NPC male, female,
or other? Try breaking a stereotype here if you want to make the NPC more
distinctive to the players (e.g., by making the bartender female).
The next most basic
social category for humans is race/ethnicity. What culture or race does
the NPC come from? This will probably (but not always) affect other aspects
of the NPC's physical appearance (e.g., it might determine whether the
NPC has dark- or light-colored skin, fur, feathers, or scales).
After that, humans begin
to rate the person on a variety of other physical characteristics. Skin
color, hair color, eye color; old, young, or in-between; fat, thin, or
average? Is the NPC gorgeous or hideous? (Have some fun here by remembering
that standards of beauty differ—in a campaign I play in, the DM
has ruled that the uglier an orc is by human standards, the better-looking
the orc is by orcish standards!) Does the NPC have any physical handicaps?
How about just unusual features, like mismatched eyes, a streak in the
hair, or a chipped front tooth?
In my campaign, the
beggar Benedict is fairly average-looking but was crippled in both legs
and rendered mute by his caretakers when he was a child, to better suit
him for a life of begging. His upper torso is muscular, but his legs are
not. Jack Straw the constable is a thin, scrawny-looking fellow with a
big Adam's apple and a shock of bright red hair. Narcissus Cadmium is
a smooth sort with slicked-back hair and an imposing build.
Apparel:
As Shakespeare said, clothes make the man (and the woman, too). List one
or two distinctive pieces of clothing or jewelry or colors that the NPC
almost always wears. This is fun because it can automatically peg the
NPC as a certain personality type, and you can make a big deal out of
it if the NPC ever appears without that item of apparel ("Bob shows
up." "Is he wearing his baseball cap to the wedding?" "No,
just a tux." "WOW!").
Is the NPC's clothing
clean or dirty? Neat or disheveled? Expensive or cheap? Does the NPC usually
wear one dominant color or a tasteless kaleidoscope of colors? Is there
one material the NPC always wears (e.g., tweed, platemail)? Does the NPC
dress fashionably or is s/he always out of sync with the times? Does the
NPC have a particularly eccentric style of dress? Always wear a hat? A
tie? Carry a briefcase? Wear a certain item of jewelry? Carry a cane?
Use a cigarette holder? Wear too much makeup? Have an unusual cyberware
connection?
In my campaign, the
beggar Benedict wore rags and moved around on twin crutches; he's since
been hired by the PCs as a clerk and now wears middle-class clothing and
has a chair with wheels in his office. He still uses the crutches outside,
though—it's a fantasy game, and wheelchairs don't work well on dirt
streets or even cobblestones. Jack Straw wears his guard's uniform on
duty, but has a duster and cowboy hat off-duty. Narcissus Cadmium always
wears extremely rich mage's robes and glitters with magical jewelry, as
befits the first person mundanes meet when entering the mage's guild.
Profession:
An NPC's career may be obvious or not, depending on where and when the
NPC is encountered and whether s/he is wearing any physical clues to his
or her profession. Uniforms, whether formal (a police officer's) or informal
(a baker's hat and a flour-covered apron) are obvious giveaways. Location
is another—the person behind the bar is probably a bartender, and
a person breaking into a safe is probably a thief.
Try to break out of
stereotypes when you choose an NPC's profession. Consider matching the
profession to an unlikely gender or race, for example (an orkish beautician
in Shadowrun? A female stormtrooper in Star Wars?).
In addition, take a
moment to think about unusual professions, or at least professions that
don't get a lot of play in most games. It's easy to say that the NPC encountered
in a bar is just another white-collar salaryman or mercenary fighter,
but maybe you can be more original. One
of my favorite NPC professions is His Majesty's Royal Ratcatcher, the
fellow who goes down into the city sewers and traps the rats (I introduced
him into my campaign when he found a clue to a mystery in the sewers and
gave it to the PCs). Think about other interesting professions—why
not make the NPC a garbage collector? A movie site scout? A minister?
A dog groomer? A bookbinder? A winetaster? The fun part about this is
that often the PCs will be so struck by the person's profession that they'll
take down the person's name in their notes ... and then three adventures
later they'll tell you, "we need to go talk to that bookbinder we
met!" More often than not they'll have thought of a plot based around
the person's profession, or realized that the person might be able to
give them some clues about their current mission, long after you've forgotten
the NPC. That's a good sign, though, because it means you made the NPC
memorable.
