In our second adventure, I ran Sunless Citadel for our party. In it, the party comes across a Kobold named Meepo, as I'm sure you know. His whole thing is that he guides them for a few rooms, helps them find a white dragon wyrmling, then dies. But no. The party became so attached to this little guy. They used a healers kit to stabilize him when he was downed by the dragon, lied to him saying the goblins from the lower level killed the dragon, and took him with them down the next two levels of the dungeon, basically using him like a back line archer with his sling. He developed some quirks, a taste for goblin flesh, and became friends with this small group of adventurers. Eventually, they killed the young black dragon and brought Meepo back to the Kobold tribe as a hero rather than the worthless sack of meat the tribe thought he was. He had more self-confidence, felt more assured in both his social and combat skills, and advanced within the tribe. When they see him next, he will be leading the band of kobolds, expanding their influence to control the whole of the sunless citadel, having evicted the goblins. I didn't mean for any of this to happen.
I ran my kids and a friend of theirs through Sunless Citadel just last month, and my daughter (17) actually cried when Meepo was frozen. They then spent quite a bit of their resources to revive him.
I'm in a campaign for LMoP and we have taken the goblin that was being held in a cavern and give adopted him. His name is drop and has magical armor and a bag of holding full of apples and cinnamon
Im ngl I'm sick of characters being too shallow... their goal, their motivation for adventuring is just "wealth" or "glory" or "adventure" Reason its shallow? They do nothing with it... rich? Well still adventuring... gain fame? Well still adventuring... ad venturing? Well still adventuring... It never evolves because they spend as little time as possible with npcs before looking for tbe next dungeon... sometimes only interesting with npcs to tru and find specific magic items... I give rumours and such specifically for them to interact more with npcs not less
@@elgatochurro respectfully I think the old quote "It's Not the Destination, but the Journey That Matters" also I could see a character who keeps adventuring after having money and fame as ether enjoying the friends they go on adventures with or "wanting to see what's next" that or wanting to see the wonders of the world sure they could retire but adventuring is more fun and at times way more profitable tho i could see a few retire if they had some harrowing or just horrible adventures like the start of flatlined from traveler.
@@elgatochurro I would imagine not well some might in the sense they died on the adventure but I do think more then a few might have a "well I have money fame now but retiring sounds boring" moment and decide to see how long they last and how far they can go. ether that or if they could find steady work but I imagine its hard to find a safe job when 90% of your skillset is combat focused.
Hey, if nothing else, perhaps "Dweebles" can rebel against Seth and just come up with his own name. For some reason, the name "Scotty" seems pretty fitting of the guy. Either that or, say, "Rudy."
hehe.... my closest brush with death involved being in an out of control van skidding across an 8 lane highway and crashing against the curb on the opposite side of the road. The owner of the upper scale car dealership came out to make sure to put up the traffic cones that had been knocked out of the way so nobody would take advantage of getting onto the off ramp road/land he'd just bought... he also came over afterwards to see if he couldn't get the second van (our co-workers who came to see if we were all right) out of his lot so it wouldn't ah... ruin the looks of the place? Mmm.... right. Whatever. (And no, there was no other interaction with us.)
During our pathfinder session, our cleric mentioned he wanted to learn the profession Alchemy and ask if he could. I told him that he needed to find a teacher. So next session we had a relaxed session, I gave them the chance to discover Sandpoint a little. On the market, there was a traveling merchant selling the all-curing cure. It turned out to be a master alchemist, willing to take our cleric as his apprentice. (his accent changed to Russian for a reason I cannot explain because it was not intended I'm terrible with accents) He introduced himself as The GREAT Alphonse The GREAT Alchemist. (this is how he calls himself every time. when he talks about himself he says, "I, The GREAT Alphonse The GREAT Alchemist") My players loved him instantly. I really like this NPC, He was made from the top of my head and turned out to be amazing. I think im going to make him a character sheet.
Reminds me on 'Maleficio el Magnificient'. Traveling merchant of wonders and the extraordinaire. Come in and see with your very eyes, the marvels of forgotten times, magic beyond imagination and unbelieveble tresaures. Maleficio itself was a third-rate quarter-mage (basically a class of mundane people with some little magic power - mostly illusions), with a bright red wagon and the fastest horses in the realm. The items he sold were mostly forgeries, replicas, useless junk and the occasional cursed ring... Hm. Should dust off this NPC sometime and use him again. Fun times :D
This closest thing my Campaign has to a master alchemist is Al, of Al's Chemicals. He's a hyper, twitchy fella with no eyebrows. I'm not gonna say he's running a meth lab out of the home village, but.....he's running a meth lab out of the home village.
@@robertnett9793 In Pathfinder the magic item creation rules include rules for attempting to craft something more quickly or cheaply, with a chance that you wind up with a cursed magic item on a bad roll. I always wanted to make a crazed wizard who crafted magic items, but often cut corners which resulted in some of is items being cursed. That's the risk you run buying discount magic items from him!
During my first Call of Cthulhu game in the 80s, our group had a Werewolf chauffeur and during a campaign we met a Scottish Laird who had a daughter who was also a Werewolf. My character, Claphan Reid, though it would be a good idea to hook them up, since our WW was a nice guy and all. Unfortunately, one of the other PCs said something he should not have and everything went south and while our WW was safely restrained during the full moon, the other one was not and Claphan ended up having to kill her with silver slugs from his shotgun. I was rather upset for the next couple of sessions, since the 'Professor' turned out to be an idiot who couldn't keep his mouth shut. We barely escaped Great Britain due to the actions of the 'more experienced' characters.
My best npc's came from my own old characters i made for other games. My most notable is Jimmy John, of Jimmy John's used Wands. He was a used wand salesman who had dozens of wands from 3.5 when they had charges, but each of them had fewer than max charges, mostly all half used up. He spoke like danny devito sort of and he was a goblin from the plane of air. He was made of magic and he sold ya wands (which he said like w-ands, no "on" sound but an "And" sound, so Jimmy J-ands used w-ands) he became an instant favorite that a friends mom compliment the voice and was like, who's doing that?
Mike's the one with the Tache and the Beany hat, Todd's the metal stoner with the baseball cap Dweebles, which is probably a nickname, Dweebles...he looks like Brian to me....Jacks the woah woah woah guy. Then theres Narrator Seth and his NPC doppleganger , Seth the DM.
I was joking with my dad the other day about making an NPC based on a very scary monster usually found in dungeons in D&D, but actually making them friendly, and a lovable dork and goofball, as well as a powerful ally if the players choose to trust him. I don't want to say any more since one of my tabletop players watches your videos and might read comments, but I know I'm very excited for a certain NPC come my first time DMing D&D.
Great vid and I've got the same tee shirt :D Edit: For those of you curious- ESSENTIAL NPC ! The success of the main quest depends on my continued survival Do NOT maim, rob, or kill NPC is not worth significant xp and does not carry excess amounts of cash, unique clothing, or named weapons. After that, at least on mine, is just copyright stuff.
