Web DM Talks NPCs | 5e Dungeons and Dragons | TTRPG

hey there fellow dms i am pruitt and alongside me is noted matt mercer here plagiarist jim davis um and in that regard when it comes to making your npcs better we can't all rely on a wide repertoire of voices and voice work so you gotta you gotta dig down find out what they're really what they're really into what they wanna do and that way you as a dm can figure out how you would like to do this it's making npcs better on web dm this week's episode is sponsored by hero forge they're the masters of customizable miniatures if you've never played with their online 3d character creator you are missing out they've got so many options including new color printing you can make your character exactly the way you want it and they come out looking great go to heroforge.com to start designing your custom miniatures and check out their black friday deals live now through monday 11 30. all stl downloads are 3.99 or you use the code epic loot to get five dollars off any physical mini go to heroforge.com now link in the description okay jim today we're talking about npcs and ways to make them better if we don't want to do what the alliance did with miranda how do we make npcs better how do we make them better how do we make them certainly not by chemicals or anything so i to me when i when we're saying like make them better i i'm speaking specifically from a place of like to make them come alive at the table to make them a part of the world and and to have it be something that like the players can interact with have it be a personality fully fleshed out um not in the same way a pc is but in a more than just a combat stat block sense and so when i think of something you know like this i'm i'm referring to like what i've come to call a play sheet that this is the when i have an npc i bring this out and it lets me just like see the information that i want to see very quickly to let me portray them as as uh evocatively as possible and i try to blend like role-playing stuff with with the stats for whatever system i'm really running in but if it's like fifth edition then like what are some of their you know ability scores what are some maybe passive like insight that they might have or something what's their tbif right yeah they're yeah they're tedious and you know for me these sort of constraints of like including the mechanics and um uh you know mannerisms gestures personality type like they fuel creativity for me i know that some dm's like they just want to wing everything and have all options on the table i i find that i i flourish more under circumstances where i have set my boundaries and like okay this is where i'm at um and i also like to include an element of surprise in them so part of having that play sheet is having say if something on there is optional but really the the main reason why i use a play sheet and the main reason why i find that this enhances my npcs and makes them better is because it removes my bias somewhat from playing this npc like if i'm playing especially when i'm playing with the same group of players for a long time running games for them i'm going to develop a type of bias for what they want to do and it could be like negative in the sense of like you guys have gone away with way too much in the past or i've seen it all before you guys just have another wacky scheme in mind that uh that's going to fall apart and as soon as initiatives rolled like it could be like in that sense so make things harder for you or it can be a sense of like i really like y'all's characters guys and i like the fact that y'all come over here we're hanging out like i love this this is great oh yeah sure don't even worry about it you know you don't even have to roll like that sort of overly encouragement of of the players you know or sorry their characters and how easily they move through the world i want to remove those biases i want this npc to come to life as their own personality and so having a play sheet reminds me of like no they will go for the throat they will not hold back when they retaliate uh so that's where i'm coming from with this yeah i i tend to have that problem too whenever uh i i don't have a fully fleshed out npc at least in my earlier dm'ing jamming days you tend to lean on like more your own personality so for me i would my npcs would become kind of devil's advocate not not arguing but like arguing points but also being a smart ass like just just constantly you can just guarantee that that shopkeeper is going to argue with you over that yeah and then throw a cork you know a slide comment in there that might piss you off yeah i don't know uh but yeah i'm i'm i'm kind of the same way i don't i don't do like a like a full work up sheet i usually have just like four or five bits of info on there that gives me like you said the boundaries you're starting here this is as far as i'll go either way yeah and there's maybe a little secret in there but this is this plot this is this npc yeah yeah it's very much a maximalist approach to portraying an npc right like i think the minimalist is i you know i know maybe two or three things about the npc i'm just gonna go with it you know um and but it's not maximalist in the sense that it's a lot of background stuff that might not come up in play like lots of lore and backstory and things like that it's expressed through the play sheet but it's not integral to it so it's not stuff that's gonna potentially never come into play like everything on the plate she's like all right there is a reason that this is here and it's for use in session um but it is a lot and depending on what my goals are for an npc i i will drop certain things include you know or emphasize others more and of course depending on the system you know there might be more mechanical widgets uh or the like but this is really a very system neutral or system agnostic approach uh to uh to just like portraying an npc having them be a part of the world and a force in their own right okay well uh let's let's uh let's upgrade all those dm's operating systems out there with uh more functional widgets then let's let's go through your your your your your prompts here that you have for your uh your play sheet yeah what's what's first on your list that you worry about so first on my list when i'm uh when i'm thinking of of my play sheet is like i want role-playing prompts in the moment when i'm portraying this npc i'm going to be thinking about a lot of different things and uh usually at this point i'll create them on like a small card or something like that you know if i'm using a dm screen i'll pin to the back of it or just have in front of me even if i'm you know running an online game and the idea here is to uh be able to evocatively portray the character so i want personality demeanor something like