As I mentioned earlier,
in my campaign, Benedict was a beggar who'd gotten involved with the PCs
when they captured him trying to steal jewelry for his girlfriend; they
were touched by his plight and ended up making him their clerk, turning
him from a Guest Star into a Main Character. Jack Straw was a constable
with whom the group had casually interacted several times; he began as
a Walk-On who is gradually becoming a Main Character since the PCs have
brought him along on a few of their adventures. Narcissus Cadmium is a
Walk-On; technically, a foil, since his job is to foil the characters'
intentions every time they try to talk to somebody in the mage's guild!
I don't have any immediate plans to promote him from that status, and
it's unlikely that the PCs will ever attempt to get to know him better
(or that he'd welcome such an attempt if they did).
Mannerisms and
Speech Habits: If the PCs interact with the NPC at length or
over different times, they may begin to notice the NPC's mannerisms and
speech habits. These need to be exaggerated in a roleplaying game as they
are onstage. Don't try to be subtle! Exaggerate the gesture and do it
a lot more often than a person would probably do it in real life.
Mannerisms may include
gestures like stroking a beard or mustache, gesturing with one's eyeglasses,
nervously shifting in one's seat, never looking a PC in the eye, nervously
tapping one's fingers against things, biting one's lip, scratching one's
head, grabbing the person the NPC is speaking with, slapping friends on
the back, and forth. Nonhuman mannerisms are a little more difficult for
the GM, since waving one's tentacles, licking one's tusks, or changing
colors or odors is beyond most GMs' acting capabilities (the best a GM
can do is say, "he says, licking his tusks" or "Bxxzt has
started to smell like vanilla now").
Speech habits can include
stuttering or stammering, speaking loudly or softly, using "um"
a lot, being verbose or being succinct, using accents, having favorite
sayings, obfusticating with jargon and pomposity, relying on cliches,
and so forth. Even lack of speech can be a speech habit, as in the case
of my beggar, Benedict (I use a whiteboard to emulate the slate and chalk
he uses to communicate with others). Narcissus Cadmium is pompous and
obstructive, doing all he can to keep mere mundanes from entering "his"
precious mage's guild. Jack Staw has a drawling country accent ... although
on at least one occasion when he was surprised he dropped it, an occurrence
that raised a few PCs' suspicions (they've yet to confront him, however).
He also tends to use down-home cliches and metaphors when he speaks.
Personality:
Again, if the PCs interact with the NPCs at length or over time, they'll
come to learn more about the NPC's personality. Like mannerisms and speech
habits, personality must be exaggerated to get it across well. Is the
NPC insufferably cheerful or constantly morose? Arrogant or shy? Polite
or rude? Brave or cowardly? Up-front or sneaky? Lecherous or chaste? Amiable
or prickly? Again, consider cultural differences here. Star Trek has fun
with personality and culture—most humans would consider Vulcans
arrogant and Klingons rude because their respective reliance on unemotional
logic and confrontative braggadacio are undesirable personality traits
among humans ... but within their own culture, those traits are highly
regarded. Cultural differences like this can make interacting with an
NPC more interesting and challenging for the players.
In my campaign, Benedict
is a romantic and has learned to cope with his handicaps with optimism.
Jack Straw is generally genial with a wry sense of humor. Narcissus Cadmium
is arrogant and rude, and takes defeats (that is, any non-mage successfully
managing to walk past his desk and into the guild) with ill humor.
Throughout this adventure-writing
series I've mentioned NPCs and the importance of understanding their motives
and secrets. However, it's possible to spend too much time fleshing out
NPCs. It's not necessary to script an entire life for each random person
the players may end up talking to. Part of GMing is learning to roleplay
off the cuff. This categorization of NPCs and their potentially distinctive
features should help you cut down on the time you spend writing them up.
But remember—NPCs
are the most important part of a game. When players aren't interacting
with each other, they'll be interacting with NPCs, and it is that interaction
that will move the adventure forward. Plot is important, and things like
miniatures and drawings and props and background music add much to the
roleplaying experience—but ultimately it's the NPCs who will make
or break your game. Don't overlook them!
originally written November 18, 1998
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