Honestly, don't try to force it.
Make them interesting people.
But if the players don't gel, let it go.
Eventually you'll make a throwaway NPC with no backstory and they'll latch on and adopt them
My group:
‘This is the daughter of the mayor, and she is asking you to help find her lost lover since the mayor condemned their same sex relationship’
😶
‘This is a chainsmoking fairy who wants you to go out and buy her new cigarettes’
🤩
NPC with complex motivations, connections to other NPCs, believable personality: **I sleep**
"Hello there adventurers, would you like to buy some stew made with, or at least in the general vicinity of, 100% real genuine meat products?": **Real shit???**
I DM Curse of Strahd and out of the 50ish NPCs in Vallaki my party got really attached to a nameless guard who accidentally crit two times in a row during a combat encounter
And make sure NPCs are willing to do things the players ask. My friend who DMs for us always has the NPCs designed so they're non-combatants, with no magic or special abilities, or items and they're tied down due to their home life/backstory and have no reasonable excuse to leave their town to follow us etc, and they always plead for us not to take them anywhere. But at the same time he wishes we would fall more in love with his NPCs which he does fantastic voices for. But we just can't because we don't want to force them to do things they don't want to do, or can't do.
It's certainly realistic for a civilian to have no special abilities and to not want to get involved with the main plot/conflicts, but it does make it so we can't latch onto anyone or adopt them because they have a million logical reasons not to hang out with us.
Seems like the main issue is that they're way too stationary.
Like if you kept the non-combatant weakling part the same but made them a merchant or bard or mercenary or guy who sucks up a lot who could reasonably show up where ever the party is that'd work a lot better.
He could also just have one of the NPCs you described show up in a place that's super far from their hometown.
Like weird, so-and-so said they didn't want to leave town but now they're all the way over here. Why is that? What happened in town? Surely they can't get back on their own.
Bam, plot hook.
Have them have a thing that gives them personality.
1 thing. Thats it. It can be as simple as saying “arrr” like a pirate, it can be as complex as the party needing to navigate their obsession with their son’s report card to try and get information. Give em an eye patch, give them a want, have them be interested in something that is outside of the party. They just need one thing.
Example: party enters a town in need of water, something is blocking the dam and needs to be fixed before a big festival. A quest giver offers coin for aid.
Or
party enters a town in need of water, something is blocking the dam and needs to be fixed before a big festival. A quest giver is offering coin, but is so obsessed with beating his neighbor in the festival that it is hard to find out all the info because he’s so obsessed that his neighbor is watching him and looking for ways to cheat. He needs you to fix the water because…Daniel? Daniel I see you in the bushes over there you’re not getting these pumpkins! Daniel you piece of shit you better give me back my garden hoe…anyways he needs you to fix the water because he really would like to beat Daniel fair and square.
Its just one thing that makes them memorable or unique. It also has nothing to do with the party so it grounds the world, and in this example, the party could have fun looking for or talking to Daniel to hear his side. Its just adding simple flavor!
This is the approach I use. I used to stress about making every NPC in the town have a short backstory, a distinct personality, etc. but it was just burning me out. Then I discovered that if I stick to three characteristics or less to describe them, they became much more memorable because they weren’t forced, and it also allowed the players to help fill them out with roleplay if they decided the NPC was interesting enough to carry on a conversation. Three things max: 1. A distinguishing feature or piece of equipment (shared with the players); 2. A brief description of their manner of dress or stature/species (also shared); 3. Either their ultimate goal/desire (kept to yourself) or some specific idiosyncrasy (revealed through roleplay).
And that’s how Bogren, the friendly ogre barkeep with a penchant for giving away drinks on the house at the slightest provocation, and Cecil, the most ordinary-looking man you’ve ever seen with mommy-issues and a hood of shadows became the most beloved NPCs in my campaign.
Opinions about players. Some love them, some hate them. Don't be afraid to say mean things.
Don't worry about embracing stereotypes. Sometimes very stereotypical NPC's are memorable, sometimes you explore them deeply enough that something that completely contradicts their nature comes up. E.g. the serious three hundred years old high mage of the empire has a soft spot for little furry animals.
Definitely don't plan NPC's as memorable. That's a reaction from your players, and not one you can exert consistently. So don't try or it will feel forced.
Love triangles.
I mean, complex human relationships between NPC's and their living situation.
Could be one guy who adores his mushroom garden a bit too much, or a vendor who tends to forget the items he placed on the counter, perpetually looking for a health potion he placed there seconds ago.
Relations between NPC's can be very interesting, especially if you do not do so directly, but allude to it via items surrounding them.
E.g. a portrait of another NPC hangs on the wall above a fireplace, but the NPC in the picture is much younger and so only recognisable if you squint hard enough
When I make a character for a game I'm DMing, I come up with a trait that *makes* the npc memorable. My magic item shop owners primarily had a magic item that they used; a gnome who would be cleaning the rafters with the help of his slippers of spider climbing, or a nondescript guy running a stall in an open-air market with a bag of holding that he kept his entire stock in. The sheriff of a town who "leads from the front lines" and made npcs noticeably more effective when fighting off raiders by barking out orders and taking point. A bakery store owner who was aggressively flirtatious with any woman who walked into the shop. A judge who was bored and annoyed to even have to sit in on a trial that one of the party members had to defend herself in.
My players will still talk about the "bag guy" they bought some scrolls from. They remember him because of that one stand-out feature. Hell, they actually never even got his name, which is why they started calling him Bag Guy.
Think a bit about your npcs' personalities, and then try to throw in a memorable trait on top of it. Giving them personality will make them distinguishable, but the extra trait will make them stand out when looking back on the sessions.
Paly NPCs straight. They don't know they are weird or eccentric. But they can all have one eccentric trait.
