Making Simple NPC’s

When I started out my first big homebrew campaign, I wanted to create a big world. You can see from my article last Monday that I don’t do that anymore. Instead, I really focus on trying to keep my preparation as simple as I can. Why, because there is a lot that can be prepared and only so much time to do it. And I think a lot of preparation could be done on the fly. The same goes with NPC’s, you can make them simply.

• Name
• Looks
• Quirk

That is it that you need for making an NPC. Now, that might seem a little bit simple, and it is really simple, but I’m going to give you a reason why I keep it so simple. It’s because you don’t know which NPC’s your PC’s will latch onto. Nerdarchy, for example, use an example where there is a bakery with a “good bread”. That is something that set that apart and made it important to the PC’s even though it wasn’t something that was planned. So when that bakery with the “good bread” ran into issues, the PC’s cared about it. Again, this throw away thing became important.

So Why Only Three Things?

I actually started with a fourth thing on there, their occupation, but now I don’t have it there anymore. There is a reason for that, because not all NPC’s will have a job. A backstory is very likely, but a job not so much. That is fine, some NPC’s give quests, others run shops, some become rivals and some make good bread.

But you don’t need to know who does that right away. Create simple characters that can be used anywhere. You then have starts to characters that you can insert into your story on the fly or before the start of a session. If John the burly human with a grey beard and is missing a finger matches what I need for a blacksmith, I can put him into my story. But John could also be a city guard, or a gardener, or a mercenary. I don’t need to know his job right away because I don’t know what I’ll need him for, for the players.

How Many Do I Need?

This is up to you, but really, you don’t need that many. But for some people, it’ll be nice to keep a bunch around. In fact, you can just create list of them on your phone or in a notebook, or stored on index cards just to pull out. I haven’t done this yet, but it isn’t a bad idea. I create a bunch of index cards and put them in a recipe case with dividers by types of NPC’s and just be able to pull one out right away. And turning out those three things, that is simple and you can make a lot of them.

But to start, make them on demand. Maybe make them before a session and put them into the recipe box when you use them. That way you start building up a collection of NPC’s. Then next campaign you have a seeded base of NPC’s who you can pull back out, you might need to give them another name though. Just update the names and you can keep a history of all the NPC’s who you’ve made.

Another Option

This is why I don’t have the index cards done yet, there is another option. And that is, don’t make them up ahead of time. Players walk into a tavern in my game, I ask them, what is the name of the tavern, who is running it, who is all there. Now they are helping me create a nice roster of NPC’s that they use.

Why do it this way? Two reasons, firstly it takes pressure off of myself as the DM. I don’t always know how much story I’ll get through. And that is just fine, but that means I might not know if I go to a tavern when I start the night. The other reason is now the players have more connection to the NPC’s. They are their NPC’s, the ones they create, and they will care more about what they do.

This is a bit more advanced. Now because it is that much harder, but because you need to trust your players and improvisation. You don’t know if they will make a gnome named Tilda to run the tavern or a half-orc named Tilda. Can you handle the difference between those two characters? Now they don’t need to be fleshed out, but it is trickier.

The Best NPC’s

So, is this the only way create NPC’s, no, these two ways aren’t. In fact, for a one shot, I will go into more detail. Why, because there aren’t as many. The main point of this is to give you ideas of how you can make NPC’s without exhausting yourself. Even as a more experienced Dungeon Master, I want to put the best game together that I can. But how do you balance real life and the understanding that it won’t be perfect to get playing fast. Because, the best game is the one you play, not the one you plan out perfectly, and that’s the same with NPC’s.

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.
Support us on Patreon here.

One thing you’ll see that I’m not going to be talking about is backstory. I think that a good backstory can make it easier to role play, give the DM a bunch of story hooks, and give you a more rich character, but that isn’t needed for building a character for a game.

What I’m going to recommend is that you start by understanding the campaign and make a character that fits the game you’re playing. If it’s a heist game, making a paladin with AC 22 and stealth of -2 is going to cause issues. Same with a more social based game, just because you have this great half-orc barbarian idea doesn’t mean that it’s going to fit into a game with a ton of social situations when the half-orcs favorite word is supposed to be smash. This should all really be hashed out in a session zero where you come with your ideas for characters and the DM comes with their idea for games and then you figure out what game you want to play and with that, what character idea you can use.

Next, you’re playing in a game with one or five or more players, so build your character to not be Batman. I know what playing the character that can do everything, but the more people you have, the less you need the rogue who dipped into bard to get all the expertise. Make a character that is good at what they are meant to be good at. If you want to make the rogue character, focus on stealth and deception and slight of hand. You don’t need to be better at Arcana than the wizard is just because you can be.

