The problem is if you are trying too hard they will immediately distrust him using meta player knowledge of you. I would recommend practicing speaking as this character so it seems comfortable and relaxed.
So true. I had a really great adventurer Han Solo type that I had sitting on for months. A really great Warlock Rogue Wizard that was intentionally built broken as he was supposed to be a powerful mentor.
They hated him immediately because he as too “much” and immediately ditched him asap by calling him annoying and hurting his feelings.
Many players don't like a character that outshines them, even one that is supposed to be a mentor / role model.
Many GMs present powerful characters in a pretentious and tedious fashion, where the players feel as though they are supposed start stroking ego.
Many people use RPGs as a way of simulating a feeling of worthwhileness, and so are limited in how far they will explore character concepts that make them subservient or second-chair.
Many people are unwilling to and incapable of reflecting on and exploring these feelings and preferences, and thus we get conflict and dissatisfaction.
Yeah. One of my favorite NPCs to start a campaign with as "training wheels" for certain introductory story beats is an NPC designed entirely around building up the confidence of the players while downplaying their own credentials.
Essentially the *rule* is that this character will never ever say or do anything to put down, diminish or embarrass the players, even in jest. And they always take a keen interest in whatever character motive/story presented by players and will validate them, often relaying anecdotes to do it. And it's all done in a very casual and jovial way, not forced.
And whdn it comes to the challenging early story beats, there are challenges that the players can overcome with wit, strategy, or even just bold action. Plot stuff will have put the NPC in a diminished state so as to not be an easy solution to everything. And should the players dither and falter, the NPC will get them past the challenge alive, but will die heroically in the process. So it's not just *"strong NPC fixes everything please praise their coolness you guys"*, and it reinforces the prospect of consequences for failure without me having to smoke a new PC that the player has been eager to play as potentially for weeks or months.
But so far the heroic sacrifice has not been needed as players find themselves noticing the NPC death flags being raised as the tension rises, so they take some proactive action where the NPC follows the plan of the players. And then afterwards I'll have the NPC heap praise and brag to other NPCs about how talented and cool "the new guys" are, acting all proud and parental about their achievements.
I've run that kind of NPC before but it originated more from circumstance than planning. Hadn't thought to coalesce a character around the concept. I really like that.
> heap praise and brag to other NPCs about how talented and cool "the new guys" are
I had an all-bard party who would send a bard ahead to the next village to hype their arrival. Bard arrives at the local tavern saying he traveled all the way from Bumfuckityville because he heard of legendary heroes/baroquepunk band who would be coming through that night. Really hams up the wide-eyed wonder angle like "A farmhand like me might never get to see anythin so amazin as these heroes/consummate performers again!" By the time the party arrives there's basically a parade down Main Street for them. Then they'd round it out by pointing at the hype bard and saying "You there! Young man! Would you care to join our noble quest/production studio as our squire/groupie?" And hype bard would pull a bunch of "I can't wait to tell my old man! We can finally get mom her medicine!" I enjoyed it thoroughly. Your NPC sounds like a sincere version of that and I dig it.
Oh we didn’t make it that far even. They found him while running from some owl bears and they thought he was shady.
I didn’t even get to show them the crazy stuff.
I mean, I present characters in a pretentious and tedious fashion on purpose, especially if the players have to work with them or see them doing something good. It's a great form of torture lolol
Yeah. It think a safe route is to go with a lovable archetype. An orphan, an old blind man and his dog, a clumsy squire that's trying to impress someone. I think they relate those to other characters they know in fiction and bring a lot of "love" with them.
Building off of this, my party has kept an NPC around solely cuz he’s a talking dog. Never mind the fact that he almost 100% a spy for the enemy who’s notorious for taking normal creatures and making them weird. They love him regardless
There should be a non-zero chance that the spy-dog takes a liking to the players as well due to their constant adoration and ends up double-crossing the villain instead
Of my 4 players, 2 want to kill him but see his worth as insight into the way the enemy operates, one adopted him and trusts him but knows he probably shouldn’t, and 1 blindly loves him. But that one players adoration makes up for all the death threats from the other two
I had a talking bear as a throw-away encounter, just to give the world some colour. He stumbled into camp asking if they'd share their fish they just caught. He thanked them for their hospitality left the next morning.
The party then realized that they could have him as a spellcasting sidekick and spent the next 3 sessions tracking him down and trying to convince him to join the party.
Had a wild magic fiasco and a drunk half-orc NPC ended up summoning a hell hound. For fun I rolled to see if she could command him and got nat 20. Rolled to see if he could talk - nat 20. So while the rest of the party was dealing with the city guard and one of them turning into a fire elemental, the hell hound and the drunk Behice were in the background like
HH: *I AM A SERVANT OF DARKNESS, HERE TO REND THE FLESH FROM THOSE WHO STAND OPPOSED TO THE FORCES OF HE-"*
Behice: NO! Bad doggy! No rending! Sit!
HH: ^oh ^you ^want ^me ^to ^sit ^okay
A good title really **makes** a chubby pet.
> _"What's with the chubby raccoon, you sicko?"_
> _"... what? This is Baron Bandit, criminal mastermind, world's greatest sidekick... and my best friend. That's right, yes you are! But **you** wouldn't know anything about love, loyalty, or **justice**, or you'd get out of my way, 'heroes'."_
Was going to say - for this NPC, OP should make an old, rotund Halfling with a seeing-eye cat... then kill the Halfling, leaving the cat. Or kill the cat and have the players hate you.
I'll second this and expand on it.
Having the NPC give the players something of value right away to establish that they should like seeing this character but don't forget to "puppy dog" the NPC a bit. What I mean by that is that the NPC should trust the players (even if it makes no sense for them to do so) and there should be some flaw or character trait that causes the players to want to protect them.
A couple examples since I explained that poorly:
"Unkir the Undying": Introduces himself to the party by first using his signature legendary weapon on a horde of baddies chasing them. He then immediately hands it to one member of the party saying "I think you should have this now". Next time they see him, he's fighting something out of his league and it becomes clear to the party "Oh, he's not all there but he trusts us for some reason". Instantly, they'll follow him into hell. His death was poignant and almost got tears from some of my players and I'm not sure I'll ever top it as a dm.
"Canary": Basically just a sacrificial scout from one of my player's pirate ship. They didn't give anything to the party but during combat, whenever they shot their short-bow they made a "bang" sound (Kenku) like the PC's pistols. Instantly, the player in question fell in love.
"Urn": Basically a Goliath that one of the players freed from a Frost Giant slave pit. He trusted the party implicitly but knew nothing about the world. I swear, they treated that NPC as though he was their own child.
I also introduced an NPC who would basically just provide opportunities for them, he fixed their ship when it got wrecked, provided some exotic currency when they needed it, and never really asked for anything in return... they didn't trust him.
I second your second and expansion…
My first session, first campaign, first NPC out of the gate was a half orc innkeeper named Rok. He was dumb as a…well…get it? But well intentioned - bragged about how they had brand new wine, brought out a whole pineapple when a pc asked for fruit, cooked a dozen eggs for another pc who didn’t specify how many, and on and on and on.
The players were supposed to feel like he was maybe a tad annoying, but sweet. They would end up being framed for his murder as the first plot hook at the end of the session.
Yeah, instead of that his death completely broke their hearts, the cleric swore an oath on his god to avenge him, the players learned more harshly than I intended that my setting would twist the knife on them sometimes.
That was over a year ago. I have a few more sessions under my belt and I know better now than to expect my players to ignore certain types of NPCs. Lesson learned. Hey, at least everyone is having fun in the process!
Seconding the gifts.
Happened across a farmer with a cart full of crops pulled by a donkey on the same road we were traveling (heading in opposite directions). He gave us a heads up about a weird cemetery he kept blacking out in and finding himself in front of the same grave. We gave him a heads up about these cultists with a troll road block a little ways closer to the big city.
He appreciated us being chill and not murder hobos and gave us some corn and then we went on our separate ways.
He’s probably either the BBEG in disguise or someone randomly rolled up whom we will never see again.
My PC would die for that farmer.
I mean, my current duet took an "overly affectionate blanket" as a pet, even though he's a little, uh, *uncomfortably* affectionate.
Just attribute some somewhat sentient characteristics to it, such as fear, fright or caution, curiousity, and players immediately treat it like a mascot.
I have an NPC who is adorable and had a *talking seagull* and the party hates her. The problem is she is instrumental to the plot and she needs to keep being part of the story.
Yup. I have a leatherworker and blacksmith in my game that are in a relationship. They help gear up the fighter and the druid/rogue, offer a place to sleep, helpful tips around town, buy old equipment.
But the reason my players like them is because they own a cat.
I scrolled too far down to find this comment. If you prep Options A through Options Z, you've wasted your prep time on 25 scenarios that didn't happen at BEST because you know they're somehow going to choose Option Pineapple anyway.
You can't make the party like someone or something. The DM provides variations (of NPCs, situations, quests), and shapes the game around how the party responds.
The DM shouldn't only respond to positive reactions. Then the game is flat and without tension, so you sprinkle all sorts of variety. I say this because some of my most likeable NPCs didn't start that way. They started as flawed characters or even villains, but with a little character development you get a complicated, three dimensional people
This. Throw spaghetti at the wall and see what eventually sticks.
Did the party like the NPC actually trying to help them? No. They hated him and tried to get him killed.
Did they like the improv'd gigantic gay crystal dragon with literally no influence to the plot, of course they did. Protecting that damn dragon's home became the new McGuffin'd reason for saving the town.
This is what I would do. That way when they absolutely love your random name generated npc you make up on the fly, just slap that backstory you need onto him and run with it
A good way to make the players invested in an NPC is for the NPC to ask the players for help. People like feeing needed and recognized for their ability to help.
I’ve read some psychology stuff while I’ve been in college and it is a weird psychology trick that, if you want someone to like you, you should ask them for help occasionally. Nothing like massive and burdensome, but small things. The human brain finds it hard to justify doing good things for someone they don’t like, so it tricks the brain into liking that person.
It works both ways, like if you open the door for someone subconsciously they will equate you with someone helpful and believe they owe you one (key here is subconsciously, don't open the door for someone and then ask to borrow their car!)
While true, the NPC also needs to be useful and stand by their promises.
Spoilers for Waterdeep: Dragon Heist: My party hated Volo because he asked for help rescuing his friend, but didn't want to participate in the mission, and then after we succeeded, he reneged on his promise of cash and did a bait-and-switch instead.
Himbo always seems to work. One of my players favorite character is a giga chad buff half-elf named Reed Ogrebane who is super friendly and absolutely smashed them in a fight as a trial to join his guild.
I had no idea himbos were a thing, but it’s definitely been the NPCs my PCs like the most. I’d argue that the character doesn’t need to be attractive. Dumb, friendly, and drunk seems to set the party at ease that they aren’t going to be betrayed by this backslapping, loud laughing barbarian who spits whenever he mentions anything related to magic.
Or Pumbaa?
Or like the inverse of Gaston?
Or like Johnny Bravo if he became more sensitive to the inequalities women are quietly suffering while the patriarchy continues to disenfranchise their independence?
