NPCs and personalities

Hi everyone,

I'm doing my best giving every single NPC a personality and a backstory, but today something came to my mind: does the player actually care?

I mean, does the average player care that the shopkeeper's name is Charles D. Oneal, that he comes from an Irish village that was obliterated by a horde of rampaging demons led by President Camio and he decided to open a grocery store in New London? Does anyone care that he has a lucky penny, some control issues and that he has a crush on the owner of the Hotel next door? Does it matter that while he is both greedy and a coward he is a good person inside and will prove himself when the time comes?

While I enjoy writing a story for every single character that you will encounter in the game, I'm wondering if I'm not just wasting my time as many players will probably not care about a shopkeeper.

What do you think? Am I just wasting time and should focus on the main characters instead?

I sort of did that to a lesser extent in Zendir 1. It gives depth and believability to a world at least. People like that sort of thing in big RPGs.

I think it's good to make NPC's individual. My goal is to make it so I don't have a NPC that looks exactly the same in my game (excluding some soldiers). Perhaps you could make people care about there back story by making it applicable to the game in some way.

Well, always focus on the main characters, you don't want an NPC stealing the show or your MC's to be boring. The amount of back story and characterization a person needs is directly related to screen time and plot importance. If a character is going to be talked to once and never seen again, nope, the player probably doesn't care one bit. If the character comes up over and over again and is pivotal to a major quest sequence, then yeah, give them lots of character and backstory. While having all that backstory for everyone can be fun, it runs the risk of upstaging the actual plot. Think about it, if you find out about things like a lucky penny and a crush on the neighbor, you're going to think that there's something important going on there and attempt to find a quest trigger. If you never find one and play through the whole game and nothing happens with those characters you're going to feel unsettled, like there was something important that you missed if only you'd played through more carefully.


There's a thing in writing called Chekhov's gun. You should look it up if you're not familiar with it, it's an interesting thing. Basically, if you make a point of showing a gun on the mantle piece in the first act, it has to have been fired by the third act. Otherwise it is a distraction and you're making promises to the player that you never fulfill.

I think it's okay to give them all a bit of personality - you don't want a whole kingdom (or whatever) of dry static people. However, giving them all such a backstory is a bit much imo.

it depends on the person i guess, me , i dont like it that much  , game these days have npc that give too much info of their history/hobby/etc that i dont give a damn.

too much information can also destroy enjoyment of game (unless your game is kind of a detective game that relies on information) , if you can find the balance ,great.

my advice is you shouldnt bother giving too much history of normal npc,

just focus on your main character and probably some npc that may have important history/event with main character.

you may think its cool if npc have history and some people would loved it , but i think you need to care for your time more efficiently.

unless you have a game that have important npc that you keep seeing/interact like harvest moon, i dont see the need to waste too much time on giving too much info on npc.

Create the people who inhabit your game however you want.

As a story driven player, I like the effort you are taking to flesh out your NPC's, even if I never find out that my favourite Irish shopkeeper Charles D. O'Neal, has a crush on the owner of the Hotel next door the fact you've taken the time to create the back-story means it will colour the interactions I have with him. I may find out about his village, and his aspirations as time goes on, and because of that if I do discover the secret crush I may decide to help him out, because he's interesting and more than a 'I've got stuff to sell, buy it' generic NPC. Or maybe not, maybe It will be an unrequited love he takes to his grave, but it will give him depth. However his story has to come out over time, and in a natural manner, one big visit by the exposition fairy is in no-one's best interests.

Personally if you want your world to be filled with people who have their own lives, their own agendas and their own desires and not be just an adjunct to the Player Characters, then I applaud you, and I look forward to playing your game when it is done. My only concern is that you don't become so enamoured of the narrative side of the game that the other aspects suffer.

Also, as always Chekhov's gun does apply, but it can be subverted in a number of ways.  Also the original advice is different to the one most often quoted, just because the gun is there doesn't mean it has to be fired, it just means someone has to at least think about firing it.

Maybe not town filler and NPCs you'll only ever see and talk to once, But, I've given major and reoccurring NPCs a backstory and personality. The personality will be present in their dialogue but I've decided that a fun way to reveal backstory may be sidequests where that NPC is center. That way it's there but optional and does effect the out come of the main story.

Ms. Littlefish has a good point.

I don't care if, say, the shopkeeper has a backstory, unless it becomes something I interact with.  If I'm merely buying things from the shopkeeper, I don't care.  However, if there is a side quest, or the main quest, where, say, the shopkeeper has something stolen, or I need to escort the shopkeeper's son or daughter to the King in another land, I care a lot more.

So, I really only care about an NPC's backstory as much as I actually interact with it.  Minor NPCs who say things like "The King hasn't been himself lately"  don't need a backstory.  NPCs which center around side quests need a bit more to justify their side quest, such a "Mrs. Indel has a grandson who she's raised like a son ever since her daughter ran off."  And that adds nifty handles for other quests or twists.

Major NPCs, like the King who has ruled for centuries need even more backstory, because it explains their actions/alliances/etc.

Also, when I say NPC, it MUST include the villains, especially the Big Bad of the story.  A compelling villain, to me, has good solid reasons for what s/he does, even if it's insane to everyone else.  This also explains the villain's strengths, weaknesses, blind spots and so forth which the PCs will exploit.

Which is more interesting?  "The Dark Lord kidnapped the princess" or "The Dark Lord, was once a noble knight who was stricken with the curse of the undead, while he went to rescue his daughter.  His daughter died in his arms.  The princess is a distant descendant and, one day, the Dark Lord came back and took her, gently, to the ruins of his castle.  He believes she is his daughter and doesn't know he's dead."

But, if I say "Fred said 'The Dark Lord isn't evil'" and that's ALL Fred does, and no other NPC refers to Fred, I won't know or care that Fred was the orphaned son of a barmaid, when she joined a troupe of wandering minstrels.  However, if I add a sub-quest where I re-unite Fred with his lost mother, then his backstory is important.

So, I believe backstory is crucial the extent to which we as players see it.

I have about 5 "special npcs" in my game who have little to no impact on the main story line itself, but have side stories and quests that are voluntary that reveal their backstories. Players have seemed to taking a liking to these characters, so I've contemplated adding a few more to my game.

Other than that though, most "random npcs" are just that...random npcs used as filler.