In this episode of Role for Percepticast, Terry and Evelyn delve into the art of creating memorable non-player characters (NPCs) for your tabletop roleplaying game. They explore various aspects that make NPCs stand out and share practical tips for game masters. Here’s what you can expect:

• Understanding the Role of NPCs: Learn about the different types of NPCs needed in a town setting and their importance in driving the story and enhancing player immersion.
• Elements of a Well-Rounded NPC: Discover how to develop NPC personalities, backgrounds, and goals, along with naming tips to fit the setting and tone of your campaign.
• Adding Depth to NPCs: Get insights on incorporating traits and quirks, creating relationships with players, and ensuring NPCs have their own agendas and motivations.
• Voices and Mannerisms: Understand how to use voice, speed of speech, mannerisms, and body language to bring characters to life without straining your vocal cords.
• Improvisation and Adaptability: Learn strategies for improvising dialogue, responding to unexpected player actions, and letting NPC relationships develop naturally.

Join Terry and Evelyn for a lively discussion filled with practical advice to enhance your TTRPG experience. Don't forget to visit www.roleforperception.com for more on Role for Percepticast!

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: You're listening to Roll for Percepticast, episode three.

Breathing life into town NPCs.

It's time once again to Roll for Percepticast.

I am Terry, your forever GM and lover of all things role play.

And I'm Evelyn, role player GM and unrepentant dice goblin.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: Join us as we roll our dice

and talk in strange voices

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: and bring to you our excitement and joy forever.

All things tabletop role playing.

For more on Role for Percepticast, head over to www.

roleforperception.

com.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: Today, we'll be looking at how to make those town NPCs

you create memorable for your players.

And I forgot to write Evelyn's line, so I'm just going to

make it up for this podcast.

What?

Let's talk about NPCs!

Yeah!

Let's do it!

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: A note to self, in future ones, I need to record that.

I

mean, we did prepare this before we went on,

on our camping trip, so like.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: Yeah, that's true.

It's been a week.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: It's been a week.

That's where we've been, folks.

Uh, when you're getting this, uh, you'll be getting this a week

later, but, uh, we were on vacation.

And so, we're coming back to recording, and of course.

I have forgotten to add things into the notes and that is totally my fault.

I

mean,

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: yeah,

it happens

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: a week off, a week off, but it's good to be back.

Um, all right.

So, uh, you know, as we said, we're going to be talking about NPCs today.

Now, for those that don't know, maybe you're new to tabletop role playing games.

I mean, welcome to this very tabletop.

Role playing game specific podcast in that case.

I'm I'm glad you dove in with us

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: and you found this is your first

episode That's pretty impressive.

Yeah,

I mean Choices choices were made

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: What's NPC stand for

non player character

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: Which means that

characters that are typically, um, created possibly,

but, um, uh, performed by the Game Master, uh, Dungeon Master, uh,

Dungeon Guide Storyteller, whatever you want to call the person in the

big chair behind the fancy screen.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: What do they call it in Call of Cthulhu?

They have another name for it.

Oh, it's the There's a word for

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: it.

Yeah, I don't know.

We'll come back to it.

Somebody will message us.

And

uh, Monster of the Week, it's like Story

Keeper or something like that.

There's a lot of cool names for it.

It's just, it's the person who helps, um, facilitate the storytelling

of the world with the players.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: Exactly.

And we have to understand why NPCs are so important.

They help to create the world that your characters inhabit.

Yeah.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: Uh, your, your, your players.

Create characters create wonderful characters, hopefully

but without NPCs Who are they gonna talk to you other than

themselves and I mean like talking to the same However, many people at the table

could get kind of boring after a while

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: now when you're starting to populate a town

And we're talking specifically this week about town NPCs.

We'll talk about villains later We'll talk about traveling

companions things like that.

Those are those are other podcasts But today we're talking

specifically about the NPCs.

I can't jot that down,

so don't forget to talk about those later.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: Hold on, I can hit the mark button.

Done.

And now I will remember.

Okay.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: This is how ideas come to us at Roll for Percepticast.

But yeah, so we're talking specifically about shops and

Taverns.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: Taverns, guardsmen, mayors.

Taverns.

We're talking about

in the world of modern day, perhaps, you know, your, your

postal worker, your Your bar, keep your

. Terry Dana Jachimiak II: Where did you get postal one?

I

don't know.

I had , you know.

Okay.

Kids on bikes, you know, I mean, guess there's all sorts

of, uh, your, your detective.

Oh, you're, you know, um, your various people.

Mafia members.

Yes.

City of Mist, right?

Yeah.

City of Mist.

Um, and then, you know, things like Hall of Kaulu, the, you know,

the library and with the dark secrets and things like that.

So.

Very mysterious.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: And so as you're very mysterious, as you're, um, trying

to decide this, you've got to figure out what NPCs are going to be important and

what NPCs are not going to be important.

Um, I currently doing that with our break, our Monday night streamed game right now,

uh, figuring NPCs were needed in the town.

Very specifically for interactions with the.

Characters, uh, you guys ran into VEG.

You ran into Tansy.

I mean, you all have already run into several NPCs on that.

Sticking them all in our back pocket so that we

can revisit them as much as we want.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: And don't worry, we're going to talk about

Tansy later because we all love Tansy.

I

mean, how could you not?

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: Exactly.

And.

Not only that, if you're doing something like an adventure path or

a prewritten module, you may actually have NPCs that are given to you

that are important by the creator of the adventure path or the module.