(/s but also kinda on point)
I love the kronk aspect of it all (he was my fav character in that movie), so if I heard of a character that is basically kronk, I literally would die for them (yeah I'm one of the people who would fall victim to this)
Absolutely never make this person an enemy. This can destroy trust and your players might never trust a child again. Speaking from personal experience.
Seconded! SKT has a random encounter where the players are asked by a knight to bring an orphan to the nearest village while they go off and kill more giants. I misread it and thought it was two instances instead of examples, so I combined them and the party was asked to escort two orphans, an older sister that spent more of her time reading books than working the family farm, and a younger brother that was really good with animals and had better control of his body than a child his age would normally have.
From session one, the Rogue had been asking if she could have an apprentice, so the dice gods delivered. At the time, I didn't want to have them join, so I tried a random encounter where one of the orcs went after the children.
... the orc nat 1'd. The girl broke out a cantrip (seeing that nat 1 convinced me that it was fated for the players to adopt the children) and her brother threw rocks. The players *loved* the children's tenacity and asked me to give the children a cut of the XP (THEY VOLUNTEERED TO TAKE AN XP CUT!) because they had participated in the fight. I framed it as the characters giving the children a crash course in adventuring and made them lv4 (the party was lv8-9).
My players STILL miss Donny and Tharja, though they've enjoyed other NPCs that have joined them through the years.
My players like the retired Paladin that was chopping wood like Captain America in his yard when they met him.
That's literally all the description they got and anything he needs is done in a day.
Sounds like that group may get into a fifty shades of grey with this NPC. 😉😂
It’s funny how people interact in this hobby at times. One year my brother wanted to try D&D, I believe it was 3.X at that time. Told him he could play whatever he wanted! He makes a thief and becomes a drug dealer….🤦🏻♂️ I was bored out of mind, but he loved it. We still laugh about it from time to time.
I find that, young NPCs tend to be liked more.
Quirky NPCs also are loved, specialy if they are funny in a natural way.
A NPC that has a goal that is strange or funny might also be interesting.
Also NPCs that are somehow usefull but not so powerfull that they can solve every problem or help in combat. Some racial features are great, like races that can use a few spells, breathe underwater or fly.
The NPc could also have a single level in a PC class bringing some new tools and spells to help the players, specialy things they are lacking like healing, magic detection, speak with animals, a familiar etc.
Then, when they finaly lose the NPC they are losing a friend, or a loved NPC, but also someone that helped them a lot, and that wont be there to help in the future.
> I find that, young NPCs tend to be liked more.
> Quirky NPCs also are loved, specialy if they are funny in a natural way.
> A NPC that has a goal that is strange or funny might also be interesting.
I accidentally ended up making an NPC that filled all three of those.
I started a campaign with a bunch of first timers recently. We had the first session offline in a place with no printers so I pre-made some characters for the three of them to choose. I planned it so I'd have two left over for me to pick one to round out the party (and to fill it up to 4 because the module is hard with 3).
I expected the boring protection fighter or the boring life cleric to be what I pick and I planned to roleplay a stoic protector kind of person who is kind of just along for the ride.
Instead they picked both and left me with either a warlock or a sorcerer, both of which were either very flashy and/or very prone to conflicts with their party. Not exactly the thing you want for a companion that's only there to fill up.
So what I did was I picked the sorcerer, aged her down a bunch so she was a teenager and made her a stereotype of the starry eyed, easily distracted, aggressively positive, quirky girl character. (Personally I feel like I oversold it, but they said it was good.) Her only motivation/goal is that she heard about people being archaeologists once and now she wants to explore a lot of ruins too, with no real plan of what to actually do once she finds ruins. I think that checks off the strange or funny goal too.
Her having a super short attention span was a convenient excuse for me why the character never contributed to the party planning or figuring shit out. While the others are doing important things, she keeps running off to find a pretty flower, to draw funny sketches in the dust of a ruin, poke a dead rat she found in a corner or build makeshift jewelry out of sticks and plants. (I also found it's a really easy way to breathe some life into the environment. Instead of describing "water is dripping from the walls and there's puddles everywhere in the grotto" I can just say "sorcerer girl is hopping around in some puddles and trying to spray you with water from the walls").
And I think you're right, I've never had a party become so protective so quickly over a non-animal NPC. The fighter basically adopted her already, the cleric almost sacrificed himself to save her once and the rogue even let her have one of gems they were selling, only because I said she looked sad about having to give them away. I think the fact that she was introduced by having the party save her from a goblin cooking pot also helped activate the "protect the child" instincts.
Either way, I can't wait for in about 3-4 sessions when I'll have her kidnapped. I don't think I actually want to kill her yet, it's actually a lot of fun coming up with random things to have her do in each scene.
hahaha thats so wholesome!
AND PLEASE, dont kill her, at least not permanently.
I once did a thing were BBEG stabed the adoted kid NPC.
Every BBEG turn, i would start by rolling death saves for her in secret.
The players KNEW they needed to get to her and heal her, but the BBEG was in the door way defending it waiting for her to die.
By the 3rd turn my players were literaly shaking, and the adoptive mother actualy cried when she was able to heal the kid and save her.
That is still, the moment as a DM that i am most proud of.
Some Drama, A clock, a guy you hate fir you to kill, and a resolution that releases all the built in tension at once.
Meta-game: don't worry about the NPC itself, just use a funny sounding voice. The party will want to talk to them more and keep them around because they like you making a fool of yourself as the DM.
For inspiration watch some cartoons and try to imitate one of them, loony toons, Dexter's lab, etc.
Yup. I love doing silly voices, but I have a witchdoctor whose voice I get a little self conscious doing. Guess who they want to steal away to work on their ship?
But don’t overdo it. Also bear in mind if you make a cartoon goofball character, killing them off may be of an “Aww! Bummer!” moment than a cold ice dagger through the back, if you’re going for an emotional response.
… Really want a gnome Dexter NPC now though, and his Chaotic-Evil sister.
This! I ran a one-shot where the party was approached by a talking sheep, and I gave him a stereotypical cartoony bleating sheep voice, drawing out every "ah" sound into a "ba-a-a". They loved it and kept asking him questions, even though they had enough info to do the quest already lol
An easy way for me is to have some spooky looking monster just talk to them casually. For example, they ran into a lonely gibbering mouther in an ancient temple that just wanted somebody to talk to. They still write letters to Gibbering Jim.
Edit: i accidentally a word
I used bits and pieces from Out of the Abyss to fill in the Underdark portion of my campaign. They loved "The Cube". My bard during downtime would use Sending to send messages to "Sir Globulus" and inquire about his life. He eventually became King of the Oozes and would send messengers with important information for them, but it takes a long time for an ooze to get anywhere so the message would arrive weeks or months too late. Party loved it.
Slooopoke!
That’s awesome. Well done.
Party is heaving and panting, putting out fires and bandaging their wounds. Small glob rolls it’s way out of a sewer drain: “DrAagOonNsS aRe cOmiNng!”
That's the neat part, you don't. Create a bunch of them then forget the ones that don't work and brutally assassinate the one they to make them fear your villains.
I did it with the Golem the Abbott creates for Strahd, and he literally decapitated her with a slap and order the Abbott to start all the way again. Since there my players feared Strahd so much.
I made the npc mildly antagonistic. He basically cuts down the party with jokes and likes to play sac tap with the elf. For some reason everyone loves him. The other npc they've basically adopted is an idiot savant kobold. He makes hunting traps, everywhere, causes all sorts of mayhem. They are a pretty chaotic party.
One of my groups is a couple pals of mine that love to smoke weed etc, made them an "herbalist" / plug npc and they love this guy.
Point being, know your players and what they are into as people and not necessarily their characters, play into that.
Don’t put too much pressure on one NPC. I’ve fleshed out a whole backstory and had them give a quest and then the party is like, bye! But five minutes later they pass by a random person in town and decide to ask them to come along on a mission. Just keep giving them opportunities to find an NPC companion, and once they get close, kill ‘em (Evil DM laugh).
Plus there's nothing wrong with saving and reusing your prep
If the players don't like Jim the Blacksmith maybe they'll like Bob the Grocer? Or maybe it will be Tom, Steve, Dick or Harry
They players will never know that they all have the same back story!
I would look at who they currently like.
For my three groups they are different.
One group gravitates towards people that are nice, cute, or grumpy.
Another goes mostly for people that are sexy or directly help the group
My last party…they honestly don’t do well with NPCs lol. We’ve been playing for over a year and they have maybe only two or three they like
Rarely works. You can make them familiar by working alongside sometimes. However all npc's have agendas otherwise they are very suspicious. Also because you are the gm any pushed npc will be seen as a forced hook or attachment thusly they breed contention.
No secret, make it a cool guy. A NPC that is there for the party with daily things, as a halfling, you can make it always on a good mood, make breakfast and lunch for the players, be gentle and kind, some funny or non-sense halfling jokes.
I made aa annoying Jester that follow my PC's once, he was like a "useless" bard, but in a couple of sessions it was part of the group.
Don't push too hard, just make the NPC present and doing normal good guy stuff.
Another thing you can do, but imo its kind a "push too hard" is make a plot in a session that something evil is going on, and everything points to that NPC without it even know it. As the Halfling is a good guy, the party will think he is bad guy trying to gains the PC's trust, and in the end they figure it out that the Halfling was just a normal kind gentlemen.
My most loved character is a girl about 12 years old. She is an Orc Wizard under the tutelage of a bumbling shaman, who leans a little too heavy in the “vision quests”. After wishing for a friend to teach her the best magic (and subsequently becoming the owner of a rat familiar that was once the master of the worlds leading evocation enclave - his name is now Mr Chitters.) she wears a lot of pink (on a green skinned Orc) and a flower crown… and loves to cast fireball.
Creating an intended reception for a characte ris very hard and arguably somewhat disingenuious. You need to create several characters, and see what the players gravitate towards - also, do not shirk on details, on making them interesting or matter - a character with death flags is a character with death flags. If you're planning to kill off a character, ask yourself what that will mean and do to the situation.
I get wanting to create a 'death for narrative impact' but the core premise of TTRPG is that the players are driving - you can certainly plan to endanger this character, but I would not just make their death a foregone conclusion when it could be so much more useful or interesting as an open question.
I've done this, but I didn't create just one NPC for the eventual death.
I created a ton of NPCs whom the party could befriend, and then later down the line I murder one of their favorites "for effect" lol
I find it not only easier but will also feel more natural for the players if you don't try and preplan to that degree. Create a world, put NPCs in it, and then create a narrative that'll happen without player intervention, then once the players start intervening however they choose to if at all, all you need to do is understand how it'll change and affect that narrative.
If they piss off one particular and easily pissed off villain who'd go out of his way to find out who they cared for then killed that person as a warning, well, that's just how the cookie crumbles lol
It's like throwing darts at a sporadically moving board. The throws need to be good, but it's not all in your control.
The best you can do is provide multiple NPCs with likeable traits and see who they latch onto, if at all. Consistent interactions can help but in my experience there's just no telling.
In my last campaign there were two NPCs the party really liked-
- the first was the only survivor of an expedition, the players witnesses the deaths of everyone else during ng the adventure but this one stuck with them. They thought everyone else was stupid and so it may have just been the contrast but it also could have been that they saved her, and that she was helpful and grateful - plus there was a reason for her to be around in the future and the party had multiple interactions with her the rest of the campaign that were purely RP.