that are they overbearing are they uh you know do they speak softly are they kind of timid and or are they introverted are they more outgoing like what is it about their demeanor and personality that's notable another might be gestures and mannerisms you know i find especially for online games some sort of hand gesture that gets up in the camera or like leaning forward leaning back that those can be as evocative as like standing up at a table and menacing or arms back something you know but oh yeah mannerisms and gestures are just as important in this case next one might be any notable features ticks quirks you know do they repeat the same word a lot do they you know emphasize things with a snort or or just a nose grunt you know yeah what is it that they might do that's notable yes are they like the witcher where they're only monosyllabic yeah right exactly yeah yeah um and all of these these are prompts right to portray your character evocatively um the big one is of course their voice and like their presence right how they are portrayed and i think we've mentioned before on the show that i went the good i don't know a couple of decades in playing where i don't think i ever spoke in character as a dm for an npc like i think it was always summary and and like here's the information that they want to get here's what they say i think sometimes i would but it'd be a little weird or awkward it was never with like a specific voice you know no no you yeah you would never uh no you would speak in first person for for villains and npcs sometimes especially later on but you never did voices it was more about tone yeah like you would adopt yeah if they were more angry you would you would get a deeper it was obvious right it's it you did the like audiobook version of voices where a good audiobook reader won't necessarily do full-on voices but you can definitely tell the difference between male female characters aggressive timid characters yeah that was that was how i that was how i felt most comfortable portraying them right i i i didn't see anything more being needed uh and usually the if i can recall now sort of really thinking about it the first person sort of speaking as an npc would usually come in like the big important moments right so i'm not you know little npcs like minor you know extras and the like i don't think they'd get that treatment but like the big ones the one that were recurring in pcs or or ones that were important in the setting um would generally get something but tone intonation the words you use how you you know the cadence of them like first off those are elements of how you develop unique voices right uh yeah but better but needs to be matt mercer sure uh but um it can sort of like go a little a little bit goes a long way because i think what i'm trying to say uh about it um but it's a it's something that's come up recently right like i think it's it that's what surprised me most about fifth edition and like returning to d and d that i was like oh yeah i think there's something that's changed in the play style and and the interactions between pcs and npcs is much more intimate and immediate than when i i recall playing well definitely i think uh as we've been exposed to more like online gaming and and how other people portray it especially when you want to talk about for entertainment purposes the the the desire to do more first person like i'm playing this character as a pc therefore the dm feels the need to play chara play their own npcs as evocatively like it's something that like same way like i never i never did like crazy voices i think i would do some sort of uh in my early dming days but certainly once once i started gaming uh online like i do try to do as crazy voices as possible because kind of who i've always been i've always been like more like an actor type like i love doing that and to just finally be like well yeah why haven't i been doing this the whole time yeah yeah um and just like set that tiger free don't don't cage it just let it go and who cares if it you know you know people are don't like your voices try differently sure i mean well number one it they don't have to be perfect you know and a bad voice one that's like a bad imitation or a bad accent of something can be just as evocative and you know just play it straight for me whatever comes out of my mouth is what i'm going with and you'll be lucky to get it the same way twice like i have to keep playing an npc multiple times every time we play to really get it down and i usually get into it by having catch phrase that i'll just say to myself something that's come up in those sessions right like a way i phrased something or some the way i said it to be able to recall that but that's something i've only really developed recently although i found with playing online and not even necessarily streaming but just playing online that having a unique voice even if it wasn't like a fully realized uh you know voice but having something different about it doing something more than just tone and and you know cadence uh was very helpful because i the way i remember portraying my npcs was from a standing position like i love standing and dming it helps me keep my energy up it helps me uh you know be more engaged with the game um and one of the benefits i saw of it was it's easy to play an npc i can stand back be standoffish i can cross my arms i can put them hands on my hips i can lean forward like a lot of that embodiment that physicality was lost in uh in an online game and so i find in that sense like having to find new ways and learning to to use the silly voices as they say um was an asset and then when i played in person since then these last few years i've never met anyone that it when i start doing in character voices and speaking a character who was like screw this this is stupid like in many ways it kind of breaks the ice and is encouraging to others to have someone at the table who's like yeah i don't care if this seems weird or or or cringe or whatever like i'm playing the game i'm playing it the way i want to um and help people uh get on board with that yeah definitely as the dm it does give everyone especially like i said at a convention where some people might be a little bit more hesitant to open up like being just boisterous and boisterous which is i that the word i just like okay i like it like the first time i had my my beholder that's a bartender like i really hadn't planned on making him sean connery and then when they finally walked in and i was like please come down to have a shape have a ship you know like like i just it was it yeah yeah um but uh but that's the thing like you're saying like sometimes like don't don't really like worry about the voice beforehand i mean obviously there are some npcs yeah you want them to be specifically like this very very