Game Masters, Take Some Lessons From Video Game RPGs When It Comes To Memorable NPCs

Most of us who enjoy rolling funny-shaped dice and talking in outrageous accents have (usually) also spent at least some time playing RPGs on a console or computer over the years. And whether you prefer something that's hack-and-slash like Diablo, or you're more of an action-RPG fan who prefers some of the offerings in Bethesda's stable, these games are a great way to play when we don't have time, energy, etc. to get a crew together for an adventure around the table.

And while criticizing Game Masters (as well as players) for being too "video gamey" in their approaches is a common thing in the hobby, I feel like there is value in looking at what these games do right. And while we can argue about which games have good narrative design, and which ones give you freedom of choice, I feel there is a particular aspect a lot of GMs might overlook... namely the merging of function and form that typically happens with important NPCs.

Stay a while, and listen.

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A Merging of Function and Form

Any time you have a recurring NPC in a video game, they tend to serve some, mechanical function in your game. It might be a character like Blacksmith Andre in Dark Souls, who repairs and upgrades your gear, or it might be someone like Wirt in Diablo who gives you rare and unusual items if you're willing to gamble on them, but the idea was that if you were going to have an NPC who got animations, art, and voice lines, then they needed to be a functional part of the game as well as a part of the story in order to justify the time, work, and expense of rendering and including them.

Now, as a Game Master, you can spin up NPCs from out of thin air, and use them to plug in whatever need you have... however, doing that can eat up a lot of time, energy, and effort, and it can leave you with an ever-growing roster of characters you have to keep track of that can make your story feel a bit bloated as you try to keep track of who is who, while not losing your grip on the story you're telling. So, to keep your list somewhat streamlined, it's a good idea to make sure that particular NPCs you want to keep around serve a specific role in the game, as well as occupying a particular place in the story you're telling.

Hello there! How can I be of service today?

There is, however, an additional factor you need to balance, here. Because regular, recurring NPCs should serve some mechanical purpose, but at the same time you don't want them to be more powerful than your player characters. You can end up walking a very fine line when it comes to what an NPC can do... but sometimes that can be a fulfilling part of the challenge that can also add to the flavor and lore of the character in question!

For example, let's say you have a shady NPC who hangs out on the rough side of town. Maybe his original purpose was to get rumors to the party, and to act as a way for them to gain access to black market goods like poison if they stay on his good side. That function doesn't require him to be a powerful character in his own right; he could be a level 1 thug who just happens to have a network of contacts that lets him act as a dispensary for the party. But what if you wanted a character to act as a source of lore, or to help identify magical items, spells, etc. that the party can't figure out for themselves?

This is where that creativity comes in.

For example, does your party form a relationship with an acolyte who lives in the large, arcane college's library who does all the research, devoting their time and energy to giving the PCs answers because they know how to comb through the collected knowledge of the institution rather than because they themselves are a master of the magic arts? Do they instead talk to a local hermit who was once a cleric, but who has since turned his back on his faith, meaning that he still has all his knowledge (and maybe a few spells kept in reserve), but he is only a shadow of his former self? Or is there an eccentric noblewoman who has devoted her life to the study of magic, fascinated by everything it offers even if she has no skill beyond theory and history?

The key here is to walk that fine line. Because if the PCs interact with a particular NPC for long enough, then they will often end up becoming their go-to ally or source. This will help you keep interactions going, deepen relationships with these characters (hopefully), and allow you to toss out some pieces of their lore as time goes on.

It can also be a particularly good method for making sure that you don't have to make up a new roster of NPCs every time your players want to go shopping for new gear, replenish their spell components, or commission a new weapon or armor set. Which will save you a lot of time and energy by the end of your campaign... even if you just establish a fresh set of useful NPCs in every new location when you get to a fresh arc of your story.

Looking For Some NPCs To Fill In Your Gaps?

You should definitely check these out if you haven't yet!