I had a NPC in an Aquatic campaign named Fenz Thelphant who did the whole hand-rubbing thing as he talked. After the boat captain died, he tried to position himself as the new captain. Eventually the PCs caught him trying to steal gold out of the cargo hold and he got so embarrassed that he gave up trying to become the captain and got off the boat the next time they docked.
I wanted my players to do most of their magical shopping in one place so I made a teleporting wooden shack that on the inside is the size of a major library filled with magic items. Then I made the shopkeep a little old lady named Matilda but after my barbarian tried to intimidate for better prices I put my foot down. Suddenly she snapped her neck to the right and her voice became deep and scraggly, her face shifting slightly to be more square jawed and called himself Stan. Then he snapped his neck to the left started talking like quagmire and called himself Greg. Finally the barbarian pissed him off, he snapped his neck downwards his eyes became red his skin became smoother and purple his jacket opened up to reveal hundreds of red eyes staring back as he cursed out the dumb barbarian in infernal. Thus the shopkeep of the Emporium Comporium Spletorium was born Matilda, Stan, Greg, and Markus. Later on they hired a naive ancient silver dragon to collect magic items for them, an axiomite artificer to make magic items for them, and a psychotic gnome who makes alchemical concoctions in the corner salad bar.
"He might as well be a racist too". I lol'd. I love it. I started voicing all of my NPCs in Mouse Guard and it was actually fun. I think my players like the apothecary the most. I gave him a dark, scheming kind of voice. But he can't help how he talks. He's actually a really nice mouse with no evil plots.
With regards to your last point Seth - regarding the very ooc emotional response you received to an in-character npc interaction.... this proves the RP was done really well to my mind. That's a testament to both you and your players btw and in my opinion at least, this is what the game is really about. I do most of my RP both in my own game, and in games I play in, via text (PS if you want memorable npcs, mannerisms and catchphrases become an absolute must when its just text). Probably the most memorable RP moment of the last decade that I can remember was when I made one of my players cry. Should add, this wasn't bullying lol... it was just a very emotional scene. Funny thing is, I ended up in tears myself and I'm a 40+ very blokey bloke! Anyway - great video yet again!
Frankly I think your characterisations are awesome - the skits where you play Mike, Todd and Dweebles and the various versions of Jack make for extremely enjoyable content.
I'm here to feed the algorithm. But more than that, this is the third time I've watched this video. It's both fun and helpful. Thanks for making these!
Another great video, I always get a kick out of the "Jack"s. I always like using NPC's and I often find them useful in campaigns to add some little RP breaks to a combat heavy campaign just to spice things up sometimes even add little mini quests.
Yea, I have a few red shirts that became huge deals and integral parts of the campaign because the player loved them, and it forced me to develope them more. Its always fun.
Great video. Watching your NPCs recognize their place in the cosmos was like the first time I saw the muppets lower halves with the puppeteers holding them. Sanity loss.
As I recall my party remembers specifical one NPCs that was improvised; a surly barkeep who had no patience for them, but in fairness they did; knock his tavern door down in the middle of the night and filled the lower floor with snow, set a horse loose in it, bought 1kg of herring from him and fed it to the accidentally polymorphed wild magic sorcerer, who then proceeded to turn invisible (he rolled the "surge for a minute" roll). It was a hell of a game for that barkeep and there's now a sign outside that says "No Adventurers No Horses No Sheep No Herring No Magic No Fox People Oh yeah and the sorcerer aged 3 years. Not a biggie right? Is if you're an aarakocra (30 year lifespan). He's still within instakill range of that surge.
I've only just started watching your videos, but I think they're great. One method I use for giving a character voices, is by impersonating different Star Trek characters, and writing the ST character name under the NPCs name.
In my Shadowrun 3 game... Boris the perpetually drunk Russian arms dealer. He constantly says "No refunds!" He may actually have tourette's. I haven't decided yet. He wrote a cookbook called "Cooking with Flamethrower" and was trying hard to sell it to our street sam, who only wanted some non lethal ammo. In the end, Boris marked up the ammo by 3¥ a box, then casually mentioned to the PC that there's a coupon in the cookbook for 3¥ off boxes of ammo. It ended up saving him a buck or so, so he bought it. Now every time he comes into the gun shop Boris asks him if he tried this recipe or that.
Interesting thing about Tourette's... it's actually a disorder where the brain's fear/pain circuits are overloading for no logical reason, and the response is a stream of curses from the mental distress... it's literally a base level distress response.
Great video! I think this is an awesome bit of advice and information for DMs/GMs no matter if they are new or veterans. I think GMs tend to be intimidated creating NPCs and RPGing them. I like how honest you are about how you do things. RPGing NPCs is something you have to learn to do just like you have to learn to GM. When I realized that it is part of the GM's privilege to roleplay NPCs I embraced it. It is so much fun to throw quirky NPCs at my players and see their reactions. It is interesting that most of my NPCs that were really fun are those that I didn't really plan but that just happened during a campaign. Plus, I absolutely love the shirt!!! I need a shirt like that! Keep up the great work with all of your videos!!!!
I do this thing with imagining the actor too. I one time had to make a deacon at a church which our Paladin spoke to, and he was 100% my best Tony Amendola (Of Stargate, Annabelle, etc fame) impression. I totally imagined him as playing the NPC. Also I love that essential NPC shirt! Awesome video and advice, Seth!
My favorite thing about these videos is that there is a load of passion inside of them. These videos are created to help others and not to grab attention or money. They are very helpful, thank you for another excellent video, Seth.
Thanks for your work Seth. Getting ready to restart my D&D career since AD&D and I appreciate your advice. It’s nice to know that as long as I keep on trying my voices no matter how self conscious I am, my players will have great NPCs to remember!
I love your NPCs and even with my 20-something years of experience, it's always nice and helpful to get input from fellow DMs and how they do things. Keep them coming. :D
Loved it, man! I run a game for teenagers, and I've taken to using Google Slides to keep NPCs pics and names (and other campaign notables) for the kids to refer back to and also keeping a Google Doc to jot down the impromptu names (and personality details) that come up during gameplay. Happiness is an off-the-cuff NPC who turns major!
Watching this again, it occurs to me that Seth totally Clark Kented me. Because as it turns out, slapping a 50 cent goatee on and changing his voice did make me think for at least a month that his NPCs were real, different people. So either Seth is Superman or I'm a little slow.
