How to Create Likable NPCs

So often in tabletop games, it's important for the players to feel a particular way about an NPC. Perhaps you need them to unconditionally trust someone in order to progress a story or set up a double-cross; it could be that you need to introduce a new storyline but don't know how--if the players were to follow a new friend, there could be new stories; or maybe you just feel like your players need to have someone around who they actually like and isn't a questgiver. All of these are valid reasons for wanting to add someone that the players like. But how do you actually go about doing that?

There are so many ways to do this that I could never address them all. So instead, I'll describe the three tools I use and have had the most success with. But remember--if you conceive of a character idea and think your players would like them, trust your instincts. It's also worth noting that making a character virtuous and kind and patient will usually score points over time, but it's not a guaranteed quick route to beloved status. Below are the shortcuts. 

The First Approach: Comedy

The easiest way to get players to fall for a character--especially quickly--is to make them funny. In Listen Check, a D&D podcast I made back in 2010, I began the entire adventure with a character I'd named Caspian. I wanted Caspian to start as comic relief and become dear to the characters, and I'll admit that I planned on toying with his life to move my players. So I made Caspian as funny as I could. If someone had something to say, Caspian had a clever retort. I'm not the kind of person who makes a load of jokes, but I stepped into that mindset with Caspian. More than anything, I embraced being silly. So much of what makes the humor around tabletop games what it is is the silliness that people create when trying to solve abstract imaginary problems. So I would just say silly things as they occurred to me, and pretty soon, Caspian was beloved. So beloved, in fact, that I couldn't stand the thought of killing him off anymore. I had come to love him too, and so I used him to soften the blows of the more tragic turns in the late campaign. 

You might be thinking, "But I'm not funny." And there are a lot of ways to respond. Here are a few: 

• No one in the world has a good gauge of whether or not they're funny. It's something you can't know about yourself. Forget that nonsense.
• You're playing with your friends in most cases. Your friends are the people in the world who are likeliest to find your hilarious. Go with it. 
• You don't have to think of whole jokes by yourself. You're just going to be responding to your friends in the moment. Try something silly to surprise them--it won't be bad. 

The kind of silliness that I'm talking about it of course up to you. I have written different versions of this paragraph several times, trying to describe specific ways to come off as funny, and each version has been a spectacular failure. I would say that's in part a show of my lack of skill as a lone comedy writer, emphasis on the "lone" part. Nothing about a tabletop game is lone, though. Most folks have been silly with a close friend before. Think about that energy--that's what you want. Do the things you know as an expert on your friends that are going to surprise or amuse the most. 

One word of caution, though: don't push too hard on the comedy. Including an NPC as comic relief does not mean that the whole campaign becomes a comedy. I generally strove to get two or three laughs in a scene and then move on--spread the magic out so that it's not bingeing silly laughter and burning out on the character's bit. And remember that the NPC is a person, too. If something really horrible has happened to the party, even a comic relief character will not make a joke at the downcast party's expense. 

The Second Approach: Responding to Player Reactions

As you DM, you're constantly being given access to information about how your players feel about the gameworld and what and who is in it. When players are immediately repulsed by a villainous NPC or endeared to a sympathetic NPC, you are learning what they like and don't like. You can consider this with your DMing and learn a lot more with targeted actions. If you have noticed that your players have strong mixed feelings about an NPC and you want to figure out what traits cause that (without directly asking the players themselves, which is an option), you can run NPC trials. Next time they encounter a minor NPC, like during a shopping trip or when encountering a one-off questgiver, introduce that NPC with a heavy characterization as only one of the traits in question. Your players' responses to them will help you narrow down the traits they like so that you can construct an NPC around that. 

When I run tabletop games, I try to portray an array of NPCs who are thematically linked. The NPCs in Listen Check or in the mystery campaign were dramatically influenced not just by the setting, but also by what my players were going through. If you've read through the mystery campaign, you know that the people who Ais, Beor, and Montana ran into often described problems very similar to their own. This was very intentional. I was deliberately showing the players how others were responding to similar events, which in turn gave them actions and people to turn to or away from. I'm describing this player response approach as applied to another problem, but it still works the same way: by giving players the option to respond to something, telling us more about them. 

This is the approach to tabletop games that has yielded the greatest success for me over the years. It is not as quick a process as being funny, but if you know your players well (for more than a single campaign, for instance), this tool can be just as fast. My players for the mystery campaign were all returning players from the Eastweald campaign, which meant that I had a prior understanding of what my players liked and didn't like. During the Eastweald campaign, I learned how to give them what they wanted, and the mystery campaign allowed me to give it to them. The second campaign was a refinement in every way. My last word here is this: this approach will transform your whole style as a GM if you allow it to; it can certainly help with likable characters too. 

The Third Approach: Liking Them Yourself

As a content-generating GM, you're the ultimate judge of all you make. It's you who decided on your worldbuilding, your storylines, your characters--they exist the way they do because you said so. You probably had reasons for doing so. Why should this NPC be any different? You do want your players to like them, but it's got to start with you. So trust your gut. The things that you like about the NPC will be reasons for the players to feel strongly about them too. Just as I gave a pep talk about being funny above, you've got to trust that your players will share your passion. 

But perhaps your problem is not knowing exactly what you like. If you're like me, your approach as a GM is to serve my players--my work on worldbuilding is the product of a desire to present a meaningful and complete world to my players for their engagement. Since you've focused on your players, how acquainted are you with your own taste? It takes some reflection to find out, I recommend considering the characters from art--books, movies, games, television--who you enjoy. Ask yourself what they have in common. I personally find, for instance, that I gravitate towards confident female characters, depressed male characters, and characters who don't fit in well with society. And although I didn't consciously design them this way, every tabletop game character I have ever played has been one or more of these groups. So were I pressed, I would use a character in one of these overarching types as a likable character. However, I would of course tweak the character a bit for my players, making them less the complex dramatic portrait I'm striving for and more a malleable tool for the story. 

One other note about about liking your NPC--you should still treat them as another other character. Getting too attached to an NPC can cause problems. I've always thought that a good villain is one who you understand, or at least, one who you like trying to understand. But that's led me to some trouble before. I've had villains of entire campaigns become so dear to me that I actively disliked the idea of the finale--it would almost certainly mean their death. That's when I realized the dangerous ground I was treading: I was more or less placing my enjoyment of the game in opposition to my players, and that should never be the case. So be careful with this approach. 

There you have it: three different ways to create NPCs who your players will enjoy. So get out there and get your players invested in your characters--you'll be surprised by the doors that it opens. 

That's all for now. Coming soon: a profile on sports in my homebrew setting, ideas for character backstories, and information on nature in my homebrew setting. Until next time, happy gaming!

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