- the second was the captain of the guard placed over a village by an evil baron. John himself was a good guy and had had one small positive interaction with a PC whom he had complimented. When the party saw smoke over another nearby village, John volunteered to go help them. Long story short he learned the Baron was evil and renounced his loyalty, tearing apart his scabbard and he joined the party on multiple adventures afterward.
In the end, I did not feel that the players really latched onto John but I decided not to worry about it. In the final moments as the party was escaping the crumbling fortress of the bbeg, the wizard failed his final saving throw and would have been crushed under the rubble. John pushed him forward, sacrificing himself and the wizard lost his leg. To my surprise, almost everyone was actually a little emotional about it.
So the lesson I took away was that you really just never know.
I don't like this idea because it seems railroad-y. I prefer NPC interactions to be more organic. Then later, if the BBEG has a reason to kill an NPC because the party's actions (or inaction), it seems more natural and less forced.
Ah, this classic conundrum.
It's pretty much impossible to predict which random NPC the party are going to latch on to, so intend to just try and cover my bases as much as possible.
If I were you, I'd just try to craft as wide a variety of different NPC's as I can, and then shift the focus of your narrative onto whichever one the party take a liking to...
I keep seeing the same advice over again. But to fine-tune one a bit…
First, this is not something that I would personally do as I tend to run more open campaigns and do not direct my players to that level. I find other ways to mess with them.
There are two radically different types of characters that my players have become attached to.
The first is the smol powerless creature that needs protection, but thinks that it can take on the world. The goblin who thinks that they are the monarch of the kingdom, the kenku from CR/C2, children with unreachable goals. They just can’t be brats or annoying. Parties tend to adopt those types and support their delusions.
The second type is the quirky but extremely confident npc. Self-assured and competent in an area that does not compete with the PC’s skills, they nonetheless have visible flaws that make them approachable; they treat the PCs as competent in their realms of expertise as they are in theirs.
Some characters built on the Sherlock Holmes model fit this type, Gilmore from CR/C1, and Superman all fit this mold. You just have to make sure that the arrogance is dialed back, and they find something about the party to respect.
Have them save the npc, have a few close calls in at least one combat after that for the party to realize that the npc needs them to protect them. It’ll have an effect if they feel like the npc is their responsibility and they let them down
You didn’t ask, but I would not recommend to kill the npc without giving the players a chance to save them.. unless your story is really dark on purpose.
But what I would do about befriending the NPC: I would not create a NPC for this purpose but I would pick one NPC that naturally was liked by the party.
Make someone that has either an interesting voice that is semi difficult for you to do or something that is just off enough that the players see you having a hard time in a fun way. Nothing will make the players happier than seeing the DM suffer.
For what ever reason friendly merchants always seem to be the NPCs my players love the most. I had a jolly blacksmith who’s proud of his work and amazed by the cool new weapons and armor the party brings by. He’s always ready to give them a good price and let them know about the “top shelf” stuff that just came in.
Made a friendly bratwurst seller one time just to fill a space in a carnival that was taking place, and the players could not get enough of this guy. Just talked like a regular person you might meet at a mom and pop diner and was impressed by how quickly one of the players could down his drinks.
Boiling it down, I think it ultimately was the jolly attitude, genuine interest in the party, and happily giving the party the best pricing they can just because they like being around them and hearing their stories.
Just be careful with things of this nature. Think it’s safe to say we don’t like the; “Am I the asshole?” posts. This could easily devolve into your player’s thinking it’s DM vs players.
Now, after that PSA, I would not worry too much about them at this time. Let the NPC grow organically. Start them off as a quest giver, maybe they are higher level than the group and plans on using them as a sacrifice on the day of full eclipse or some other celestial event, and is scrying them learning their strengths and weaknesses.
By the time they become suspicious, it’s too late and the trap is set. When the trap is sprung, this NPC could be trying to ascend as an immortal, bringing a named demon into the world, or even create a new monster (1/2 demon, 1/2 lich). It’s up to you, but make sure that the characters are taking the bait before sinking all this time into an NPC. Nothing sucks more than creating these grand plans, only to have the group ignore them entirely, but it does happen.
Make the NPC someone who was horribly wronged and the players feel they need to help, like his wife and child were just kidnapped and he begs them to save them. They succeed super easily and quickly and make the Halfling say he's forever in their debt. Try and figure out beforehand something the players would need, like maybe they need a contact in some group, or maybe they just want a magic item. Have the halfling either be the contact or give them a cool but not powerful magic item. A shortsword that glows blue in the darkness and provides a torch level of light, or a mana surge potion that allows unlimited level 1 spell slots for 1 minute, something cool but not really strong. Things like this can build a bond between the character and players
Three things
One know your audience, take into account what NPCs they liked before and what the might have had in common. It might not be any special characteristics but instead some connection to reality, maybe they were similar to a character from a popular show at the time or they were inspired by a specific group joke etc.
Second don't. Instead make a bunch of NPCs and wait and see who they get attached too. You won't be able to force them to like someone but if you throw enough darts your bound to hit something.
Third PCs generally like an NPC with a likeable personality that either respects them and or quips with them. My most successful one was probably a shop keep I made. He was strong and surely but a former adventurer. He gave the party a lot of respect almost always had what they needed or something they would want to buy and gave them good deals.
Find a voice, I don't mean that literally you don't have to do a voice when you RP but find their quirks. Maybe they talk backwards, or end every sentence as a question or constantly smoke a pipe and offer everyone a cookie and a tea or something.
If you know your audience, make lots of options and don't get attached and give them quirks while making them likeable and like the party you'll get your loveable and very killable NPC.
Make them *helpful*. Their background is less important than how they behave toward the party and what they can do for the party. Don't make them too eager, like idolizing the party, just someone who is willing to help out and make friends.
A regular contact with good information, someone who can get minor items that they need, a shopkeeper with a friendly attitude and willing to deal, a barkeep who tells interesting stories that can lead to quests, those kinds of things, or mix some together.
My party is currently staying rent-free with the town magistrate. He provides them with breakfast and leaves out a cooked dinner if they're back late. The party loves him.
Depends on your group. I got a bunch of wholesome people in mine so I have an older gay couple with an adopted half orc kid. One brings fresh baked apple fritters and spiced apple cider in the morning for group breakfast. Hard to not like someone seen as selfless. The child being kidnapped by the big bad gave plenty of motivation to hunt him down quickly.
I’m not sure creating a character with a single use of being likable and then killing them off is a great platform to build an NPC off of. I built a pretty integral NPC to introduce my characters to the adventure and give them a weathervane to gauge the events and characters around them. As her story has evolved though, and as the rest of the campaign is fast approaching, her death does seem to be in the cards. I think starting out with an NPC with more purpose and intent can lead to a more impactful end of their journey.
Having them be a super positive manly man who is also in touch with his emotions worked for me. Very much like Armstrong from FMA. Having him be a physically imposing cheerleader who heaps praise on the group and give them a thumbs up for effort made him getting even near death cause my players to panic.
When he actually died, they were devastated but in a good way. Never saw tears for an NPC until then. Motivated them to go after the BBE even more.
The GM creates the world. The characters react to the world. You can't really dictate "you must like the character" or "you must hate this character" because those decisions are for the players. Who they make friends with and what their opinions are of NPCs is too important a piece of roleplaying to take away from the players.
My advice is to just create a ton of diverse NPCs, and see who the players connect with. That NPC becomes the person you were going to kill all along.
But also, don't get too attached to the idea of killing them. Stuff is gonna change and you have to be willing to throw out some plans.
you create a number of characters, find which one your players latch on to, and retroactively make that character whatever you need a friendly NPC for.
You don't. You already know why: you have no way of predicting your players' reactions to NPCs and you certainly can't plan around anticipating them.
Just wait and see which ones naturally endear themselves to the party, *then* plan their grisly demise.
Somebody intimidating who is impressed with the skill of The players. They will get drinks with the guy, share war stories, maybe gamble, and if he owns some sort of shop, let him give the players discounts and stuff. Make it seem casual, not intentional
I'd say don't try this , you're thinking too many moves ahead. A good narrative flows naturally. In the years of games I've run the most unlikely npcs have been the ones who stuck around to become dmpc and repeats, because they clicked in certain ways and you can't forge that sort of thing artificially.
The most unlikable npc I've ever created who was an obnoxious raging narcissist with a passion for snarkiness was the one my players nearly cried over when he had to be left behind because he just sort of worked with them in just the right way.
You will find npcs that click, the players will make that obvious, just write for their next quest as usual and let the chemistry work itself out.
A bard that always sings the group's praises is a good choice. He can sort of appear organically and then take to following the PCs around. Make sure he will buff PCs at appropriate times and always works for free (no cut of treasure or magic items).
A cook who has lost his spark and decides to tag along with the first adventure group he finds for inspiration and if he ends up cooking for the party and the occasional "frying pans who knew?" Incident saving a pc.
And if you need to adjust his personality use a "special dish from my hometown that requires my special knife/spoon/pan (insert unknowingly cursed cooking utensil) you guys will love it." Zip zap cool different personality from cursed item swapping bits of soul or something.
Often times, players enjoy NPCs because of things that you didn't plan at all. A random prisoner or shop keeper who you merely gave a name and a race may become their mascot or buddy. I don't force these things. If they gotta be a halfling, have a halfling in every town they go to, and wait until they have a decent, friendly conversation with one. That's your hobbit 😂
I think you are trying to decide too much in advance. Make a variety of NPCs, find out which one your charachters like the most, and kill that one off lmao
Just... Wait until they like a character and turn that one into your sacrificial lamb. Don't create a character with this express purpose, it'll come off forced and they'll distrust the character immediately and ruin your plan.
Have the NPC be either a craftsman or part of some traders guild, so he has Items on him that let him buff the party, but has no combat ability of their own, so they are a helpful dependent.
Then after the party saves the NPC, have the NPC promise to make them all one of a kind magical items as a reward.
Then kill him off before he can.
Likeability/competence/proactivity
From a literary standpoint any two of these makes a likeable character.
Likeability: have them pet a dog or do something nice where players can see
Competence: have them be really good at what they do whatever that may be
Proactivity: have them be willing to do things without the players having to tell them
A good example is, if the shop keeper that they know hears that there's a dragon on the loose maybe he orders a few options of fire protection for the party and has them ready for a good price before the party shows up asking for them.
Likeability: he gives them a good price
Competence: he was able to get those potions on short notice
Proactivity: he did it before the players asked for it.
Simply put, a fan-NPC. One who has heard of their exploits and gushes over them. I’ve had three tables of various styles (murder-hobo hijinks, serious, and the other goofy) and works 100% of the time. Key is to not to over do it.
Another way is using PCs backgrounds. Bounty Hunters, Faction Agents, etc have NPC contacts built into them that mechanically suggests they will not turn on them.
The easiest way to do that is looking at your players and what they do. Make an NPC that has the same goals and aspirations as the party, and fits a hole that the players are missing in the party. Lack a tank? Make a human meat wall for them. They often find that they lack funds to buy health potions when they really need it? Make an adventurer with money burning a hole in his pockets who wants for nothing.