reserved very you know but uh there are some that just like just wait till your mouth opens and wait for that moment how do you feel at that moment what comes out yeah uh yeah i found that i've developed about six or so stock voices you know i've got my monster voice i've got my nobility voice i've got my ruffian voice you know and most of those are just very minor slight like am i talking out of my throat am i talking out of my nose am i you know is my jaw forward is it back you know how what's my posture like and like it helps me get into character as well you know um so that's that's how i put the slight the slight british crisp accent on it yeah yeah on whether they're a villain or a ponzi noble yeah right yes that is a good way to uh to think of it i find with accents the that less is more than oh that it doesn't need to be laid on thick and that sometimes you know using an accent is a good way to express something in game or in character about them like if they're villains then they're british thank you star wars thank you star wars um but uh part of what goes along with like you know uh personification and voice is like their interaction style to begin with right are they berating are they silent are they you know monosyllabic like you're saying uh what is it like to interact with them um that's gonna be another big uh you know just a big point to consider and as important i think to embodying the npc as as anything else right like oh almost definitely one thing that i do whenever i know i have npcs that could possibly be villains like whether or not they are in in secret or i can see that they can be turned like they're exactly uh on board with what the pcs are doing yeah um using over using the pc's names like as if to say i know exactly who you are oh yeah you know actually using their name in every sentence yeah to reinforce that i know who you are and i've got it i've got a list in my head and i won't i won't be dissuaded as to anything versus uh you know those those those npcs that are just kind of carefree and just like oh what was your name again you know like and maybe they're good guys but the pc's constantly having to remind them who they are might throw in a little bit of a curveball and so they they'll be suspicious of the people they should trust yeah right um i don't know that's just that's that's one little like interaction quirk that i've kind of developed and like to use uh you know to bring them to life to bring their life yeah i i tend to go with the medieval humors and i find that the medieval humors are a great uh source for npc interaction because there's only four of them they're pretty iconic in in just their picture you know an npc that sanguine is a lot more just accommodating and you know supportive go along whereas a cleric uh you know nbc is just belligerent stubborn you know uh and so like thinking and first off there it's medieval thinking so if i'm playing a fantasy game it gets me in in sort of a medieval months and they're just they're they're four archetypal and easily recognized but still versatile enough personality types that um they serve as a good basis for you know just a quick i can read it all right they're melancholic okay that's all i need to know uh um and then if i i include something in the rp prompts um depending on what kind of game i'm playing and if this is a game that's heavy on social intrigue that's heavy on getting secrets out of npcs or engaging them in in conversations to like either get gather information or persuade them of something i will include what i've called deflections these are things that the npcs might do to brush this off or don't even worry about this you know you know and some of this requires like anticipating what it is that the players are going to talk about as a dm you usually know what it is that the players are are seeking an npc out you know what they want them for um so i will say things like oh that that incident that's vaguely connected to me what are you talking about this is clearly a misunderstanding or one of my insubordinates you know something that will maybe placate the pcs but at the very least is a stalling tactic from the npc yeah you know they got caught off guard uh and i find that having those handy and on like a little card or something right there like makes those interactions much more fluid and so when it when i can just have a deflection just loaded and ready to go as opposed to saying like oh well they him and haw for a bit and maybe they say something like this like that's kind of breaking the the narrative breaking the the you know the the in setting immersiveness um so i just like having them there oh yeah especially uh especially if you have your deflection like oh that's an interesting point let me get with my people and i'll get back to you yes like that's a solo one because then as a as a dm you've placated them hey they didn't know but they're going to find out and get back to you they're never going to get back but whether or not the players pick up on them but yeah like like uh and the other thing is it's a classic you know projectionism or uh uh deflecting to a minor or a subordinate that's just oh yeah i think my uh my stable hand was uh involved in that somehow you should go ask him yeah yeah and then throwing somebody sneaking out the back of the tower there's all kinds of things you can get up to here with deflections and a lot of it is like how much do you want to annoy your players you know like it's easy to to set up an npc that's just constantly evading uh questions and the like maybe it's super frustrating to put up with um but uh moving on from role-playing prompts the next thing that's on my play sheet uh and this is where i find that a full play sheet like i set this thing down in front of me uh landscape style um are the characteristics these are yeah qualities about the npc or things about them that are good for scheming brilliant little scale right you know like these describe the the npc's like ultimate or long-term goals there's all kinds of things like what what are their motivations what do they not want what do they want you know um and so like this is really useful for determining like how does an npc react you know how do they behave in the world that i've set up when the players aren't doing anything interacting with them what's the npc getting up to and that's what these characteristics are for um they inform role-playing like you know you can look to these to get a better idea of how you should role play or react to a situation and then they also like because they spur in game moments they interact with the system potentially really well and so they kind of occupy this middle ground between pure rp and pure statistics uh game stats that i kind of like they're fun oh well you could you could definitely uh