Yeah,

absolutely.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: Uh, we've seen that we've done a lot of the

Pathfinder 2e adventure paths.

And so we've seen a lot of those NPCs and you know, those NPCs aren't necessarily

the only ones in your town, but

sometimes you have to flush things out a little

bit more, especially if you're.

Um, players are very big into role play and they want to

talk to everybody in town.

And then they get attached to a random throwaway non player

character that you weren't planning on giving any backstory to.

And suddenly you have to, uh, quickly, uh, give them a whole whole story.

Because of course that's the character they're always going to want to

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: revisit.

Of course.

And then that character becomes a player character in a future game.

That's a whole nother story, which we'll talk about here soon enough.

Now, NPCs are important in driving the story and enhancing the player immersion.

We've kind of hinted towards that already.

How the.

NPCs act and react to your player characters is going

to create an atmosphere.

Um, long ago, uh, there was a character in a game that we played in together.

Um, uh, what was his name?

Uh, he was always, uh, smelly and oily.

And this was in

Oh!

Yash Talks!

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: Yash Talks, yes.

The one

that was doused in Axe body spray.

Not actually, but he was described as wearing lots of, um, very strongly

fragrant oils, and so there was a running joke that he Chose not to bathe, but

just doused himself in Axe Body Spray.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: But that character did enhance what was going on.

Like when he showed up, there were visceral reactions.

Yes,

of varying levels.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: Exactly.

And so, you know, This is why NPCs can be so important.

Talk about Victor.

Yes.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: Victor was an NPC that, um, was a random tavern owner.

Well, and he was actually, so a little backstory to this.

So we were doing auditions for blood Lords.

Um, we were trying to fill out a cast, um, and we had done one group with

another in another tavern and then the second group in this other tavern,

which was owned by Victor and, um, the characters sort of latched onto him.

Um, and so he, he became a recurring.

Current character because the player characters were

like, Oh, he's interesting.

Let's keep him.

And he wasn't even part of the actual AP.

He was just completely created for this audition

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: and to the amount that had that game been able to proceed.

Uh, he would have taken part in one way or another of the changing of a,

one of the player characters who had discussed with me, and we'll talk a

little more about that as we get in.

But these NBCs are extremely important to this world, this immersion, this.

Um, you know, I talk about it in theater.

A lot of times when we're designing scenery, lights,

and costumes, we're creating a world for the actors to play in.

That's what we're doing as, as GMs.

When we create these NPCs, we're creating a world that the players can be a part of.

So let's, uh, we're going to talk about a lot of different

topics that relate to that.

Um, the first one we want to talk a little bit about is character creation basics.

And there's some things that go the, and we're talking right now, more

specifically when you're creating your own NPCs, not necessarily.

Modifying, modifying other NPCs, right?

This

is the from scratch edition of non player characters.

For

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: all you world builders out there or

looking to become world builders.

This is one place to start.

Yes.

Uh, so let's begin.

First off, and this is huge for me, coming from a theater background,

same with Evelyn, is that NPCs should be well rounded and complex.

Not

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: every NPC, I mean, you can have

your throwaway shopkeeps.

I've had.

Because

sometimes you just have to throw them in in a moment

where like, you know, something's going on and you just need to have

something for them to interact with that can be a throwaway moment.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: But if you're creating an NPC that

you know is going to have, uh, significant or multiple interactions.

Then having them well-rounded with a true personality, a true

background, true goals, or what?

Back in the day when I taught acting, which luckily I don't

do anymore, the needs and wants and desires of the character.

Mm-Hmm.

will allow that character to feel real.

Right.

And that then creates a realness in this fantasy world for your players.

So first thing we're going to do is name them.

Right.

And your best bet is to try and name them a name that suits their

ancestry, suits their, you know, where they are from in the world.

Well, and suits the game too, because

you have to keep that in mind.

You can't name someone like.

You know, Joe Schmoe and then them be in that was like the worst name

possible, but I really like Joe Then be in like, you know a high

fantasy world and then be an elf.

Hi.

My name is Joe the elf That doesn't really work

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: Joe

So, you know that might work for You know, um, a, a

modern setting game, like something like Delta Green or even Monster of

the Week or, um, those sorts of things, but you might want to look into things

that are a little more appropriate for the, the setting of the game itself,

not just the places in the world of the game, but the overarching setting.

Theme of this, this RPG that you're jumping into.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: And the other thing is there are

websites that can help with that.

And, uh, fantasy name generator is the big one.

Yeah.

I have that one

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: bookmarked.

Yeah.

And we'll leave a link in the show notes that you guys can find

it if you've not used it before.

It, it actually has different areas for different games, Pathfinder being one of

them, which they have heavily updated.

Yeah,

and then there's one for Dungeons Dragons, there's, I

mean, there's for lots of different games, and like, some general ones.

I know, um, I actually discovered yesterday night, uh, when we were

building our Avicen characters, that, Avicen, there's a name generator for, I

said not in the fantasy name generators website, but there's a separate website.

Oh nice, which is very helpful

because you know, I wanted to make sure that I was naming correctly within

the right of the setting of that game

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: and now some of the issues with the name generator

is that they can fall into kind of a

Amy Amy or

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: cliche feel I guess would be the A way of putting it.

Um, now the Pathfinder one is a little better.

