Players come to the table excited about experiencing the world as their characters. But it's the non-player characters (NPCs), or characters played by the GM, which can make that experience truly engaging. An array of compelling, distinct characters can sell the world of the game through their interactions with the players. These characters can evoke a strong emotional reaction from your players, whether that's intrigue, disgust, anger, or amusement. Those emotions can make a game memorable - and keep players coming back to the table.
But how do you create engaging NPCs and monsters? How do you populate your world with these memorable characters as effective foils for your players? It often depends on specifically what NPC archetype you're going for. So let's dive into the different kinds of people and monsters your players might encounter.
Enemies, Villains, and Antagonists
These three terms are often used interchangeably, but they're actually three distinct character types. All three are working against the players, who serve as the protagonists in the adventure. But from their point of view,
they're the protagonists - and that's how you should play them as the GM. Of the three, only villains explicitly pursue evil or destructive goals. Antagonists could be pursuing honorable, or even
heroic, goals. They're just working at cross-purposes to your party of players. Perhaps they're convinced it's your characters who will create chaos and disaster if they're successful (and for some parties, for example in an "evil campaign," they may well be right!)
Enemies can be working to thwart your players for a variety of reasons. Maybe they're henchmen or mercenaries who are only opposing them because they're being paid to do so. Maybe they're true believers in the villain's cause. Or it could be political - they're loyal soldiers from a country which is the sworn enemy of the party's homeland.
Whatever the nature of these human adversaries, to make them compelling and believably threatening, you as the GM need to understand their motivations. You need to give them a reason to fight - and a reason to flee, negotiate, or join the party's side.
Shopkeepers and Supporters
Often, these archetypes are what people think of when they hear the term NPC. These are the townspeople, villagers and "innocent bystanders" who fill out the space in an adventure. But to keep your players engaged, they need to be more than the tabletop roleplaying game equivalent of seat-fillers at an awards ceremony. They need to have a reason to be where they are, and a reason to interact with the players. A shopkeeper or supporter who is simply an exposition tool comes across as a transparent "sock puppet" for the GM. This can take players out of the game, which is deadly for player experience.
Every shopkeeper or villager needs to have not one, but two purposes for inclusion in your game. They need a meta purpose; this is how they serve the story and player experience. Often this is supplying the players with resources, equipment and information or plot hooks. They also need an in-fiction purpose; their point-of-view as a character. NPCs with the former but not the latter come across as GM sock puppets. A specific personality, accents, quirks and backgrounds are all tools you can use to help make these characters come alive in your game. But you don't need to use all of these tools on a single shopkeeper.
Comic Relief Characters
One way to create a memorable character is to use them to inject a little humor into the game. This requires a pretty high degree of improv skill, but for the right GM can contribute to an enjoyable player experience. Comedy can pften be provocative or even transgressive, and humor is extremely subjective, so it's important to remember the lines and veils you established in Session Zero. If you have to explain that a roleplaying choice was intended to be a joke, it wasn't an effective one.
Those caveats aside, a comic relief character can be a valuable tool for the GM. It can diffuse tension, which isn't necessarily a good thing at critical moments, but can be important when things are getting uncomfortably tense for the players. Comic relief characters also tend to really endear themselves to your players. Just be careful that these characters exist in service of story and experience, and aren't just an opportunity for you to test out your standup skills with a captive audience.
Mentors & Rivals
These are two archetypes who exist to make your players' character better versions of themselves - even if that's not their intention. Their meta purpose is to challenge players in a less-adversarial way, which prompts growth for the characters. Mentors approach this challenge-and-growth process from a more explicitly benevolent direction. These are the father-figures, leaders and kindly elders of the RPG space. Rivals approach their role from the perspective of a peer. These are the brothers-in-arms, frenemies and competitive challengers for the limelight of the story.
As with shopkeepers, supporters and villagers, these characters work best if you have at least loosely sketched out their in-universe goals and perspective. You can help differentiate these characters with the tools of personality, accents, quirks and backgrounds. As always, you don't need to use
all these tools for any one character. You can also make them memorable by playing against tropes and cliches. Your mentor doesn't have to be a wizened, bearded scholar. They could be a goofy, vain dilettante. Your rival doesn't have to be an angry, privileged youth. They could be a whimsical, lighthearted street rat who delights in taking your characters down a peg just on principle.
Mentors & rivals from popular culture.