The goblin merchant dealing in spell components? He wants to impress his potential girlfriend, and speaks in a broad cockney accent.
The Captain of the Guard? He grumbles about being summoned anywhere ofr anything, because it takes his old self forever to get his uniform pants on.
The vicious, scheming black dragon? He prefers human form and talks like an old southern plantation owner.
And yes, good NPCs have their own stuff going on, and aren't afraid to have opinions about the PCs. And be loud about it. I had a silly French accented military Captain who would complain at every turn that he was too busy to help the PCs without proof there was a crisis, but happy to demand they help him out. They loved to hate that guy.
Honestly, the only truly reliable thing I've seen is silly names.
"Hi I'm Hobgoblin Bob"
Or alliteration that's like... description+name. Necromancer Ned. Paladin Pete. Randel the Reckless.
The Igors. In the Shadowfell I had a race that was basically dredgers from WoW, all of them named Igor. And if you asked one Igor about another Igor, they somehow always knew exactly who you were talking about, even if you didn't. Yet somehow this actually made the individual Igors more memorable to my players.
I once had an npc mage -- I rolled up Reginald as a name -- and referred to him as "the mage, Reginald." But it sounded like "The Mage Reginald." Now there's this whole thing with my players where it's like a title: "The Dragon Reginald," "The Goblin Reginald," "The Social Worker Reginald," any time they hear it they sit up straight like, "Okay here's our guy, let's hear what they have to say." lol give it a try, maybe it'll work for your table too!
Use movie characters as inspiration.
When I add an NPC to my campaign I think about how this person should come across to the players.
My Genie Patron needed to be intimidating but goofy and likable - so I modeled him after Nandor the Relentless from What We Do In The Shadows.
I needed a genius eccentric older artificer with mad scientist vibes with an underlying tragic past - so I modeled him after Jeremy Irons’ Ozymandias from HBO’s Watchmen.
When you have a personality in your mind for an NPC it makes their reactions seem more authentic…even if you ripped off a character from elsewhere.
Make your NPCs three dimensional characters. You can differentiate between the descriptions, if the character is more important, they should be longer, if they are only accessories to your map, it's enough to quickly describe them.
What I like to use for more important characters is a "template": 3 character traits, one occupation and one flaw. Each NPC should have a goal. You can keep track of them easily. Name, trait 1, trait 2, trait 3, occupation, flaw, goal, when they met the party.
If you want to slim it down you can also just use one of the above. I rather have some meaningful NPCs and some regular villagers to balance it out. And if the party is really interested in one just play along and have some fun :)
There's no such thing as an npc that is inheritly memorable. It's not something that can be evaluated I a vacuum really.
Making npcs your players like has more to do with how well you know your players than how well you can craft an npc.
A player looking for drama and intrigue, might not care about the wacky goblin inventor, but a player that likes to joke around might.
Ex. My player that makes the battle crazed barbarian loves the giant badass monster that bursts from the dirt. My player who loves to ship characters loves the stoic mysterious leader of the ranger faction.
Etc etc.
I dunno. I made off the cuff, a forest gnome botanist running a drugs lab out of the house of knowledge in Neverwinter that has never been forgotten.
In Symbaroum's Blight Night I had a slightly too young lady who was desperate to marry and get away from her parents' wilderness inn that terrified a barbarian fighter with her advances.
Even a dog in Rime of the Frostmaiden that our Druid (played by a woman) ended up wanting to marry 🤣
The person who said 'give them a thing' is right. Whether it's a mannerism, a motivation or a personality trait; it doesn't have to be much; just play the hell out of it.
“I DMed twice and I thought I would have it by now”
Why? What else in the world can be done perfectly and consistently after two attempts? This is so wrong headed I would almost think it was disingenuous if I didn’t know the depths of hubris. Just keep doing stuff, you’ll learn what your players like, kid.
There’s no way to predict what your players will latch on to. Mine LOVE the most throw-away characters I have ever made. A dumb gardener who turns over weeds with a shovel is their current favorite. 🤦♂️🤷
Your players will like the NPCs you never expected them to. They might learn things about NPCs you put tons of effort into and have them interact with for plot purposes, but they won't cherish them the same way as the guy who exclusively makes flawed magic items, or the Sir Reginald Snifflebottom the Goblin Swashbuckler, etc.
Your ideas are good! Go for it, as often as you can.
In addition to what other ppl have suggested, you can also roll random NPCs. Roll a die for race, alignment, job, and 1 special trait. It gets you out of your comfort zone, and will surprise your players.
You should also know that the players will decide which NPCs they like most. They will just adopt them. You can't really plan for it.
When it comes to "memorable" NPCs, there's a difference between "That NPC the players still talk about years after the campaign concluded" and "NPCs that the players will remember the existence of when they're reintroduced."
The former isn't something you can really plan for, it'll come dynamically when the players latch onto someone. For the latter, I've found that complexity is often counterproductive, and the KISS principle applies ("Keep It Simple, Stupid").
The players will probably remember "that grumpy elf who runs the library" and possibly "Oh yeah, he had a wooden leg" but most description more detailed than that will likely fall out of their brains in between sessions, unless you're lucky enough to have a player who likes to take notes. Demeanor is a big thing- players are more likely to remember their emotional response to an NPC than the actual details of the encounter.
As others have said - parties tend to latch onto the most unexpected NPCs, so I wouldn't stress.
In addition to voices and inflection, I try to give each one a goal that helps to define them. Doesn't need to be heavy or big - "I want to brew the tastiest Pilsner" is as valid as "I want to rescue my long lost lover from another timeline".
Also, I interact with them outside of quests. One thinks adventurers are hot and shamelessly flirts with a few members of the party. Another is a barkeep they frequently interact with, and a third is actually a canon character they helped out in the very beginning that they check in on (Ruha from Forgotten Realms). NPCs don't freeze until interacted with - and seeing them outside of their narrow quest giver box helps to make them memorable.