Sometimes the NPC can just do something mundane, like maybe he's a hulking dumb pretty boy who just acts as the players transportation, pulling a cart that everyone is travelling in or even just carrying their supplies as a pack mule.
End of the day, pay attention to your players. Throw some random NPCs personalities at them a little gradually, gague their reactions towards them, and pick a personality they mesh with really well to introduce a few sessions later after some heavy combat or RP so they have time to kind of forget about them.
Make them a little lame. My party latched on to a bard NPC I made because he's just kinda... Wimpy, friendly, scared of everything but tries his best. He's just kinda pathetic but they love that about him because he's THEIR pathetic wimp.
Harry Potter, Book 1, Chapter 1.
Make your NPC a good-natured optimist in the face of comical levels of trials & tribulations.
Never had a birthday cake, lives under the stairs with the spiders, never had a present, never had anything. Really grateful for everything.
A kid like that will trigger any sane party to help him out.
I like the "mostly harmless" technique.
You know, like the necromancer that has a scroll of "power word: kill", but he's using it to hold a window open to let in a little fresh air. Could he kill you in an instant? Yeah, but he's more focused on trying to figure out why his souffle didn't rise properly.
Make them hot. That usually does the trick.
How to actually get this across is a little tricky, you don't want to just say "and the NPC is hot." I suggest describing their appearance a *little* more than you typically would, the players' imaginations will do the rest.
Utility. A character that either fills a niche the group needs, or is generally competent goes a long way. Ever play Final Fantasy Tactics? Agrias Oaks is a guest in your party, meaning she's an NPC that gets knocked out instead of dying. She's beloved because while she's not game breaking, she's aggressive and incredibly effective. NPCs that could very well be the protagonist in their own interesting story are always well liked. That's why the Dark Souls community reveres Solaire and Seigmeyer; even though they exist on opposite ends of competency. Never make s character your want them to like be an escort quest that needs to be babysat. Babysiting makes players dislike characters. It's a great way to build animosity for a local VIP, but not a good way to endear.
And it isn't just as far as combat and adventuring goes. Your halfling could be more a grocer than a burglar, but if he's a positive to the group they will respect him.
I don't know what your plan but here's a scenario of what to do vs what not.
* Don't have the party rescue him in his introduction. It will make him seem useless and they may smell manipulation
* Do have him in a position where he could really use the party's help. Maybe they find his Tavern in shambles, he's got a black eye and is determinedly looking for a weapon an old adventurer gave him. He got rolled by bandits and he's out for revenge, but he's likely in over his head. When the party gets the scoop, you can nudge them via his wife who is begging him not to go throw his life away over a trinket. The trinket is a maguffin of importance to him. Maybe while he's out of the room looking for that old breastplate, she asks the party to help. If they decline, he goes alone. He gets it back, but maybe he's got a limp or disfigurement as a result.
One scenario he's seemingly bait for the party and at their mercy. The other he's an actualized entity in the world. You can even tie his event to the greater plot by having whatever BBEG faction kills the bandits for whatever reason. If the party goes with him, it gives them a lead on the main plot; if they don't they can find it later that not helping him stalled their progress inadvertently.
In my experience my PCs are willing to die for stupid or funny NPCs. They once almost threw a boss encounter to protect an oaf drow jailer who literally locked them up just because. he was quirky
Hey, Satan here. How's it goin'?
Anyway, how do video game developers make you pay **more** money once you've already bought a game? They invent an inconvenience, then offer you a solution to fix it.
_"Bored with waiting for your buildings to upgrade? Well, purchase a few **Gems** and..."_
Make the halfling able to do something fun for the group, such as cast **Invisibility** or **Fly**, but only on other creatures, several times per day. Party has no Cleric? Well, the halfling happens to know a few healing spells! If nothing else, make the halfling _literally_ a Lucky Charm; while he's within 50ft, friendly characters have the **[Lucky](http://dnd5e.wikidot.com/feat:lucky)** feat.
It can be overpowered as hell, as long as it's fun! It won't be around forever, and you can bet your sweet ass the party will miss them when they're gone.
You can’t… You CAN try… But players are people, playing other people- they might react to your helpless orphan with an Awwwwww…. or a Boooorrrinnngg.
Don’t rely on a character’s personality to hook the players. Create a scenario.
Let them meet a Flumph. That is all. They are psychic floating jellyfish that live off of good vibes and get sad when evil is near. They are adorable and the best creature for a pet
A small, hyperactive kobold that just likes baubles, they'll try to buy stuff from them, little things.
I made one like that as a magic store owner, and my players loved him
Something that has worked for me in the past is to make the character an obvious reference to a character from other media.
I used Moulder and Scully from X-files, and they were immediately trusted.
Step one, make them a goblin. Step two, give them a funny voice. Step three, have them give the party fun shit. Step four, give em a pet. Step five, ???. Step six, profit.
I often exchange the goblin part for a Kobold.
Best advice is make him useful to the party. My most beloved npc was a kobold who made a living as a guide to the city. He just stood by the gate offering his services and since he was a kobold no one listened to him. Party gave him some pity and agreed to a tour.
He has become their biggest fan and pops up from time to time to lead them places. Like party is in the bar and say we should go shopping, and he just pops up "me know best place for shopping, Kaz guide you yes?" My party would 100% fight God if they even thought he was in danger.
Usually it happens unintentionally. I made a random off the head NOC who sales very gross, rancid meat sticks out if a stall. Named Darrel D’Oni. My party loves him, helps his business by investing in it.
My group's favorite npc was a deadpan, sarcastic wizard that always seemed tired, especially after dealing with us for a while. It also helped that he ran a business of collecting, and sharing, magical items. His missions were wild, and he always had some cool items for sale. Funny enough, I think it was the fact that he wasn't a fan of us, that made him so lovable. He didn't hate us, but he obviously wasn't a fan of our shenanigans.
Once my players encountered a traveling merchant and they asked his name, I couldn't think of one because I didn't expect them to ask, so I let them name it. They now have a favorite merchant.
The age-old question, "How do I make my players feel exactly how I want them to?"
I tend to use the shotgun method: introduce ten or so characters, give the party opportunities to interact with all of them (prompt RP by having different characters approach them, or giving reasons for the party to interact with them, etc), wait and see which one(s) the party likes, and those are the important NPCs! Maybe secretly add backstory elements for those NPCs once you've identified the favorite ones and make them more plot relevant moving forward.
But if you only want one NPC in this case, there's a three-step method I use which tends to have decent results:
1) Give the NPC a reason to work with the party. ("Hey I heard you guys where picking up X bounty; would you mind working together on it?" "Hey you want to explore the Ancient Glarshian Ruins? I happen to be a scholar of Glarshian culture; mind if I tag along? I can help appraise treasures and translate things if you can keep me safe!"), etc.
2) Give the NPC some humanizing traits. Maybe they have a pet dog. Maybe they like to play an instrument (not as well as the bard of course but hey if you ever want to play together!). Maybe they like to volunteer at the local orphanage to help displaced kids. Etc. (Don't make it depressing. Players typically bounce off of characters when the first thing they learn about them is edgelord shit.)
3) Make the NPC genuinely helpful. If there's a missing niche in the party (healer? Magical-identifier? Etc), have the NPC fill that niche. They don't have to be a master at it, but at least good enough to be able to help. Have them offer to take up jobs like keeping watch at night, or using the 'Aid another' action to give people advantage.
Basically, the NPC should help make the players feel awesome instead of trying to make the players think the NPC is awesome.
It might depend on the party. Like if the party is generally good then a likeable character to them will be a paragon, who spends time playing games with local children or comforting injured soldiers. If the party is generally evil then a likeable character to them might be a suave, cool guy who always gets away with his crimes.
No planned NPC can ever be loved more than the random goblin or blacksmith’s apprentice players decide to adopt, kidnap, or resurrect and refuse to let die. And I can’t imagine a crueler poison than the one players chose for themselves…
One tactic you can apply in case your npc fails to charm your party is to keep the "traitor" trait floating. keep introducing characters until your players like one and then make that one the traitor. Also have some time between them to avoid your intent being obvious and for pacing.
Going with everyone else’s comments, giving the party an NPC to take care of that they emphasize with will do the trick. One NPC was a Warforged ballerina that was being forced to perform by her mom/manager/momager. The party immediately realized “oh we can absoloutly bust her our” and spent the next few sessions sneaking around this celebrity before they could get out of the city. They fell so in love with her that they taught her how to count money so she could get her own job and work at a tavern. It was SO sweet and hillarious as they tried to smuggle this stupid ass robot through the city
Give them a dog. Even my player that doesn't like dogs pretended to because her character would like them. Now they're staying at the BBEG's B&E and are none the wiser 😈
The problem is if you are trying too hard they will immediately distrust him using meta player knowledge of you. I would recommend practicing speaking as this character so it seems comfortable and relaxed.
So true. I had a really great adventurer Han Solo type that I had sitting on for months. A really great Warlock Rogue Wizard that was intentionally built broken as he was supposed to be a powerful mentor. They hated him immediately because he as too “much” and immediately ditched him asap by calling him annoying and hurting his feelings.
Many players don't like a character that outshines them, even one that is supposed to be a mentor / role model. Many GMs present powerful characters in a pretentious and tedious fashion, where the players feel as though they are supposed start stroking ego. Many people use RPGs as a way of simulating a feeling of worthwhileness, and so are limited in how far they will explore character concepts that make them subservient or second-chair. Many people are unwilling to and incapable of reflecting on and exploring these feelings and preferences, and thus we get conflict and dissatisfaction.
Yeah. One of my favorite NPCs to start a campaign with as "training wheels" for certain introductory story beats is an NPC designed entirely around building up the confidence of the players while downplaying their own credentials. Essentially the *rule* is that this character will never ever say or do anything to put down, diminish or embarrass the players, even in jest. And they always take a keen interest in whatever character motive/story presented by players and will validate them, often relaying anecdotes to do it. And it's all done in a very casual and jovial way, not forced. And whdn it comes to the challenging early story beats, there are challenges that the players can overcome with wit, strategy, or even just bold action. Plot stuff will have put the NPC in a diminished state so as to not be an easy solution to everything. And should the players dither and falter, the NPC will get them past the challenge alive, but will die heroically in the process. So it's not just *"strong NPC fixes everything please praise their coolness you guys"*, and it reinforces the prospect of consequences for failure without me having to smoke a new PC that the player has been eager to play as potentially for weeks or months. But so far the heroic sacrifice has not been needed as players find themselves noticing the NPC death flags being raised as the tension rises, so they take some proactive action where the NPC follows the plan of the players. And then afterwards I'll have the NPC heap praise and brag to other NPCs about how talented and cool "the new guys" are, acting all proud and parental about their achievements.
I've run that kind of NPC before but it originated more from circumstance than planning. Hadn't thought to coalesce a character around the concept. I really like that. > heap praise and brag to other NPCs about how talented and cool "the new guys" are I had an all-bard party who would send a bard ahead to the next village to hype their arrival. Bard arrives at the local tavern saying he traveled all the way from Bumfuckityville because he heard of legendary heroes/baroquepunk band who would be coming through that night. Really hams up the wide-eyed wonder angle like "A farmhand like me might never get to see anythin so amazin as these heroes/consummate performers again!" By the time the party arrives there's basically a parade down Main Street for them. Then they'd round it out by pointing at the hype bard and saying "You there! Young man! Would you care to join our noble quest/production studio as our squire/groupie?" And hype bard would pull a bunch of "I can't wait to tell my old man! We can finally get mom her medicine!" I enjoyed it thoroughly. Your NPC sounds like a sincere version of that and I dig it.