But, for example, dwarves with the last names like Earthflare and Highguard, those

are very kind of what you would expect a dwarf to be, but doesn't necessarily

fit into every world that you're doing.

Well,

and one of the things about the, the fantasy name generator

for Pathfinder characters in particular is a lot of it's based off of Pathfinder

1e and some of the, Naming conventions have actually changed a little bit with

the updated edition on that, right?

So, you know, that's another thing to look at when you're doing this

sort of thing is you know If you're pulling from something like fantasy

name generators, is it the most?

What you would feel works best with the especially if you're working within a

pre written adventure path or whatever story Um, you know If you're pulling

something from Pathfinder 1E, that would be for a 2E game, it might not fit.

Um, and that's just an example.

I mean, you could take that, you know, across any of the game systems.

But, um, you know, so, these things are more meant as, like,

brainstorming tools more than anything.

Um, but sometimes, you know, you, you just click through until you

find something that's, you know, you say it out loud enough times

and you're like, Oh, I like this.

I like the sounds really nice in my ear.

So make sure to always say it out loud because somehow every

single time your players will find the worst way to pronounce the

character's name every single time.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: And it'll become a joke.

Yep.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: I mean, I've, I've had that happen.

I

mean, okay.

So his Sunday group.

Literally, Lady Jumanji Aldori.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: Oh my gosh.

Um, she is the person who is the benefactress

for the, the party in Kingmaker.

Right.

And literally they always call her Lady Jumanji.

Without fail.

Yeah.

And that's, that's a character that was written for the Adventure Path.

That's not even one he came up with.

So like, keep that in mind.

Yeah.

When, when creating your MPCs, just, just as a

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: thought.

Uh, some of the other, um, names for, for example, we've got Chibs in our

echoes of Archonix and I've created names that feel very Chib like.

Like Tansy tumble twirl and whatnot, though, that give what, what I'm

trying to do with those names is to give a feeling to the character.

Well, and what helps with a lot of the games when you're doing

your character creation is if you're looking in the, where the player character

suggestions, a lot of times they'll give you examples of character names that are

appropriate for the archetype or for the.

Ancestry or background or, you know, whatever you want to call it.

And so you can kind of get a feel of what is being recommended to the players.

You, it helps you, um, kind of understand what the other

characters in the world would kind of be along those lines as well.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: And, and part of this is you've got to kind of figure out

what the flow of your table is as well.

You know, there are tables out there that.

Uh, tend to go for more jokey names.

So having characters with more jokey, non traditional feeling

names to them is, is not an issue.

Right?

Most of the tables that I run, I tend to prefer to have names that kind of flow

with whatever the style of the game is.

So my break character and PC names sound very different than my pathfinder.

NPC names because I'm playing very different feelings in those.

Yeah, because the break tends to be a little lighter.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: A little lighter, a little more about cake.

I

mean, very fluffy.

That was last week's podcast.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: That's true.

You can also, uh, one of the things that's nice for a lot of systems out

there is that there are NPC templates that you can build off of, uh,

Pathfinder 2e has a very good system for building NPCs, both the kind that

fight and the kind that don't fight.

And so, you know, if you create an NPC that you know is not meant for

combat, They have a template for that.

If you have an NPC that is created for combat, you can, you can build up

something for that, um, break has a great guide and how to create, uh, NPCs slash.

Enemies, which is really nice.

It's concise.

It's easy to understand.

Yes.

I'm going to be talking about break a lot because I'm running a campaign in it.

Don't judge me.

Quest, uh, RPG has a pretty good system, not a true template per

se, but gives you a good idea.

So a lot of systems.

Can help you create your, your templates.

Um, the one cool thing with break, I will say, jumping back to that is they

even have a part in it where it talks about taking a character or an NPC

or an enemy that's already created.

Changing a couple of things and you can have a brand new NPC or

enemy, which is really kind of cool,

like reflavoring, reflavoring,

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: and it gives you a guide on how to do that.

I wish more of the systems did that because I think that is a great way of.

Kind of dipping your toes into creating the basis for

it.

I know a lot of the Evil Hat games for the NPCs, it has, um, like, like little

idea seeds basically for creating those.

So I don't know about specific templates, but it gives you a little

suggestions and things that kind of.

Would fit with, you know, what the, the feeling of the

general, um, adventure might be

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: right.

And then kind of talking about that further, I've then developed templates

for myself because I am an overachiever.

Now I do my work in obsidian, which is a note taking app.

I love it a lot.

Um, I use it in a lot of different ways.

But it's given me a good way of kind of creating those characters and having

the information that I need to be able to have them involved in the story.

Some of the things in these templates that I use include

things like first impression.

So what is the first thing that your players notice, see, understand?

And just to give you a short read.

This is for.

Uh, let's do, let's do Sint.

Do I have his?

Nope, I don't have his.

So we'll do, we'll do Anselton, Barry Hawk, and so I wrote a first impression

so that I can read this to my players.

And so, kind of the first impression, In the bustling city of Absalon, within

the world of Galarian, stands a middle aged dwarven first guard, Sargent.

Who defies the traditional gender norms of their society.

Standing at a solid four foot four inches and weighing 220 pounds, this

dwarf embodies strength and resilience.

Their tanned skin is a testament to the countless hours spent patrolling

under the sun and stars, while their short brown hair is often seen under

the helm of a, under the helm of duty.

Gray eyes, sharp and discerning, carry a knowing glint.

As if privy to the city's secrets and tales untold.