Our DM once had a NPC in a long-running campaign that was our contact to some elite underground syndicate bosses we were in debt to, so we had no choice but to talk to this guy if we wanted to keep those bosses on good terms with us by doing jobs for them. That guy had a personality ... like whatever we did, that guy was never pleased, even if we followed our orders to the letter and everything worked as planed. He was not snobby or elitist, but the way he talked and phrased certain things always made us feel that we did something wrong. It felt like you could save that guys life and he expected you to apologize for it. We all hated that guy especially since we had to keep talking to him. We stil game with that DM and ocasionally he throws us a curveball by having a random NPC speaking in the tone of that guy because he still get's a reaction from us after all those years and he enjoys that 5 seconds of cringe everyone who was part of that campagin gets when he hears that voice. Awesome NPC but boy do I hope I will never encounter such a guy in the real world.
Am glad I show my players some of vids with Jack and have been able to imitate your voice of Jack almost perfectly...my players do love Jack now.....lol
Right on Seth. I can't tell you how many spur of the moment NPCs my players decided to "keep". This is ok though because if I really need to get them motivated I kill/maim/kidnap one of them
This video helped me out SO much...NPCs have always been my biggest weak point, especially since I had a bad habit of trying too hard to get the vital points across and would end up giving away things I wanted to keep secret about a character (making it obvious they have a secret or letting slip that they're a bit of a sociopath, that kind of thing) and just would all be kind of the same but as soon as I started adding voices god it became so much easier. One tip I've really found if you want to flesh out a character beforehand and have a quick reference to get you into that character is to write a quote for them that is really indicative of who they are. For example just saying a lord is straightforward with no head for politics is less evocative than "Things used to be much simpler when my peoples' worst problems were ones I could kill or pay for"
That's genious. Thanks for this insight Seth. I search all the time for tips & tricks to do NPCs better. I heard the idea of modeling your NPC after some actor/character before, but you gave it some uniqe spin with developing mannerisms and speech patterns as reaction to your players. And funny thing: From the three 'players' NPCs actually Dweebles feels the most distinct from you. I mean Mike and the other dude feel like independent characters but if someone told me Dweebles was actually played by someone else, who just happens to have a resemblance to you - I wouldn't doubt it. By the way - my next Cthulhu session includes a shopkeep. I call it your fault, that this NPC will be less than helpful to my Investigators :D
I FREAKING DID IT! I'm running Call of Cthulhu for my usual group, including my and my group's usual DM. Noone in the group had played before. My DM makes glorious stories and beautiful worlds. I'm not as good as him but i am naturally good with NPC's and exciting moments. But i want to be the best i can. So ive been watching these vids to bring my game up to par. And it worked. I have given my group some extra NPC companions as meat shields/stop gaps for helping out newbies. But i wanted one of them to grate on every nerve she could. Her name: Vickie. Her specialty: Bricks are smarter but God himself would be charmed or talked in circles around her. So i introduced her, one of my PC's is an entertainer so i said it was someone she knew. The moment she spoke the table went dead silent. When i finished her opener my usual DM looks at me and says "I haven't wanted to commit wanton violence against an NPC since middle school. And yet, I can see her, in my mind. And i want to commit a homicide im broad daylight." And i glance at the other players and they all look at me the same way. Meanwhile my other 3 companion NPC's are loved by the Party. From my Jack rip-off named Benny. Dont worry its protected as parody. Ive changed multiple key feature about him. Namely his Bostonian origins and a refussal to use firearms against humans. After serving as a field medic in the war he never felt right about it.
This will really help me make my pcs shine in my campaign. I unfortunately default to three personas when I do npcs but the tips in this I'll definety try out. Thanks is Seth :)
I was the DM for the finale of Storm Kings Thunder, and the PCs talked to the Elvish Lord so well that they convinced him to give them a fairy to help them, so I had to make a character on the fly to accompany them. His name was Chip and he spoke in third person and thought the players were just the absolute coolest, which actually ran contrary to the fact that the fairies were supposed to be cannon fodder to keep the players from taking too many direct hits in the final battle, so there was an added layer of both killing Bad Fruul AND making sure their favorite little fairy Chip didn't die in the battle, something that wasn't in the original module. But boy was it great because of it, the most memorable NPC I ever had the pleasure of making.
One of my most memorable NPC's was one that didn't speak (she could, but chose not too, long story there). I was surprised just how much I could convey a shrug, a roll of the eyes, a shake of the head, or just a sigh. It was a fun one to play, and the players (from several different games in this timeline) were intrigued by her.
Great video. I never really analyzed it before, but the advice about imagining that an NPC is played by a particular actor is what I end up with most of the time. I also place personalities and mannerisms of people I know (that the players don’t know) on the npcs. In the same way, when describing a NPC on the fly I just think of a character or two from different movies/shows and mix them together. I try and avoid being obvious, but sometimes for major npcs it is kinda fun to be totally obvious about who the NPC is modeled off (Dirty Harry, The Joker, Inigo Montoya, Artemisia, The Master, Siegmeyer, Hans Gruber being some of my player’s favorites. ). One extra thing I would add that really helps is to be consistent but also unpredictable. I once made the mistake of having too many cool and mysterious npcs, to the point where the players became suspicious of everyone. It is best to mix it up a lot. Sometimes a bland shopkeeper is just that, sometimes a macho talking Han Solo type is a big coward, sometimes the mad wizard is useless insane rather than useful. Try not to second guess your first thought because that illogical combination might just be a great NPC.
The most beloved npc in my group was a random bouncer who did his job kicking out a rowdy player. The player decided to take revenge and hatched a plan to kidnap this bouncer (an orc named thoric). At this point he was still a generic red shirt npc, but once we got to roleplaying I made him be extremely dull witted which lead to a lot of misunderstanding and hilarity. The players took a liking to him and he became a recurring antagonist / friend who always made situations more chaotic and interesting and always made the players laugh.
Recent story from my last group. I was play testing a Brawler (PF1), and ended up basically getting into a “mirror match” to see if I could use the class mechanics. One of the other PC’s ran “Slippery Pete” and it got into street level grapple fighting and using whatever oil it was that made Slippery Pete... lubricious... I still can’t stop the guy who played him from cheering Pete all the time.
Oh man, I was convinced the guy in the cap was an impression of Wayne in Wayne's World. Although it's been a long time since I saw the movie, so I'm not even that sure what the character was like C: Dweebles is awesome btw.
Love your stuff Seth, would be so easy to make your videos with less effort than you do and they would still be great but your skits super make it your own.
I'm kinda proud of myself of finally discovering the origen of Dweebles name after a month and a half of watching your videos like "they're food and I'm a starving man."