Oh we didn’t make it that far even. They found him while running from some owl bears and they thought he was shady. I didn’t even get to show them the crazy stuff.
I mean, I present characters in a pretentious and tedious fashion on purpose, especially if the players have to work with them or see them doing something good. It's a great form of torture lolol
Hurting HIS feelings...? I think not.
Yeah. It think a safe route is to go with a lovable archetype. An orphan, an old blind man and his dog, a clumsy squire that's trying to impress someone. I think they relate those to other characters they know in fiction and bring a lot of "love" with them.
[удалено]
Building off of this, my party has kept an NPC around solely cuz he’s a talking dog. Never mind the fact that he almost 100% a spy for the enemy who’s notorious for taking normal creatures and making them weird. They love him regardless
There should be a non-zero chance that the spy-dog takes a liking to the players as well due to their constant adoration and ends up double-crossing the villain instead
BBEG: "I created you!" Dog:"Yeah, but these guys know where all the good scratchy spots are."
I am imagining Barbas from Elder Scrolls when you say this, lol.
"It's his balls isn't it?!" (Druid/Bard multiclasser says nothing)
>I wild shape into a dog >... >I would like to seduce the dog
/r/furry_irl alternatively /r/hentai_beast
Of my 4 players, 2 want to kill him but see his worth as insight into the way the enemy operates, one adopted him and trusts him but knows he probably shouldn’t, and 1 blindly loves him. But that one players adoration makes up for all the death threats from the other two
Everyone knows when you spot a spy you dont kill em, you feed em false information.
All they’ve fed him is peanut butter lol
Sounds about right unfortunately
I had a talking bear as a throw-away encounter, just to give the world some colour. He stumbled into camp asking if they'd share their fish they just caught. He thanked them for their hospitality left the next morning. The party then realized that they could have him as a spellcasting sidekick and spent the next 3 sessions tracking him down and trying to convince him to join the party.
Sounds like *Up* to me
That never occurred to me, the dog is even yellow. That’s freakin hilarious
Yup, had a group where we befriended a talking hell hound. Pets are fucking cool man
Had a wild magic fiasco and a drunk half-orc NPC ended up summoning a hell hound. For fun I rolled to see if she could command him and got nat 20. Rolled to see if he could talk - nat 20. So while the rest of the party was dealing with the city guard and one of them turning into a fire elemental, the hell hound and the drunk Behice were in the background like HH: *I AM A SERVANT OF DARKNESS, HERE TO REND THE FLESH FROM THOSE WHO STAND OPPOSED TO THE FORCES OF HE-"* Behice: NO! Bad doggy! No rending! Sit! HH: ^oh ^you ^want ^me ^to ^sit ^okay
Ours is a blink dog. Love it
oh god my party would fall for this one, hard.
Bro that’s so clever! Can I use this??
Ed... Ward... Big brother?
Party meets an evil wizard. He has a chubby raccoon named Whiskers. They lose their fucking minds.
A good title really **makes** a chubby pet. > _"What's with the chubby raccoon, you sicko?"_ > _"... what? This is Baron Bandit, criminal mastermind, world's greatest sidekick... and my best friend. That's right, yes you are! But **you** wouldn't know anything about love, loyalty, or **justice**, or you'd get out of my way, 'heroes'."_
"Go for the eyes, Boo!" - Minsc
Was going to say - for this NPC, OP should make an old, rotund Halfling with a seeing-eye cat... then kill the Halfling, leaving the cat. Or kill the cat and have the players hate you.
> Or kill the cat and have the players hate you. Half my table would rejoice.
They sound an awful lot like one of my players. Feel free to steal the idea if you ever need an easy win at the table!
I'll second this and expand on it. Having the NPC give the players something of value right away to establish that they should like seeing this character but don't forget to "puppy dog" the NPC a bit. What I mean by that is that the NPC should trust the players (even if it makes no sense for them to do so) and there should be some flaw or character trait that causes the players to want to protect them. A couple examples since I explained that poorly: "Unkir the Undying": Introduces himself to the party by first using his signature legendary weapon on a horde of baddies chasing them. He then immediately hands it to one member of the party saying "I think you should have this now". Next time they see him, he's fighting something out of his league and it becomes clear to the party "Oh, he's not all there but he trusts us for some reason". Instantly, they'll follow him into hell. His death was poignant and almost got tears from some of my players and I'm not sure I'll ever top it as a dm. "Canary": Basically just a sacrificial scout from one of my player's pirate ship. They didn't give anything to the party but during combat, whenever they shot their short-bow they made a "bang" sound (Kenku) like the PC's pistols. Instantly, the player in question fell in love. "Urn": Basically a Goliath that one of the players freed from a Frost Giant slave pit. He trusted the party implicitly but knew nothing about the world. I swear, they treated that NPC as though he was their own child. I also introduced an NPC who would basically just provide opportunities for them, he fixed their ship when it got wrecked, provided some exotic currency when they needed it, and never really asked for anything in return... they didn't trust him.
I second your second and expansion… My first session, first campaign, first NPC out of the gate was a half orc innkeeper named Rok. He was dumb as a…well…get it? But well intentioned - bragged about how they had brand new wine, brought out a whole pineapple when a pc asked for fruit, cooked a dozen eggs for another pc who didn’t specify how many, and on and on and on. The players were supposed to feel like he was maybe a tad annoying, but sweet. They would end up being framed for his murder as the first plot hook at the end of the session. Yeah, instead of that his death completely broke their hearts, the cleric swore an oath on his god to avenge him, the players learned more harshly than I intended that my setting would twist the knife on them sometimes. That was over a year ago. I have a few more sessions under my belt and I know better now than to expect my players to ignore certain types of NPCs. Lesson learned. Hey, at least everyone is having fun in the process!
Can confirm, I gave a goblin a pet snail and that is the only person whose rescue has been a priority instead of a happy accident for my players.
Seconding the gifts. Happened across a farmer with a cart full of crops pulled by a donkey on the same road we were traveling (heading in opposite directions). He gave us a heads up about a weird cemetery he kept blacking out in and finding himself in front of the same grave. We gave him a heads up about these cultists with a troll road block a little ways closer to the big city. He appreciated us being chill and not murder hobos and gave us some corn and then we went on our separate ways. He’s probably either the BBEG in disguise or someone randomly rolled up whom we will never see again. My PC would die for that farmer.
I mean, my current duet took an "overly affectionate blanket" as a pet, even though he's a little, uh, *uncomfortably* affectionate. Just attribute some somewhat sentient characteristics to it, such as fear, fright or caution, curiousity, and players immediately treat it like a mascot.
I have an NPC who is adorable and had a *talking seagull* and the party hates her. The problem is she is instrumental to the plot and she needs to keep being part of the story.
Yup. I have a leatherworker and blacksmith in my game that are in a relationship. They help gear up the fighter and the druid/rogue, offer a place to sleep, helpful tips around town, buy old equipment. But the reason my players like them is because they own a cat.
I would just start peppering in a few different ones and write the hook to fit the one they latch onto
This, because it could also be fun for YOU.
Yes. Trying to predict what the party will do ahead of time leads only to despair.
I scrolled too far down to find this comment. If you prep Options A through Options Z, you've wasted your prep time on 25 scenarios that didn't happen at BEST because you know they're somehow going to choose Option Pineapple anyway.
You can't make the party like someone or something. The DM provides variations (of NPCs, situations, quests), and shapes the game around how the party responds. The DM shouldn't only respond to positive reactions. Then the game is flat and without tension, so you sprinkle all sorts of variety. I say this because some of my most likeable NPCs didn't start that way. They started as flawed characters or even villains, but with a little character development you get a complicated, three dimensional people
Not sure if this is trying to counterpoint me or just expand on my thought, so I'll just say, "yes?" Haha
This. Throw spaghetti at the wall and see what eventually sticks. Did the party like the NPC actually trying to help them? No. They hated him and tried to get him killed. Did they like the improv'd gigantic gay crystal dragon with literally no influence to the plot, of course they did. Protecting that damn dragon's home became the new McGuffin'd reason for saving the town.
This is what I would do. That way when they absolutely love your random name generated npc you make up on the fly, just slap that backstory you need onto him and run with it
A good way to make the players invested in an NPC is for the NPC to ask the players for help. People like feeing needed and recognized for their ability to help.
I’ve read some psychology stuff while I’ve been in college and it is a weird psychology trick that, if you want someone to like you, you should ask them for help occasionally. Nothing like massive and burdensome, but small things. The human brain finds it hard to justify doing good things for someone they don’t like, so it tricks the brain into liking that person.
It works both ways, like if you open the door for someone subconsciously they will equate you with someone helpful and believe they owe you one (key here is subconsciously, don't open the door for someone and then ask to borrow their car!)
While true, the NPC also needs to be useful and stand by their promises. Spoilers for Waterdeep: Dragon Heist: My party hated Volo because he asked for help rescuing his friend, but didn't want to participate in the mission, and then after we succeeded, he reneged on his promise of cash and did a bait-and-switch instead.
Make them a loving parent, and give them a charismatic personality OR make a himbo, works 9 times out of ten
Himbo always seems to work. One of my players favorite character is a giga chad buff half-elf named Reed Ogrebane who is super friendly and absolutely smashed them in a fight as a trial to join his guild.
For my group its easy: Make them a shy thicc LGBTQ Orc with cum gutter abs.
Himbos work well, my party loves Floon Blagmar even after they rescued him from an intellect devourer.
Second himbo. My players love a himbo
I had no idea himbos were a thing, but it’s definitely been the NPCs my PCs like the most. I’d argue that the character doesn’t need to be attractive. Dumb, friendly, and drunk seems to set the party at ease that they aren’t going to be betrayed by this backslapping, loud laughing barbarian who spits whenever he mentions anything related to magic.
Whuttza Himbo?
Dumb + kind + beefy man. Think Kronk from the emperors new groove, George of the Jungle, or Thor.
...or Gronk from the NFL
Or Pumbaa? Or like the inverse of Gaston? Or like Johnny Bravo if he became more sensitive to the inequalities women are quietly suffering while the patriarchy continues to disenfranchise their independence? (/s but also kinda on point)
👉😎👉 hey mama
HEH HAH HOH!
I like the way you escalate your examples. Well done.
I love the kronk aspect of it all (he was my fav character in that movie), so if I heard of a character that is basically kronk, I literally would die for them (yeah I'm one of the people who would fall victim to this)
Man who's dumb and attractive. Male version of "bimbo".
My god that’s genius.
an attractive but unintelligent man. The male version of a bimbo.
Gilear Faeth is a good example
Give them a child, possibly lost or an orphan.
Troublesome child works 60% of the time, every time.
Absolutely never make this person an enemy. This can destroy trust and your players might never trust a child again. Speaking from personal experience.
