The 7 NPCs You Will Only Ever Need - GM Tips 

All my players grew up with games like Zelda. When I have an NPC suggest a terrible idea, they don't see a terrible idea, they see a side-quest.

8:22 *The guide*, the shorcut, the point A to point B guy. 9:40 *The advancement*, the plot-hook. they advance the plot. 10:02 *The rival*, not evil, provides some friendly competition for the party. 11:56 *The mentor*, the voice of the DM. 13:46 *The long term*, the living npc (no more than 3 at a time). 15:08 *Support*, makes the lives of npc easier, the lil helpers, almost like Santa elves. 16:12 *Comic reflection*, the funny guy.

"Building up courage to jump off a bridge." I laughed way too hard at that.

This was incredibly helpful, but we all know that Sam was the real hero of LOTR.

"How does a dwarven blacksmith know about 3000 year old elven cooking techniques?" "They had a good ale! And, I mean, once you have a good ale...you need some food to go with it..." "...How long did it take you?" "Ten years."

It's also useful to subvert expectations for some of these. For the Guide archetype: my players arrive at a town just north of the southern jungles. The players know the jungle as having a reputation for being extremely dangerous and impossible to navigate. In the town, they are encountered by Rico, a local guide who boasts about his great experience navigating the treacherous southern jungles. The players hire him and go to the jungles. As they travel, Rico continues singing high praises of his accomplishments in documenting the flora and fauna of the jungles. Also, he reveals an iron strongbox, whose contents he says are for absolute and dire emergencies alone. He does not say what's in the box. It's the first night in the jungle and the players are making camp. So far they have relied on Rico for navigation and foraging. Rico comes to camp with what he claims is the white dragon plant, a rare delicacy which can be boiled to make a tea so delicious it's heartbreaking. He brews it, takes a sip, and immediately falls over dead. The players open his box, and find inside... a sandwich. Will the players survive the jungles and manage to navigate to their destination? What will they do when the thieve's guild frames them for the murder of Rico? :) Feel free to steal this.

“Elrond is here because Elrond is great!” -best line ever.

7:45 I'm not agreeing with this. You CAN make a shopkeeper very interesting. I had one NPC character for my campaign, it was a shopkeeper, who was very unsatisfied with her job and looked up to the adventurers. She was very curious and amazed by their stories. The players really liked her. Besides her giving many discounts, she was also pretty smart and fun, but she lacked the confidence to leave her shop and do something else. One night her shop was raided, and she was gone. The players put down their main mission to find her. Reason that she was kidnapped was because she hid away a magic weapon the bandits wanted to find. The group rescued her, but in the last fight she also found her courage and she started to fight back: She rescued herself. After that, she took out the magic weapon she had been hiding for so long and decided to become an adventurer herself. She accompanied the party for a few sessions after that, they taught her about combat. She eventually became a fighter and seperated ways with the group, she wanted to start her own group of adventurers. The group of players clearly showed that they found this ''side quest'' very wholesome, and Lydia Shortstep, the Shopkeeper, is still an NPC my players talk about after 2 years. :) Maybe I'll give her a comeback.

I like to add a line of detail to each NPC's story each time the characters interact with them. It keeps me from falling off the deep end and backstorying everyone in the world, while NPC's my players latch onto wind up fully fleshed & developed.

So, I have this trio of NPCs in my game. One is an Advancement NPC that morphed into a Long Term NPC friend, one was a Guide that now serves as an Advancement NPC, and one is a Mentor. Over time, it evolved that the three of them had been adventures together when they were young, but only the Mentor had kept adventuring once they'd become successful (the other 2 retired and went into business for themselves). The Mentor has been nerfed to prevent her from becoming a shortcut by making her exceptionally old, so her magic is really good (8th level caster), but a 90 year old woman is in no position to trek around or engage in battle. The other two retired at roughly the NPC equivalent of lvl 7, so while they're still physically capable (dwarf and drow, so slow aging by comparison), they aren't strong enough to be much help against the big bad guy. The retired two have admitted that they just couldn't continue adventuring because the third was just a bit too crazy, destructive and impulsive, accidentally burning down taverns by using fire spells indoors or angering people at really inconvenient moments (she's a "classic" CN...not evil, just disruptive, though now mellowed with age), making her also a bit of a dark mirror as a Mentor for our PCs. Finding out all the stories about the NPCs adventures has been fun for the players. They're starting to ask a lot of questions about the history of the troupe. My players actually want to do a short side game now playing the NPCs in a PC party, as a prequel to their current game. Lol.