create like a little graph right where you your your npc is starting at zero and your x-axis is their goal are they closer to the goal are they away from it oh yeah on the y-axis could be their relationship with the party therefore is it positive are they going up here towards their goal or negative like what kind of npc are they right and how well uh is the party interacting with their motivations and goals yeah yeah uh you know there's so many different ways to do that um but you know like we were saying earlier as long as you have those boundaries of what they're willing to do and what they're going what they're attempting to to get yeah and and they'll function anywhere in that like yeah as long as you have the boundaries in place everything else is all play right right yeah this that's what this is for you know by by making these explicit and for me i just use quick bullet points you know if i'm thinking about motivations and goals it's just like quick as good as quickly as i can or shorthand rather not as quickly but it is about like keeping things focused and and making sure that i'm doing the npc justice that's why it's worth writing all these out so speaking of motivations and goals what is it that drives them why do they get out of bed why do they do what they do and then what is it that they want to do and i might have short-term goals might have long-term goals as closely as these goals can align to what the players are doing the better right that's going to put them on a collision course with this npc and in that sense this is how they're going to drive play then their motivations inform interactions with the npc or with the pcs how they move about the world what kind of things they're willing to get up to a list of wants and not wants you know they do not want these things they might be related to the goals and motivations they might not be um you know perhaps things that might be a front it could be a front right yeah what they don't want might not be related to it at all and that represents a way for the players to kind of come at the npc from a different angle of course finding out what they don't want is a challenge in and of itself but like that's why it's worth it to create this play sheet because then that opens up the possibility of this style of play of like figuring these things out um if i'm talking d d i'm gonna have their alignment their ideals their bonds and flaws like i love alignments for npcs you know um they're great for just a shorthand of for a lot of this you know um oh yeah and then their ideals bonds and flaws they they inform a lot of this uh a lot of the say the motivations what they want what they don't want um i will say fifth edition in the addition of the the traits ideals bonds flaws is a great shorthand if you use it properly as far as for your npcs right it goes a long way to to give you this info information at a shorthand i don't really do like a full like sentence for my npcs but i do usually use that template yeah because it it is a great shorthand for for you know at a glance be like oh right there that is their flaw so they would fall for this ploy that the in that the players are doing yeah you know a drinking contest they love the drink yes and so of course they're having their honor challenge yeah i'll sit with you shot for shot and now you can maybe get that npc to start spilling some beans yes you know yeah yeah knowing what they knowing what they are going to fall for and and what are their sort of like avenues of approach is going to be really important having them written down is obviously good i would say with fifth edition the stuff in the dmg the ideals bonds and flaws tables in the uh chapter four those are serviceable like start out with them but there's not a lot of options and they're kind of generic yeah expand yeah what i would love to see is like the uh so there are these devil and demon mor uh motivation tables and ideals and bonds and flaws in uh modern kindness and i would have loved to have seen just a generic set of monster stats for this like the you know what is it that monsters hold as ideals or bonds um so like think about how they relate to the sort of npc you're creating uh you know is this a dragon is this a beholder how might it be different than than like what a mortal might have for these uh these qualities um so another four uh for the characteristics that an npc might have or just their secrets what do they know that might be valuable right oh yeah oh they hey the the secrets like in in most popular you know media that's the thing you know and john wick uh he was only really pissed the the main guy when john burned all of his blackmail all of the secrets that he had garnered because that's power power right if you can learn what the big bad like or or just the the in the big npc you're dealing with if you can learn the things that they know about people oh well you're taking their leverage away like that's just oh that's that's a good stuff you can kill them sure but to unmake them that's the other yes yeah to really hit him where it hurts you know and and secrets could be of that variety of like this is this is a resource that the nbc will utilize so taking it away or or neutralizing it somehow is is a uh is going gonna be a factor in them but it could also just be things that the nbc knows that the pcs don't yet right it could be lore for how to defeat the monster or how to conduct the spell or or who should i talk to to begin this you know you know influencing this other npc or something like that and if you just think of secrets it's like oh the players just don't know this yet their characters don't know this yet um and then maybe include something in it about what are the conditions under which this might be revealed and that kind of ties into responses and retaliations which is another category i'll sometimes come up with which one of the responses might be reveals a secret you know clues them in on something introduces them to another npc um if if this were powered by the apocalypse uh you know uh game aid these would be what are called hard moves these are things that the npc will do directly to the pc's actions they are retaliations and responses to pc actions you know when the players first hit the the you know the underworld bosses crime syndicate or whatever uh what's their retaliation like what's the what's their first response like um and again this is where by having this put down earlier you can anticipate and sort of think this through as opposed to doing it in the moment and like remove some of that bias really give it time to like oh yeah if they do this this is how this guy's gonna strike back you know this is what it looks like um it's worth the first time keep track of all that what's that yeah first first he's going to try to hire him right