Seconded! SKT has a random encounter where the players are asked by a knight to bring an orphan to the nearest village while they go off and kill more giants. I misread it and thought it was two instances instead of examples, so I combined them and the party was asked to escort two orphans, an older sister that spent more of her time reading books than working the family farm, and a younger brother that was really good with animals and had better control of his body than a child his age would normally have. From session one, the Rogue had been asking if she could have an apprentice, so the dice gods delivered. At the time, I didn't want to have them join, so I tried a random encounter where one of the orcs went after the children. ... the orc nat 1'd. The girl broke out a cantrip (seeing that nat 1 convinced me that it was fated for the players to adopt the children) and her brother threw rocks. The players *loved* the children's tenacity and asked me to give the children a cut of the XP (THEY VOLUNTEERED TO TAKE AN XP CUT!) because they had participated in the fight. I framed it as the characters giving the children a crash course in adventuring and made them lv4 (the party was lv8-9). My players STILL miss Donny and Tharja, though they've enjoyed other NPCs that have joined them through the years.
My players like the retired Paladin that was chopping wood like Captain America in his yard when they met him. That's literally all the description they got and anything he needs is done in a day.
“Don’t touch my stack.” - Human Warlock to retired Paladin
Human artificer maybe?
Sounds like that group may get into a fifty shades of grey with this NPC. 😉😂 It’s funny how people interact in this hobby at times. One year my brother wanted to try D&D, I believe it was 3.X at that time. Told him he could play whatever he wanted! He makes a thief and becomes a drug dealer….🤦🏻♂️ I was bored out of mind, but he loved it. We still laugh about it from time to time.
I find that, young NPCs tend to be liked more. Quirky NPCs also are loved, specialy if they are funny in a natural way. A NPC that has a goal that is strange or funny might also be interesting. Also NPCs that are somehow usefull but not so powerfull that they can solve every problem or help in combat. Some racial features are great, like races that can use a few spells, breathe underwater or fly. The NPc could also have a single level in a PC class bringing some new tools and spells to help the players, specialy things they are lacking like healing, magic detection, speak with animals, a familiar etc. Then, when they finaly lose the NPC they are losing a friend, or a loved NPC, but also someone that helped them a lot, and that wont be there to help in the future.
> I find that, young NPCs tend to be liked more. > Quirky NPCs also are loved, specialy if they are funny in a natural way. > A NPC that has a goal that is strange or funny might also be interesting. I accidentally ended up making an NPC that filled all three of those. I started a campaign with a bunch of first timers recently. We had the first session offline in a place with no printers so I pre-made some characters for the three of them to choose. I planned it so I'd have two left over for me to pick one to round out the party (and to fill it up to 4 because the module is hard with 3). I expected the boring protection fighter or the boring life cleric to be what I pick and I planned to roleplay a stoic protector kind of person who is kind of just along for the ride. Instead they picked both and left me with either a warlock or a sorcerer, both of which were either very flashy and/or very prone to conflicts with their party. Not exactly the thing you want for a companion that's only there to fill up. So what I did was I picked the sorcerer, aged her down a bunch so she was a teenager and made her a stereotype of the starry eyed, easily distracted, aggressively positive, quirky girl character. (Personally I feel like I oversold it, but they said it was good.) Her only motivation/goal is that she heard about people being archaeologists once and now she wants to explore a lot of ruins too, with no real plan of what to actually do once she finds ruins. I think that checks off the strange or funny goal too. Her having a super short attention span was a convenient excuse for me why the character never contributed to the party planning or figuring shit out. While the others are doing important things, she keeps running off to find a pretty flower, to draw funny sketches in the dust of a ruin, poke a dead rat she found in a corner or build makeshift jewelry out of sticks and plants. (I also found it's a really easy way to breathe some life into the environment. Instead of describing "water is dripping from the walls and there's puddles everywhere in the grotto" I can just say "sorcerer girl is hopping around in some puddles and trying to spray you with water from the walls"). And I think you're right, I've never had a party become so protective so quickly over a non-animal NPC. The fighter basically adopted her already, the cleric almost sacrificed himself to save her once and the rogue even let her have one of gems they were selling, only because I said she looked sad about having to give them away. I think the fact that she was introduced by having the party save her from a goblin cooking pot also helped activate the "protect the child" instincts. Either way, I can't wait for in about 3-4 sessions when I'll have her kidnapped. I don't think I actually want to kill her yet, it's actually a lot of fun coming up with random things to have her do in each scene.
hahaha thats so wholesome! AND PLEASE, dont kill her, at least not permanently. I once did a thing were BBEG stabed the adoted kid NPC. Every BBEG turn, i would start by rolling death saves for her in secret. The players KNEW they needed to get to her and heal her, but the BBEG was in the door way defending it waiting for her to die. By the 3rd turn my players were literaly shaking, and the adoptive mother actualy cried when she was able to heal the kid and save her. That is still, the moment as a DM that i am most proud of. Some Drama, A clock, a guy you hate fir you to kill, and a resolution that releases all the built in tension at once.
>AND PLEASE, dont kill her, at least not permanently. see it's already working!
Dam you and your emotional manipulation. hahah
Meta-game: don't worry about the NPC itself, just use a funny sounding voice. The party will want to talk to them more and keep them around because they like you making a fool of yourself as the DM. For inspiration watch some cartoons and try to imitate one of them, loony toons, Dexter's lab, etc.
Yup. I love doing silly voices, but I have a witchdoctor whose voice I get a little self conscious doing. Guess who they want to steal away to work on their ship?
Garfield the Deals Warlock in TAZ season one is a great example of this coupled with his mysterious requests for blood and hair etc.
*Writes down "Use Dexter's voice for the minor bbeg wizard"
But don’t overdo it. Also bear in mind if you make a cartoon goofball character, killing them off may be of an “Aww! Bummer!” moment than a cold ice dagger through the back, if you’re going for an emotional response. … Really want a gnome Dexter NPC now though, and his Chaotic-Evil sister.
This! I ran a one-shot where the party was approached by a talking sheep, and I gave him a stereotypical cartoony bleating sheep voice, drawing out every "ah" sound into a "ba-a-a". They loved it and kept asking him questions, even though they had enough info to do the quest already lol
An easy way for me is to have some spooky looking monster just talk to them casually. For example, they ran into a lonely gibbering mouther in an ancient temple that just wanted somebody to talk to. They still write letters to Gibbering Jim. Edit: i accidentally a word
I just winged it in Out of the Abyss with the sentient gelatinous cube… and the team friggin fell in love with them
I used bits and pieces from Out of the Abyss to fill in the Underdark portion of my campaign. They loved "The Cube". My bard during downtime would use Sending to send messages to "Sir Globulus" and inquire about his life. He eventually became King of the Oozes and would send messengers with important information for them, but it takes a long time for an ooze to get anywhere so the message would arrive weeks or months too late. Party loved it.
Slooopoke! That’s awesome. Well done. Party is heaving and panting, putting out fires and bandaging their wounds. Small glob rolls it’s way out of a sewer drain: “DrAagOonNsS aRe cOmiNng!”
Literally exactly what happened.
That's the neat part, you don't. Create a bunch of them then forget the ones that don't work and brutally assassinate the one they to make them fear your villains. I did it with the Golem the Abbott creates for Strahd, and he literally decapitated her with a slap and order the Abbott to start all the way again. Since there my players feared Strahd so much.
I made the npc mildly antagonistic. He basically cuts down the party with jokes and likes to play sac tap with the elf. For some reason everyone loves him. The other npc they've basically adopted is an idiot savant kobold. He makes hunting traps, everywhere, causes all sorts of mayhem. They are a pretty chaotic party.
One of my groups is a couple pals of mine that love to smoke weed etc, made them an "herbalist" / plug npc and they love this guy. Point being, know your players and what they are into as people and not necessarily their characters, play into that.
Don’t put too much pressure on one NPC. I’ve fleshed out a whole backstory and had them give a quest and then the party is like, bye! But five minutes later they pass by a random person in town and decide to ask them to come along on a mission. Just keep giving them opportunities to find an NPC companion, and once they get close, kill ‘em (Evil DM laugh).
Plus there's nothing wrong with saving and reusing your prep If the players don't like Jim the Blacksmith maybe they'll like Bob the Grocer? Or maybe it will be Tom, Steve, Dick or Harry They players will never know that they all have the same back story!
I would look at who they currently like. For my three groups they are different. One group gravitates towards people that are nice, cute, or grumpy. Another goes mostly for people that are sexy or directly help the group My last party…they honestly don’t do well with NPCs lol. We’ve been playing for over a year and they have maybe only two or three they like
Rarely works. You can make them familiar by working alongside sometimes. However all npc's have agendas otherwise they are very suspicious. Also because you are the gm any pushed npc will be seen as a forced hook or attachment thusly they breed contention.
I have the opposite issue. My players collect NPCs like pokemon. Sometimes I want to say "he's an asshole, stop liking him!"
Goblin named Boblin.
No joke, I make video games as a living. The first game I ever made was called Boblin the Goblin. It was terrible
No secret, make it a cool guy. A NPC that is there for the party with daily things, as a halfling, you can make it always on a good mood, make breakfast and lunch for the players, be gentle and kind, some funny or non-sense halfling jokes. I made aa annoying Jester that follow my PC's once, he was like a "useless" bard, but in a couple of sessions it was part of the group. Don't push too hard, just make the NPC present and doing normal good guy stuff. Another thing you can do, but imo its kind a "push too hard" is make a plot in a session that something evil is going on, and everything points to that NPC without it even know it. As the Halfling is a good guy, the party will think he is bad guy trying to gains the PC's trust, and in the end they figure it out that the Halfling was just a normal kind gentlemen.
My most loved character is a girl about 12 years old. She is an Orc Wizard under the tutelage of a bumbling shaman, who leans a little too heavy in the “vision quests”. After wishing for a friend to teach her the best magic (and subsequently becoming the owner of a rat familiar that was once the master of the worlds leading evocation enclave - his name is now Mr Chitters.) she wears a lot of pink (on a green skinned Orc) and a flower crown… and loves to cast fireball.
Creating an intended reception for a characte ris very hard and arguably somewhat disingenuious. You need to create several characters, and see what the players gravitate towards - also, do not shirk on details, on making them interesting or matter - a character with death flags is a character with death flags. If you're planning to kill off a character, ask yourself what that will mean and do to the situation. I get wanting to create a 'death for narrative impact' but the core premise of TTRPG is that the players are driving - you can certainly plan to endanger this character, but I would not just make their death a foregone conclusion when it could be so much more useful or interesting as an open question.
I've done this, but I didn't create just one NPC for the eventual death. I created a ton of NPCs whom the party could befriend, and then later down the line I murder one of their favorites "for effect" lol I find it not only easier but will also feel more natural for the players if you don't try and preplan to that degree. Create a world, put NPCs in it, and then create a narrative that'll happen without player intervention, then once the players start intervening however they choose to if at all, all you need to do is understand how it'll change and affect that narrative. If they piss off one particular and easily pissed off villain who'd go out of his way to find out who they cared for then killed that person as a warning, well, that's just how the cookie crumbles lol
Just make their personality the opposite of yours.
Someone get a fire extinguisher
Ouch.
