Thursday, February 3, 2011

GM Tip: How to quickly give personality to NPC?

So, you have NPC what characters meet. NPC might be blacksmith, city guard, beggar, or anything. How to give some edge to that character quickly?

First, check your surroundings. Two items you first see. I see scissors and pen. Now translate what you see to characteristics. Scissors are sharp, so NPC is witty. Pen indicates he is also learned. OR scissors as sharp might also mean that he is violent and pen that he is in high status.

So, now that blacksmith is witty and learned.
Or city guard is violent and in high status. Possibly guard captain.

Small trick what needs a bit of imagination, but you'll get quickly seeds to determine some personality.

2 comments:

Shimoroka said...

Thats a good tip. Reminds me of a character in a movie that invents a story based on little details of his surroundings. I won't name it because thats sort of the punch of that story.

Unknown said...

@Shimoroka: That movie sounds interesting, but if that's the trick of the movie...

That tip is really simple I blogged about. I myself like these little tips you can use with almost zero preparation during the game. And what I've used, I share.