yeah it's the best way to get rid of a problem just start paying them more right yeah can i just buy you guys off you know is that is that an option here and maybe it is you know maybe if it shows up with a bunch of magic items and some gold or something like that whatever that is the pcs really want uh then maybe they do maybe they have to deal with that moral compromise yeah if he's if he's found out the secrets of what they really want oh you're trying to find your people i have a map you know that right yeah i've got that information yeah that's that's especially like using that style of play in the opposite direction like where the piece the npcs are trying to figure out things about the pcs like how can they do that how do you pump a pc for information or you know get them to reveal it to you surreptitiously in a conversation um that's maybe a different show but it's worth thinking about uh if you're going to run a really social intrigue heavy game you know oh yeah yeah the response is retaliation is going to be one of the more important parts uh yeah yeah how do they get this information are they reading your mind do they just get it get it out of you as you're talking do they sherlock holmes that you know deduce it from from your actions you know how do they do it you have the pollen of a very specific plant that is only in this cemetery i followed you and i saw the gravestone of your mother right like that kind of thing's like jeez man like that's super involved get a get a life right or does their familiar follow them around and get a feel for what it is that they do and what they like like there's a lot of different ways that uh that they might respond and i think gathering information first is one way to do it they might just retaliate with violence you know and that might be another way in which they you know are unique and stand out as as part of the uh the setting most definitely um so as we as we move along here uh in your in in your little uh your your play sheet here um obviously npcs there's going to be a lot of interaction with players yeah so how do you how do you like to to lay out uh so to speak their their their their social stats yeah this this would be the section that i would i'd call as the closest or i'd say is the closest to their combat stat block this is where we we really just lay out what the game mechanics are that surround the uh the npc and it's primarily there for helping us resolve actions with them so speaking from a 5th edition perspective but again this is largely system agnostic i would look at what their ability check dcs are right this might require checking out their starting attitude you know what's what's what is their initial disposition towards the pcs because that will determine the persuasion uh checks needed to kind of like influence them um but beyond that i would have uh you know something noting their passive deception something noted their their passive insight for npcs i try to create as many um like non-variables as i can you know just to keep the keep it i don't know keep it as seamless as possible my goal when i'm role playing a scene is to break that immersion as little as possible and let the conversation play out and and decide at the end of it uh you know whether a role is even needed or not um but use my passive scores to inform how the npc like responds in that moment you know how to how do they like is their passive insight kind of high are they really good at reading you know another person the longer they talk to them is their passive deception kind of low like they just are not good at casually lying you know i don't usually like to roll off in those cases um just because i prefer that the player just do a quick roll tell me what it is we keep going and i know that that's even that extra step of like okay i had to roll we're comparing you know uh i don't even that is too much for me just quick roll would you get okay let's keep going um so yeah that's where these things are i i pretty much function in a very similar way uh if if a player if the players are trying to get some information they make their pitch we have a conversation and then there will be a roll just to see like okay well you've pretty much won them over with your convo let's see how much info you get yeah yeah did you pass you're going to get what you need but not anything extra did you fail okay you might get what you need but it's going to come at a cost did you roll really well well guess what you're going to get what you need plus a few extra tidbits that'll help you along the way a little bit easier and so it's it's more on that it's it's it's the the way that they interact with the npc will inform how much i'm willing to give them based off a role yeah yeah i think that's a really good way to think about it too just to what is it that they're the players can get from this why is it worth engaging with the system in these moments uh and and how do i resolve them because i in addition to like not having bias or removing as much of my bias as possible like part of that and and a complimentary to that is getting rid of as much dm fiat just decision because of my whim like i can always do that there is nothing about this process that's that keeps me from going this is what i want at this moment but having these constraints that i that i voluntarily put myself in like i feel more emboldened in my portrayal of an npc when i tell myself listen they will always be like this or this is these are the dc's that are needed because they're difficult to persuade they're stubborn right like having an embodiment to the game mechanics as well as reinforcement through role-playing prompts like to me that's when i feel most satisfied uh you know as a dm of how i've portrayed them so in addition to ability check stuff i might put their actual stats down like what is their persuasion what is their charisma what's their intimidation anything like that um i am gonna note uh sort of special qualities and traits do they have any magic that's relevant here any special items or anything you know yeah i mean yeah if you if you're going to go talk to jarl axel uh you're going to want to know all that he can do as the dm playing oh yeah certainly right do they have a you know ability to not have their mind read do they have like some kind of mental defense do they yeah you know can their emotions be swayed right do they have something that prevents their emotions from being uh from being altered uh do they have some kind of defense against charm or something like that um can they you know do they have uh glibness or something where they're just really good at lying um and you know and how that comes across as you know in your interactions that's a tough one to to sort of answer i i i take like how good of an npc a liar is largely in terms of how