During my very first Call of Cthulhu game I ever ran on my birthday earlier this year, my players made me recall the information on this video and I thanked God for every word of it. Let me explain. Were in southern Vermont, and the players are supposed to be going into the woods after a group of thieves who had kidnapped a young girl. The PCs during the town hall meeting when the Sheriff was laying down the facts of the botched ransom handover, and the subsequent gun fight, was asked where the leader of the gang was known to hang out so they could ask for more clues. Being that it wasn’t in the scenario itself, and that it was a rural town, on the fly, I made up that he had a local hangout at a seed barn that doubled as a bootlegging Shop, and basement speakeasy. Assuming that the players wouldn’t care too much about it, I left it at that. Instead, they were told to take an hour to buy supplies and gather clues before being driven to the woods to try to search for the missing girl and her kidnappers. Did they want to do that? Of course not, they wanted to question the bootleggers. I had to make up an NPC on the fly, and came up with this creepy ginger young guy in overalls with long red hair, freckles, and nearly white skin, who’s mouth was slightly open in an eternally half smiling, half surprised expression, with the creepiest “I’m so happy!” voice. My players were immediately creeped out by, and loved this guy even though he had zero relevance to the story, and threatened them with a sawed off shotgun mounted under the shop counter before they finally left. That was so much fun, but I’m still baffled as to why the PCs wanted so much to chat this guy up when it’s like “The game is over here guys! See? It’s over there!”
That is awesome. Love the description you gave the bootlegger. Never underestimate the ability of a player to jump down the rabbit hole of falling in love with a random and completely on-the-fly NPC. Very often we end up remembering that NPC with far more clarity and love than we even remember the adventure or campaign.
I've been inspired a good deal by audio books and the voice acting of the narrators. Also the voice acting in video/computer games since the voice needs to make up for any lack of physical presence it tends to be more emphasized and impressionable.
Very nice. I think the longest-running npc I had was a kobold named Kreeka who a player character let live when they were in the Pomarj in the world of Greyhawk. The same kobold showed up when the party later returned to said city and they ended up inviting him to join. A few years later, he showed up for a new group as I wanted to incorporate a map left by the first group but never investigated. He eventually ended up captain of his own ship in a pirate campaign wherein, in the first game session, they captured another pirate ship and the 2nd in command (a pc) was put in command of it, given a copy of the map, and told to meet them at the island in question. Kreeka was not initially statted out but later I had to figure out what he could do. In Call of Cthulhu, the one that the players seemed to enjoy most was William H. Penderdast IV, a dilettante who lived in a simple apartment, longing for the days he was in college and slumming it with the regular people. He was initially introduced as a connection between the various classes of folks in the game but that was just a lead up to a scenario called Homecoming by James Tremlett that I found online years ago. Turns out, the reason his family was so rich was that his great grandfather made a deal or arrangement with Daoloth and now it was time for William to give up his body to his grandfather's spirit to get the next hundred years of future telling to let them once again retain and increase their wealth. Even after that (Pendergast survived thanks to the investigators), he took to drinking to deal with the memories of what he had seen. But he was still a lot of fun and everyone wanted him around. Good times.
Ran my first little mini campaign of Call of Cthulhu. I gave my party a handful of NPC's to fill some holes and help them get the hang of the system. I only planned to keep one as a running friend of the party who was basically Bostonian Jack the NPC. However i made each of the 3 other NPC's to kind of fit with one or two members of the party to give them some personality. Well one of them was meant to be a starlet and i built her to be mildly annoying but incresibly useful at a few tasks. (Track, a couple of the interpersonal skills, and something else) I apparently did a good job because my group loved her because of how much they hated her. Bostonian Jack and her were the onlytwo NPC's who stayed in the party.
![[#2024MAMA] G-DRAGON - 무제(Untitled, 2014)+POWER+HOME SWEET HOME+뱅뱅뱅+FANTASTIC BABY | Mnet 241123 방송](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Ox29z5Nf1Uk/mqdefault.jpg)
I kinda feel sorry for Dweebles' existential crisis.
it speaks to me..
What’s a name anyways better to make it for yourself than be given one that has nothing to do with you
@@s0r03 but it was given to him, by a commenter even not by Seth
In our second adventure, I ran Sunless Citadel for our party. In it, the party comes across a Kobold named Meepo, as I'm sure you know. His whole thing is that he guides them for a few rooms, helps them find a white dragon wyrmling, then dies. But no. The party became so attached to this little guy. They used a healers kit to stabilize him when he was downed by the dragon, lied to him saying the goblins from the lower level killed the dragon, and took him with them down the next two levels of the dungeon, basically using him like a back line archer with his sling. He developed some quirks, a taste for goblin flesh, and became friends with this small group of adventurers. Eventually, they killed the young black dragon and brought Meepo back to the Kobold tribe as a hero rather than the worthless sack of meat the tribe thought he was. He had more self-confidence, felt more assured in both his social and combat skills, and advanced within the tribe. When they see him next, he will be leading the band of kobolds, expanding their influence to control the whole of the sunless citadel, having evicted the goblins. I didn't mean for any of this to happen.
I love this
I ran my kids and a friend of theirs through Sunless Citadel just last month, and my daughter (17) actually cried when Meepo was frozen. They then spent quite a bit of their resources to revive him.
I'm in a campaign for LMoP and we have taken the goblin that was being held in a cavern and give adopted him. His name is drop and has magical armor and a bag of holding full of apples and cinnamon
My 8th level party is still carrying his bones until they can get a true revive
Jorge Soto I support Drop.... tell him I love him
In support of #2, motivation, to quote Vonnegut: "Every character should want something. Even if it's a glass of water."
Insert clip of the guy from The Notebook saying "WHAT DO YOU WANT?"
Im ngl I'm sick of characters being too shallow... their goal, their motivation for adventuring is just "wealth" or "glory" or "adventure"
Reason its shallow? They do nothing with it... rich? Well still adventuring... gain fame? Well still adventuring... ad venturing? Well still adventuring...
It never evolves because they spend as little time as possible with npcs before looking for tbe next dungeon... sometimes only interesting with npcs to tru and find specific magic items...
I give rumours and such specifically for them to interact more with npcs not less
@@elgatochurro respectfully I think the old quote "It's Not the Destination, but the Journey That Matters" also I could see a character who keeps adventuring after having money and fame as ether enjoying the friends they go on adventures with or "wanting to see what's next" that or wanting to see the wonders of the world sure they could retire but adventuring is more fun and at times way more profitable tho i could see a few retire if they had some harrowing or just horrible adventures like the start of flatlined from traveler.
@@wolfyblackknight8321 not everyone will adventure for life
@@elgatochurro I would imagine not well some might in the sense they died on the adventure but I do think more then a few might have a "well I have money fame now but retiring sounds boring" moment and decide to see how long they last and how far they can go. ether that or if they could find steady work but I imagine its hard to find a safe job when 90% of your skillset is combat focused.
You are so mean to Dweebles.
Keep up the good work.
Dweebles is awesome! 😃
Hey, if nothing else, perhaps "Dweebles" can rebel against Seth and just come up with his own name. For some reason, the name "Scotty" seems pretty fitting of the guy. Either that or, say, "Rudy."
I always called him "Jeff"
I legit thought Dweebles *was* his name.
Dicks!
Ok so looking back on your older vids the names are.