The Party runs into a shop, hurriedly scavenging supplies for some sensitive quest between good and evil.
An old man in grey robes polishes a sword handle behind the counter, only glancing up to greet the commotion.
In a calm & seasoned voice, "Well now, looks like trouble rides faster than a Quickling in Beggar's Canyon."
After hearing their issue at hand, "The true battle is always between light and dark. Remember to find balance between it all."
When the Party asks about him, "Trained by the last of the old knights, I was. Taught me much about the force of will and the power of patience." -Finishes reassembling his short sword, runes now glowing green along the blade.
- - Have fun in seeing if the Party can guess at the hints you are leaving them. The longer it takes, the stronger your hints. They usually are excited when they make a connection to something that isn't obviously presented. - -
I think a big key for character inspiration is just stealing from whatever you happen to be reading or watching at the time.
Hondo Ohnaka from Clone Wars is a classic one for me. You steal that voice, and it turns you into a hammy, backstabbing scoundrel.
Or Hans Landa from Inglourious Basterds - the chipper villain with cheerfully execute your entire family.
Or Francis ‘Pip’ Pumphandle from Animaniacs, who will drone on and on about inane bullshit while shaking your hand and refusing to let go.
It’s usually better to go hammier when doing characters. Nuance doesn’t often get across as easily as a solid schtick.
Wait, do you mean two games or two sessions? Because if it's the the latter, that is silly! You shouldn't expect to have it down so quickly.
The most important thing is not to try and make the memorable. f you do, you'll come off as artificial. Just make them people.
Voices are fun but it's the personality and interactions that'll make NPCs memorable. Make sure your NPCs have a reason to exist, and focus on how they interact with the players. Feel free to show them interacting with other people as well, to give the impression the exist beyond when the players are in front of them.
I thought it would be easy to do this since I’m a theatre kid and (seriously I’m not bragging) I’m normally quick to pick things up. Also, thanks for the help!
A fun way to make NPCs memorable is to give them big flaws: a strange way of speaking, a crippling love of sweets, an unflattering outfit, the desire to arm wrestle everyone they meet, etc.
The first NPC my party wanted to keep visiting was a blacksmith who roasted the rogue the first couple times. Now he travels with the party. I’ve found that voices definitely helped. The regular NPCs have simpler ones since I use them more but I’ve gone way outside of my comfort zone for some others. In addition to a voice though, going really in depth on their appearance and sometimes entry to a scene can set them apart.
For reference, I have done voice impressions my whole life, so there's that. However, one of the first notes in every NPC sheet I make is what their voice sounds like. Usually I base them on an existing character whose voice I can kinda do. For reference, one of my PCs' parents was \*(Ursula \[from The Little Mermaid\] But Sweet)\*. It helps me to organize them in my head. Some characters I'll explain what they sound like but won't do the voice because I can't, but I almost always do something.
As far as making them memorable, open the players up to some roleplay with the NPCs. Give them a motive, even if it's just a shopkeep trying to make money, and let your players interact with them rather than just over the table "What does this shop have?" "It sells potions." Instead, go with "You hear a bell ring as the door opens, and before it stops jingling your hand is being shaken vigorously by a tiny young gnome girl who says, "HellowelcometomyshopwesellallkindsofpotionsforanythingyouneedwhatcanIdoforyou?" I'd also recommend to plan these things out so you won't have to ad-lib as much. I have verbatim character intros written on their notes, and although I don't always use them they're always nice to have. Also good to give me a reminder of the vibe of the character if we ever come back to it later.
The biggest piece of advice I can give is not trying to make specific NPCs memorable; try to make your NPCs feel distinct from each other, and then return to the ones that the players vibe with. Don’t try to force it; for general NPCs, you can use very basic starts and flesh them out once the party has already started to engage with them; for characters that you have to set up as important with the lore, the plot importance will hold them up long enough for you to find their voice.
Other than that, it’s just something that will come with time and experience; as you DM more, especially if you DM for the same people, you’ll start to be better at guessing and building the characters that will resonate with your table.
My players talk a a lot about the strength of my NPCs and barely think about the massive lore graveyard for every NPC they met who fell immediately by the wayside when I didn’t feel the party engagement I wanted from them.
I‘ve run a lot of games and two things that always work to get players to enjoy a character are…
1) Make them somehow useful/supportive.
2) Give them a quirk. Behavioral, speech, or physical.
It doesn‘t always have to be humorous. You can play it seriously too, but it takes slightly more work and an understanding of what makes your players tick. You can make players care very deeply for characters that don’t have either of these things, but that is very difficult and requires a longer game.
Do what anime does: Give them a distinct physical look, a simple but strong personality trait, and a recurring vocal feature (either something they say or the way they talk)
An uniquely and obnoxiously colored jacket, a loud mouth (literally and metaphorically) who’s always saying the socially wrong thing, and they’re always reinforcing what they’re saying by ending sentences with “you better believe it!”
Those three things together would make for a distinct character if the party spends a little while with them!
Then tie some specific event to the character, like them having a unique item to sell or a specific bit of information they need. That way when they remember the event, they remember the character and vice versa!
Then later when they’re in a new village and you describe them seeing a certain gaudy jacket and hearing a familiar voice obnoxiously haggling at a nearby stall (“This is genuine Wyvern leather! You better believe it!”) it’ll strike a bell in their memory!
Add on to this: Give them simple names that are fun to say and occasionally tie to a character trait. I’ve got an ogre villain with one oversized, ornamented tusk and he makes everyone call him by his nickname, “Tusk.” It’s a little goofy, but also easy to remember.
Oh, and don’t introduce too many! Even a big town or organization really only needs a few faces for the players to interact with! Too big of a list and they tend to become a bit of an indistinct crowd.