much can i hide from the players in my portrayal you know like in many ways playing a character an npc that's very good at deception requires me to know my so that i can actually lie to the players as a person you know like you know the less that i stutter stammer have to think of things then the easier it is for me to just pass this off as their legit answer and not trip up the players like dm's lying to us you know yeah the players in their passive insight to the dm's yeah yeah we don't need to get meadow with with all the interactions right yeah so that's one way of doing it another it's like you know just having the the lies and and what their deflections and covers might be already written out or something um or maybe you just don't care about any of that and you're fine telling players like oh yeah they're just really good at lying you can't tell you know and then trust them not to met a game um but if there's something from like their combat stat block that might be relevant here i'll note it you know do they have some ability that might influence a social interaction that i'll pull from a combat stat block uh yeah the other big thing i think you mentioned it earlier kind of a progress track is i will note any clocks or countdowns that are associated with them right oh yeah so without getting too much into it a clock and countdown are two means that a dm can sort of track progress of in-game events clock is a countdown to a specific event um you know whatever it is that's gonna happen four ticks eight ticks six ticks uh blades in the dark makes good use of these um and then the other one is like a progress track where you track the individual steps of what's gonna happen uh either you know as this npc accomplishes their goals they start ticking off boxes on the track you can combine them for every clock that fills up they move one down the track or whatever um but clocks could be anything they could be you know how long until they until they send someone after the in the pcs and then every tick of that is filled with you know specific actions that the pcs can take before they retaliate for the nbc retelling right something like that they're just here to give me an idea largely they're there to remind me oh yeah the npc did want to do this you know especially in a sandbox game uh these this is a really uh really gonna help bring your setting to life almost definitely i mean and even you can use them in conversations i mean this could represent an npc the players beseeching a sultan to allow them to do whatever and maybe they say the wrong thing right at the beginning well guess what now a clock starts at the sultan losing his patience yes yeah and every time you say something wrong or you make a roll and it doesn't roll come out well guess what that clock's starting to fill up and when he loses his patience he might just throw you in the dungeons for a day or so yeah you know and so you have to know like you know what i feel the clock's running out we're just gonna go yeah we'll come back later the team's role playing of that you know yeah um the sort of the inverse of that is how much are the pcs affecting like in swaying the npc and if you're frustrated by or unsatisfied with like my super persuasion optimized rogue or bard like just keeps overwhelming my poor npcs like this is a good way of just being like it's not gonna take one of these it's gonna take work you know no you can't just roll inside against them you barely know them right like you're gonna have to spend time with them in order to gain any insight into their behavior or or their motives or whatever you know um and i think if you're looking to like really enhance and expand on the social pillars of your game social interaction the npc interaction whatever that having these supportive tools being able to fall back on mechanics being able to you know to to look at your place you can go nope this is what i wanted i'm getting caught up in the moment here for getting to portray my npc the way i wanted them to um like that will make it much more satisfying than if the npcs are just like cardboard stand-ins that that don't really have a personality or and can be persuaded with one role that's less satisfying than like this it's it's another character or you know what i mean it's it's they're a part of the setting they can't just be steamrolled um it doesn't work for every game but i i prefer this method in all in just about any game linear open i like this as a player i like interacting with this npcs yeah and um just kind of um rounding out the conversation here you discussed uh dm fiat or bias a lot yeah and one way to circumvent that is with tables certainly yeah because you can just have tables for pretty much anything there's a lot of yes yeah there's a lot of it that can that can be reduced to tables and so having tables on the play sheet i usually include some space on it for just miscellaneous some blake's blank spot and that's usually where i'll include these and i use them in two ways i either make a play sheet for like a generic type of npc so if i was like all right orc warchief has this play sheet and most of the information here is going to be short d4 d6 tables so it's like they have d4 mannerisms d6 goals things like that that's one way i use it i i've done that once so far and i found it useful but there weren't multiples of the end of the npc to come up to justify needing all the stuff that i put on the table yeah um so i i haven't really used it since then um but what i have used uh recently are tables that give that let me have some variety in the the context in which this npc is encountered or like what it's like to encounter them in this moment and so the the five that i use the most number one if you guys have watched uh long and you know long time viewers will know that i make use of the reaction table a mechanic from classic d d rolling 2d6 uh with each of the so there's like five categories within there that go from worst at two to absolute best 12. the other break points are three and five uh six through nine or six through eight and then nine through eleven um gives you this nice spread provides enough variety that if they're interacting with an npc a lot it could be beneficial and you have a lot of control over what those categories mean and how those uh brackets are situated you know you might do three categories four change them up you know and so i really like using this to determine starting attitude for uh for a first time npc so starting attitude determines the initial dc's in fifth edition just roll a reaction what's it like what's their mood how do they what what first impression do the pcs make and to me this is something that the pcs don't really have a say in this is entirely the npc and i'll use reaction roles to see how an npc reacts to a you