The Secret to Creating Great NPCs - DM Tips!

Today's guest column comes from the Wandering Wizard, here to bring you his musings on storytelling to help you run your game better than ever.

A common mistake made by new GMs when creating NPCs is to build the character around a series of if/then statements:

If the player characters do A, then the sheriff will do X
If the player characters do B, then the sheriff will do Y
If the player characters do C, then the sheriff will do Z

While it is valuable to take time before a session to consider possible actions that the player characters could take and how your NPCs might respond, any seasoned GM will tell you that it is impossible to anticipate the sort of crazy and unexpected ideas that your players will come up with in the moment.

But if you can't predict what they'll do, how can you possibly plan for it?

Your NPC's Desire Dictates Their Action

Rather than decide ahead of time what they'll do, it is far more useful to consider what your NPC wants in each scene. This can inform how s/he will act (or react) in any scenario created at the table.

When determining what your NPC wants, try to choose something specific and immediate. While it might be true that your shopkeeper wants to “cultivate a successful and profitable business that ultimately expands into nearby towns”, that is more of a long term goal, and hard to derive concrete actions from.

On the other hand, a shopkeeper who wants to “make a sale” has a compelling reason to engage directly with the PCs across a number of possible scenarios.

Conflict Fuels Story

The best motivations cause conflict, because conflict fuels story (and at its core, D&D is about telling a good story). Do not be afraid to create NPCs whose motivations cause conflict with the player characters.

What if the player characters do not want to buy anything from your shopkeeper? What is the shopkeeper willing to do to secure the sale? To get the PCs to even enter the shop?

A shopkeeper who wants the player characters to leave her shop as soon as possible is much more interesting and fun to engage with than a passive equipment-for-gold dispenser.

And as the GM, you want the table to be as fun and engaging for everyone as possible.

DMs, does this method sound like a better way to prep for your adventures? What methods do you use? Let us know in the comments section below.