Long hair: todd
Mustache: mike
Goatee: Dweebles
I always just referred to them as
Stoner
Tough guy
Lisp goatee
Poor dweebles
😂😂😂
Don't forget Kevin.
@@ADiceySituation And Seth, the GM. Who is different from actual Seth.
I feel like this has transended the 4th wall, and we are now breaking the 5th wall
Fantastic video as always
Maybe that's the ceiling or the floor? Aren't they just walls from a different point of view?
Buckaroo Banzai and the Fifth Wall
Extra-dimensional walls? I think I just lost a point of Sanity.
Breaking the first, the second, the third
Fourth wall, fifth wall, no floor, you fall
Earworm humming in a dream “baby baby baby”
Yeah, just plastic
Uhg. That voice brought back memories, terrible memories, and now I'm angry again!
hehe.... my closest brush with death involved being in an out of control van skidding across an 8 lane highway and crashing against the curb on the opposite side of the road. The owner of the upper scale car dealership came out to make sure to put up the traffic cones that had been knocked out of the way so nobody would take advantage of getting onto the off ramp road/land he'd just bought... he also came over afterwards to see if he couldn't get the second van (our co-workers who came to see if we were all right) out of his lot so it wouldn't ah... ruin the looks of the place? Mmm.... right. Whatever. (And no, there was no other interaction with us.)
I'll be totally honest, it took me watching a few of your videos before I realized "Hey wait-a-sec, that's the same guy."
Ikr,he IS a pretty good actor actually!
Yeah he’s actually really good
During our pathfinder session, our cleric mentioned he wanted to learn the profession Alchemy and ask if he could. I told him that he needed to find a teacher. So next session we had a relaxed session, I gave them the chance to discover Sandpoint a little. On the market, there was a traveling merchant selling the all-curing cure. It turned out to be a master alchemist, willing to take our cleric as his apprentice. (his accent changed to Russian for a reason I cannot explain because it was not intended I'm terrible with accents) He introduced himself as The GREAT Alphonse The GREAT Alchemist. (this is how he calls himself every time. when he talks about himself he says, "I, The GREAT Alphonse The GREAT Alchemist") My players loved him instantly. I really like this NPC, He was made from the top of my head and turned out to be amazing.
I think im going to make him a character sheet.
Reminds me on 'Maleficio el Magnificient'. Traveling merchant of wonders and the extraordinaire.
Come in and see with your very eyes, the marvels of forgotten times, magic beyond imagination and unbelieveble tresaures.
Maleficio itself was a third-rate quarter-mage (basically a class of mundane people with some little magic power - mostly illusions), with a bright red wagon and the fastest horses in the realm.
The items he sold were mostly forgeries, replicas, useless junk and the occasional cursed ring...
Hm. Should dust off this NPC sometime and use him again. Fun times :D
Does he have a brother named Edward? XD
This closest thing my Campaign has to a master alchemist is Al, of Al's Chemicals. He's a hyper, twitchy fella with no eyebrows. I'm not gonna say he's running a meth lab out of the home village, but.....he's running a meth lab out of the home village.
@@robertnett9793 In Pathfinder the magic item creation rules include rules for attempting to craft something more quickly or cheaply, with a chance that you wind up with a cursed magic item on a bad roll. I always wanted to make a crazed wizard who crafted magic items, but often cut corners which resulted in some of is items being cursed. That's the risk you run buying discount magic items from him!
@@barlotardy
Where does he get Benadryl?
*Sobs* "He's a Monster!" (I legit lol'd at work)
Buying an expensive clock to prove oneself to NPC... this is an example of someone really immersed into a character and a game. Brilliant.
Not to mention needing to take a 5 minute break because he was so worked up. That is an epic NPC interaction. Bravo Seth!
During my first Call of Cthulhu game in the 80s, our group had a Werewolf chauffeur and during a campaign we met a Scottish Laird who had a daughter who was also a Werewolf. My character, Claphan Reid, though it would be a good idea to hook them up, since our WW was a nice guy and all. Unfortunately, one of the other PCs said something he should not have and everything went south and while our WW was safely restrained during the full moon, the other one was not and Claphan ended up having to kill her with silver slugs from his shotgun. I was rather upset for the next couple of sessions, since the 'Professor' turned out to be an idiot who couldn't keep his mouth shut. We barely escaped Great Britain due to the actions of the 'more experienced' characters.
probably they had too much time on their hands :)
My best npc's came from my own old characters i made for other games. My most notable is Jimmy John, of Jimmy John's used Wands. He was a used wand salesman who had dozens of wands from 3.5 when they had charges, but each of them had fewer than max charges, mostly all half used up. He spoke like danny devito sort of and he was a goblin from the plane of air. He was made of magic and he sold ya wands (which he said like w-ands, no "on" sound but an "And" sound, so Jimmy J-ands used w-ands) he became an instant favorite that a friends mom compliment the voice and was like, who's doing that?
The skits in this video were especially on point.
I love it when the players at the table get in on the dialogue.
Ok, honesty time, I honestly thought that those were real people you played with. Only a couple times did I think maybe, just maybe, they were you.
The real test will be if I can get you to forget they're all me, even though I've confessed the truth.
"Quiet Dweebles" says Mike, the at the table NPC who Seth name dropped instead this episode.
MarmadukeRupe I think he said Mike.
Yeah mustache NPC is Mike, his name premiered in the Five Awesome Player Traits video.
B. T. Thanks for the clarification. I must've forgot that happened, I love that video.
B. T.
No, he’s Dweebles. Were you even paying attention?
Mike's the one with the Tache and the Beany hat, Todd's the metal stoner with the baseball cap Dweebles, which is probably a nickname, Dweebles...he looks like Brian to me....Jacks the woah woah woah guy. Then theres Narrator Seth and his NPC doppleganger , Seth the DM.
Am I the only one who started saying "those aren't NPCs those are player cha-- oh." It's funny how we attach ourselves to the skit characters.
Same here.
I take me more time than I would like to admit to realize that the other players were the same person.
Truly a master of disguise.
@@000Krim definitely a level 12
@@000Krim Seth would be an amazing chameleon voice actor whose presence you have to check the credits to confirm, like Jennifer Hale or Laura Bailey
You missed an excellent opportunity to make a Candle Jack joke. You really can't let these pass you by when you get the -
th-cam.com/video/iS-fRNjk5pk/w-d-xo.html joke is at 3:36
#justice4dweebles!
I was joking with my dad the other day about making an NPC based on a very scary monster usually found in dungeons in D&D, but actually making them friendly, and a lovable dork and goofball, as well as a powerful ally if the players choose to trust him. I don't want to say any more since one of my tabletop players watches your videos and might read comments, but I know I'm very excited for a certain NPC come my first time DMing D&D.
Its a beholder, isnt it?
My players just left from a late night game. So this video is well timed for my post-game unwinding time.