So that description, and I'd encourage anybody making NPCs for

any game, have that first description that really gives your players a

feeling of who the character is.

A good hook.

A good hook.

I like that.

Um, and then in my templates, I have my shared information

section, which is information that is shareable to the players.

I have my DM notes, which are very specific to things that they don't know

about, and then character personification.

Now, my notes are an amalgamation of a variety of other sheets that I've

either seen or built in the past.

It's one of those things that has allowed me to very quickly create

those sheets, those characters, without having to stress too much.

Right.

I know the information that I want.

Right, exactly.

Uh, alright, so let's, let's talk about adding depth to Our NPCs,

the first thing that I'm going to talk about is this is something

I can't even, honestly, I think.

Maybe this came from quest RPG.

I don't know where this came from, but I found this system that I really like.

I think it was quest.

I think it was quest too, but I've been using it now for all of my systems.

So I add in, uh, some traits and quirks and things like that.

And these are my big topics.

First off, something the NPC wants.

Yeah, everybody wants something.

Yep.

Usually it's for you

to complete a quest, but it could be something else.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: It could be.

Um.

I give the NPC a problem.

So a problem the NPC has, what are they dealing with?

What is something that the group might be able to help if they're

able to discern that they need help?

I give them something useful that NPC knows.

Now, since we're not currently running a certain game, for example, I'm going to

grab one of my goblins that I created for Lost Vale of Chalice Storm, because I'm

not sure we're going to go back to that.

And

what about nub?

You killed nub even so, you know, when we go back to it,

that nub will never return to us.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: I never filled up.

Oh, you killed nub off and you never give nub.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: Yeah, I want to apologize for that.

So, so for example,

Flurk

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: Stonepuncher, something useful Flurk Stonepuncher

knows, Flurk Stonepuncher as the grand advisor of security for the Goblin King

possesses a crucial piece of information known to very few individuals, the

Goblin King's vulnerability to a particular type of magical artifact.

This knowledge was acquired through discreet investigation

and intelligence gathering.

A testament to Flurk's dedication to the security This

guy is just Batman.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: and protection of the government.

He's

collecting everybody's weaknesses so we can use

them against them in case they, uh, become too powerful or turn evil.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: So, so Flurk had this information and had we gotten

farther down the line, more than likely my players would have discovered this

and it would have kept a storyline going.

Um, I always gives the NPCs something valuable to own.

So for example, Flurk.

He has the golden heart stone.

It's an object of undeniable beauty crafted by dwarves from High Helm

Okay,

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: I like to connect my game.

Yeah, and then I always have the NPCs Biggest secret and this almost never comes

out unless the players can really find it.

So clerks Resolves around an unknown child born out of a

clandestine relationship with Rickon.

GASP!

Scandal!

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: The secret child is a vulnerable link that ties Flurk to

Rickon and complicates his loyalties.

It represents a fragile balance.

Between his duty to the Goblin King and his love of Rick and Fistwad.

I just learned so much.

I

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: know,

right?

Now that, that's, that's the, the campaign we need as the world turns Goblin edition.

Like the soap opera of, of goblins in, uh, Absalom.

Let's do that one.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: That see, that would be awesome.

It's like

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: the

splash of the

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: puddles.

The splash of the puddles.

Now, so this is, but this is right.

This is the, you build these into your NPCs.

Oh yeah,

absolutely.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: And they come to life suddenly.

They're not just a goblin, right?

They're a goblin who has ownership of the world as well.

Oh, absolutely.

Well, and, and, and, and expanding on, because we've mentioned like existing

adventure paths and stories that you can play with your players at the table.

Uh, you can do that with the written NPCs as well.

You don't, cause a lot of times they'll give you a few notes in the

story, but they won't necessarily give you everything that's.

The most useful.

So sometimes you kind of have to.

flush them out a bit yourself, um, and, you know, fill, fill them in.

So, uh, for example, um, and, cause I know you want me to game this, um,

but for the, um, I'm running Russ Hinge with a group on Thursday nights.

Um, and, uh, Elsie, who's kind of the innkeeper slash, she, she, she has

the, the, the one shop, shop in town.

Um, she also, it's a, it's a bakery.

She is a bit of a gossip, but everybody in town sort of is, um.

But, but, um, I, she, she has a bit of a thing for the, the dry dock guy.

Um, and no, that was not in there at all, but like, um, because one of my players

wanted to, to try to get the dry dock, um, worker to, uh, Talk to him a little bit

more, and because the players hadn't made the best first impression on him, I had

to create a way to, to make that happen.

So, uh, she knows that his favorite dessert is cherry pie, and made one for

him to take, for the player to take to him, to talk to him, to warm them up to.

So, you know.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: Wow.

The more you know.

You

missed that session.

I did miss that session.

But yes.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: But, but that's what's, you know, and, and

it's part of the fun of being a, a, a.

You know, a game master is being able to create these

characters that, you know, and the

connections within with the other characters

in the world to not just the player characters, because they have lives

outside of the player characters.

I know, gasp, shock, all, um, the fact that, like, they don't, um, begin

and end with the player characters.

Their whole existence is not about the player characters

and they do things outside of.

Their interactions with the player characters.

That's

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: exactly it.

And so, so, so all of this is to say that by adding these

helps to make your NPCs complex.

Uh, if I can figure out a way, I will actually leave, uh, not a link

because I don't have a link to my notes cause there's no way to do that.