If you're a Game Master who wants a little help with the heavy lifting of NPC creation, I've been putting together a lot of supplements on this subject. And while a lot of these NPCs are just scene fillers like the drinkers at the end of the bar, or the merchant dealing in leathers, all of these supplements are interspersed with NPCs who have the kind of mechanical roles I've mentioned above. So whether you're looking for curators of alchemical goods, underworld figures who know how to get you illegal goods, weapon smiths of extraordinary skill, or curious scholars who can find the lore your characters need to advance the plot, consider picking up some of the following supplements:

- 100 NPCs You Might Meet At The Tavern: The flagship product of my blue-book covers, this one is a bestseller for a reason, in my opinion, and it has a little bit of everything in it.

- 100 Helpful Hirelings: A collection of folks who are more than happy to help out the party, this collection has everything from laborers and squires, to locksmiths, arcane scholars, and more!

- 100 Merchants To Encounter: From traveling magic item dealers and fey marketeers, to ironmongers, tanners, and booksellers, this collection has a long list of folks who can be ideal for getting the right items into the party's hands... and many of them also provide secondary services that can be quite useful!

- 100 Nobles To Encounter: Whether they're meant to act as paymasters, as someone who can open doors for the party, or just someone who is willing to help whenever possible, it's a good idea to know what nobles one can find in the area.

- 100 Town Guards: A collection of the town's investigators and enforcers, these NPCs are often good for getting information into your party's hands, for giving them some leeway with their methods, or even providing them with some unusual tools, if they play their cards (dice?) right.

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary! Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my hardboiled gangland noir series starring a bruiser of a Maine Coon with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

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Death, and Its Role in RPGs

We've all had that moment of seeing the dice fall, looking up at the Game Master, and realizing it's over. That critical hit from the gnoll raider just drove a spike through your wizard's skull, and they're dead. All the plans you had, all the adventures you've managed, they're all for naught in the face of the grave. And even if the rest of the party piles onto that hyena-faced raider and smashes them to the ground, none of it will be enough to bring back Hedrick... he's gone.

Death is a part of the game, generally speaking, but we don't always stop and ask what role it should play. Which is why I thought I'd share some thoughts I had on death, dying, and questions surrounding it in our RPGs.

Let us hold up a mirror to the reaper, shall we?

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How Common Should Death Be?

Death in RPGs is, generally speaking, supposed to represent the ultimate fail state. Whether it comes because the party was foolhardy or the villains were lucky, the dice giveth, and the dice taketh away. However, it's important to examine what getting that Game Over screen is going to do to your players, and to your game.

Do not worry... I can fix this.

The first question you need to ask about your game to put death into perspective is what sort of game is it? For example, a game like Mörk Börg is meant to have death lurking around every corner ready to come for you, because that's part of the doom metal feeling of the game. It's supposed to be bleak and dark, where no one is safe from even minor threats. On the other hand, death is even more prevalent in games like Paranoia or Dark Souls. However, in these games when you die you don't just roll up a new character. In the former, one of your preset number of clones is activated, and shipped out onto the field, and in the latter you are resurrected to try again.

Even in games where death is an ever-present constant, the purpose it serves is vastly different. And in games where death is permanent, it isn't always common. In some games death can be quite a rare occurrence, happening only when players truly screw up, or when the dice are really against them. So ask yourself what the purpose of death is in your game.

Is death meant to be final; something which the players must avoid at all costs lest they be forced to make a new character? Or is death merely an inconvenience, meant to be something you can overcome through determination, planning or resources? And is death meant to be common, or even expected, whether or not it's permanent? Is death to be used as a punishment, or as a neutral element?

These are all things you should know before making your pitch to someone to join your table.

Does Death Prevent Attachment?

As someone who likes RPGs, I try as many of them as I can when the opportunity presents itself. One of the factors that I find is the more certain death is, and the more often it's expected to happen, the less investment tends to come from the players in their characters. After all, if you know for certain that every roll of the die could lead to your character's death, then you tend not to make any big plans for that character. You avoid getting involved in their story, and you end up not getting very attached to them.