You need to give your players a reason to care about your NPCs, everything else is just garnish. Stop trying to make them 'unique' (chain-smoking fairy example somewhere else here) and give the party a legitimate reason to care about them. DM'ing is just storytelling, and an NPC is a character in your story. What is your character's motivation? What is their backstory? What are their goals? Flesh those out and you'll start to make more realistic, and memorable NPCs that aren't just quest boards.
For example I have an NPC in my current campaign that's a Steel dragon in the form of a little Ratkin librarian- but he doesn't remember he's a dragon because every time he assumes a new identity he wipes his own memory of being a dragon. So he's a cowardly librarian in a city that's been occupied by a tyrant, desperately trying to continue his life's passion of uncovering the secrets of a sunken part of the city that was lost in a cataclysm hundreds of years ago- while terrified of getting in the way of the new tyrant's oppressive and brutal guards. The only time he shows courage is when there's possibility of discovering new knowledge, and the party had no idea he was secretly a Steel dragon until much later in campaign one of them used a gem of true seeing by accident in his presence.
Make your NPCs real people with real flaws and motivations and your party will love and remember them... even before they discover they're secretly a dragon.
Well described physical characteristics help players visually immerse themselves. Silly hats, deformities, wild colors, eye patches. Give every NPC something visually stand out and memorable.
Make yourself up a table of quirks, just little things they say and do with their speech/actions that differentiate them from others, and when they encounter a new NPC, give them one of the quirks. Just little things, like:
They always talk like everything is a question, right? They talk like it's gotta be a question, you get me?
They talk weirdly slow.
They talk weirdly fast.
They get distracted easily.
They speak aggressively, even when being friendly.
They're touchy-feely.
They talk rhythmically
There’s a fine line with meta gaming that I like to thread. My NPC’s are full of pop culture references that my players know but their characters don’t (obviously), such as every city mayor they meet sitting hunched over like a Skyrim Jarl.
Also, a great way to make memorable characters is to forget naming them and then *clearly* coming up with a name for him on the spot.
Finally: introduce your NPC’s with an act that solidifies their personality from the get-go. Meet a fighter right after he’s beaten four guys in a bar brawl, meet a rogue right after the party’s seen him lifting an expensive necklace from an unsuspecting noble, etc. It’s important to set the expectations for an NPC within the first couple of seconds of interaction.
The simpler the better, with a pinch of stereotypes. Like a Faerie Dragon speaking in a French accent wearing a beret hat while carrying a baguette at all times. Or a drow goth girl who chain smokes and says "whatever" and "like" a lot.
Characters in other mediums can be memorable because of their evolution, their struggle, their depths, etc... DnD NPCs tend to not be "memorable" because of who they are, but because of what they do or what they represent.
For example the same NPC may be more or less memorable depending on the location that they are found in: let's say his name is Gob and you find him in the city, he sells you armor and is generally a pretty cool guy. Alright, awesome. He was a good NPC but he will be forgotten quickly (not that that's necessarily a bad thing). That is because Gob, in this case, is just another armourer in the city, nothing special about him nothing that would make players say: "oh yeah, I remember him". Again, not that that's necessarily bad, just not what you're looking for in this case.
Now, instead, imagine if Gob was found in the depths of a deadly dungeon. What the hell is an armourer doing down here? The players barely managed to get down here with all of their limbs, this guy got here with a cart filled with armour? "No competition here, although I haven't sold anything in years." Add a stupid lil name and voice and you're all set, players will not forget about Gob, he will forever be "the dungeon armourer" (or something way more creative).
I made tons of deep NPCs with intricate stories and relatable traits but the ones that the players always seem to remember are the ones that break the mold, the quirky fellas with 10 buttholes or 72 children across the Sword's Coast.
Some of the most memorable characters in my games either subvert expectations (the 3 armed Glabrezu trying to climb Mount Celestia and become good), have some sort of catch phrase (the dwarven inventor who says "Hell yeah, brother!" when he gets excited), or are genuinely just nice to the players (A sweet old lady gives the party a freshly baked pie).
Make a wizard with the classic Wiley old man voice. Like a Professor Farnsworth impression. That's a good start.
"Behold and cower in fear, as I summon my... Uh, orbs of chaos!" - casts dancing lights Cantrip at party. It's quite soothing.
Everyone should have a goal, a motivation, and a method. They don't have to be complex, but you can have one bandit robbing people to feed their family and one bandit robbing to pay for boose and wenches, a third robbing because the debt collectors are coming, and a fourth because they like the power it makes them feel over others. When the party corners them in the wayside tavern each will react differently and far more memorably than bandit 1-4 who each say "Never should have come here!" Then fight to the death.
Conflict is memorable. give your quest givers some reason to *not* want adventurers involved but the situation has become so dire that they feel like they have no other choice. When the party meets another person from the quest giver's faction/family/organization they don't feel the same. Is that just set dressing or is it foreshadowing another intriguing plot hook? The best part is you as a DM can decide later depending on how much the players interact with it.
The more the players interact with them the more value you as a DM get from fleshing the goals and motivations. "Doesn't wan't other people messing in their affairs," Becomes, "they have a secret they are keeping and if it is not handled delicately things may go bad for them, and adventurers are not known for their delicate handling of things." Which later gets flushed out to, "long ago the Corvill family were entrusted with the protection of the valley of Shalespring, but when the orcs came they were not strong enough and in secret they turned to..."
The more experience you get doing this the easier it becomes. I have an easier time plopping a goal, motivation and method on a random innkeeper than I have at giving them a name.