But, uh, I'll see if I can maybe export, uh, as a PDF, a couple of the pages.

So people can kind of see as examples of.

You know, what I have for my characters.

Now you've gone to this work of complexity and the next big step

in that is creating relationships between the NPCs and the players.

Right.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: So why is that important?

Well, I mean, it, a, it gives the player characters a

reason to revisit these PCs, um, it gives, it, it creates, um, a way for

the DM to establish story points.

Through a trusted You know, a character that the players can revisit over and

over again, who might maybe give them information that they're seeking, and

it's a really great way to facilitate those things, because, you know, when

you live in town, you hear stuff.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: You do.

Um, and so, um, or, you know, there's a bookshop owner who,

who loves to read and might know the exact book that that character is looking

for to solve a question that they have, or, Um, you know, things like that.

And so, but it also, you know, can create some really interesting role play moments

too, not just, um, things that are pertinent to the specific A to B point in

the quest that they're trying to do, but also just in their character development,

things that can help drive their purpose.

That can, um, give them something to bounce the thing that the player is

seeking in their exploration of who they are as a person, not just, you

know, Who they are as a hero, but who they are as a person in this world.

Um, and, and, and have that sort of human interaction between characters

that aren't just the other people at the table, because, you know, those, you

have those moments with your party so often, but there's, you know, Sometimes

you need an outside perspective.

Yeah.

Um, because we actually had that, um, for example, with, uh, in

our, uh, Lost Vale game when Yuri was talking to the barkeeper when

everybody else had gone to bed, right?

Because like there was things that had been talked about, but it was

just that moment where she could kind of let some stuff off her chest.

And so like, so your, your player characters have different relate,

can have different relationships and because as people we have different

relationships with different people and so that kind of makes it more dynamic.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: Yeah.

That was a Yelmo in Las Valle and, and we've had a lot of NPCs

kind of build those relationships.

Uh, I, I mentioned Tansy earlier, Tansy tumble twirl.

Who is a chib, was part of a gang, polylop gang, and was kicked out

because she was focused on petting a cat when she was supposed to be A watch

out for a crime that was occurring.

And she was very sad about it.

And now we let her have all the

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: kitty pets that she wants.

Indeed.

And so she's become a part of the sugar crash gang, the sugar crash gang

currently, and does the lookouts for them.

Sort

of mostly she just pets Rika.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: Yeah, that's, that's, that's pretty close.

And then you've got a character like Flubb.

Flub was a,

he was supposed to die.

She, she, I'm sorry.

She was supposed to die.

Yes.

She was a kobold in Menace Under Atari.

That's

the beginner, beginner, beginner's box or Pathfinder

2E for anybody who has not heard it referred to by the title of it.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: And she managed to survive and a character within that,

it was my character kind of said, all right, you, you just, you come with us.

And so she came with us out of the, the caverns to then study with Sarenrae and

is now a character that you play on Friday nights in a persistent campaign that I

run on the Roll for Perception Discord.

Yeah.

Cause she was just sort of a, a nameless kobold.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: Yep.

Enemy.

Enemy.

Enemy.

That was in, um, the, like, one of the final rooms leading up to the, like,

big fight in Minnesota Atari, and the players, instead of killing her, decided

to tie her up and ask her questions, and she was like, okay, I'll comply.

And so, because it had been so much fun, I decided, okay, well, now that I'm playing

in another game, I can just, uh, make this character, you know, even more fun.

Uh, three dimensional than she started off as.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: And so these NPCs, they're, they're beloved by the

players and the player characters.

Um, Federim, from a game that you and I played in, uh, was a, uh,

shopkeeper,

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: shopkeeper in Hamlet.

Um, and, uh, Federim, uh, was And there was a strong bond with the

party, but especially Lillith.

Yeah.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: And he actually

kept a flower for her.

That was.

Very meaningful that she had received from one of the arch

druids that she had met with

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: and the group had been back to Hamlet multiple times

it was a place that you know, you always have that Well, you don't always but but

many times you have that Location that is your home location that you tend to

yeah, the sweet rolls

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: the yeah The sweet rolls

and have you noticed how many of our

character interactions about food?

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: This is where we need Vivi on the podcast right now

cuz Uh, a lot of that comes from Phoebe.

But yeah, um, he had been a character that, that, you

know, a lot of the party members had really bonded with because he was

this sort of fatherly type character.

Um, and so, you know, we always had to, to visit him anytime we had a chance.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: And near the, um, end of our time playing

in that Tuesday night group, um, that character was killed.

Yeah.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: Killed off.

He was, uh, killed in the destruction of the town.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: And so, and, and he's not the only

one that we've had to deal with.

Yeah.

Flub's death.

Nub's death.

I was gonna say Flub's not dead.

Flub is fine.

She's great.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: Uh, Nub's death.

Yeah, that one was rough.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: That one was rough.

Um, you know, so, you know, creating those relationships creates

tensions when bad things happen.

Right, absolutely, yeah.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: Which can be rough, but also very cathartic

as you move through a campaign.

Because it, and it can alter the story, right?

Oh,

absolutely.

I mean, you, you kill off a beloved NPC, either accidentally or intentionally,

cause sometimes it happens accidentally.

If it's, if they're helping the party fight, for example, sometimes

it's just a combination of bad luck.

Um, and you know, that can completely change things for players because suddenly

they have a new motivation, you know.

Perhaps they want to now dedicate their adventures to this NPC.

