So, Ian, our expert in GMing very fun, pulpy (but in a good way), action-genre NPCs asked Graves, whom our group considers to be a master of deep interpersonal storytelling: how do I make my characters more memorable?
In other words, let’s assume you know how to recognize an interesting character concept. But what if you kinda blank a bit on what would make them compelling to your players? What if you nail cool combinations and have a bank of expressive voices, but still fail to make your players connect with your NPCs and their stories?
Can you focus on making a character so interesting that they actually turn shallow?
Credit for the ideas discussed in this article goes to Graves! But if you disagree with anything, though, blame Mila, who put together this whole thing about it after.
A weirdly specific question, for sure, but consider a movie actor you like in roles you don’t really remember. Very talented, expressive individual with interesting quirks placed in situations that aren’t really meant to highlight anything in particular about their character. “Oh yeah, Joaquin Phoenix was in that movie…! I don’t remember which character he was, to be honest.” Come on, you know what I am talking about, it’s just kinda hard to remember. Maybe that character was just kinda there for a plot event that needed to happen. Maybe you even wondered if they were in the script just so that the studio could list the name. Fascinating to watch (because that actor could play a Tree#2 in a high school theater play and still look incredibly cool doing it), but offering more of a spectacle than anything meaningful to remember them by.
The situation might be so familiar, in fact, that a potential solution might click in right away: “oh, well, duh — give them cool stuff to do! You practically just said it yourself: (1) place them in interesting situations that (2) highlight something unique about their character.”
But then, what does that mean? What even makes a situation “interesting”? Wouldn’t that vary for each player at your table? And… wait a minute, you going on about highlighting NPCs there — aren’t you supposed to give spotlight to the players? Players and their insufferable, neverending love for their own characters? You are telling me they would even care about anything I spent hours designing last evening that they didn’t just somehow decide to be interested in? That’s not how it works at my table.
Well, yes, you are absolutely right, but.
And here me out here.
We can trick them.
Yes, indeed — we can use your players’ self-centered love for their own characters to make your own characters memorable. Here, let me show how we can make this work.
How to Make Your NPCs More Compelling and Memorable
1. Place Them In Interesting Situations
Align your NPC’s motivation with the personal motivations of your player characters, whether they are helping or interfering.
Let’s make this conversation sound smarter all of a sudden with smart words: Character Motivation Theory — you can look it up but the TL;DR is, the characters are often defined by what drives their actions.
Takeaway 1.1: Players are engaged when they are doing things
It can work wonders at your table because, unless you succeeded in making your players read more than a page of a setting exposé document before your session, if even that–… and well, if you did, then, you know what? Good for you. Your players will read and care about Telgrav’s Multiverse & Expanded History and notice that you even worked in Casey’s obsession with obscure Dark Elves culture and created a tavern populated entirely with James’s single character archetype that he makes for every goddamn game, and–…
Anyway, our players probably won’t. And, to be completely honest with you… I won’t either. Here, I said it. I will pretend I did, sure, but just like any average player, I will care the most about what I do in your session. My own actions. It’s likely my eyes will glaze over and wander around the map and the Rules Book in front of me for most of the game in-person, or I will play some idle mini-game on my second monitor when you can’t police me in an online game session, and then I will suddenly perk up when it’s my turn. Woah! Finally, I get to do something I want!
Takeaway 1.2: Players tend to have some reasoning behind what they do, and so do NPCs
And, hear this: your players, when they are engaged in the play, will all have things they want to do — their motivations, enacted by their characters.
Granted, they can be stupid motivations, completely unrelated to what you sincerely wish they were doing in that moment, but they will still be driven towards something. Headed towards a vague resolution of the conflict at hand. Pursuing some curiosity, bit of their character’s background, or a plot thread as they understand it. That’s what will inform their actions.
Now: your active NPCs will also have motivations (and if they don’t, they probably should, but we can discuss the importance of that some other time).
Takeaway 1.3: … but you are in control of NPCs!
Consider this: is it going to be more interesting to have your NPC, the righteous Lord Harrow introduced at a court soirée, be hell-bent on avenging the death of his family no matter what or who stands in his way, period (and your players will just have to sort that one out), or, alternatively, would it be more interesting if someone who was involved in the night of the harrowing massacre be a friend of one of the player characters, rebounding rogue by the name of Aggel? Consider how a personal connection here might introduce an interesting complication.
Let’s say, the motivations of that mysterious friend figure don’t stray far from Aggel’s moral code, so she understands why her friend did what needed to be done. But Harrow doesn’t seem like a bad person either — it’s not hard to see the kind of suffering they went through. So, should Aggel rat on her friend? What, to the party, or to Lord Harrow? What if all of this is too much risk, too much mess, and Aggel should turn on Harrow while she can still influence the situation? What will the party think of this behavior, and what does that mean for Aggel’s personal journey of recovery from her old shady ways?