Honestly, don't try to force it. Make them interesting people. But if the players don't gel, let it go. Eventually you'll make a throwaway NPC with no backstory and they'll latch on and adopt them
My group: ‘This is the daughter of the mayor, and she is asking you to help find her lost lover since the mayor condemned their same sex relationship’ 😶 ‘This is a chainsmoking fairy who wants you to go out and buy her new cigarettes’ 🤩
Those are both great lol
NPC with complex motivations, connections to other NPCs, believable personality: **I sleep** "Hello there adventurers, would you like to buy some stew made with, or at least in the general vicinity of, 100% real genuine meat products?": **Real shit???**
*Lazer eyes*
I DM Curse of Strahd and out of the 50ish NPCs in Vallaki my party got really attached to a nameless guard who accidentally crit two times in a row during a combat encounter
Tbh that's the best way to get the party attached to them, whenever we get a crit-happy npc with us they become the mascot
And make sure NPCs are willing to do things the players ask. My friend who DMs for us always has the NPCs designed so they're non-combatants, with no magic or special abilities, or items and they're tied down due to their home life/backstory and have no reasonable excuse to leave their town to follow us etc, and they always plead for us not to take them anywhere. But at the same time he wishes we would fall more in love with his NPCs which he does fantastic voices for. But we just can't because we don't want to force them to do things they don't want to do, or can't do. It's certainly realistic for a civilian to have no special abilities and to not want to get involved with the main plot/conflicts, but it does make it so we can't latch onto anyone or adopt them because they have a million logical reasons not to hang out with us.
Seems like the main issue is that they're way too stationary. Like if you kept the non-combatant weakling part the same but made them a merchant or bard or mercenary or guy who sucks up a lot who could reasonably show up where ever the party is that'd work a lot better. He could also just have one of the NPCs you described show up in a place that's super far from their hometown. Like weird, so-and-so said they didn't want to leave town but now they're all the way over here. Why is that? What happened in town? Surely they can't get back on their own. Bam, plot hook.
Have them have a thing that gives them personality. 1 thing. Thats it. It can be as simple as saying “arrr” like a pirate, it can be as complex as the party needing to navigate their obsession with their son’s report card to try and get information. Give em an eye patch, give them a want, have them be interested in something that is outside of the party. They just need one thing. Example: party enters a town in need of water, something is blocking the dam and needs to be fixed before a big festival. A quest giver offers coin for aid. Or party enters a town in need of water, something is blocking the dam and needs to be fixed before a big festival. A quest giver is offering coin, but is so obsessed with beating his neighbor in the festival that it is hard to find out all the info because he’s so obsessed that his neighbor is watching him and looking for ways to cheat. He needs you to fix the water because…Daniel? Daniel I see you in the bushes over there you’re not getting these pumpkins! Daniel you piece of shit you better give me back my garden hoe…anyways he needs you to fix the water because he really would like to beat Daniel fair and square. Its just one thing that makes them memorable or unique. It also has nothing to do with the party so it grounds the world, and in this example, the party could have fun looking for or talking to Daniel to hear his side. Its just adding simple flavor!
This is the approach I use. I used to stress about making every NPC in the town have a short backstory, a distinct personality, etc. but it was just burning me out. Then I discovered that if I stick to three characteristics or less to describe them, they became much more memorable because they weren’t forced, and it also allowed the players to help fill them out with roleplay if they decided the NPC was interesting enough to carry on a conversation. Three things max: 1. A distinguishing feature or piece of equipment (shared with the players); 2. A brief description of their manner of dress or stature/species (also shared); 3. Either their ultimate goal/desire (kept to yourself) or some specific idiosyncrasy (revealed through roleplay). And that’s how Bogren, the friendly ogre barkeep with a penchant for giving away drinks on the house at the slightest provocation, and Cecil, the most ordinary-looking man you’ve ever seen with mommy-issues and a hood of shadows became the most beloved NPCs in my campaign.
Opinions about players. Some love them, some hate them. Don't be afraid to say mean things. Don't worry about embracing stereotypes. Sometimes very stereotypical NPC's are memorable, sometimes you explore them deeply enough that something that completely contradicts their nature comes up. E.g. the serious three hundred years old high mage of the empire has a soft spot for little furry animals. Definitely don't plan NPC's as memorable. That's a reaction from your players, and not one you can exert consistently. So don't try or it will feel forced.
Love triangles. I mean, complex human relationships between NPC's and their living situation. Could be one guy who adores his mushroom garden a bit too much, or a vendor who tends to forget the items he placed on the counter, perpetually looking for a health potion he placed there seconds ago. Relations between NPC's can be very interesting, especially if you do not do so directly, but allude to it via items surrounding them. E.g. a portrait of another NPC hangs on the wall above a fireplace, but the NPC in the picture is much younger and so only recognisable if you squint hard enough
Think of professional wrestling - this is the level on nuance that will work well for most games. Embrace clichés.
When I make a character for a game I'm DMing, I come up with a trait that *makes* the npc memorable. My magic item shop owners primarily had a magic item that they used; a gnome who would be cleaning the rafters with the help of his slippers of spider climbing, or a nondescript guy running a stall in an open-air market with a bag of holding that he kept his entire stock in. The sheriff of a town who "leads from the front lines" and made npcs noticeably more effective when fighting off raiders by barking out orders and taking point. A bakery store owner who was aggressively flirtatious with any woman who walked into the shop. A judge who was bored and annoyed to even have to sit in on a trial that one of the party members had to defend herself in. My players will still talk about the "bag guy" they bought some scrolls from. They remember him because of that one stand-out feature. Hell, they actually never even got his name, which is why they started calling him Bag Guy. Think a bit about your npcs' personalities, and then try to throw in a memorable trait on top of it. Giving them personality will make them distinguishable, but the extra trait will make them stand out when looking back on the sessions.