Now, that does sound like you could end up creating a character that isn’t fun for you to play. Maybe you want to be to tools monkey who knows a bit of everything all the time. That’s fine, but then leave of combat. Which is what Batman forgot to do. But for the final piece of advice, play a character that is fun for you, but is also fun for everyone else to play with. Let’s go with the Rogue example again, just because you can steal from the paladin doesn’t mean that you should steal from the paladin. And maybe your paladin is all about being that thief, but at least make it then that he respects at least some of the members of the party enough to not steal from the party. You can certainly try and steal from shops still, but the party is off limits, because when you steal the trinket that the paladin has written a massive backstory for, they are going to be pissed.

And that’s it, it’s a bit of a shorter article. Sorry for missing yesterday, I was out sick. But those are the three things, really two, just with one split out between mechanics and role playing. But this is the simplest level of creating a character that you’re going to have fun playing, and that is going to fit into the campaign and be fun to play with in a game.

Now, this is a bit simplistic, hence the 101 added to the end. I am going to continue until we get up to a graduate level course, just remember that all the information for building a good character is going to build off of one another, so starting at the graduate level course isn’t going to do you that much good.

Have I missed anything important for the extremely basic how to create a good D&D player character?

Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Follow us on Twitter at @NerdologistCast
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.Facebook 

If you have questions for Nerdologists: Dungeons and Flagons emails them to nerdologists@gmail.com or find us on Facebook or Twitter! We’ll be doing a recap and Q&A every twenty-five episodes.

The World of Dungeons and Flagons!

Our players are:

Ashley – Nimrose the Wood Elf Monk

Kristen (@Kefka73) – Finja the Human Paladin

Clint – Tate the Halfling Bard & Torin the Half-Orc Druid

The DM:

Peder (@TheScando)

Please give us reviews and let us know how you listen to the show!

You can find us on iTunes

Or on Stitcher

Reviews help with the algorithms that allow more people to find our show. Every review you give helps, and we thank you for them! We have three reviews currently on iTunes; once we get five, we’ll be able to see them, and properly thank those who have given us reviews.

Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Follow us on Twitter at @NerdologistCast
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.

We are trying a new thing with Amazon Links. If you’re interested in what we talked about in our articles or used for the podcast, please consider making a purchase through our links. Purchases help support our website and offset our costs. Thanks!

[amazon_link asins=’0786965606′ template=’ProductGrid’ store=’nerdologists-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’af579ac7-db9a-11e7-961e-c1f10fdecb87′]

[amazon_link asins=’0786965614′ template=’ProductGrid’ store=’nerdologists-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’be4d6923-db9a-11e7-86f1-679651c3e2ab’]

When it comes to this class, think Conan the Barbarian. The loner or nomadic fighter who comes in and crushes everyone and everything when they fight. It’s also a bit like the Hulk. A Barbarian is the type of character who is going to end up acting before speaking and doing before thinking most of the time; often, people are going to shy away from them.

In Dungeons and Dragons, the stereotype for this class is the Half-Orc Barbarian who is taller and stronger than everyone else and really stands out. People give them a wide berth when they’re walking around town, and the adventuring party they’re part of would probably have a little bit of infamy because of having a half-orc in their party. We’ve had a Half-Orc Barbarian in one of our games before, in a session prior to Dungeons and Flagons. They were a chaotic evil character, which was interesting to work into the party. I think they bordered on not being completely evil — they would sometimes kill indiscriminately, but never went against their own party.

From a mechanical standpoint, the thing that stands out about Barbarians is their rage feature. They are obviously going to be strength-based fighters, and oftentimes aren’t the face of the group, but they become even more powerful in combat when they go into a frenzy and rage. That allows them to do extra damage and makes them a major wrecking machine in combat. It does present an interesting role-playing aspect to lean into as well. For example, how blind is the rage that they are going into? Does it have negative effects on the party if they get too out of control?

So, Why would a Barbarian join an adventuring group?

If you’re going chaotic neutral, it’s very possible that they would do it for money. They are in it for themselves, and they want to get money and loot out of the deal, which is why they stick around. It is also possible that they have been kicked out of their own clan for some reason. Maybe they weren’t violent enough; maybe they were too violent; maybe they learned to read? It would give them a reason not to go back somewhere, and since the adventuring group took them in, they wanted to stay with them. That provides more connection in some ways than the greedy character who wants enough money to retire nicely or to get solid gold armor so they can show it off to people.

What are some backstories that could be used?

Maybe your Barbarian was part of a raiding party that got captured when they tried to pillage a village. While the rest were killed in the party, she turned on her clan and started teaching the villages how to defend themselves from the rest of her clan. They in turn taught her to read, and she is a more mild-mannered Barbarian than most. However, one day something happens in the village and she gets blamed for it, whether it was her fault or not. Now she has to find somewhere to go, since she can’t stay in the village or go back to her tribe.