I think there should be the emotional attachment NPC. This character has one purpose: to be beloved and then die horribly.

Guy: "Sam never overshadowed Frodo" Me: "ummmmmm..."

One warning for the "rival" in that inexperienced or unaware DMs might actually turn them into a DM character insert. You need to ask yourself if you really need this rival npc or will the players just see this as you the DM trying to create a character that you're playing who is better than the players. To prevent this, consider having the character not start out as a rival, or have the players complete a quest and move to a new town where they might find this character now with a grudge because the players stole their chance at glory. Some rivalries, certainly in real life, can have one side or both wanting nothing more to happen than have the other person fail, be ruined and humiliated because they are petty and bitter individuals, but there's also the kind who tries to elevate the other side, in this case the players, to make sure that they are keeping up to their own ever increasing skill. You can then wrap the "rival" into one of the other NPC types so it isn't just the players asking "Why is the dm using this character as a chance to be a jerk to us in the game?" Make them the begrudging guide, or a mentor or trainer, they could be a long term npc that doesn't have to be around the party. Maybe they could go away on their own quest due to the actions of players. Of course there are people out there who do seek out to make these characters for the sole purpose of one upping their own players but I didn't want to touch on that aspect as I wanted to highlight other ways this npc could be done.

"Only when the rocks fall together, does everybody die." ;)

The dude feeding pigeons in the park is actually the BBEG's lieutenant having a mid-life crisis, and depending on the PC's interaction they might have an in to the BBEG's lair. Or, maybe he is the BBEG! And they can turn him into an ally based on their interactions.

This was a great video. After thinking about the question, I realized that I would add a few more NPC's to the list. I noticed that the archetypes mentioned closely mirrored Jungian Archetypes: The Guide is the Explorer Archetype, The Advancement is the Magician Archetype, The Rival is the Hero Archetype, The Mentor is the Sage Archetype, The Long Term is the Lover Archetype, The Support is the Caregiver Archetype, and the Comic Reflection is of course the Jester Archetype. I already wanted to add the Antagonistic as the Outlaw Archetype (This being the contrary character like a gate guard you need to get past without killing), and the Extra as the Everyman Archetype (Faceless and indistinct from the crowd), which leaves the Ruler, Artist, and Innocent Archetypes. The Innocent NPC is of course the character / characters that need to be rescued. It's good to introduce this character in one of the other roles first, to establish their utility / pathos for the PC's. The Artist NPC is the mad scientist, Hephaestion smith, or crazy wizard that goes beyond what the rules traditionally allow. They create one-of-a-kind magic objects, threats, and locations. They differ from the Support character in being antagonistic as often as helpful, and they differ from the Antagonistic character in being largely neutral to the PC's. Finally, the Ruler Archetype is the character that is in charge of all the other NPC's. They can overlap with the Advancement, Antagonistic, or other archetypes, but are distinct in their narrative function to lend verisimilitude. The Ruler Archetype allows the PC's to access or contend against a wide variety of resources (soldiers, prisons, propaganda, money) that they would not otherwise encounter. While the other Archetypes tend to support the PC's in some way, the Ruler, Artist, and Antagonistic Archetypes tend to bend the story-narrative around them and provide more obstacles than aide.

