NPC’s make up the backbone of RPG worlds. They live and breathe the lore of the world, and are a fantastic tool for the GM to breathe life into the setting. And despite a GM’s best efforts, there is no way to prepare all of the potential NPC’s in the world in advance.

I cannot even begin to recount how many times my players turned a simple shopping trip or tavern visit into an interrogation of the NPC’s innermost fears and desires. And despite the shopkeeper NPC starting out as little more than a name and a silly voice, by the end of the interaction he’s expected to have a unique personality, history and motivation. And that’s fantastic, because if the players want to help “Tall Shelly” of Shelly’s Iron Pots Emporium to realise her dream of becoming an opera signer, they are empowered to do so.

That choice is the beauty of role-playing games. After all, that dracolich can wait.

Motivations

The single most interesting aspect about any NPC, is, in my opinion, their driver, their motive, their ‘raison d’être’. You can even often forego a name, description or profession, but the players will still be loathe to forget “that guy who kept trying really hard to train his horse to talk”.

With that importance in mind, I present to you my 1d20 table of unique NPC motivations:

Buried his mother under a sapling in a distant grove long ago, and has recently learned from a long-forgotten diary that she had swallowed a fine string of pearls before passing, either out of spite or to pay for her passage to the afterlife. A recent string of financial setbacks means this NPCs needs that money now, and BAD. Oh and the sapling is likely now fully grown and thus impossible to single out from all the others around it. This NPC hasn’t slept well in weeks, and swears that somebody’s always watching him. Desperate consultations with mystics and seers have failed to identify the cause, and it’s driving him crazy. Nobody thinks much of it, until one of the party members notices a second set of tracks trailing after the NPC on a nearby beach. On a drunken night out long ago, was given a mug of something by a beautiful girl in a tavern similar to, but not quite like, the ones in the village. The drink was the best thing this NPC has ever had, and he would kill for another drop. But subsequent nights so far have yielded little other than massive hangovers. Desperate to prevent his sister from marrying into a household that this NPC is certain are vampires. The Rembils never leave their abode without heavy layers of clothes, and rarely, if ever eat in public. He could be right, or it could be that the whole family suffers from a genetic, and very painful skin condition instead. Wants to leave the city and start a new life as a priest/shepherd/bounty hunter but is bound by an old oath to care for his late wife’s grandmother until her death. But the old crone is ungrateful, arrogant and mean, and in no hurry to die at 93. Maybe she’s just lucky, or maybe this is the cause of a demonic pact. Found an old rusty key on a moonlit walk a fortnight ago. Since then, this NPC has been plagued by dreams of locked doors, long hallways leading to dead ends, and things with keyholes for eyes. Believes that finding what the key unlocks will relieve him, and fears losing the key more than anything. Was fed an odd, pungent medicine once a month since he was a child by his mother, but she recently passed away without revealing the recipe to him, or what it did. Now the end of the month approaches, and this NPC is growing restless and worried. This NPC prides himself on being able to eat anything served at a pub or tavern that their proprietors label as “food”. He’s recently heard of an incredibly spicy delicacy eaten only by a sect of fire-breathers in a faraway land, and wants more than anything to try it. This NPC inherited a scroll with strange runes on it from a barely-familiar distant relative. He is incredibly possessive and refuses to let anyone read it, lest they “use up it’s magic”, but is unable to read it himself. It could be a spell, or it could be a spiteful prank by the dead relative. An NPC was raised by an only mother without ever knowing his father. He thought that his late mother calling his father “the wind” was a poetic figure of speech, but he’s recently found that he can hear whispers carried past him on the breeze. Wishes to become a travelling violinist, going from city to city and spreading tales of adventure, mirth and tragedy among the people. Only problem is, he had his fingers bitten off by a Greelik, a minor demon of pranks, as a kid, and will need to summon him to get them back. This NPC always thought he was an only child, until his parents passed in an accident, and he found a charcoal painting among their possessions. It depicted his parents as young adults, as well as himself, and another, very similar child, as babies. Once bought a crate of “Moonlight Blue Wine” from a seasonal travelling salesman, and though it tasted terrible at first, has become obsessed with it. Now he’s down to two bottles, and the salesman has missed his usual appearance at this season’s town festival. This NPC swallowed a compass as a child, and since then, has had an impossibly accurate sense for directions. Recently though, he’s started to get a tugging feeling that indicates the location of the nearest still-birth, and it’s creeping him out enough that he wants to get the compass out. An unmarried NPC has prayed for years for a child to be given to him by the gods, and had his prayers go unanswered. Until last week, when he triumphantly presented a small boy of 4 or 5 years to his neighbors. Interestingly, nobody understands the boy’s speech, and he has only four fingers on each hand. This NPC has corresponded for years with a penpal from the neighboring village (over the mountains, or through a dangerous forest) but his friend has recently stopped responding to letters. Recently visited his ancestral home and found that his family had been killed by a madman. Vowing to stop at nothing to get his revenge, the fact that the madman had been executed by the local sheriff is, to him, a mere inconvenience. Having lived his entire life in a landlocked city, this NPC has always felt the wide-open beauty of the sea calling to him. But because of nearly being drowned in a washbasin by an inattentive mother/sister/nanny as a child, has a deathly fear of drowning. Memory-altering magic may prove useful. This NPC has raised horses for years, and for years has tried to train his horses to talk to him. Recently, he’s been going around town claiming to have succeeded with a new mare, and though his horse has surprisingly intelligent, almost human eyes, nobody else has ever heard it say a word. This hunter has hunted for years in the local woods, straying farther and farther from the known areas in search of ever bigger game. Recently, he’s claimed to have seen a glorious golden stag, and is convinced it is his life’s goal to hunt down the creature.