Photo credit to @BlackSalander for the amazing cover photo.
Another week, another Thursday. Let’s take a look at the latest episode of Critical Role to see what lessons we can bring to our own D&D games. This time around, I’ve got two tips for DMs to make their NPCs more engaging.
Matt rarely has NPCs driving conversations. Instead, they’re usually passive – answering questions asked or reacting to information provided by the Mighty Nein.
If your NPCs generally talk this way, it will force your players to engage with the world around them. They’ll quickly learn that they can’t just sit around waiting for the next plot point to be delivered. They need to interact with people and figure out the right questions to ask. Having passive NPCs encourages your players to form their own goals and push for them instead of always looking to the high-level wizard for next steps.
Having more reactive NPCs also frees up your mental energies at the table. Since you aren’t driving the conversation, you can spend more time listening to your players and taking notes on their interests, goals, and actions. It will also naturally avoid scenes where you have two NPCs conducting an entire dialog as the players watch.
Finally, forcing yourself to wait until players have asked for something will improve your storytelling abilities. It’s certainly easier to place an NPC at the end of every adventure who happens to know exactly what to do next. But if you have to wait for the characters to ask for information, that means they need to understand what’s going on and care about pushing things forward. You need to leave clues early. Develop conflicts that the players care about. Make sure the players know the major features of your world and what might be relevant.
Adopting this style means that you need to spend more time thinking about what goals and questions your players are forming, rather than what story beat they need to hit next.
I think this tip is probably on the harder side of things to adopt. Not that it’s challenging to say nothing. But doing so is going to require your players adjusting to a more active role in driving things forward. At first they won’t know what questions to ask. Or you won’t have put enough information into the world for them to act effectively. Consider having a discussion with your players about your plans to have the NPCs be more reactive. Ask them for feedback after a session. Were they feeling aimless? What information do they feel like they’re missing? More discussion never hurts!
Last week I suggested that you think about what your character likes to do in their free time in addition to their goals and motivations. As a DM you can use similar techniques, especially with your main NPC characters. But for less prominent characters, you often don’t have much time for these kind of subtle details to shine through.
One thing that will be very obvious to the players though is how the NPC talks to them. Think of the witch that Jester and Deuces interacted with when they bought diamonds. In the first 5 seconds we understood so much about her character, just by the way she welcomed them into the shop and answered their first question. Jester and Deuces liked interacting with her so much they ended up buying several trinkets just to prolong the conversation.
Generally, when I make NPCs, I put most of my effort into a physical description and a few bits of trivia/backstory. But when Matt talks about developing characters he talks about things like body posture and how the NPC is going to talk to the players. Not only is this a quick way to convey a lot of information about a character that only gets a few lines, it’s also a great way to get your players involved emotionally. Nothing makes you more invested in a drinking competition in a random tavern than the bar regular who mocks you leading up to it.
Developing NPCs that stand out takes more than just interesting physical descriptions and backstories. Make your NPCs more reactive, encouraging your players to be proactive and drive the story. This turns NPCs into people who help the players achieve their own goals, rather than forcing information and goals onto them.
When building a new NPC, spend a bit of time thinking about how they’ll talk to the players. What’s their mood, how do they feel about adventurers? What kind of emotional interaction do you think will drive your players?
That’s all for this week! Is it Thursday yet?