"the only 7 NPCs you will ever need" I think makes more sense. trying to read your title made my brain explode

I can't think of other types, but I can think of many times I have cross-typed NPC's. The cleric that disliked the NPC's and showed it at any chance, but was actually an important mentor who, slowly grew to like them and actively became a mentor. This was planed and based on the Master-Of-Arms from the movie The Black Shield Of Falworth.

The minor NPCs that my players gravitate towards and become a big part of the story are often my favorite NPCs. In the second session of the campaign, they found a goat they used as bait to ambush a predator. The goat was named Kevin by one of the players, survived the encounter, and is now looked after by my party who treat him like a horned baby. Another favorite is a gang leader they were introduced to by a drunk dwarf and dragonborn in a tavern. He wasn't even supposed to be in my game, but he turned out to be an undercover member of an intelligence organisation in a land my PCs aren't all that familliar with. Now he and his asociates trade information with the party and it has worked out great so far.

i used to be a janitor on the base and know exactly where to hit to deactivate the mega weapon, also i worked on the flagship and know all about it's special equimpent and .. *roll20* i yes i also was on special detachment strike force assigned to the prince ...

No! (I cry dramatically) I need my cast of 197 intricately crafted DMP- I mean NPCs in order to guide my players through my fantasy world!

I always feel like I might make it as a GM when I realize I've accidentally done something in my games intuitively that turns out to be a part of Guy's advice.

Having GMed since the mid 80's, I'd say the list provided is accurate. Most of the NPCs in a game that the PCs come to know in some way will fall into these 7. One note I would add for new/novice GMs: Not all NPCs in this list need to have a fleshed out character sheet. Some will, but many will not. The guide who is only going to get the party across the sea, doesn't need to have a full stat list, rather keep a ledger of named NPCs the party interacts with with little notes about them. I often have a list of NPCs that consists of their name, where the party encountered them, physical and personality descriptions, and then a small list of skills or simple notes on stats like "master sailor", or "high strength score but low wisdom." These notes get added to as the game progresses and if you find that the NPC is being interacted with more and more, or that the notes on the NPC are becoming more of a laundry list of skills and abilities, then perhaps elevate them to a full NPC character sheet. I use a loose guideline that if the NPC has been in several sessions or the group have returned to them many times to the point that the NPC has been in 7+ sessions, then consider making a full sheet for them. There are exceptions to this, of course, and you have to play it by ear, by the feel of the game. The ship captain above, will probably never need a full sheet, no matter how many times your PCs interact with him, but the guide that has now traveled with the party for months and has become a major fixture in the group probably will.

Song passed down from the illiterate slaves "one ventures into the cave, one goes around the bend! Two reach an impasse at the brook, three venture for the seeeeea! Five rescue damsels of the land, Eight take the girls and fleeeeee! One, one, TWO and three, these are the old man's key! Five, eight, and then thirteen, the last one is my pleeeea!" All along a captured adventurer hid the answer of the dragons riddle in the slaves songs, in an attempt to get revenge on him... his last efforts to retain his dignity in defeat. A final 'muck you' to the dragon.

I like the tie-ins with LotR characters. It works as a great, concrete illustration of the various NPC types. "Get in the Swing with Archeron; grim-dark fantasy in the 1930s".

I was taking a drink when you mentioned Drop Bears and I nearly choked, that was a great tidbit to drop in. I laughed so hard after that. Thanks for the fantastic video!

This makes me think of the npc’s I’ve already included and what role they played. The priest who both prevented the party from being arrested by forgiving them (they were bathing in the holy spring by the chapel) and gave info that if they went there and there in a different town and mentioned her name, they could get more help from someone who knows more then her. She showed a plot line. Jinny the young adventurer wanted to go slay a dragon but her elderly traveling father couldn’t go that far and thus had to slow her down. The party adopted her and promised the father they’d train her to be a propper adventurer. She always makes horrible rookie mistakes and needs to be told what strategy to use, she also tends to be comic relief. The mouse is the mvp, it holds no utility but it’s v Smol and seems sentient in some way. Also raises questions about the celtic/druidic part of the world it seems to be tied to. I got more npc’s like these that the party brings up when I ask them about what npc’s they like n stuff (feedback is good for me). Now no npc was made with a function in mind, but I can still see functions when I think about them.

