Right now I'm writing a campaign following the reopening of the Neverwinter Academy nearly 150 years after the Wailing Death had it destroyed. I want to populate the academy so it feels authentic in the experience I'm trying to create for my PCs, but it feels daunting. I want each student they interact with to have a level of depth but I'm also realizing I do have limitations in the volume of how much I can write - how do I translate that to scale within my world?
Realistically, they won’t interact with more than 5-8 students and a couple teachers. Try to do much more than that, and they won’t be able to keep everyone straight in their heads.
So most times it’s more like, there’s 20 students in here, oh you recognize Bob and Sarah from your other class. Things like that act like putting a little “talk to me” sign over those NPC’s heads. Then if they decide to chat with someone else, you do what the above poster says and wing it.
I find it helpful to have a long list of names, in case the party decides to talk to random tavern-goer No. 3. Seems like something like that would be very useful in a campaign like this.
To start, think about what you need to the NPC to do for you. Build a backstory around why the NPC is going around doing what they're doing, put 2-4 physical attributes on some paper, and you're good to go.
Example: George Commolt. You need a rival for a player, some sort of competition and he's also a bit of a brat. Therefore, he's a pampered rich child who thinks himself superior and just has to prove it. He walks upright, glares at everyone, talks imperiously, and won't forgive an insult.
It's very quick to do and can get some quick NPCs to roleplay.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
He doesn't have much besides the skin on his bones. Me: I'll take the skin on his bones, then.
"You see a gigantic, monstrous praying mantis burst from out of the ground. It sprays a stream of acid from it's mouth at one soldier, dissolving him instantly, then it turns and chomps another soldier in half with it's- "
I find it makes my life really easy if I base my NPCs on characters from movies and TV shows. I'm really familiar with them so I keep them consistent and I just imagine how they would react in this new situation. I'll change their species as I see fit but keep their motivations and mannerisms.
NPC's for me and my trusty binder of NPC's at this point fall under two categories
Quest Progressioners
Random Encounter/Situationers
I have a generic age, class, species, gender, whether they are introverted or extroverted, very vague family setup or backstory that is a 1 liner, and something that sets them apart (a quirk or something that makes them unique, such as an overused word, an eyetwitch, a habit, etc). If the group shows interest in them, or sticks to some more than others, i then write the backstory out a little further just in case, but i'd say it's about 80/20 party doesn't care vs party does care.
Trying to connect the dots from backstory to backstory ends up with me improving when it goes awry, so i let the party tell me who they want to talk to. The much smaller list of quest based NPC's are typically more extroverted or more direct points where the party finds them or has set out looking for someone that ends up being them, and is a more controlled environment.
However, it kinda depends on how your brain works as well. In my case, it's much harder to come up with useful names and NPC types than the rest of the stuff, so i work to catalog a bunch of the things i'm not good at improvising and stick to what i am good at improvising.
Several key aspects I've found out in my games are (some of these are already mentioned in this thread):
Players don't really care about NPC backstories. Don't go into these too deeply. As an example, here's the fully fledged backstory of one of my NPCs that the party wholeheartidly adopted as their favourite NPC: "a kobold who wants to be a great wizard, but cannot cast a single spell. He will turn friendly if he sees the party cast a spell outside combat that doesn't deal damage." That's it. The party liked the kobold so much, I added some quirks on the fly to flesh him out.
The NPCs are actual people with actual motives. They won't do stuff or offer information just because they're "programmed" to do so. They need some reason to help/hinder the party. To continue with my kobold example, he was a guard when the party was in prison trying to read the wizard's spellbook. He wants to be a wizard, so he offered to help the party escape in hopes of the wizard teaching him some magic.
Only focus on the NPCs the players are interested in. All NPCs don't even need names. Have a table of random names and one word characteristics to flesh out a random NPC. Not all NPCs have something important so say. If you have 5 NPCs, each holding a key piece of information, but the party only cares about one, you can just make the one NPC deliver that information.
You can make an academy authentic and populated just by saying stuff like "as you're walking down the corridor you pass a couple of groups of students and on the far side you see <relevant NPC> preparing for their next assignment".
I use one of two methods: 1. I use relatives, friends, coworkers, or people i've met. I change their names of course, but I use my memory of them to provide descriptions and their personalities. 2. Characters from movies, books, etc.
If any of the players know the people that I am basing the NPC on, I simply change a couple details.
This allows me to very quickly generate NPC descriptions, personalities, and backgrounds.
I also have not all the baddies on the same page, meaning each has their own goals and sometimes they conflict which the PCs can then exploit.
Several key aspects I've found out in my games are (some of these are already mentioned in this thread):
The NPCs are actual people with actual motives. They won't do stuff or offer information just because they're "programmed" to do so. They need some reason to help/hinder the party. To continue with my kobold example, he was a guard when the party was in prison trying to read the wizard's spellbook. He wants to be a wizard, so he offered to help the party escape in hopes of the wizard teaching him some magic.
Expanding on this one: an underused type of NPC is one with their own goals that don't necessarily intersect with the PCs' at all, but they happen to be operating in the same region. They're sometimes an ally of convenience, sometimes just a social encounter, sometimes a source of information to be sought out, etc.
Other thoughts:
An antagonistic non-enemy NPC is, unless your players are very murder-prone, a fun thing to have. I have one NPC the players more-or-less worked for briefly, and he was rather insultingly displeased with how they went about the task. They can't wait to rescue him from his current circumstances, just so they can rub it in his face that they rescued him.
People who they at least nominally oppose, but who they can't just go and kill, and who are not interested in killing them, or even thwarting them.. It's especially fun when that enemy wants to get the PCs to help them with something that the PCs want to do, or has information the players need, or has nowhere else to turn and has to beg them for help.