Waiting for Dweebles to go John Wick mode.
Every table character is just a different Keanu Reevs role?
+birbfanchannel tighto
Dweebles, specifically, is loosely influenced by Bill & Ted style Keanu. Not Seth's other characters.
I was confused, and mistaken between characters, oops.
Great vid and I've got the same tee shirt :D
Edit: For those of you curious-
ESSENTIAL NPC
! The success of the main quest depends on my continued survival
Do NOT maim, rob, or kill
NPC is not worth significant xp and does not carry excess amounts of cash, unique clothing, or named weapons.
After that, at least on mine, is just copyright stuff.
Great video as per usual
I have used Todd's personality and voice inflections as a basis for a D20 Modern Strong Hero named... Todd.
strong 4th wall breaking here, I loved it
I had a NPC in an Aquatic campaign named Fenz Thelphant who did the whole hand-rubbing thing as he talked. After the boat captain died, he tried to position himself as the new captain. Eventually the PCs caught him trying to steal gold out of the cargo hold and he got so embarrassed that he gave up trying to become the captain and got off the boat the next time they docked.
I wanted my players to do most of their magical shopping in one place so I made a teleporting wooden shack that on the inside is the size of a major library filled with magic items. Then I made the shopkeep a little old lady named Matilda but after my barbarian tried to intimidate for better prices I put my foot down. Suddenly she snapped her neck to the right and her voice became deep and scraggly, her face shifting slightly to be more square jawed and called himself Stan. Then he snapped his neck to the left started talking like quagmire and called himself Greg. Finally the barbarian pissed him off, he snapped his neck downwards his eyes became red his skin became smoother and purple his jacket opened up to reveal hundreds of red eyes staring back as he cursed out the dumb barbarian in infernal. Thus the shopkeep of the Emporium Comporium Spletorium was born Matilda, Stan, Greg, and Markus. Later on they hired a naive ancient silver dragon to collect magic items for them, an axiomite artificer to make magic items for them, and a psychotic gnome who makes alchemical concoctions in the corner salad bar.
"He might as well be a racist too".
I lol'd. I love it.
I started voicing all of my NPCs in Mouse Guard and it was actually fun. I think my players like the apothecary the most. I gave him a dark, scheming kind of voice. But he can't help how he talks. He's actually a really nice mouse with no evil plots.
I'm shocked that a player got that upset with your NPC but good on him for admiting it and sticking to the game
With regards to your last point Seth - regarding the very ooc emotional response you received to an in-character npc interaction.... this proves the RP was done really well to my mind. That's a testament to both you and your players btw and in my opinion at least, this is what the game is really about.
I do most of my RP both in my own game, and in games I play in, via text (PS if you want memorable npcs, mannerisms and catchphrases become an absolute must when its just text). Probably the most memorable RP moment of the last decade that I can remember was when I made one of my players cry. Should add, this wasn't bullying lol... it was just a very emotional scene. Funny thing is, I ended up in tears myself and I'm a 40+ very blokey bloke!
Anyway - great video yet again!
Frankly I think your characterisations are awesome - the skits where you play Mike, Todd and Dweebles and the various versions of Jack make for extremely enjoyable content.
I'm here to feed the algorithm. But more than that, this is the third time I've watched this video. It's both fun and helpful.
Thanks for making these!
Always good to go back and see the very start of Dweebles' villan arc!
Another great video, I always get a kick out of the "Jack"s. I always like using NPC's and I often find them useful in campaigns to add some little RP breaks to a combat heavy campaign just to spice things up sometimes even add little mini quests.
Yea, I have a few red shirts that became huge deals and integral parts of the campaign because the player loved them, and it forced me to develope them more. Its always fun.
Great video. Watching your NPCs recognize their place in the cosmos was like the first time I saw the muppets lower halves with the puppeteers holding them. Sanity loss.
As I recall my party remembers specifical one NPCs that was improvised; a surly barkeep who had no patience for them, but in fairness they did; knock his tavern door down in the middle of the night and filled the lower floor with snow, set a horse loose in it, bought 1kg of herring from him and fed it to the accidentally polymorphed wild magic sorcerer, who then proceeded to turn invisible (he rolled the "surge for a minute" roll).
It was a hell of a game for that barkeep and there's now a sign outside that says
"No Adventurers
No Horses
No Sheep
No Herring
No Magic
No Fox People
Oh yeah and the sorcerer aged 3 years. Not a biggie right? Is if you're an aarakocra (30 year lifespan).
He's still within instakill range of that surge.
I've only just started watching your videos, but I think they're great. One method I use for giving a character voices, is by impersonating different Star Trek characters, and writing the ST character name under the NPCs name.
more videos, i'm burning through your content.
In my Shadowrun 3 game... Boris the perpetually drunk Russian arms dealer. He constantly says "No refunds!" He may actually have tourette's. I haven't decided yet. He wrote a cookbook called "Cooking with Flamethrower" and was trying hard to sell it to our street sam, who only wanted some non lethal ammo. In the end, Boris marked up the ammo by 3¥ a box, then casually mentioned to the PC that there's a coupon in the cookbook for 3¥ off boxes of ammo. It ended up saving him a buck or so, so he bought it. Now every time he comes into the gun shop Boris asks him if he tried this recipe or that.
Interesting thing about Tourette's... it's actually a disorder where the brain's fear/pain circuits are overloading for no logical reason, and the response is a stream of curses from the mental distress... it's literally a base level distress response.
@@handlebarfox2366 Not just curses, ticks in general.
Great video! I think this is an awesome bit of advice and information for DMs/GMs no matter if they are new or veterans. I think GMs tend to be intimidated creating NPCs and RPGing them. I like how honest you are about how you do things. RPGing NPCs is something you have to learn to do just like you have to learn to GM. When I realized that it is part of the GM's privilege to roleplay NPCs I embraced it. It is so much fun to throw quirky NPCs at my players and see their reactions.
It is interesting that most of my NPCs that were really fun are those that I didn't really plan but that just happened during a campaign.
Plus, I absolutely love the shirt!!! I need a shirt like that!
Keep up the great work with all of your videos!!!!
I love your "Bill and Ted" NPC. Good job, man.
I do this thing with imagining the actor too. I one time had to make a deacon at a church which our Paladin spoke to, and he was 100% my best Tony Amendola (Of Stargate, Annabelle, etc fame) impression. I totally imagined him as playing the NPC. Also I love that essential NPC shirt! Awesome video and advice, Seth!
You covered every point I could possibly add. Nice job!
so glad to see more seth!!!!
'...an npc has no name.'
Earned a like from me there buddy. Keep up the good work.
My favorite thing about these videos is that there is a load of passion inside of them. These videos are created to help others and not to grab attention or money. They are very helpful, thank you for another excellent video, Seth.
