One of the more important roles of being a Dungeon Master is giving the illusion that the world you describe to your players seems like it is really alive. This involves many things like describing the world’s smells, the colors around the characters and such. To a degree, that allows the player to easily imagine the world, and that means taking your sessions from a boring monologue to an interesting and interactive session that your players want to explore.

I think that the true trick to making your world feel alive is through making the Non-Playable Characters feel more “real”. This takes a lot of work and practice to pull off, but once you can start switching your thinking so that you can converse as many different characters quickly, the world your players explore will feel completely alive. I have been studying a lot of the current popular DM’s of today, people like Matt Mercer, Chris Perkins and Griffin McElroy, and I have noticed a few things around how they play their NPC’s that all seem to correlate and seem to engage their players.

It is all about the voice

You don’t have to be an amazing voice actor to do character voices, you just need to try and make your characters sound different. All you need is a little confidence and to not worry if your voices sound awful. The important part here is that you try and create some sort of auditory difference between your NPC’s. This will help players distinguish what NPC they are talking to, and it can give them an idea of who the NPC is. Maybe the NPC the players are talking to is a merchant, but a shady merchant, and you want to try and convey how slimy this person is with out saying “this guy is the greasiest guy you have ever met.” Instead, you want to let the character’s words, vocal cadence, and actions to speak for the character. This will add so much to your sessions, as your characters will build a connection to these NPC (positive or negative) and those connections will be what they remember from week to week. You will start hearing players ask, “when are you bringing that one NPC back?” This is how you will know that not only are your players deep in the story but that they care about the NPC’s, in some way, that they interact with.

Give the character a personality

Try and give every NPC the players encounter, or approach, a personality. I highly suggest, that if you are not very experienced at improv or have a hard time with it then you should create a list of personalities that you can roll on. Now each time an NPC that you have just sitting around in the background is approached and engaged by the players, you will have a way to give the NPC flavor. Who knows, maybe that NPC becomes an instant classic and a party favorite. These personalities can also help reflect what is going on in the world at the time. For instance, maybe there is a drought going on in your story, a historically bad and long drought. Most people, save for maybe the one percenters, will probably be in some state of sadness, anger, or distress. Think about how the story and the players have affected the world and if the NPC’s have any knowledge as to who this party is. It may change how NPC’s act toward the players. All of this gives your world color and life. It makes it easier for the players to get into character and into the world, you are trying to get them to buy into.