Confessions of a Game-Mistress

Nothing can make or break a game faster than cardboard NPCs. Here’s how I bring my NPCs to life.

1) A good name. Nothing stupid, cliche, or anachronistic.

2) A good quick description. Hair, how they dress, and mannerisms. I try to assign at least one distinctive feature to an NPC, be it the way they dress, a physical tic, something about the way they speak. It makes it easier on both me and the players when remembering the character. Yeah, people always have a hard time with names, but the kid with the green and yellow hat they’ll remember.

3) I ask the basic questions - Who - Who is this person? What - What do they do? Why - Why are they important or involved? How - How are they useful to the characters and to me?

That quick bit of info is usually sufficient for me to improvise upon and keep an NPC interesting.