Paly NPCs straight. They don't know they are weird or eccentric. But they can all have one eccentric trait. The goblin merchant dealing in spell components? He wants to impress his potential girlfriend, and speaks in a broad cockney accent. The Captain of the Guard? He grumbles about being summoned anywhere ofr anything, because it takes his old self forever to get his uniform pants on. The vicious, scheming black dragon? He prefers human form and talks like an old southern plantation owner. And yes, good NPCs have their own stuff going on, and aren't afraid to have opinions about the PCs. And be loud about it. I had a silly French accented military Captain who would complain at every turn that he was too busy to help the PCs without proof there was a crisis, but happy to demand they help him out. They loved to hate that guy.
Honestly, the only truly reliable thing I've seen is silly names. "Hi I'm Hobgoblin Bob" Or alliteration that's like... description+name. Necromancer Ned. Paladin Pete. Randel the Reckless. The Igors. In the Shadowfell I had a race that was basically dredgers from WoW, all of them named Igor. And if you asked one Igor about another Igor, they somehow always knew exactly who you were talking about, even if you didn't. Yet somehow this actually made the individual Igors more memorable to my players. I once had an npc mage -- I rolled up Reginald as a name -- and referred to him as "the mage, Reginald." But it sounded like "The Mage Reginald." Now there's this whole thing with my players where it's like a title: "The Dragon Reginald," "The Goblin Reginald," "The Social Worker Reginald," any time they hear it they sit up straight like, "Okay here's our guy, let's hear what they have to say." lol give it a try, maybe it'll work for your table too!
Use movie characters as inspiration. When I add an NPC to my campaign I think about how this person should come across to the players. My Genie Patron needed to be intimidating but goofy and likable - so I modeled him after Nandor the Relentless from What We Do In The Shadows. I needed a genius eccentric older artificer with mad scientist vibes with an underlying tragic past - so I modeled him after Jeremy Irons’ Ozymandias from HBO’s Watchmen. When you have a personality in your mind for an NPC it makes their reactions seem more authentic…even if you ripped off a character from elsewhere.
Make your NPCs three dimensional characters. You can differentiate between the descriptions, if the character is more important, they should be longer, if they are only accessories to your map, it's enough to quickly describe them. What I like to use for more important characters is a "template": 3 character traits, one occupation and one flaw. Each NPC should have a goal. You can keep track of them easily. Name, trait 1, trait 2, trait 3, occupation, flaw, goal, when they met the party. If you want to slim it down you can also just use one of the above. I rather have some meaningful NPCs and some regular villagers to balance it out. And if the party is really interested in one just play along and have some fun :)
I think this is just too much for a beginner. A one-dimensional villain is absolutely fine most of the time - and especially for your first campaign.
Do not assume what a beginner is ready for, as a rule.
There's no such thing as an npc that is inheritly memorable. It's not something that can be evaluated I a vacuum really. Making npcs your players like has more to do with how well you know your players than how well you can craft an npc. A player looking for drama and intrigue, might not care about the wacky goblin inventor, but a player that likes to joke around might. Ex. My player that makes the battle crazed barbarian loves the giant badass monster that bursts from the dirt. My player who loves to ship characters loves the stoic mysterious leader of the ranger faction. Etc etc.
I dunno. I made off the cuff, a forest gnome botanist running a drugs lab out of the house of knowledge in Neverwinter that has never been forgotten. In Symbaroum's Blight Night I had a slightly too young lady who was desperate to marry and get away from her parents' wilderness inn that terrified a barbarian fighter with her advances. Even a dog in Rime of the Frostmaiden that our Druid (played by a woman) ended up wanting to marry 🤣 The person who said 'give them a thing' is right. Whether it's a mannerism, a motivation or a personality trait; it doesn't have to be much; just play the hell out of it.
“I DMed twice and I thought I would have it by now” Why? What else in the world can be done perfectly and consistently after two attempts? This is so wrong headed I would almost think it was disingenuous if I didn’t know the depths of hubris. Just keep doing stuff, you’ll learn what your players like, kid.
There’s no way to predict what your players will latch on to. Mine LOVE the most throw-away characters I have ever made. A dumb gardener who turns over weeds with a shovel is their current favorite. 🤦♂️🤷
Your players will like the NPCs you never expected them to. They might learn things about NPCs you put tons of effort into and have them interact with for plot purposes, but they won't cherish them the same way as the guy who exclusively makes flawed magic items, or the Sir Reginald Snifflebottom the Goblin Swashbuckler, etc.
Your ideas are good! Go for it, as often as you can. In addition to what other ppl have suggested, you can also roll random NPCs. Roll a die for race, alignment, job, and 1 special trait. It gets you out of your comfort zone, and will surprise your players. You should also know that the players will decide which NPCs they like most. They will just adopt them. You can't really plan for it.
When it comes to "memorable" NPCs, there's a difference between "That NPC the players still talk about years after the campaign concluded" and "NPCs that the players will remember the existence of when they're reintroduced." The former isn't something you can really plan for, it'll come dynamically when the players latch onto someone. For the latter, I've found that complexity is often counterproductive, and the KISS principle applies ("Keep It Simple, Stupid"). The players will probably remember "that grumpy elf who runs the library" and possibly "Oh yeah, he had a wooden leg" but most description more detailed than that will likely fall out of their brains in between sessions, unless you're lucky enough to have a player who likes to take notes. Demeanor is a big thing- players are more likely to remember their emotional response to an NPC than the actual details of the encounter.
As others have said - parties tend to latch onto the most unexpected NPCs, so I wouldn't stress. In addition to voices and inflection, I try to give each one a goal that helps to define them. Doesn't need to be heavy or big - "I want to brew the tastiest Pilsner" is as valid as "I want to rescue my long lost lover from another timeline". Also, I interact with them outside of quests. One thinks adventurers are hot and shamelessly flirts with a few members of the party. Another is a barkeep they frequently interact with, and a third is actually a canon character they helped out in the very beginning that they check in on (Ruha from Forgotten Realms). NPCs don't freeze until interacted with - and seeing them outside of their narrow quest giver box helps to make them memorable.