Perhaps they want to hunt down the person that killed them.

Perhaps, you know, um, this is, has shown them that, you know,

adventuring is not for them and that's the moment they decide to retire.

I mean, it can take it so many different directions with,

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: with, um, those beloved characters.

Now, I'm not saying go out and kill all your NPCs.

No.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: Uh, first make, first make your player characters

love them, then kill them all off.

No, don't do that.

Don't do that either.

Okay.

It's like a 50 50 split.

Yeah, okay.

Kill off half of your NPCs.

Alright, NPCs, time to draw numbers.

Let's see who's going this week.

Oh, no.

Evelyn Jachimiak: Suddenly, it's a lottery.

It's not good.

Oh my

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: gosh.

So it's also important to make sure that your NPCs have their own agendas and

motivations and I talked about that a little bit But they need to have motives

for what they're doing and my Monday night groups gonna find out some information

here next week I think hopefully depending on what they do on motivations for

things on some characters And when your NPCs have these motivations, even if

they're simple towns, keeps, bar keeps, shop keeps, uh, Rin, for example, Rin

Savinsky in, uh, Menace Under Atari, Up Through Abomination Vaults, if they have

these motives, It makes the story that you're telling more interesting, right?

Absolutely.

City of Mists does this really well, especially in their campaign books,

their, their NPCs have real motivations.

They're not good.

They're not bad.

Um,

people just really want to have a successful business, you know?

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: Yeah, that's exactly it.

And we're going to be starting our, uh, Veyasin campaign next

week and that campaign has some morally gray motivations.

Yeah, well it's

fascinating because one of the things it actually has

you do in the player creation is pick a motivation for your character.

It's not just like, I want to be an adventurer and save the world.

It's like, what are they, and some of those motivations.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: Yeah.

Or a lot.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: They're, they're a lot.

They're, they're more than a lot.

And that's gonna be, that's gonna be an interesting adventure.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: All right.

So let's move on to something that a lot of people, I feel, focus too much on.

Mm

hmm.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: I feel like what we've already talked

about is the super important stuff.

Right.

And now we're getting into the toppings.

Other people view this as the super important.

The sprinkles and the cherries on top.

Yeah, exactly.

And so voices and mannerisms.

Okay.

Let's talk voices for a second.

Not every character needs a huge difference in accent or voice type.

Look, there's a combination.

Uh, a character's persona is a combination of voice, speed of speech, mannerisms, et

cetera, that really make the character.

You don't have to go into a deep Scottish accent for every single NPC.

Well, that would get a little boring after a while.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: It would get a lot of boring after a while.

A lot of times you can change the feeling of a character

by focusing on other things.

Does your character talk with long pauses in between what they're saying?

Or do they talk really high and really fast?

Oh, I almost went into mickey mouse, didn't I?

Let's not do that.

Let's not get it's like It

was like somewhere between tansy and mickey mouse

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: So so just adjusting those sorts of things

can change the feel of a character

because not everyone well, not everyone needs a specific

accent or anything like that, you know,

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: and sometimes it's just a This is a great thing.

And a lot of people don't think about this.

Change your face, the shape of your mouth.

There are other ways, like I'm going to use my Shorewind for an example.

Oh my gosh.

The eyebrow, the eyebrow.

Because Shorewind

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: had an eyebrow.

And when he raised his eyebrow, he was ready to be

Shorewind, the champion of all.

He, he, it was the, it was the eyebrow of knowing.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: It was the eyebrow of knowing.

He just knew something was going to happen.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: Uh, but at the same point, so you could squeeze

your lips really close together like this, and it creates a whole

nother type of character that is very different than my short wind voice.

I'm not doing an accent.

I'm not, you know, I'm just changing the shape of my face.

Tighten your face, loosen your face, wide eyes versus, um, squinted eyes.

Well, in those mannerisms helps like when, at least when

you're playing in person or through, um, a remote game that you have cameras on the

DM, it helps, um, the players distinguish characters from each other, even without

doing other voices, having them, you know, Like one character talks a lot

with their hands or, you know, you know, sits with us particular posture or has

a bit of a swagger in the way they move.

And you don't really even need to really add much.

you know, to the way they speak necessarily.

Um, the, once again, this is all flavoring on top of things, but like to, it makes

them distinctive if they have their own way of embodying who they are.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: And think about what they've done

for a living their entire life.

Have they been.

For example, have they been a farmer

their

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: entire life under the sun, working the land, their

body is maybe starting to take a toll.

And so maybe you kind of hunch your shoulders over a little bit and talk a

little slower, but still with a purpose.

And now you've created a Another farmer in the field, ready to work the land, it's

gonna be a long day under the sun, and I'm gonna probably need to take a nap, or

head to the tavern afterwards, and drink a pint, it all depends on what's coming up,

and, and just adjusting your body, this is where, this is where a video Uh, podcast

would be, uh, good, but we don't have one.

But just changing that body position.

Mm-Hmm.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: changing.

Like I said, the speed, like if you talk really fast like this, it's gonna really

change how your character's thinking now.

You know what I'm saying?

I could be a very nervous, it could be thinking a lot of different things,

or I could be really, really focused on something and wanting to do this.

Those of you at home can't see, but I'm moving my fingers too because.

It automatically makes me feel more like that character.