- Gandalf, The Lord of the Rings
- Good Witch of the North, The Wizard of Oz
- Apollo Creed, Rocky
- Lando Calrissian, Star Wars
Allies and Turncoats
These NPCs can also fall under any of the preceding humanoid NPC sections. The main element in thinking through these characters is their
allegiance to the players' goals. A shopkeeper who sells supplies to the party purely for profit plays differently than one who believes in their cause. That can show up in mechanical ways, like offering special discounts or being more forthcoming with information or advice. It should also show up in how you roleplay an ally NPC. Similarly, a rival who is ultimately working towards the same ends as the party plays differently than one who is a double-agent, planning to reveal their secrets to the Big Bad Evil Guy (BBEG).
When a character who appears to be (or is genuinely) an ally switches sides to betray your heroes, it's called a "heel turn" or "face heel turn." The opposite situation, where a supposed or genuine enemy joins the good guys, is called a "face turn" or "heel face turn." These terms are pulled from the world of professional wrestling, where a "heel" is a villain and a "face" is a heroic wrestler persona. Executing a surprising-yet-satisfying heel turn is a complicated job, but it can lead to some of the most memorable moments at the table. The key is preparation, and dropping subtle and ambiguous hints that the NPC's goals are either shifting or not as simple as they first seem.
Memorable turncoat examples.
- Master Li, Jade Empire
- Buddy/Syndrome, The Incredibles
- Anakin Skywalker, Star Wars
Monsters & Beasts & Gods - Oh, my!
Of course, not all the NPCs you'll be embodying as GM are humanoid species. Some of them will be incomprehensible alien intelligences and others will be creatures of animal cunning. Some of them might be literal gods! Here are some tips for creating and playing the NPCs who aren't
quite human (or elf, dwarf, halfling...)
Implacable force of nature
These NPCs include gods on the more deified end of the spectrum, disembodied extraplanar beings, giants, or magical constructs. These are beings for whom the player characters are literally beneath or beyond their capacity to notice. They're not (usually) malevolent or malicious, and their actions aren't personal because these enemies are more concept than person. These NPCs can be among the most challenging to roleplay, because they're so distant. It can be hard to get your players to really connect to these larger-than-life beings.
When playing this kind of NPC, your goal should be to strike awe, fear and respect in the players. These beings are not on the same level as your players; it's okay to not respond in the ways they expect which put them on their back foot. In a world where magic and mythical creatures are well-known and encountered fairly regularly, these encounters should feel like something rare and wondrous.
Smarter-than-human, otherworldly or incomprehensible intelligences
These NPC characters encompass mind flayers or beholders in D&D, or cosmic horror monsters more generally. It can also include otherworldly fae nobles, literal space aliens in sci-fi RPGs, or extraplanar beings like djinn, celestials, demons or fiends. Some gods will fall under this category, if they tend to the more anthropomorphized (and petty) end of the spectrum. These are beings that have some tenuous connection to a human perspective, but whose origins and nature make them
fundamentally weird.
These creatures are generally more intelligent than even a highly-intelligent humanoid, which can make them really intimidating to role play. One way to make that aspect more manageable for you as the GM is to think of it as the character having incomprehensible secret knowledge, rather than a true higher intelligence. This can also be a tool to balance these characters, since you can often counter this secret knowledge with a poor understanding of mundane, human things. Maybe your celestial NPC understands the language of stars... but doesn't understand what purpose a butter churn serves.
Human-like intelligence
These are NPC monsters whose personalities may be almost indistinguishable from humans, but wrapped in a distinctly
inhuman package. This category includes uplifted animals or beast folk, dragons, and formerly human undead.
The key to bringing these characters to life is to think about the one element that separates them from the humanoids. Dragons are incredibly long-lived, giving them a different view on short-term events. Beastfolk and uplifted animals may have characteristics associated with their animal natures - clever foxes, curious cats or posturing birds. As for the undead, think about how their curse of undeath might exaggerate or twist aspects of their personality which existed when they were alive.
Animal cunning
There are monsters that may not have the gift of speech, or have the intellectual capacity for complex plans and schemes, but which still require a level of roleplay from the GM. Most monsters, beasts and creatures fall into this category. Animal cunning is based on primal drives and imperatives like hunger, territoriality, and survival. It affects whether and when they'll fight or flee.
They may fight as a pack or swarm, trusting their numbers up to a certain point - after which they'll scatter. They may be overwhelmingly attracted to resources and shiny objects. They may behave very differently depending on whether their mates or offspring are threatened. These are the background details you'll want to have in mind when you play these creatures.
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