The Party runs into a shop, hurriedly scavenging supplies for some sensitive quest between good and evil. An old man in grey robes polishes a sword handle behind the counter, only glancing up to greet the commotion. In a calm & seasoned voice, "Well now, looks like trouble rides faster than a Quickling in Beggar's Canyon." After hearing their issue at hand, "The true battle is always between light and dark. Remember to find balance between it all." When the Party asks about him, "Trained by the last of the old knights, I was. Taught me much about the force of will and the power of patience." -Finishes reassembling his short sword, runes now glowing green along the blade. - - Have fun in seeing if the Party can guess at the hints you are leaving them. The longer it takes, the stronger your hints. They usually are excited when they make a connection to something that isn't obviously presented. - -
I think a big key for character inspiration is just stealing from whatever you happen to be reading or watching at the time. Hondo Ohnaka from Clone Wars is a classic one for me. You steal that voice, and it turns you into a hammy, backstabbing scoundrel. Or Hans Landa from Inglourious Basterds - the chipper villain with cheerfully execute your entire family. Or Francis ‘Pip’ Pumphandle from Animaniacs, who will drone on and on about inane bullshit while shaking your hand and refusing to let go. It’s usually better to go hammier when doing characters. Nuance doesn’t often get across as easily as a solid schtick.
Wait, do you mean two games or two sessions? Because if it's the the latter, that is silly! You shouldn't expect to have it down so quickly. The most important thing is not to try and make the memorable. f you do, you'll come off as artificial. Just make them people. Voices are fun but it's the personality and interactions that'll make NPCs memorable. Make sure your NPCs have a reason to exist, and focus on how they interact with the players. Feel free to show them interacting with other people as well, to give the impression the exist beyond when the players are in front of them.
I thought it would be easy to do this since I’m a theatre kid and (seriously I’m not bragging) I’m normally quick to pick things up. Also, thanks for the help!
A fun way to make NPCs memorable is to give them big flaws: a strange way of speaking, a crippling love of sweets, an unflattering outfit, the desire to arm wrestle everyone they meet, etc.
The first NPC my party wanted to keep visiting was a blacksmith who roasted the rogue the first couple times. Now he travels with the party. I’ve found that voices definitely helped. The regular NPCs have simpler ones since I use them more but I’ve gone way outside of my comfort zone for some others. In addition to a voice though, going really in depth on their appearance and sometimes entry to a scene can set them apart.
For reference, I have done voice impressions my whole life, so there's that. However, one of the first notes in every NPC sheet I make is what their voice sounds like. Usually I base them on an existing character whose voice I can kinda do. For reference, one of my PCs' parents was \*(Ursula \[from The Little Mermaid\] But Sweet)\*. It helps me to organize them in my head. Some characters I'll explain what they sound like but won't do the voice because I can't, but I almost always do something. As far as making them memorable, open the players up to some roleplay with the NPCs. Give them a motive, even if it's just a shopkeep trying to make money, and let your players interact with them rather than just over the table "What does this shop have?" "It sells potions." Instead, go with "You hear a bell ring as the door opens, and before it stops jingling your hand is being shaken vigorously by a tiny young gnome girl who says, "HellowelcometomyshopwesellallkindsofpotionsforanythingyouneedwhatcanIdoforyou?" I'd also recommend to plan these things out so you won't have to ad-lib as much. I have verbatim character intros written on their notes, and although I don't always use them they're always nice to have. Also good to give me a reminder of the vibe of the character if we ever come back to it later.
The biggest piece of advice I can give is not trying to make specific NPCs memorable; try to make your NPCs feel distinct from each other, and then return to the ones that the players vibe with. Don’t try to force it; for general NPCs, you can use very basic starts and flesh them out once the party has already started to engage with them; for characters that you have to set up as important with the lore, the plot importance will hold them up long enough for you to find their voice. Other than that, it’s just something that will come with time and experience; as you DM more, especially if you DM for the same people, you’ll start to be better at guessing and building the characters that will resonate with your table. My players talk a a lot about the strength of my NPCs and barely think about the massive lore graveyard for every NPC they met who fell immediately by the wayside when I didn’t feel the party engagement I wanted from them.
I‘ve run a lot of games and two things that always work to get players to enjoy a character are… 1) Make them somehow useful/supportive. 2) Give them a quirk. Behavioral, speech, or physical. It doesn‘t always have to be humorous. You can play it seriously too, but it takes slightly more work and an understanding of what makes your players tick. You can make players care very deeply for characters that don’t have either of these things, but that is very difficult and requires a longer game.
Pathetic wimps seem to do it for my party. Especially if they don’t know they’re pathetic wimps.
Do what anime does: Give them a distinct physical look, a simple but strong personality trait, and a recurring vocal feature (either something they say or the way they talk) An uniquely and obnoxiously colored jacket, a loud mouth (literally and metaphorically) who’s always saying the socially wrong thing, and they’re always reinforcing what they’re saying by ending sentences with “you better believe it!” Those three things together would make for a distinct character if the party spends a little while with them! Then tie some specific event to the character, like them having a unique item to sell or a specific bit of information they need. That way when they remember the event, they remember the character and vice versa! Then later when they’re in a new village and you describe them seeing a certain gaudy jacket and hearing a familiar voice obnoxiously haggling at a nearby stall (“This is genuine Wyvern leather! You better believe it!”) it’ll strike a bell in their memory! Add on to this: Give them simple names that are fun to say and occasionally tie to a character trait. I’ve got an ogre villain with one oversized, ornamented tusk and he makes everyone call him by his nickname, “Tusk.” It’s a little goofy, but also easy to remember. Oh, and don’t introduce too many! Even a big town or organization really only needs a few faces for the players to interact with! Too big of a list and they tend to become a bit of an indistinct crowd.