Tracking the NPC types to LOTR characters is brilliant. Great way to find a very commonly understood context

One of my favorite types of NPCs would be "The Irritant", basically an NPC that the players desperately need for some reason but who is either rude, or careless, or obnoxious in same way that drives the characters nuts. Also, there is "the McGuffin", an NPC that is central to the quest and who must be saved for the characters to succeed. McGuffins and Irritants can be fun types to combine.

Can we all take a moment to recognize this man is a great resource to the rest of us. I always find myself coming back to him for guidance or gaining perspective outside of my own point of view. He is consistently putting out great videos that are very useful. 👏 👏 👏

I nearly always have an NPC in the player group... to influence the group for inside... send them on a bad track (or try to), send them on the right track (or try to) and to help make stuff move forward when the players are semi stuck. But my NPC is always kinda a follower... it's the PLAYERS stories after all... not the NPC`s one. // My shop keepers are often quite important in SMALL towns... there isn't 200 shops... so they often return to see the same vendor. Players often ends up becoming semi friend with vendros and stuff :P

Not sure how this ended up in my recommended list but glad I clicked on it. Excellent video. I haven't played or run a game in some years but you brought back some great memories.

Playing RPGs for over 25 years now (mainly the dark eye), this is a really focused and helpful little list to narrow down to the most important details of your NPCs. Thanks!

I love all of your videos! GM'ing for a couple years, I've unknowingly used only a few of these NPC types. I can't wait to make my adventures more structured with your advice!

Excellent video. It really explains the purpose of characters and plot tools in a way that I think appeals to both new and advanced DMs. Well done, sir. I learned a lot

Literally stopped and started the video dozens of times while taking notes on a second playthrough. Thanks; good stuff.

Still the very most useful DM tips video I've ever watched. Still sharing it a year later on DM groups.

Thank you for posting this! As a pretty inexperienced GM that gonna start a new post-apo adventure, this helped me alot of what i needed!

I would argue that "The Guide and the Advancement" are really about getting information into the hands of the player.

This was so darn helpful. Thank you so much for sharing your insight with us! ❤

Thank you for doing these videos! They really help!

'No more than 3 long term NPCs in the party' - my party has adopted 5 at this point and refuse to let them go lol XD

Mind blown! This is super helpful. I'm thinking about my various NPCs and how most don't have a function. Knowing what their role is will help me play them much better.

The ideas here blew my mind about the possibilities with NPCs. Thanks Guy!

Thank you, I was running only Advancement, Mentor and Support. Big help.

In the dark sun game I’m playing now that I think about it the guards/slaves my templar bought fell into a few of these roles. They were support characters in that they did small tasks for the party. They were also kinda dumb and would offer the comically stupid ideas. They also ended up being advancement NPCs in that when they were brutally killed by this defiler it made it clear who our enemy was and that said defiler was the next barrier to our progression.

This is a very important video. I have bookmarked it. This is the kind of video for which I subscribe.

Great tips! Helped me tremendously figure out some missing elements in the campaign I am running that has periodic highs, but seems to run on empty sometimes as the Players lack ideas at times or just come up with really horrible ones. :)