know proposal put by the player characters to actions from them and i've yet to find out a way to really get it to mesh well with the persuasion intimidation and deception roles but especially for persuasion i'm increasingly coming around on the idea the idea of like i don't know how that the players will have input in this but i think that the final decision on who or in what circumstances in npc will allow themselves to be persuaded like that that is part of that npc you know i mean this is all weird we're treating them like they're real people kind of thing but there's something about it for me where i you know that's great you roll the 25 on your persuasion they're not impressed like it doesn't matter you could've rolled a 40. this is not the way that they're going to uh be persuaded you know um so having a table really helps with that for me yeah see i'm thinking on a reaction roll table two is disadvantage 12 is advantage on that persuasion if it's three through five you maybe have like a minus three and if it's the other end of the of middle it's plus three okay but other than that or maybe minus two plus two and then if it comes in the middle it's just nothing you're just making the roll yeah the six through eight you know that's a straight roll you could but uh you could so i i like that here's how i here's how i change that because i like where you're going with it middle is like you're saying just a straight roll and then maybe the the next brackets up and down are the disadvantage advantage right three through five and then the two is like you don't even get your proficiency like you it's cumulative too right like you've got disadvantage and no proficiency like this is the worst possible outcome roll your raw charisma check you know whereas like 12 might be you double your proficiency like this is the best possible expertise yeah and advantage just in go you know and that might that's a good because it's like those 2 and 12 are going to come up so rarely i want them to be big you know yeah that is true the probabilities of it all yes you can watch our video on random tables our most recent one for more of this uh so i'll have that after your random table table right so and that's where i keep all of them yes my table of tables uh one of the things that i'll do with the reaction table is link it to personality and demeanor or interaction style right like you can express those things mechanically through the reaction table and that's that can be pretty fun um another one is if i'm playing like an open world uh kind of game especially if it's like an open city where you know you're just running around this one location um is to have a where is the npc at in this location you know table do they find them always in the same place like they're a video game quest giver just there waiting for the exclamation point there or you know might they have to hunt them down you know oh no sorry the npc is in their study and asked not to be disturbed right now always in another castle oh they're yeah they're visiting with somebody oh yeah of course they're you know taking their afternoon tea out on the veranda or something uh that if the player is going to interact with the npc a lot then this is just a nice way to provide a little variety you know just a nice little way of saying okay this time you're in this part of his mansion or her wizards tower or whatever you know um you know if you if you're dealing with like uh you know someone that's on the on the road a lot okay well now they're you know it's less about the location now it's maybe it's more about the activity they're making camp they're packing up they're brushing down their horse they're you know cutting up some firewood or something um location activity are one of those that they're not important if i don't have space if i don't need them i might not include them but i i like to if i can just make a make a little change here and there here and there yeah well i mean also it this is a way to to give the players some information about the npc oh yeah if they're always doing these certain activities at various locations and you maybe need to find out a little bit more now your now is your opportunity well we want to we want to try to shadow them for a bit okay well this is roll some dice this is what this is where they go and this is what they do when they get there yeah yeah and you might not even not in the field yeah you might not even need a table for that you might be like okay every other day they are always at this place you know or they spend every morning at this place and learning that information is key to like gaining access to the npc or or whatever um so yeah that's that's a really good point if i've got space and i'm just feeling weird or just or it's the kind of game where this would be beneficial i might have like who who's who's with them at this moment do they have an entourage of followers are they in someone's company you know oh yeah and in the hangers on right the hangers on yeah do they have any sycophants nearby is their bodyguard here are they completely alone or what they are they with their family like in the same way that a combat encounter can be variable in terms of like uh is the enemy aware of us are are we aware of them maybe neither of us are how far away are they what are they doing is it the goblin fight club or the two goblins who were just getting drunk in the corner right like all of those things add variety and spice to a combat encounter so why wouldn't i want that for my social encounters you know they give you us a frame all right well the npc is now at lunch with their family you know is this the right time to talk to them about this thing um yeah it really helps to create a living world oh yeah it definitely uh because you know sometimes you just all you need to do is get to someone in the entourage yes uh you don't have to get to the main npc especially if they're some kind of like godfather type figure or you know the head of some kind of group yeah uh you you get leverage on one and that's a way to get information on the main guy without doing it directly so it's you know all it is is options right all you're doing is providing options avenues for information to be disseminated yes yeah and especially with like the finding ways in finding a weak link like that is another way that you can really enhance an intrigue based game you know where it's like okay we've got to get the queen's ear we've got to find a way to get this message to the queen well we can't just go in there and talk to her right you can't just get an audience you have to know someone you have to have an end someone has to introduce you you have to be a known quantity do you blackmail this courtier or this you know page or whatever to uh to gain you that access do you try to charm them