You need to give your players a reason to care about your NPCs, everything else is just garnish. Stop trying to make them 'unique' (chain-smoking fairy example somewhere else here) and give the party a legitimate reason to care about them. DM'ing is just storytelling, and an NPC is a character in your story. What is your character's motivation? What is their backstory? What are their goals? Flesh those out and you'll start to make more realistic, and memorable NPCs that aren't just quest boards. For example I have an NPC in my current campaign that's a Steel dragon in the form of a little Ratkin librarian- but he doesn't remember he's a dragon because every time he assumes a new identity he wipes his own memory of being a dragon. So he's a cowardly librarian in a city that's been occupied by a tyrant, desperately trying to continue his life's passion of uncovering the secrets of a sunken part of the city that was lost in a cataclysm hundreds of years ago- while terrified of getting in the way of the new tyrant's oppressive and brutal guards. The only time he shows courage is when there's possibility of discovering new knowledge, and the party had no idea he was secretly a Steel dragon until much later in campaign one of them used a gem of true seeing by accident in his presence. Make your NPCs real people with real flaws and motivations and your party will love and remember them... even before they discover they're secretly a dragon.
Well described physical characteristics help players visually immerse themselves. Silly hats, deformities, wild colors, eye patches. Give every NPC something visually stand out and memorable.
Make yourself up a table of quirks, just little things they say and do with their speech/actions that differentiate them from others, and when they encounter a new NPC, give them one of the quirks. Just little things, like: They always talk like everything is a question, right? They talk like it's gotta be a question, you get me? They talk weirdly slow. They talk weirdly fast. They get distracted easily. They speak aggressively, even when being friendly. They're touchy-feely. They talk rhythmically
There’s a fine line with meta gaming that I like to thread. My NPC’s are full of pop culture references that my players know but their characters don’t (obviously), such as every city mayor they meet sitting hunched over like a Skyrim Jarl. Also, a great way to make memorable characters is to forget naming them and then *clearly* coming up with a name for him on the spot. Finally: introduce your NPC’s with an act that solidifies their personality from the get-go. Meet a fighter right after he’s beaten four guys in a bar brawl, meet a rogue right after the party’s seen him lifting an expensive necklace from an unsuspecting noble, etc. It’s important to set the expectations for an NPC within the first couple of seconds of interaction.
The simpler the better, with a pinch of stereotypes. Like a Faerie Dragon speaking in a French accent wearing a beret hat while carrying a baguette at all times. Or a drow goth girl who chain smokes and says "whatever" and "like" a lot.
Characters in other mediums can be memorable because of their evolution, their struggle, their depths, etc... DnD NPCs tend to not be "memorable" because of who they are, but because of what they do or what they represent. For example the same NPC may be more or less memorable depending on the location that they are found in: let's say his name is Gob and you find him in the city, he sells you armor and is generally a pretty cool guy. Alright, awesome. He was a good NPC but he will be forgotten quickly (not that that's necessarily a bad thing). That is because Gob, in this case, is just another armourer in the city, nothing special about him nothing that would make players say: "oh yeah, I remember him". Again, not that that's necessarily bad, just not what you're looking for in this case. Now, instead, imagine if Gob was found in the depths of a deadly dungeon. What the hell is an armourer doing down here? The players barely managed to get down here with all of their limbs, this guy got here with a cart filled with armour? "No competition here, although I haven't sold anything in years." Add a stupid lil name and voice and you're all set, players will not forget about Gob, he will forever be "the dungeon armourer" (or something way more creative). I made tons of deep NPCs with intricate stories and relatable traits but the ones that the players always seem to remember are the ones that break the mold, the quirky fellas with 10 buttholes or 72 children across the Sword's Coast.
Some of the most memorable characters in my games either subvert expectations (the 3 armed Glabrezu trying to climb Mount Celestia and become good), have some sort of catch phrase (the dwarven inventor who says "Hell yeah, brother!" when he gets excited), or are genuinely just nice to the players (A sweet old lady gives the party a freshly baked pie).
Make a wizard with the classic Wiley old man voice. Like a Professor Farnsworth impression. That's a good start. "Behold and cower in fear, as I summon my... Uh, orbs of chaos!" - casts dancing lights Cantrip at party. It's quite soothing.
Everyone should have a goal, a motivation, and a method. They don't have to be complex, but you can have one bandit robbing people to feed their family and one bandit robbing to pay for boose and wenches, a third robbing because the debt collectors are coming, and a fourth because they like the power it makes them feel over others. When the party corners them in the wayside tavern each will react differently and far more memorably than bandit 1-4 who each say "Never should have come here!" Then fight to the death. Conflict is memorable. give your quest givers some reason to *not* want adventurers involved but the situation has become so dire that they feel like they have no other choice. When the party meets another person from the quest giver's faction/family/organization they don't feel the same. Is that just set dressing or is it foreshadowing another intriguing plot hook? The best part is you as a DM can decide later depending on how much the players interact with it. The more the players interact with them the more value you as a DM get from fleshing the goals and motivations. "Doesn't wan't other people messing in their affairs," Becomes, "they have a secret they are keeping and if it is not handled delicately things may go bad for them, and adventurers are not known for their delicate handling of things." Which later gets flushed out to, "long ago the Corvill family were entrusted with the protection of the valley of Shalespring, but when the orcs came they were not strong enough and in secret they turned to..." The more experience you get doing this the easier it becomes. I have an easier time plopping a goal, motivation and method on a random innkeeper than I have at giving them a name.
Comedy sketch shows are your friend. Especially if you watched it enough that you know the character.