Well, and,

and, and think about the different ways that people speak based

on their age, for example, like suddenly I'm a little kid and I, and I, and I,

did I tell you about the thing that, uh, that, that happened with the, with the,

and the stuff and, and I saw a thing, you know, where they will repeat like that.

And, and, you know, sometimes I lose my train of thought.

But I remember a long time ago.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: Wait a minute, you have a train

that carries your thoughts?

It

is somewhere in there.

That's pretty

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: interesting.

And that's,

I almost did something that I was going to say is, make sure that the words

that you use make sense too, right?

Like, like an old guy like this isn't going to be like, Cool.

Yes.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: You know,

they're not using, you know, they're not using the Gen Z logo.

The lingo.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: If my daughter was here, I'd totally go

into the, that sort of stuff, but I'm not going to do that right now.

Also, make sure to don't do things that are going to harm your vocal cords.

Yes.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: Uh, don't try and do RASPY if you've not tried

to do RASPY prior to doing this.

And like, goblin voices can get really hard sometimes.

So like, if you, if it's a comfortable thing, that's totally fine to do.

But like, you might need an extra glass of water with you when

you're doing it to just, because it can get tiring after a while.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: Yeah.

Like when I do voices that kind of come down into this register, I

always have to be drinking my water.

Or when I do my, Oh, you guys.

Yeah.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: Like I can feel it right now.

You can drop it

down.

Yeah.

I can't get that low.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: It's okay.

I'm not really getting that low.

Let's be honest.

So we've talked about the mannerisms, how they hold themselves, facial

expressions, all of that can help to build your character.

Oh, and sorry

to come back to the, that won't be difficult to recreate.

Part

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: right

make sure you make notes about your what sort of

voice you use it doesn't have to be something super like Detailed but any

like anything in general that you can

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: Like

inspire right Yourself again to go.

Okay.

Well, and for like, for example, once again, Elsie, I looked at her picture

and her voice came to me like that.

And sometimes that's all I have to do is look at look at the character's picture.

And then it brings that.

So if you know, if you have Pictures that you've pulled for the characters

to as like what you think that they would look like even without a

existing adventure story or whatever, um, that can sometimes help figure

out the physicality of it as well.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: And in the long run, you know, if you want to toss

in an accent, go ahead and do that.

Yeah, you know, alright, I often times will do my brutes like

this because they feel stupid.

And I generally all, um, and so, you know, if you want to throw, and then I

had the Victor, he was my barkeep vampire.

He was so very good.

And don't be afraid to just do it and have fun with it.

We're not looking.

You know, your players, aren't looking at you to be, you know, an

Emmy award winning actor, but if it helps to create the mood and the feel,

go for it.

At the end of it, like, as long as you're having fun, that's what matters.

Because like, if you're, if you're like.

Putting so much pressure and emphasis on making the perfect sounding NPC,

you're gonna burn yourself out.

Um, so make sure it's something within your wheelhouse and something that

you'll enjoy doing over and over again, especially because you're eventually going

to get like obsessed with that one random character and you're going to have to do

their voice over and over and over again.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: Boots agrees.

I can't do the boots voice.

Boots.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: Boots.

Boots will come, he will eat your face.

He will.

Uh, alright.

Dead silence after the eating of the face.

Alright, so, uh, we're going to finish up with one little section, uh, that talks

about improvisation and adaptability.

Allow your character to grow based on the interactions that occur.

Oh yeah.

Um, I'm using Tanzy as my example, Tanzy talks like this a lot, hmm,

oh I gotta go back and listen.

It's a little more higher and.

I need to drink some more water, but Tansy has this kind of high pitch and

started out very cry y because she was sad, but she started to get, she's,

exactly, she started to grow with the group, your NPCs can grow, and they

can grow in a lot of different ways.

I'm

not sad at characters.

They're dynamic.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: Please.

Dynamic characters are more fun.

Just.

So, you know, uh, and, and with that, and, and this is, you know, when we talk about

your character, you're going to have to learn how to improvise dialogue because

your players are going to come at you.

And

inevitably they will always find something.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: I know they will.

And the most important thing is to listen.

Listen, listen, listen, ah, listen, and listen.

And I even wrote it in all caps in my notes.

That's the biggest thing.

Make sure you are listening to what your player is saying so that your

NPCs can react to what you're saying.

And respond in an appropriate way

because you want to feel want the conversation to feel natural you

don't want to feel stilted and I think part of one of the frustrations I have

with a lot of adventure paths is rather than just giving bullet points of what is

The character's trying to give, they give you a lot of prescriptive lines about what

the, I would rather have the bullet points because otherwise things don't flow.

And so I'm having to like mentally change things.

So, you know, like, yes, that, that is doing extra work and that's part of

being a DM sometimes, but at the same time, it would just, it would be nice

to just give me the, give me the key facts that I'm trying to convey here.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: Well, and, and kind of to, to

kind of continue off of that.

Um, and to continue off of the idea of listening, we already have

so much to do as a game master.

Sometimes it's just nice to ignore everything else and

just have that conversation.

Absolutely.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: Your, your NPC, their player character, a nice, fun

conversation we had, you know, over the years that we've played together, uh, and.

The, the number of Berlin, how Dolly?

I mean, the conversations that she's had with the blood Lords group,

both blood Lords one, and now blood Lords two, um, conversations with,

uh, what's her name from outlaws?

Oh, um, why can't I,

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: yeah, I know the bar owner.

Uh, from bullet, uh, the barrel and bullet, bullet and barrel, uh, we

always flipped it.