In other words, the situation should immediately become much more interesting if it aligns with the personal motivations of at least one of your player characters.
Takeaway 1.4: Players love when it’s all about their characters
The complex plot thread to arise out of this could easily lead to a very fun session of collaborative storytelling, especially if you have a more creative and involved player group, no matter the final outcome. It’s out of your hands just how well everything plays out, but you can probably see how something like this could spin into a whole series of emotional events nobody could have predicted, something that will come up again and again in post-session chatter among your players.
Wait, but this is a memorable situation we are talking about, what about that whole thing with the NPC character?
Ah well, you see, we did complete step one by placing the NPC into a situation that gets more involvement from the players, but why did we make it two steps if the second one wasn’t equally important?
2. Highlight Something Unique About Their Character
Make the situation more interesting because of who your NPC character is.
When you give your players a reason to respond to the actions of, or, even better, work alongside an NPC character (previous step), you might notice that they will start paying more attention to them. In fact, who this character is will suddenly matter to ensure success in a shared goal, or to avoid a risk of a dangerous conflict, so make these details interesting.
Takeaway 2.1: You are in charge of how you present your NPCs
As a GM, you can only spare so much attention to roleplaying your own characters, but if you do it well you will still notice how the most important aspects of a certain character will color a little bit of everything they say and do.
From the other side of the table, their tone of voice, recognizable quirks, perceived thinking patterns, and unusual decisions will help your players get at some of that character’s building blocks and connect with them in their own way. The challenging bit is, amidst all this all-too-familiar ME! spotlight wrestling during the session, you need to find most effective places to deliver these bits. So, why not do a little bit of it every time something important happens?
Hint-hint: we already established that making NPC’s motivations align with something players care about can quickly elevate any situation into something more important. So, here is your chance!
Takeaway 2.2: Introduce your NPC and their motivations in a meaningful way
Start right at the beginning: how did Lord Harrow get introduced? Is he so overcome with sorrow in his life that even this early into a diplomatic party he has found himself falling back into the habit of excessive drinking and venting to just about anyone (begrudgingly) willing to listen? Perhaps he may himself be so bored with that same story he tells to everyone the hundredth time around that adjusting certain details of some tragic events and the sorry old man’s life that followed them becomes his only way of regaining control over the depressing spiral? Surely all of these little adjustments won’t have any consequences for the players getting involved in the situation…
Or, you might notice how differently a character may be perceived if, on the other hand, Lord Harrow is first encountered volunteering himself to give an uplifting speech and is among the first to show your group around and introduce them to some of the more prolific attendees. So very friendly, in his natural environment, but maybe with something feeling amiss. Will someone whisper a rumor to one of the player characters, warn them to be wary of the mask of cheerfulness? And, when Lord Harrow finally gets his private audience and a completely different man emerges to share his disturbing tale, what will the players think of his duplicity? What other secrets might he be hiding, and what does that say about trusting so much as his words?
Takeaway 2.3: Try to glimpse how your players are reacting to the NPC to tune the events
If there is a reason for your players to care, they are likely to observe the actions of your NPC more closely, so you will notice them asking some of these questions themselves.
They may come to completely different conclusions as they form their opinions, too, but don’t see that as a bad thing — it might introduce some conflict, or it might drive them to seek further answers, which you will probably notice from their thoughts and actions.
Try to catch what they are doing and tune your NPC accordingly. If they are a little confused, maybe have a very straightforward-speaking NPC share their own take on the situation. If your players are stuck, have them stumble upon a revealing, perhaps scandalous private interaction (gasp!). If your players think they got it all figured out, surprise them a little bit! It wasn’t there before — well, now it is! Don’t be afraid to tune the actions of your NPC to keep things interesting, just remember that you are adding to what your players are doing, not trying to one-up them. Keep things consistent and reward their curiosity and creativity.
And, really, aside from scenario-specific particulars, it’s as much as you can do. Don’t feel let down if you miscommunicate a little, can’t get your players to understand the convoluted logic you thought made perfect sense, or if books with explicit covers turn out to be much more interesting than Lord Harrow’s little pity party (damn it, you were just trying to be funny!).
But, the more you train yourself to create scenarios that are interesting to your players, and have your NPCs contribute to those scenarios in specific ways because of their own unique motivations, the more likely it is one of them will make it to your players’ “I Liked That Guy” Hall of Fame.
… for this campaign, anyway. Maybe just a few sessions. That’s also nice.
Just don’t expect them to forget those explicit books you quickly improved on the spot. It’s okay, it’s fine, they liked other things as well, and that’s all we can hope for.
