I think of one or two standout elements that will help the players remember what the NPC looks like. Name. I'm so bad at this that I made a mini GM screen with a huge list of names on the inside that I keep handy at all times. After a bit of practice, the whole thing now takes me just a few seconds. Kind of cool, right? Let me show you how I do this:ġ. I limited my NPC design to four crucial elements (I also have a process for helping me decide the toughest element out of the four). I've hit this problem so many times that I had to impose some rules for my brain to work within. Or maybe you can't think of a single interesting thing at all except that the NPC has a red beard. Suddenly, you don't know if you should pick an accent first, or portray the NPC as a shady person, or come up with some unique quirks. So how do you go from nothing to a clever, sassy potion vendor in a matter of seconds?įirst off, you need a formula. NPCs suffer from the problem of infinite options - with no real limit to what you can choose, it's easy to get stuck on the sheer abundance of possibilities.

Maybe the players bailed on the plan to explore the Sunken Tomb of Yix-Nathir, or maybe they decided to get really, really interested in the halfling barkeep for no reason at all.Įither way, every DM will face the inevitable need to come up with a compelling NPC on the fly and make it look like it was the plan all along. If your D&D group is anything like mine, they're always talking to an NPC you had absolutely no plans for in your notes.

One off npcs dnd me