Thanks for your work Seth. Getting ready to restart my D&D career since AD&D and I appreciate your advice. It’s nice to know that as long as I keep on trying my voices no matter how self conscious I am, my players will have great NPCs to remember!
Lol didn't notice your eyes moving and reading til you mentioned it. Great videos
I love your NPCs and even with my 20-something years of experience, it's always nice and helpful to get input from fellow DMs and how they do things.
Keep them coming. :D
"an NPC has no name"
12:26 Jack, your catch phrase is "Freaking" especially "freaking brilliant"
Awww, Dweebles is an adorable name! X3. Aww, don't be sad Mr. NPC! TTnTT. I think you're a GREAT NPC! D':
Also good tips for memorable PC's too. Great vid.
Loved it, man! I run a game for teenagers, and I've taken to using Google Slides to keep NPCs pics and names (and other campaign notables) for the kids to refer back to and also keeping a Google Doc to jot down the impromptu names (and personality details) that come up during gameplay. Happiness is an off-the-cuff NPC who turns major!
Watching this again, it occurs to me that Seth totally Clark Kented me. Because as it turns out, slapping a 50 cent goatee on and changing his voice did make me think for at least a month that his NPCs were real, different people.
So either Seth is Superman or I'm a little slow.
Never underestimate the power of a black & white filter.
Our DM once had a NPC in a long-running campaign that was our contact to some elite underground
syndicate bosses we were in debt to, so we had no choice but to talk to this guy if we wanted to keep
those bosses on good terms with us by doing jobs for them.
That guy had a personality ... like whatever we did, that guy was never pleased, even if we followed our
orders to the letter and everything worked as planed. He was not snobby or elitist, but the way he talked
and phrased certain things always made us feel that we did something wrong. It felt like you could
save that guys life and he expected you to apologize for it. We all hated that guy especially since we
had to keep talking to him.
We stil game with that DM and ocasionally he throws us a curveball by having a random NPC speaking in
the tone of that guy because he still get's a reaction from us after all those years and he enjoys that
5 seconds of cringe everyone who was part of that campagin gets when he hears that voice.
Awesome NPC but boy do I hope I will never encounter such a guy in the real world.
That moment when you realize that you're really just an npc in somebody else's game.
"All the world's a tabletop, and the people merely NPCs."
I just found this channel and I'm really digging it!
Awesome, thanks for making this!
I saw that comment of "Dweebles" xD Great content as always!
Am glad I show my players some of vids with Jack and have been able to imitate your voice of Jack almost perfectly...my players do love Jack now.....lol
Here for the refresher course on making memorable characters.
I usually ace this when being a player.
But struggle from time to time as a Game master.
"Whoa, dude, awesome video." I like your focus on voice. I'm going to run with it.
Right on Seth. I can't tell you how many spur of the moment NPCs my players decided to "keep". This is ok though because if I really need to get them motivated I kill/maim/kidnap one of them
This video was brilliant. One of your best (that I've seen) so far!
Holy hell. That opening 2 minutes is great lol!
This video helped me out SO much...NPCs have always been my biggest weak point, especially since I had a bad habit of trying too hard to get the vital points across and would end up giving away things I wanted to keep secret about a character (making it obvious they have a secret or letting slip that they're a bit of a sociopath, that kind of thing) and just would all be kind of the same but as soon as I started adding voices god it became so much easier. One tip I've really found if you want to flesh out a character beforehand and have a quick reference to get you into that character is to write a quote for them that is really indicative of who they are. For example just saying a lord is straightforward with no head for politics is less evocative than "Things used to be much simpler when my peoples' worst problems were ones I could kill or pay for"
Awesome! I love coming across inside jokes like this. I finally know where Dweebles got his name!!
That's genious. Thanks for this insight Seth.
I search all the time for tips & tricks to do NPCs better.
I heard the idea of modeling your NPC after some actor/character before, but you gave it some uniqe spin with developing mannerisms and speech patterns as reaction to your players.
And funny thing:
From the three 'players' NPCs actually Dweebles feels the most distinct from you. I mean Mike and the other dude feel like independent characters but if someone told me Dweebles was actually played by someone else, who just happens to have a resemblance to you - I wouldn't doubt it.
By the way - my next Cthulhu session includes a shopkeep. I call it your fault, that this NPC will be less than helpful to my Investigators :D
Brilliant video! I think it's your best yet. Just watched this a second time and I think I enjoyed it even more this time. Keep up the great work!
I FREAKING DID IT!
I'm running Call of Cthulhu for my usual group, including my and my group's usual DM. Noone in the group had played before.
My DM makes glorious stories and beautiful worlds. I'm not as good as him but i am naturally good with NPC's and exciting moments.
But i want to be the best i can. So ive been watching these vids to bring my game up to par. And it worked.
I have given my group some extra NPC companions as meat shields/stop gaps for helping out newbies.
But i wanted one of them to grate on every nerve she could.
Her name: Vickie.
Her specialty: Bricks are smarter but God himself would be charmed or talked in circles around her.
So i introduced her, one of my PC's is an entertainer so i said it was someone she knew. The moment she spoke the table went dead silent.
When i finished her opener my usual DM looks at me and says "I haven't wanted to commit wanton violence against an NPC since middle school. And yet, I can see her, in my mind. And i want to commit a homicide im broad daylight." And i glance at the other players and they all look at me the same way.
Meanwhile my other 3 companion NPC's are loved by the Party. From my Jack rip-off named Benny. Dont worry its protected as parody. Ive changed multiple key feature about him. Namely his Bostonian origins and a refussal to use firearms against humans. After serving as a field medic in the war he never felt right about it.
what Seth is Jack?! MIND BLOWN
This will really help me make my pcs shine in my campaign. I unfortunately default to three personas when I do npcs but the tips in this I'll definety try out. Thanks is Seth :)
Love the shirt and the content!
Seth has some of the best t-shirts I've ever seen. Also, solid advice. But great tees.
I was the DM for the finale of Storm Kings Thunder, and the PCs talked to the Elvish Lord so well that they convinced him to give them a fairy to help them, so I had to make a character on the fly to accompany them. His name was Chip and he spoke in third person and thought the players were just the absolute coolest, which actually ran contrary to the fact that the fairies were supposed to be cannon fodder to keep the players from taking too many direct hits in the final battle, so there was an added layer of both killing Bad Fruul AND making sure their favorite little fairy Chip didn't die in the battle, something that wasn't in the original module. But boy was it great because of it, the most memorable NPC I ever had the pleasure of making.
One of my most memorable NPC's was one that didn't speak (she could, but chose not too, long story there). I was surprised just how much I could convey a shrug, a roll of the eyes, a shake of the head, or just a sigh. It was a fun one to play, and the players (from several different games in this timeline) were intrigued by her.