If you can link an NPC to a character's backstory, it helps. This wizard isn't just some random person -- they were a senior student who taught you basic magic early in your apprenticeship. The bandit captain is your missing uncle. If you overdo it, it can make the world feel like it's all about the PCs, but occasional use can work, especially if it's not a coincidence.
Another kind of link is to some attribute of a character's class. A fellow priest of the god of whatever. A warlock who serves the same patron. Maybe they have a message for you. Maybe they're a potential ally. Maybe they're an insufferable jerk who you have to grit your teeth and put up with.
My suggestion is don't overthink it, the more you plan the more stuff your party simply will not interact with. What I try to do, is create specific people that are important, people they will need to interact with. Then, just make a big list of names to pull from when they want to talk to a random person. Make a note next to the name when they do and develop from there. I do this and the NPCs my players like the most are just the random people I made up on the fly. For every mayor or headmaster I make, my players end up finding Geoff the sausage roll vendor who they adopt.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Right now I'm writing a campaign following the reopening of the Neverwinter Academy nearly 150 years after the Wailing Death had it destroyed. I want to populate the academy so it feels authentic in the experience I'm trying to create for my PCs, but it feels daunting. I want each student they interact with to have a level of depth but I'm also realizing I do have limitations in the volume of how much I can write - how do I translate that to scale within my world?
my personal suggestion is to write a backstory for the more important students. then just spitball the others, but document info as you go
DM: ...the goblin slaps you with the fish he is holding.
Me: what are we, in Nineveh?
(insert DM laughing/dying noises here)
Realistically, they won’t interact with more than 5-8 students and a couple teachers. Try to do much more than that, and they won’t be able to keep everyone straight in their heads.
So most times it’s more like, there’s 20 students in here, oh you recognize Bob and Sarah from your other class. Things like that act like putting a little “talk to me” sign over those NPC’s heads.
Then if they decide to chat with someone else, you do what the above poster says and wing it.
I find it helpful to have a long list of names, in case the party decides to talk to random tavern-goer No. 3. Seems like something like that would be very useful in a campaign like this.
To start, think about what you need to the NPC to do for you. Build a backstory around why the NPC is going around doing what they're doing, put 2-4 physical attributes on some paper, and you're good to go.
Example: George Commolt. You need a rival for a player, some sort of competition and he's also a bit of a brat. Therefore, he's a pampered rich child who thinks himself superior and just has to prove it. He walks upright, glares at everyone, talks imperiously, and won't forgive an insult.
It's very quick to do and can get some quick NPCs to roleplay.
He doesn't have much besides the skin on his bones. Me: I'll take the skin on his bones, then.
"You see a gigantic, monstrous praying mantis burst from out of the ground. It sprays a stream of acid from it's mouth at one soldier, dissolving him instantly, then it turns and chomps another soldier in half with it's- "
"When are we gonna take a snack break?"
I find it makes my life really easy if I base my NPCs on characters from movies and TV shows. I'm really familiar with them so I keep them consistent and I just imagine how they would react in this new situation. I'll change their species as I see fit but keep their motivations and mannerisms.
Don't go overboard in prep. Even the major NPCs are unlikely to have their backstory come up.
NPC's for me and my trusty binder of NPC's at this point fall under two categories
Quest Progressioners
Random Encounter/Situationers
I have a generic age, class, species, gender, whether they are introverted or extroverted, very vague family setup or backstory that is a 1 liner, and something that sets them apart (a quirk or something that makes them unique, such as an overused word, an eyetwitch, a habit, etc). If the group shows interest in them, or sticks to some more than others, i then write the backstory out a little further just in case, but i'd say it's about 80/20 party doesn't care vs party does care.
Trying to connect the dots from backstory to backstory ends up with me improving when it goes awry, so i let the party tell me who they want to talk to. The much smaller list of quest based NPC's are typically more extroverted or more direct points where the party finds them or has set out looking for someone that ends up being them, and is a more controlled environment.
However, it kinda depends on how your brain works as well. In my case, it's much harder to come up with useful names and NPC types than the rest of the stuff, so i work to catalog a bunch of the things i'm not good at improvising and stick to what i am good at improvising.
Start just with a list of names, maybe a personality framework for each, and then watch how quick the players create the npc for you!
Several key aspects I've found out in my games are (some of these are already mentioned in this thread):
You can make an academy authentic and populated just by saying stuff like "as you're walking down the corridor you pass a couple of groups of students and on the far side you see <relevant NPC> preparing for their next assignment".
I use one of two methods:
1. I use relatives, friends, coworkers, or people i've met. I change their names of course, but I use my memory of them to provide descriptions and their personalities.
2. Characters from movies, books, etc.
If any of the players know the people that I am basing the NPC on, I simply change a couple details.
This allows me to very quickly generate NPC descriptions, personalities, and backgrounds.
I also have not all the baddies on the same page, meaning each has their own goals and sometimes they conflict which the PCs can then exploit.
Playing D&D since 1982
Have played every version of the game since Basic (original Red Box Set), except that abomination sometimes called 4e.
Expanding on this one: an underused type of NPC is one with their own goals that don't necessarily intersect with the PCs' at all, but they happen to be operating in the same region. They're sometimes an ally of convenience, sometimes just a social encounter, sometimes a source of information to be sought out, etc.
Other thoughts:
My suggestion is don't overthink it, the more you plan the more stuff your party simply will not interact with. What I try to do, is create specific people that are important, people they will need to interact with. Then, just make a big list of names to pull from when they want to talk to a random person. Make a note next to the name when they do and develop from there. I do this and the NPCs my players like the most are just the random people I made up on the fly. For every mayor or headmaster I make, my players end up finding Geoff the sausage roll vendor who they adopt.