I tend to have one long-standing NPC who is there from the beginning, but not always reliably so. Then I create NPCs based off what the PCs introduce. These I call Themed NPCs. It give players someone to act as their sounding board. I discuss with my players what they want from their characters and what their biggest barriers to that are. Then I create an NPC based off these details. Sometimes that NPC comes in the form of an ally, sometimes a rival, sometimes a mentor, sometimes a family member. They sometimes exist as polar opposites of the PC and sometimes exist as their guides. This has allowed me to engage the players who aren't as RP-savvy and to give the other PCs ways of interacting with that person's character by having context for their observations. It's an invaluable tool. Then I have Tone NPCs. These are throw-aways for the most part, but sometimes end up becoming one of the above types if players end up attaching to them for some unknown reason. These characters always help support the tone you want for that particular session. Both of these types of NPCs can dynamically change in reaction to the events of the campaign since they're more well-rounded this way, and as a result they will end up moving between several of the 7 types presented in this video; perhaps starting as the mentor, but advancing the plot and becoming the rival until they defeat him so that later he acts as a guide through the afterlife where the players will invariably use his unfortunate position for comic relief.

Omg, I needed this video! Thank you sm

Great list, really helps design NPCs effectively, and highlights what the purpose of the NPCs should be. Thanks a lot!

This has been very useful. Right now i'm writing my first campaign and was fleshing out every NPC in case players fixate on them. Now I'm just going to try using these 7 archetypes and use very basic descriptions for the NPCS of every new town I make.

I think that there are more roles that can be defined, but these are a useful starters.

8th archetype - Alad Probably the most loved and famous NPC of your fans. Loved Alad in Ghosts of Saltmarsh show. Thank you.

Very useful and thought-provoking vid. Thank you! I'll be using this info.😁

Helpful one. Thanks. Also, I like how your style is evolving in videos. The more matter of fact presentation is good

I applaud that intro. Well done with the rhyme!

Man, what an excellent and thorough breakdown. Sub earned.

This is a very informative video. The way you compared characters to LOTR really helped me understand what I need to do and what I can do with my NPCs. Thank you!

Great insight. Thanks for sharing.

I'm just getting into D&D, this was really enlightening! I'd really love to be a DM but I feel like I need to know much more than I know now. Awesome explanations!

Outstanding! Thank you!

I have always had an issue figuring out names when I had to improvise an NPC quickly. What I've noticed so far is that I accidentally use business names without realizing and now it's too late to change them 😂 E.g a shopkeeper that took part in a longer plot has the same name as a local hotel chain. None of us copped it until the second session with him

Thanks for another fantastic video! Vital information and I like how simply it was laid out! Brilliant comparisons to the Lord of the Rings, made the types very easy to understand. Anyway, back to worrying about undead dropbears...

It's funny how I knew a lot of this before but Guy just puts it in a way that made it click. Going back to the drawing board and refining my NPC's. Thank you Guy!!!

Great video. Really helps identify what purpose an npc interaction should serve.

Awesome, gonna make it right! Thanks for the tips and keep it up!

It has been a long time since I have watched a video of Guy and it a breath of fresh air. Thanks buddy.

Thanks! I really needed this video

In my head when the mentor explanation started: "Your health is low! Do you have any potions? ..or food?"

I improvise NPCs background pretty easily. I like to have BG for every trader, beggar and child in the city. This makes the world alive

I always sorted them by "Basic NPCs" (the ones you don't consider to be real NPCs), "Detailed NPCs" (Most of the examples you gave) and "Very Detailed NPCs" (either the "Long Term NPCs" you mentioned, or the occasional other one who you've developed further for other reasons... just found them interesting, etc.)

I have been lucky to have 2 Great GMs. Both had NPCs that we still love & talk about. One of them my character married! Thank you for posting!!!

Great video! Thanks for the tips

You surprised by your own dark depth was amazing. I love your mind.

The thing that this channel has thought me is the universal formula: [Yes the person/place holds the clue but the problem is [that]".

Thank you again!! 🖤🖤🖤

One NPC I’d like to include is the transformed NPC. Maybe it’s someone who started in one direction but due to player or outside forces changes in some way and adopts something new.