become like get to be their friend so that they introduce you voluntarily you're just using them you know when you send it in the bar right this is where you send in the bard is this where they really are able to like shine and have their moments the the social focused rogue or you know the the elegant courtier paladin whatever like this is their battlefield this is where they are you know shine and being able to set these things up and having them you know be part of your world as opposed to like we want to go talk to this npc okay here's this npc and it's just like it might as well take place on a blank comic book panel or something you know it's just not alive not not evocative uh you know um so yeah that's that's why i like using these tables and then i will always try to have something what do they got on them what's their loot yeah you know if worse comes to worse and the party is looting their corpse then i want i want it to be worth their trouble you know oh yeah definitely because hey depending on where that npc how important they are if they have different uh if they have different fronts that they put up for different groups of people that they see you know you want to hit them up when they're loaded up with the rings and the cufflinks and not when they're visiting the poor so therefore they they leave all that at home they don't want to show off because they're dealing with the poor that day like no you don't hit them that day you hit them the day that they go see the cardinal and they're decked out uh yeah in all of the golden fineries if that is the goal if that's the goal yeah does that what happened you know i'm thinking of another one like what happens when you pickpocket them like what can you do can you like okay we know that they've got the scroll we need on their person you know or we suspect it you know uh let's go see if we can't pill for it let's see if we can't like do one of those uh uh you know one of those pickpockets that do it on stage you know where they're like just bring an audience member and stand right here i'm gonna see how many things i can take out of your pockets or put in them without you noticing like if they're that brazen about it then you might want to know yeah they got these things in their pockets it doesn't have to be if they loot them it could be for a lot of things you know they have this on hand to give they've you know i i like having these things rather than just like coming up with them on the fly because when i'm a player and that happens every time they happen to have exactly what we need they happen to have you know whatever it is the right moment like that breaks my sense of immersion and that's what makes the game world feel like it's catering just to me this is a theme park and and if i just if i stepped over here behind the cutout we would to be nothing whereas i find it a satisfying experience for both a player and a dm side to be like oh no like we did our best to remove any of the background here like i i know what's in their pocket because i wrote it down and i have it right here i didn't want to wing it necessarily don't do this for every npc right like i might do this for three to four per campaign you know you know at most maybe no more than six like that's a lot of that's a lot of work it's a lot not for much benefit um but you know faction patrons uh villains you know like long-term villains uh npc allies they'll get this treatment uh the whole you know the whole shebang all of it what would you say just kind of rounding out the conversation here jim what would you say is your favorite part of this kind of uh npc prep what's the thing you look forward to the most i look forward to the the what we refer to as the characteristics the motivations the goals the secrets like i like i like a shorthand that helps me portray the npc as evocatively as possible um i like the interaction moments in game but where i really get excited where i really feel like i'm i'm stepping into my npc shoes is in the prep phase right it's when i'm looking at their sheet and going like how will they retaliate here how will they utilize some of their secrets against the npc or against the party or maybe for them right it's it's that moment where i get to respond to what the players are doing and the fact that it happens in prep i that's fine i'm i'm not playing the game at that moment i'm creating it in some ways or or facilitating future game play so it's kind of this quasi solo game that you get to play with you know by yourself yeah you get to write up all the dialogue problems right yeah or or you get to listen to me especially if you don't you might you might literally be writing up dialogue uh which sometimes as part of my portrayal i'll do quotes or sayings or phrases that they might use a lot of you know yeah um that's mostly what i do i'll just write a couple of quotes yeah yeah just to give them embodiment yeah um but then i you know i i wanna i wanna know how this character uh interacts with the world and if i'm also doing like a faction turn where i'm going through all the factions and looking and seeing how they're responding to the events of the world and furthering their own goals and that just makes that part of prep more game-like for me and i'll that's where i use tables i i you know i'm like all right whatever i roll i'm sticking to it um as a way to like create a setup for the party to then interact with that flows organically from session to session [Music] web dm is powered by our patreon community the web demons you become a web demon for as little as two bucks a month and that'll get you ad-free audio versions of everything we do you can ask us questions that might show up on webdmtalks our monday podcast available everywhere for five bucks a month we've got our patreon podcast that comes out once a week we go way into topics we don't have time to get into here there's a lot more to go check it out

Channel: Web DM

Views: 56,394

Rating: 4.9618368 out of 5

Keywords: DnD, dungeons and dragons, d&d, dungeons & dragons, web dm, webdm, rpg, how to play dungeons and dragons, d\u0026d, dm tips, non player characters, dungeons \u0026 dragons, ttrpg, tabletop, role-playing game, dm, dungeon master, pathfinder rpg, lazy dm, dnd5e, 5th edition, gm tips, game master, matt mercer, matthew colville, running the game, npc tips, creating npcs, creating npcs d\u0026d, improv dm, better npcs

Id: ArU4KGudjZc

Length: 59min 8sec (3548 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 29 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/brightbard12-4]

I just love listening to them talk, gets my brain juices flowing and gets me hyped for RPGs

[u/esongbird24601]

This was a fantastic episode. Got me thinking about my current NPCs. Makes me really interested in seeing an example of their NPC sheet!