Yeah, she

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: always had great conversations.

So your NPCs can have these pretty phenomenal conversations.

Enjoy it.

Enjoy being part of it.

You don't have to be focusing on the next step and then respond to what is

said in your character's own way, right?

Allow your character to come alive with that.

When you do that, we don't fret so much on being perfect with your words.

And this is something that, uh, I've talked with Evelyn about as we, you

know, as we both GM and we are both player characters in each other's games.

is don't try to rush what you're saying all the time.

You're allowed to think your character's allowed to think, give

them the time to digest what they've heard before immediately responding.

Well, and these people,

they might all be human, but they still are people and they,

you know, they have moments where they need to take a moment to

collect their thoughts before trying to convey something, right?

Because.

Just like anybody else, they are thinking and breathing and reacting and responding

to not only the people that they're talking to, but the environment and the,

you know, maybe they're distracted for a moment by some, a flash of a hand across

the bar or, so there are things that.

you can take that time you need to respond to them without the player

characters being them, without necessarily having to try to spend all of your

time thinking of the perfect words.

You do not have to be The most, you know, skilled linguistically speaking,

uh, DM, uh, you know, of all time.

You know, we are not all perfect script writers, we are

not working on the next novel.

It's, you know, we're just talking as people and having, building

relationships with these, with these player characters in order to make a fun

game for ourselves and for our players.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: And that's what it comes down to, is having fun, right?

Yeah.

That's the most important thing.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: And finally, let the relationship develop and the

longer you're not over one specific period, but the more you do this,

the more your NPCs talk, uh, the dialogue is going to come easier.

Absolutely.

And it's going to feel more natural, uh, improvisation.

I'm well, that'll be a, another podcast, but improvisation takes some getting used

to, you know, some people have it easier because they've had to do it before.

Look, it's easier for me because I'm a teacher.

I'm a professor.

And so I have to be able to talk at a moment's notice about anything

and everything when a student comes and talks to me, not everybody has

that advantage, what I would call an advantage of being in those situations

where I've already had to develop this, understand that the more you do it, the

more you speak as your character and interact with your player characters.

The easier it's easier, it's going to become.

And honestly, the more fun it is, the more relaxed you are doing it.

Absolutely.

Oh man.

That was all we we've talked about a lot of stuff.

Yeah.

This was, it was a lot.

It's a lot of information.

Um, your town NPCs are great.

Yeah.

Have fun with them.

It is.

They're the, they're the things that make the world move.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: Yeah.

You know, villains are great to monologue.

You're, you're If

your players let you finish monologuing.

Never

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: gonna happen, especially with my Sunday group.

You're, You're, you're kind of heroic NPCs are fantastic, but those town NPCs

There's just something special about them.

There is a good tavern owner, a good alchemical shop owner.

You know, all of these types of characters are just really cool.

That's just personal opinion.

All right.

We're going to start bringing this to a close a couple of things that you just

want to note, uh, you can find links to just about everywhere that we are.

In the show notes, a big thing.

Definitely check out role for perception.

com.

The page has gone over, uh, there's been a major overhaul.

It is much prettier now.

I think it's much prettier and easier to navigate more.

We'll be coming to that as we finish up the adjustment of that page.

Our newest podcast will be coming out the Friday after this podcast is released.

Episode one of VASIN.

Did that soon?

Wow.

Yeah.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: This releases on the 16th and the first episode

of VASIN releases on the 16th.

19th.

Wow.

And

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: so make sure you check that out.

You can find that it's, uh, the lore maker chronicles is the name of the podcast.

It's still under the role for perception umbrella.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: Indeed it is.

And so, uh, take a listen to that.

Super excited about our.

Group of four and what good

cast I mean, I'm not talking about myself in particular

But like the other three players we have are really awesome, and

I'm very excited to play with them.

So Yes, I look forward to it.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: Uh, yeah.

So, and, uh, check out our Ko fi, check out our discord,

check out our Patreon, check

out.

And our discord link should be

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: working again now.

Twitter, Instagram.

I mean, we're just, we're kind of all over the place.

Always want to hear from you.

If you have something you want to let us know, I finally created an

email works now, so you can email us.

It would be awesome if I remembered that email immediately off the top of my head.

There's a contact

page eventually going to be on our Contact page is

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: up.

Okay.

So you can contact us on our, our website.

Roll for perception.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: Yeah.

Um, there's a nice contact page.

It's got a, it's got a form field and everything.

It's really pretty.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: It does.

You can send us an email through that.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: And then of course, uh, as I said, there is an

email, uh, you can send an email to me and at feedback at role for perception.

com.

Look at that.

I knew I had made it and send us feedback.

Tell us which more of what you want to hear, less of what you want to hear.

Those sorts of things.

Super interested in hearing what you want to hear.

Am I forgetting anything else?

Not, not.

People telling us to shut up and stomach.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: Oh, that would make me sad, but

I have faith so far so far.

It's been good.

All right.

As always, I want to thank you for joining us for this week's podcast.

We hope we inspired you to continue your TTRPG journey.

However, that may look.

And then as we've said, um, make sure to stop by.

Uh, www.

rollforperception.

com and leave a comment on our podcast page.

We are always looking to answer questions and discuss new TTRPGs.

Terry Dana Jachimiak II: So make sure to have your D20 ready and

your goblin voice invested as you head out of the world of TTRPGs

with Roll for

Percepticast.