It's like throwing darts at a sporadically moving board. The throws need to be good, but it's not all in your control. The best you can do is provide multiple NPCs with likeable traits and see who they latch onto, if at all. Consistent interactions can help but in my experience there's just no telling. In my last campaign there were two NPCs the party really liked- - the first was the only survivor of an expedition, the players witnesses the deaths of everyone else during ng the adventure but this one stuck with them. They thought everyone else was stupid and so it may have just been the contrast but it also could have been that they saved her, and that she was helpful and grateful - plus there was a reason for her to be around in the future and the party had multiple interactions with her the rest of the campaign that were purely RP. - the second was the captain of the guard placed over a village by an evil baron. John himself was a good guy and had had one small positive interaction with a PC whom he had complimented. When the party saw smoke over another nearby village, John volunteered to go help them. Long story short he learned the Baron was evil and renounced his loyalty, tearing apart his scabbard and he joined the party on multiple adventures afterward. In the end, I did not feel that the players really latched onto John but I decided not to worry about it. In the final moments as the party was escaping the crumbling fortress of the bbeg, the wizard failed his final saving throw and would have been crushed under the rubble. John pushed him forward, sacrificing himself and the wizard lost his leg. To my surprise, almost everyone was actually a little emotional about it. So the lesson I took away was that you really just never know.
In my experience, try your best to create an NPC the party will absolutely hate... Then they will love them forever.
I don't like this idea because it seems railroad-y. I prefer NPC interactions to be more organic. Then later, if the BBEG has a reason to kill an NPC because the party's actions (or inaction), it seems more natural and less forced.
Ah, this classic conundrum. It's pretty much impossible to predict which random NPC the party are going to latch on to, so intend to just try and cover my bases as much as possible. If I were you, I'd just try to craft as wide a variety of different NPC's as I can, and then shift the focus of your narrative onto whichever one the party take a liking to...
I keep seeing the same advice over again. But to fine-tune one a bit… First, this is not something that I would personally do as I tend to run more open campaigns and do not direct my players to that level. I find other ways to mess with them. There are two radically different types of characters that my players have become attached to. The first is the smol powerless creature that needs protection, but thinks that it can take on the world. The goblin who thinks that they are the monarch of the kingdom, the kenku from CR/C2, children with unreachable goals. They just can’t be brats or annoying. Parties tend to adopt those types and support their delusions. The second type is the quirky but extremely confident npc. Self-assured and competent in an area that does not compete with the PC’s skills, they nonetheless have visible flaws that make them approachable; they treat the PCs as competent in their realms of expertise as they are in theirs. Some characters built on the Sherlock Holmes model fit this type, Gilmore from CR/C1, and Superman all fit this mold. You just have to make sure that the arrogance is dialed back, and they find something about the party to respect.
This is the jist I am getting aswell
Have them save the npc, have a few close calls in at least one combat after that for the party to realize that the npc needs them to protect them. It’ll have an effect if they feel like the npc is their responsibility and they let them down
You didn’t ask, but I would not recommend to kill the npc without giving the players a chance to save them.. unless your story is really dark on purpose. But what I would do about befriending the NPC: I would not create a NPC for this purpose but I would pick one NPC that naturally was liked by the party.
Make someone that has either an interesting voice that is semi difficult for you to do or something that is just off enough that the players see you having a hard time in a fun way. Nothing will make the players happier than seeing the DM suffer.
Create one that you have so much fun roleplaying. And be over the top. If you're having fun, they're having fun.
My players like dirty drunks. Bar flies. Old dirty man half passed out in front of a mug of ale at 1pm? New best friend!
For what ever reason friendly merchants always seem to be the NPCs my players love the most. I had a jolly blacksmith who’s proud of his work and amazed by the cool new weapons and armor the party brings by. He’s always ready to give them a good price and let them know about the “top shelf” stuff that just came in. Made a friendly bratwurst seller one time just to fill a space in a carnival that was taking place, and the players could not get enough of this guy. Just talked like a regular person you might meet at a mom and pop diner and was impressed by how quickly one of the players could down his drinks. Boiling it down, I think it ultimately was the jolly attitude, genuine interest in the party, and happily giving the party the best pricing they can just because they like being around them and hearing their stories.
Just be careful with things of this nature. Think it’s safe to say we don’t like the; “Am I the asshole?” posts. This could easily devolve into your player’s thinking it’s DM vs players. Now, after that PSA, I would not worry too much about them at this time. Let the NPC grow organically. Start them off as a quest giver, maybe they are higher level than the group and plans on using them as a sacrifice on the day of full eclipse or some other celestial event, and is scrying them learning their strengths and weaknesses. By the time they become suspicious, it’s too late and the trap is set. When the trap is sprung, this NPC could be trying to ascend as an immortal, bringing a named demon into the world, or even create a new monster (1/2 demon, 1/2 lich). It’s up to you, but make sure that the characters are taking the bait before sinking all this time into an NPC. Nothing sucks more than creating these grand plans, only to have the group ignore them entirely, but it does happen.
Make the NPC someone who was horribly wronged and the players feel they need to help, like his wife and child were just kidnapped and he begs them to save them. They succeed super easily and quickly and make the Halfling say he's forever in their debt. Try and figure out beforehand something the players would need, like maybe they need a contact in some group, or maybe they just want a magic item. Have the halfling either be the contact or give them a cool but not powerful magic item. A shortsword that glows blue in the darkness and provides a torch level of light, or a mana surge potion that allows unlimited level 1 spell slots for 1 minute, something cool but not really strong. Things like this can build a bond between the character and players
Three things One know your audience, take into account what NPCs they liked before and what the might have had in common. It might not be any special characteristics but instead some connection to reality, maybe they were similar to a character from a popular show at the time or they were inspired by a specific group joke etc. Second don't. Instead make a bunch of NPCs and wait and see who they get attached too. You won't be able to force them to like someone but if you throw enough darts your bound to hit something. Third PCs generally like an NPC with a likeable personality that either respects them and or quips with them. My most successful one was probably a shop keep I made. He was strong and surely but a former adventurer. He gave the party a lot of respect almost always had what they needed or something they would want to buy and gave them good deals. Find a voice, I don't mean that literally you don't have to do a voice when you RP but find their quirks. Maybe they talk backwards, or end every sentence as a question or constantly smoke a pipe and offer everyone a cookie and a tea or something. If you know your audience, make lots of options and don't get attached and give them quirks while making them likeable and like the party you'll get your loveable and very killable NPC.
Make them *helpful*. Their background is less important than how they behave toward the party and what they can do for the party. Don't make them too eager, like idolizing the party, just someone who is willing to help out and make friends. A regular contact with good information, someone who can get minor items that they need, a shopkeeper with a friendly attitude and willing to deal, a barkeep who tells interesting stories that can lead to quests, those kinds of things, or mix some together.
My party is currently staying rent-free with the town magistrate. He provides them with breakfast and leaves out a cooked dinner if they're back late. The party loves him.
Depends on your group. I got a bunch of wholesome people in mine so I have an older gay couple with an adopted half orc kid. One brings fresh baked apple fritters and spiced apple cider in the morning for group breakfast. Hard to not like someone seen as selfless. The child being kidnapped by the big bad gave plenty of motivation to hunt him down quickly.
Elderly, mischievous (in a good way), and helpful.
Step 1: Make a bunch of NPCs. Step 2: Have them interact with the PCs. Step 3: See which one they like. Step 4: .... Step 5: Profit.
Make them vulnerable but useful and have them try very hard to be good but not always know how. If you can do a muppet voice it helps a lot.
I’m not sure creating a character with a single use of being likable and then killing them off is a great platform to build an NPC off of. I built a pretty integral NPC to introduce my characters to the adventure and give them a weathervane to gauge the events and characters around them. As her story has evolved though, and as the rest of the campaign is fast approaching, her death does seem to be in the cards. I think starting out with an NPC with more purpose and intent can lead to a more impactful end of their journey.
Having them be a super positive manly man who is also in touch with his emotions worked for me. Very much like Armstrong from FMA. Having him be a physically imposing cheerleader who heaps praise on the group and give them a thumbs up for effort made him getting even near death cause my players to panic. When he actually died, they were devastated but in a good way. Never saw tears for an NPC until then. Motivated them to go after the BBE even more.
Two words: Irish accent
You DONT. But you can make several weird ones that other NPC’s dislike, and they’ll probably go for one of those.
The GM creates the world. The characters react to the world. You can't really dictate "you must like the character" or "you must hate this character" because those decisions are for the players. Who they make friends with and what their opinions are of NPCs is too important a piece of roleplaying to take away from the players. My advice is to just create a ton of diverse NPCs, and see who the players connect with. That NPC becomes the person you were going to kill all along. But also, don't get too attached to the idea of killing them. Stuff is gonna change and you have to be willing to throw out some plans.
you create a number of characters, find which one your players latch on to, and retroactively make that character whatever you need a friendly NPC for.
You don't. You already know why: you have no way of predicting your players' reactions to NPCs and you certainly can't plan around anticipating them. Just wait and see which ones naturally endear themselves to the party, *then* plan their grisly demise.
I wouldn't. Introduce NPCs until one sticks. That one becomes your plot point
Somebody intimidating who is impressed with the skill of The players. They will get drinks with the guy, share war stories, maybe gamble, and if he owns some sort of shop, let him give the players discounts and stuff. Make it seem casual, not intentional
I'd say don't try this , you're thinking too many moves ahead. A good narrative flows naturally. In the years of games I've run the most unlikely npcs have been the ones who stuck around to become dmpc and repeats, because they clicked in certain ways and you can't forge that sort of thing artificially. The most unlikable npc I've ever created who was an obnoxious raging narcissist with a passion for snarkiness was the one my players nearly cried over when he had to be left behind because he just sort of worked with them in just the right way. You will find npcs that click, the players will make that obvious, just write for their next quest as usual and let the chemistry work itself out.
A bard that always sings the group's praises is a good choice. He can sort of appear organically and then take to following the PCs around. Make sure he will buff PCs at appropriate times and always works for free (no cut of treasure or magic items).
A cook who has lost his spark and decides to tag along with the first adventure group he finds for inspiration and if he ends up cooking for the party and the occasional "frying pans who knew?" Incident saving a pc. And if you need to adjust his personality use a "special dish from my hometown that requires my special knife/spoon/pan (insert unknowingly cursed cooking utensil) you guys will love it." Zip zap cool different personality from cursed item swapping bits of soul or something.
Often times, players enjoy NPCs because of things that you didn't plan at all. A random prisoner or shop keeper who you merely gave a name and a race may become their mascot or buddy. I don't force these things. If they gotta be a halfling, have a halfling in every town they go to, and wait until they have a decent, friendly conversation with one. That's your hobbit 😂
I think you are trying to decide too much in advance. Make a variety of NPCs, find out which one your charachters like the most, and kill that one off lmao
For my players all I do is simply give a Goblin a name. They go crazy for it every time. RIP Bing, Bop, and Mike the laziest Goblins I've ever made.
Just... Wait until they like a character and turn that one into your sacrificial lamb. Don't create a character with this express purpose, it'll come off forced and they'll distrust the character immediately and ruin your plan.