Or you could be a Barbarian who was a mercenary in a war, but now it’s peacetime. They didn’t know how to do much else, and started drifting from place to place, getting into bar fight after bar fight, and getting further and further into debt. Finally, an adventuring party came along with dreams of gold, but with a squishy Wizard and Rogue in the party, they needed someone to do their heavy lifting and someone who knew the Dwarven mines that they were going into, so to get out of town and get fighting again, the Barbarian signed on with the party.

Or maybe, growing up, your Barbarian lived in a peaceful society; however, he wasn’t as smart as the other people in his town. He was the one who was always getting into trouble. Not feeling at home in his own town, he decided to branch out on his own. It didn’t take long for him to come across a traveling troupe. Their strongman was getting older, and so he took the Barbarian under his wing and started teaching him how to be an entertainer. Eventually, the Barbarian took over as the strongman for the group and found out everything the group was actually up to.

Or possibly, you were party of a raiding party in a large-scale conflict between two kingdoms. You got separated from your party and spent a long time looking for them, but weren’t able to find them or learn what had happened to them. In fact, many things about where you are seem unfamiliar to you. Now you’ve latched onto a group that seems like they know what they are doing and might possibly be able to help you sort out where you are and where you came from.

One last scenario–perhaps your parents always knew you weren’t quite right in the head. As a kid you’d be the sweetest thing and then fly off the handle for no reason. As you grew up, you learned how to channel your anger more constructively, but one day, you flew into a rage and hurt one of your parents. They would have forgiven you, you know that, but you couldn’t let it happen again. Leaving home was the hardest thing you’ve ever done, but it was necessary. Now you try to control yourself, try not to lose yourself to rage in case you hurt someone else you care about. You were doing fairly well on your own, but now there are goblins coming together in the woods, and you had to tell someone, so you’ve signed on with a group that can hopefully help stop the oncoming war.

Would you play any of those Barbarian backstories? Have you played a Barbarian in a game before, and if so, how did you like it? What are some good things about being a Barbarian, and what are some bad things?

After defeating the eye of the beholder Nimrose and Finja know that the tower is going to be transported back to the dimension from which it came, will they be able to get off the castle in time to stay in their own plane of existence?

The World of Dungeons and Flagons!

Our players are:

Ashley – Nimrose the Wood Elf Monk

Kristen (@Kefka73) – Finja the Human Paladin

Clint – Tate the Halfling Bard & Torin the Half-Orc Druid

The DM:

Peder (@TheScando)

Please give us reviews and let us know how you listen to the show!

You can find us on iTunes

Or on Stitcher

Reviews help with the algorithms that allow more people to find our show. Every review you give helps, and we thank you for them! We have three reviews currently on iTunes; once we get five, we’ll be able to see them, and properly thank those who have given us reviews.

Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Follow us on Twitter at @NerdologistCast
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.

The castle in the sky has the toughest beholder yet, can Finja, Nimrose, and Torin figure out a way to stop it?

The World of Dungeons and Flagons!

Our players are:

Ashley – Nimrose the Wood Elf Monk

Kristen (@Kefka73) – Finja the Human Paladin

Clint – Tate the Halfling Bard & Torin the Half-Orc Druid

The DM:

Peder (@TheScando)

Please give us reviews and let us know how you listen to the show!

You can find us on iTunes

Or on Stitcher

Reviews help with the algorithms that allow more people to find our show. Every review you give helps, and we thank you for them! We have three reviews currently on iTunes; once we get five, we’ll be able to see them, and properly thank those who have given us reviews.

Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Follow us on Twitter at @NerdologistCast
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.

Things don’t look great in the capitol of Tadalia as Finja, Nimrose, and Torin are faced with their biggest challenge yet.

The World of Dungeons and Flagons!

Our players are:

Ashley – Nimrose the Wood Elf Monk

Kristen (@Kefka73) – Finja the Human Paladin

Clint – Tate the Halfling Bard & Torin the Half-Orc Druid

The DM:

Peder (@TheScando)

Please give us reviews and let us know how you listen to the show!

You can find us on iTunes

Or on Stitcher

Reviews help with the algorithms that allow more people to find our show. Every review you give helps, and we thank you for them! We have three reviews currently on iTunes; once we get five, we’ll be able to see them, and properly thank those who have given us reviews.

Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Follow us on Twitter at @NerdologistCast
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.

After their lost bandit adventure, our group heads onto their destination where Nimrose and Finja run across an old friend.

The World of Dungeons and Flagons!

Our players are:

Ashley – Nimrose the Wood Elf Monk

Kristen (@Kefka73) – Finja the Human Paladin

Clint – Tate the Halfling Bard & Torin the Half-Orc Druid

The DM:

Peder (@TheScando)

Please give us reviews and let us know how you listen to the show!

You can find us on iTunes

Or on Stitcher

Reviews help with the algorithms that allow more people to find our show. Every review you give helps, and we thank you for them! We have three reviews currently on iTunes; once we get five, we’ll be able to see them, and properly thank those who have given us reviews.

Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Follow us on Twitter at @NerdologistCast
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.