After all, if you get invested in seeing their story to the end, but they die three sessions in because of a random lightning strike, it can take a lot of energy to switch to a new character.

I know it's only been half an hour. You're dead, roll up a new character.

In this case, death in the game needs to be in-line with player expectations. If you're playing something like Dread, for example, then you know going in that you're probably just playing a one-shot game. Maybe 2-3 games at the most, because that's what the system is meant for. This allows players to come in with the right mentality and expectation, and to figure out the proper scope of experience to expect.

On the other hand, games like Starfinder and Pathfinder fully expect that you will keep the same character for the length of the campaign. While death is still a very real possibility in these games, there are lots of ways to avoid it, and there are even methods to reverse it should that be necessary at some point. The goal here is not just to complete the plot, but to expand and explore your own character's story. They're meant to survive, grow, and change so that by the time the campaign is over you've finished not just the Game Master's plot, but also told this particular PC's story. Then once the campaign is over you can close the cover, and move on to someone else.

When you have a game that's geared toward the actions and story of the player characters, players tend to get invested in the stories they're telling. They want to see their characters struggle, sure, but they also want to see them accomplish those goals, and finish the story off. If characters get killed off before they finish telling their story, that can lead to a serious lack of closure for the player. And if that happens often enough, pretty soon they're going to lose that attachment. It's also possible they just start making carbon copies of their last character (or as close as can be managed) and say it's their twin brother, their eldest son, etc. coming to finish what their dead family member started as some way to get a sense of continuity.

Consider Alternative Fail States

Death can serve many purposes in an RPG, but all too often Game Masters just default to death for everyone on the board; PCs and NPCs alike. However, there are alternative fail states to death that can be used, and they can allow the Game Master to lead by example.

Even if you're not just pulling from I'm Back! which acts as a list of back-pocket reasons your bad guys survived what should be very lethal circumstances.

- Capture: The character in question may be valuable in some way. They might be a noble who can be ransomed, a powerful champion of good that can be sacrificed in an upcoming ceremony, or even someone with a bounty on their heads. This can be used to explain why a lot of enemies may not wish to simply execute PCs, and vice versa if the PCs are the one taking the hostages.

- Flee: Enemies and players alike need to be given a chance to flee when things go poorly. They may still fail to get away, but a lot of players believe the choice is either death or victory. Chase decks are great for this, and I talk about them in If You're a DM, You Should Get Your Hands on a Chase Deck.

- Surrender: Whether done by the bad guys or the party, this is an option most of us simply don't consider. After all, the bad guys are just disposable mooks you threw down on the board, and the PCs are often too full of pride to consider this option. Making it clear that surrender can work, and that it's a lose state that's less permanent means some PCs may be willing to put up their hands if things go really poorly.

- Interruption: This can take many forms. Maybe it's a dragon wondering why a battle is taking place on its turf, or a herd of stampeding aurochs. An earthquake, flood, or volcanic eruption might also be appropriate, depending on the terrain. While this shouldn't be used without lead up, it can help add complications to battles that you want the villains and/or the heroes to survive as a kind of deus ex machina that makes fighting one another less important than surviving the new hazard.

I am not someone who advocates the removal of death from RPGs. Just like in any story, I believe that the possibility of death hanging over the narrative increases the stakes of said narrative. But if you add too much death, it can be like over-salting a meal; now the spice is the only thing you can taste. Alternatively, if you bend over backwards to avoid death, you end up with a game that can feel bland, and in desperate need of some spice.

Which one you need will depend on the length of the tale you're telling, what the rules governing your game are meant to support, and the kind of story your table wants to tell. Which is why it's important to stop and think about how you want death to play out in your game as part of your initial pitch to your players.

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the YouTube channel Dungeon Keeper Radio. Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my cat noir thriller Marked Territory, its sequel Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!