Great video. I never really analyzed it before, but the advice about imagining that an NPC is played by a particular actor is what I end up with most of the time. I also place personalities and mannerisms of people I know (that the players don’t know) on the npcs. In the same way, when describing a NPC on the fly I just think of a character or two from different movies/shows and mix them together. I try and avoid being obvious, but sometimes for major npcs it is kinda fun to be totally obvious about who the NPC is modeled off (Dirty Harry, The Joker, Inigo Montoya, Artemisia, The Master, Siegmeyer, Hans Gruber being some of my player’s favorites. ). One extra thing I would add that really helps is to be consistent but also unpredictable. I once made the mistake of having too many cool and mysterious npcs, to the point where the players became suspicious of everyone. It is best to mix it up a lot. Sometimes a bland shopkeeper is just that, sometimes a macho talking Han Solo type is a big coward, sometimes the mad wizard is useless insane rather than useful. Try not to second guess your first thought because that illogical combination might just be a great NPC.
I use the Twilight 2000 system of cards and a random card generator, when I need a quick NPC motivation.
It works quite well.
The most beloved npc in my group was a random bouncer who did his job kicking out a rowdy player. The player decided to take revenge and hatched a plan to kidnap this bouncer (an orc named thoric). At this point he was still a generic red shirt npc, but once we got to roleplaying I made him be extremely dull witted which lead to a lot of misunderstanding and hilarity. The players took a liking to him and he became a recurring antagonist / friend who always made situations more chaotic and interesting and always made the players laugh.
Recent story from my last group. I was play testing a Brawler (PF1), and ended up basically getting into a “mirror match” to see if I could use the class mechanics. One of the other PC’s ran “Slippery Pete” and it got into street level grapple fighting and using whatever oil it was that made Slippery Pete... lubricious...
I still can’t stop the guy who played him from cheering Pete all the time.
Good video
I try to use different voices for NPCs but sometimes it’s tough.
Wow that’s expensive clock
Oh man, I was convinced the guy in the cap was an impression of Wayne in Wayne's World. Although it's been a long time since I saw the movie, so I'm not even that sure what the character was like C:
Dweebles is awesome btw.
Very interresting and well presented. Thanks for this and all your great videos!
Great video and very entertaining NPCs.
Love your stuff Seth, would be so easy to make your videos with less effort than you do and they would still be great but your skits super make it your own.
I'm kinda proud of myself of finally discovering the origen of Dweebles name after a month and a half of watching your videos like "they're food and I'm a starving man."
The next level of the quest is finding the original comment where a viewer named him Dweebles.
@@SSkorkowsky Challenge accepted! Give me a month.
Thank you so much for this video! It helped a lot!
Man! I'm going to steal that hated npc( hand gestures) well done!
During my very first Call of Cthulhu game I ever ran on my birthday earlier this year, my players made me recall the information on this video and I thanked God for every word of it. Let me explain.
Were in southern Vermont, and the players are supposed to be going into the woods after a group of thieves who had kidnapped a young girl. The PCs during the town hall meeting when the Sheriff was laying down the facts of the botched ransom handover, and the subsequent gun fight, was asked where the leader of the gang was known to hang out so they could ask for more clues. Being that it wasn’t in the scenario itself, and that it was a rural town, on the fly, I made up that he had a local hangout at a seed barn that doubled as a bootlegging Shop, and basement speakeasy. Assuming that the players wouldn’t care too much about it, I left it at that. Instead, they were told to take an hour to buy supplies and gather clues before being driven to the woods to try to search for the missing girl and her kidnappers. Did they want to do that? Of course not, they wanted to question the bootleggers. I had to make up an NPC on the fly, and came up with this creepy ginger young guy in overalls with long red hair, freckles, and nearly white skin, who’s mouth was slightly open in an eternally half smiling, half surprised expression, with the creepiest “I’m so happy!” voice. My players were immediately creeped out by, and loved this guy even though he had zero relevance to the story, and threatened them with a sawed off shotgun mounted under the shop counter before they finally left. That was so much fun, but I’m still baffled as to why the PCs wanted so much to chat this guy up when it’s like “The game is over here guys! See? It’s over there!”
That is awesome. Love the description you gave the bootlegger.
Never underestimate the ability of a player to jump down the rabbit hole of falling in love with a random and completely on-the-fly NPC. Very often we end up remembering that NPC with far more clarity and love than we even remember the adventure or campaign.
You sir, are hilarious. Thank you for your content. Informative and enjoyable!
I've been inspired a good deal by audio books and the voice acting of the narrators. Also the voice acting in video/computer games since the voice needs to make up for any lack of physical presence it tends to be more emphasized and impressionable.
this channel is awesome in general, but that video is especially cool
What Seth tried to teach us: how to make memorable and great npcs
What we (and Seth) learned: Seth would make a villianously good clocksalesman.
Very nice. I think the longest-running npc I had was a kobold named Kreeka who a player character let live when they were in the Pomarj in the world of Greyhawk. The same kobold showed up when the party later returned to said city and they ended up inviting him to join. A few years later, he showed up for a new group as I wanted to incorporate a map left by the first group but never investigated. He eventually ended up captain of his own ship in a pirate campaign wherein, in the first game session, they captured another pirate ship and the 2nd in command (a pc) was put in command of it, given a copy of the map, and told to meet them at the island in question.
Kreeka was not initially statted out but later I had to figure out what he could do.
In Call of Cthulhu, the one that the players seemed to enjoy most was William H. Penderdast IV, a dilettante who lived in a simple apartment, longing for the days he was in college and slumming it with the regular people. He was initially introduced as a connection between the various classes of folks in the game but that was just a lead up to a scenario called Homecoming by James Tremlett that I found online years ago. Turns out, the reason his family was so rich was that his great grandfather made a deal or arrangement with Daoloth and now it was time for William to give up his body to his grandfather's spirit to get the next hundred years of future telling to let them once again retain and increase their wealth.
Even after that (Pendergast survived thanks to the investigators), he took to drinking to deal with the memories of what he had seen. But he was still a lot of fun and everyone wanted him around. Good times.
Hi Seth just wanted you to know; YOU ARE A GREAT ACTOR! love your vids
There I was Seth, about to sleep. And then, in the dead of night, my phone starts blinking.
great video Seth I'll take these tips and use them in my own campaign
also jack you drop any shotguns lately?
* Shakes fist * Vanderbilt!!!!!!!!!
Ran my first little mini campaign of Call of Cthulhu.
I gave my party a handful of NPC's to fill some holes and help them get the hang of the system. I only planned to keep one as a running friend of the party who was basically Bostonian Jack the NPC.
However i made each of the 3 other NPC's to kind of fit with one or two members of the party to give them some personality. Well one of them was meant to be a starlet and i built her to be mildly annoying but incresibly useful at a few tasks. (Track, a couple of the interpersonal skills, and something else) I apparently did a good job because my group loved her because of how much they hated her. Bostonian Jack and her were the onlytwo NPC's who stayed in the party.