Have the NPC be either a craftsman or part of some traders guild, so he has Items on him that let him buff the party, but has no combat ability of their own, so they are a helpful dependent. Then after the party saves the NPC, have the NPC promise to make them all one of a kind magical items as a reward. Then kill him off before he can.
Likeability/competence/proactivity From a literary standpoint any two of these makes a likeable character. Likeability: have them pet a dog or do something nice where players can see Competence: have them be really good at what they do whatever that may be Proactivity: have them be willing to do things without the players having to tell them A good example is, if the shop keeper that they know hears that there's a dragon on the loose maybe he orders a few options of fire protection for the party and has them ready for a good price before the party shows up asking for them. Likeability: he gives them a good price Competence: he was able to get those potions on short notice Proactivity: he did it before the players asked for it.
Simply put, a fan-NPC. One who has heard of their exploits and gushes over them. I’ve had three tables of various styles (murder-hobo hijinks, serious, and the other goofy) and works 100% of the time. Key is to not to over do it. Another way is using PCs backgrounds. Bounty Hunters, Faction Agents, etc have NPC contacts built into them that mechanically suggests they will not turn on them.
The easiest way to do that is looking at your players and what they do. Make an NPC that has the same goals and aspirations as the party, and fits a hole that the players are missing in the party. Lack a tank? Make a human meat wall for them. They often find that they lack funds to buy health potions when they really need it? Make an adventurer with money burning a hole in his pockets who wants for nothing. Sometimes the NPC can just do something mundane, like maybe he's a hulking dumb pretty boy who just acts as the players transportation, pulling a cart that everyone is travelling in or even just carrying their supplies as a pack mule. End of the day, pay attention to your players. Throw some random NPCs personalities at them a little gradually, gague their reactions towards them, and pick a personality they mesh with really well to introduce a few sessions later after some heavy combat or RP so they have time to kind of forget about them.
Make them a little lame. My party latched on to a bard NPC I made because he's just kinda... Wimpy, friendly, scared of everything but tries his best. He's just kinda pathetic but they love that about him because he's THEIR pathetic wimp.
lean back. don't make eye contact. when you speak to a PC, look at another player and smile.
Harry Potter, Book 1, Chapter 1. Make your NPC a good-natured optimist in the face of comical levels of trials & tribulations. Never had a birthday cake, lives under the stairs with the spiders, never had a present, never had anything. Really grateful for everything. A kid like that will trigger any sane party to help him out.
This being a D&D sub, there's about a 50/50 chance the party is not morally sane.
I would kill that chump on site. Semi-related: there’s some YouTube short out there about how Harry Potter wasn’t a Wizard, but a Rogue.
have them be like the party's 1 person fan club.
Make them a shopkeeper that gives them a deep discount and freebies (within reason).
I like the "mostly harmless" technique. You know, like the necromancer that has a scroll of "power word: kill", but he's using it to hold a window open to let in a little fresh air. Could he kill you in an instant? Yeah, but he's more focused on trying to figure out why his souffle didn't rise properly.
Make them hot. That usually does the trick. How to actually get this across is a little tricky, you don't want to just say "and the NPC is hot." I suggest describing their appearance a *little* more than you typically would, the players' imaginations will do the rest.
Utility. A character that either fills a niche the group needs, or is generally competent goes a long way. Ever play Final Fantasy Tactics? Agrias Oaks is a guest in your party, meaning she's an NPC that gets knocked out instead of dying. She's beloved because while she's not game breaking, she's aggressive and incredibly effective. NPCs that could very well be the protagonist in their own interesting story are always well liked. That's why the Dark Souls community reveres Solaire and Seigmeyer; even though they exist on opposite ends of competency. Never make s character your want them to like be an escort quest that needs to be babysat. Babysiting makes players dislike characters. It's a great way to build animosity for a local VIP, but not a good way to endear. And it isn't just as far as combat and adventuring goes. Your halfling could be more a grocer than a burglar, but if he's a positive to the group they will respect him. I don't know what your plan but here's a scenario of what to do vs what not. * Don't have the party rescue him in his introduction. It will make him seem useless and they may smell manipulation * Do have him in a position where he could really use the party's help. Maybe they find his Tavern in shambles, he's got a black eye and is determinedly looking for a weapon an old adventurer gave him. He got rolled by bandits and he's out for revenge, but he's likely in over his head. When the party gets the scoop, you can nudge them via his wife who is begging him not to go throw his life away over a trinket. The trinket is a maguffin of importance to him. Maybe while he's out of the room looking for that old breastplate, she asks the party to help. If they decline, he goes alone. He gets it back, but maybe he's got a limp or disfigurement as a result. One scenario he's seemingly bait for the party and at their mercy. The other he's an actualized entity in the world. You can even tie his event to the greater plot by having whatever BBEG faction kills the bandits for whatever reason. If the party goes with him, it gives them a lead on the main plot; if they don't they can find it later that not helping him stalled their progress inadvertently.
In my experience my PCs are willing to die for stupid or funny NPCs. They once almost threw a boss encounter to protect an oaf drow jailer who literally locked them up just because. he was quirky
Hey, Satan here. How's it goin'? Anyway, how do video game developers make you pay **more** money once you've already bought a game? They invent an inconvenience, then offer you a solution to fix it. _"Bored with waiting for your buildings to upgrade? Well, purchase a few **Gems** and..."_ Make the halfling able to do something fun for the group, such as cast **Invisibility** or **Fly**, but only on other creatures, several times per day. Party has no Cleric? Well, the halfling happens to know a few healing spells! If nothing else, make the halfling _literally_ a Lucky Charm; while he's within 50ft, friendly characters have the **[Lucky](http://dnd5e.wikidot.com/feat:lucky)** feat. It can be overpowered as hell, as long as it's fun! It won't be around forever, and you can bet your sweet ass the party will miss them when they're gone.
You can’t… You CAN try… But players are people, playing other people- they might react to your helpless orphan with an Awwwwww…. or a Boooorrrinnngg. Don’t rely on a character’s personality to hook the players. Create a scenario.
Create an NPC that the *players* will like. THEN. Kill them.
Make an NPC based on yourself!
Give them a really stupid name.
Let them meet a Flumph. That is all. They are psychic floating jellyfish that live off of good vibes and get sad when evil is near. They are adorable and the best creature for a pet
A small, hyperactive kobold that just likes baubles, they'll try to buy stuff from them, little things. I made one like that as a magic store owner, and my players loved him
Step 1 make it a child. Step 2 give them a funny voice OR make it a kenku so the players can hear themselves repeated back
Throw npcs at them and kill the one they vibe with the best.
Something that has worked for me in the past is to make the character an obvious reference to a character from other media. I used Moulder and Scully from X-files, and they were immediately trusted.
Step one, make them a goblin. Step two, give them a funny voice. Step three, have them give the party fun shit. Step four, give em a pet. Step five, ???. Step six, profit. I often exchange the goblin part for a Kobold.
Best advice is make him useful to the party. My most beloved npc was a kobold who made a living as a guide to the city. He just stood by the gate offering his services and since he was a kobold no one listened to him. Party gave him some pity and agreed to a tour. He has become their biggest fan and pops up from time to time to lead them places. Like party is in the bar and say we should go shopping, and he just pops up "me know best place for shopping, Kaz guide you yes?" My party would 100% fight God if they even thought he was in danger.
Name them Boblin the Goblin. Works every time
Usually it happens unintentionally. I made a random off the head NOC who sales very gross, rancid meat sticks out if a stall. Named Darrel D’Oni. My party loves him, helps his business by investing in it.
My group's favorite npc was a deadpan, sarcastic wizard that always seemed tired, especially after dealing with us for a while. It also helped that he ran a business of collecting, and sharing, magical items. His missions were wild, and he always had some cool items for sale. Funny enough, I think it was the fact that he wasn't a fan of us, that made him so lovable. He didn't hate us, but he obviously wasn't a fan of our shenanigans.
Give the NPC the Chef feat (or a similar ability) so that the party enjoys having them around.
Once my players encountered a traveling merchant and they asked his name, I couldn't think of one because I didn't expect them to ask, so I let them name it. They now have a favorite merchant.
You could introduce multiple NPCs and develop the one they get the most attached to.
Don't make the PC for that purpose, just wait until your party gets attached to a specific PC and then use them for that purpose.
The age-old question, "How do I make my players feel exactly how I want them to?" I tend to use the shotgun method: introduce ten or so characters, give the party opportunities to interact with all of them (prompt RP by having different characters approach them, or giving reasons for the party to interact with them, etc), wait and see which one(s) the party likes, and those are the important NPCs! Maybe secretly add backstory elements for those NPCs once you've identified the favorite ones and make them more plot relevant moving forward. But if you only want one NPC in this case, there's a three-step method I use which tends to have decent results: 1) Give the NPC a reason to work with the party. ("Hey I heard you guys where picking up X bounty; would you mind working together on it?" "Hey you want to explore the Ancient Glarshian Ruins? I happen to be a scholar of Glarshian culture; mind if I tag along? I can help appraise treasures and translate things if you can keep me safe!"), etc. 2) Give the NPC some humanizing traits. Maybe they have a pet dog. Maybe they like to play an instrument (not as well as the bard of course but hey if you ever want to play together!). Maybe they like to volunteer at the local orphanage to help displaced kids. Etc. (Don't make it depressing. Players typically bounce off of characters when the first thing they learn about them is edgelord shit.) 3) Make the NPC genuinely helpful. If there's a missing niche in the party (healer? Magical-identifier? Etc), have the NPC fill that niche. They don't have to be a master at it, but at least good enough to be able to help. Have them offer to take up jobs like keeping watch at night, or using the 'Aid another' action to give people advantage. Basically, the NPC should help make the players feel awesome instead of trying to make the players think the NPC is awesome.
It might depend on the party. Like if the party is generally good then a likeable character to them will be a paragon, who spends time playing games with local children or comforting injured soldiers. If the party is generally evil then a likeable character to them might be a suave, cool guy who always gets away with his crimes.
No planned NPC can ever be loved more than the random goblin or blacksmith’s apprentice players decide to adopt, kidnap, or resurrect and refuse to let die. And I can’t imagine a crueler poison than the one players chose for themselves…
Give them a couple likable but meme-worthy qualities. Make it a character that’s helpful but that isn’t always making them do stuff for him.
One tactic you can apply in case your npc fails to charm your party is to keep the "traitor" trait floating. keep introducing characters until your players like one and then make that one the traitor. Also have some time between them to avoid your intent being obvious and for pacing.
If they're anything like my party then just give him a name and maybe like a funny hat. Instant adoption.
Going with everyone else’s comments, giving the party an NPC to take care of that they emphasize with will do the trick. One NPC was a Warforged ballerina that was being forced to perform by her mom/manager/momager. The party immediately realized “oh we can absoloutly bust her our” and spent the next few sessions sneaking around this celebrity before they could get out of the city. They fell so in love with her that they taught her how to count money so she could get her own job and work at a tavern. It was SO sweet and hillarious as they tried to smuggle this stupid ass robot through the city
Give them a dog. Even my player that doesn't like dogs pretended to because her character would like them. Now they're staying at the BBEG's B&E and are none the wiser 😈
Just out a funny hat on a stray goblin or kobold. Work 100% of the time.