Having a straight up unfriendly rival while the party is in a social setting for the moment is actually super awesome and I recommend you all try it. I was putting my group through the Blood Drive series for Deadlands Reloaded, and at the very beginning they were on the ranch preparing for the long cattle drive ahead, and one of my players, a barber, didn’t really fit in with the hustle and bustle of the ranch. So, I created Smooth, a ranch hand who was and still is a barber. He didn’t like the competition. After a barber-lingo threat-throwing match in the cafeteria, (things like, “I’ll need to get in close for a smooth shave,” and “I’ve even shaved a man in his sleep, without waking up the family,”) they had a night time knife fight with straight razors and it was fucking awesome

Great vid!

Great video. Thank you.

I missed so much near the start after the building up the courage to jump off a bridge bit from laughing. That almost broke me. Love your videos Guy.

Very helpful. Thank you.

Good advice! Thanks for the video

Seven whole NPC types. What a thrill range of deep characterization like that, I'm sure that it creates great games. SEVEN NPCs.

This is absolutely wonderful! I am a bran new DM and this is exquisite advise.

invaluable tips I will be saving this for later. Thank you so much. XOXO New DM.

This was a VERY helpful video.

Nice vid. I thoroughly agree with you.

I have to disagree with Merry and Pippen. Although you are correct if talking about the movies. They were similar to Sam to begin with. Sam was actually listening in on Frodo. He would then report back to Merry and Pippen. Then they met him for a drink and told him they were coming with him. Note that's all I remember from the books about how awesome they are, but I did remember thinking the movies did them a slight disservice as to their intelligence and determination.

great advice thank you!

The thing I find most difficult with the concept of NPCs is that these characters are ment to be believable inhabitants of the game-world, and not just assets the player-characters can call upon at their leisure. And it's a tricky balance-act. On the one hand; no the characters cannot just "go and speak to the high-priest". He has a busy schedule and would be doing nothin else but attending petitioners if he was that easily accesible. But on the other hand, I don't want to be seen as the DM who constantly prohibits and shuts down every attempt at interacting with the game-world and its npcs. Including a middleman would diminish the impact of the high-priest (and in many cases the PCs wouldn't trust him with the information) On the other side, I don't want the NPCs to just be static "extras" standing around just waiting for the PCs to need them....

I hit that subscribe button because you told me! And also because this video contains quite a good bunch of useful information.

Very helpful video, but what I latched onto the most was from the beginning of the video. Flavoring one of the NPCs to be a super-fan of the party. Although my players would probably pull an Oblivion and find a mountain to throw them down

Loved your video and subscribed. I've played and DMed since the 1970's but I had to cease due to medical issues. I plan to resume within a few weeks, this time in 5e. Listening to you, we seem to think alike.

Really good video Guy

Just one quick share, especially because the word "slave" evokes a specific image among many Americans, but there have been highly dedicated slaves. The Stoic philosopher Epictetus was born and educated as a slave in 1st-century Rome, for example. Ziryab in the 9th-century was an educated slave (and genius) in Spain who was also highly dedicated as a musician, poet, astronomer, and in many other fields. I am not sure many DMs want to include slaves in their games, but if they do, it's good to know that there is some variation in how different cultures viewed them.

I was stuck trying to remember that background music during the "Mentor" discussion at 12:00. I finally found it again, "Under Cover" - Wayne Jones - No Copyright Music, for anyone who is interested.

Hey Guy I absolutely love this incredibly helpfull video. I would also love see a series in that style like the (insert number here) locations/treasures/curses/.. Anything that is helpfull for a modular campaign. Keep up the good work 😃👍

I like to use what I call 'Floating Clues'. Let's say your players need to know three things: There was once an ancient war, there is a lich king in the ancient dungeon, its phylactery is in the volcano. Basically I do it likes this, the first NPC they meet and pass a CHA check with will tell them the first thing they need to know. Or you could use a Perception check to notice the clue. So it still might take them two or three NPCs to talk to, or a few places to investigate before they find the clue. And even though you the DM know you are just oving the clues about as needed, to the players you can make it feel like they luckily and organically found the clues in the right order.