The Simple Formula To Making Amazing D&D NPCs 

Best NPC advice ive ever heard: "Drive your NPCs like stolen cars"

Aabria’s NPCs being unlikeable and combative also grounds you into the world. Just because your party is heroic doesn’t mean everyone HAS to like you. These NPCs serve as a reminder that the party’s work is vastly important to some, but has no bearing on the lives of some others, so doing it for the fame is a shallow and pointless reason to adventure. In fact, the fewer people that know how your party defeated the BBEG, the bigger the impact on the world because you enabled people to just live their lives.

Aabria has an important point in putting unimportant NPCs into the game. Often players hang on every DM's word. By mentioning unimportant objects or characters in the game makes attention, involvement of players and checks more important. It freshens up the descriptive parts, and let the players guess which things are vital for the campaign and which not. --Players, the crates on the dock are not suspicious only because they are there, or are they?

Matt's most memorial npc imo has to be Victor the black powder merchant. I've heard that npc was improvised the first time he made an appearance. Its been my DM inspiration since.

Characters make the world.

Also tropes are tropes because they work ;-)

there is a fireside chat where the people made the suggestions for Orly's character (second in command in fjord ships) and you can see matt aplying the method you just described here

I think Aabria Iyengar's antagonistic NPCs are (in part) her commentary on normal people: they suck. Hear me out. Most human interactions we have with people we don't already know and care about increasingly feels either pointless or like an obstacle. The social fabric is fraying. If someone approached you today on the street and said, "Excuse me, can I ask you a question?" your reaction would likely be one of visceral dread. This guy is either a solicitor, a proselytizer, a scammer, or a fool. In other words: an obstacle. This isn't everyone, of course! But when was the last time you answered a call from a number you didn't know?

I really love you content and analysis of these great DMs! Also your thumbnails are great lol not clickbaity at all

I wholeheartily agree on the topic of unlikeble NPCs. What does a competent friendly NPC do? They do the players job for them, probably better. They are willing and able to help and probably even do all that before the players even arrive to notice the problem. Now I am playing against myself instead of the players (in the tactical sense. Roleplay still is a cooperative thing.) But when I take out the naive and ignorant, my players instantly have the goal of protecting them and opening their eyes. (Or using them.^^) When I play them grumpy and introvert, it makes the players work for receiving information and help. Rightout agressive NPCs will cost the players time and other resources to get information out of them. I don't want my players to look up to NPCs for the solution (which is just the logical choice, when they are competent). I want THEM to save the day. With an environment, that does not need the PCs I don't have a story. So if I am constantly playing an unlikable bastard with incompetence 3000, so be it. Actually it is more fun than playing nice guys even. But when the first person in power they meet is so uncooperative they go "That must be the BBEG.", but there is still doubt, so they do not confront until the last act, nearly forgetting about him. And how great they feel after then looting his dead body only to find out he was merely a puppet of the real BBEG. Man, that's just great.

It kind of helps he's a voice actor. I heard someone say that Mercer has damaged being a DM, setting the expectation of what a DM is supposed to do and be. I love what they (Critical Role) have done for the game, but the unrealistic expectation for regular humans who don't have access to tons of cool and free stuff, with great players that commit as equally. You'll find, these techniques are what he needs for his actual work.

needed this video! thank you so much!

This was such a great topic!

fantastic video thanks for the great break down woots :D)

Love the change of removing ancestry stat increased.

Oh I love my NPCs, I put much work in them. But like Captain Jack Sparrow answered, when Davy Jones asked if he would sacrifice a friend; Yes I would without a second thought sacrifice my NPCs. No problem at all.

Character idea 💡 "Kyle Drywall-Foe" the open hand monk 😂

Hey @BonusAction any thoughts on how you would run a year long class on D&D for 35 middle schoolers?

The more I see of Aabria the more I realise what an unsung genius she is. The way her npcs engage the players and the way she can actually get the whole table shitting themselves is incredible. Burrows End is a masterpiece! Misfits and Magic is amazing too! I can see there.is so much to learn from her!

Currently working on a Warforged Juggernaut, Artificer: Armorer, Guardian (15levels) with 5 levels in Wizard.

🤘

Season 1 of Oxventure is a good example of what PCs can do to totally change the characterisation of NPCs. Poor Alfred Strangetide got turned from an adult archeologist scholar that "fancied himself somewhat of an adventurer" into a toddling child that got put in a papoose (and was somehow still an archeologist scholar with 2 PHDs) and no one in world questioned it.

DM's → DMs

Aabria is great

Neal Pass Erikson or Koibu is the great DM that is not a actor.

dungeons and dragqueens... even referencing that shit is a no go

I both like and dislike Aabrias distrustful and antagonistic NPCs, on the one hand it is more realistic that many people would not be agreeable to strangers asking a load of questions and showing up out of nowhere, and there is going to be just random unrelated people just around the place, but its a fantasy game where heroes and legends are real so the a🎉at the sametime the unlikeability of so many of her characters plus her inability to compete against the adlibbing abilities of many of the people she DMs for it often comes across as pointless and we have to watch in real time the delays as she tries to come up with an attitude filled response to what somebody has said and it makes those moments look amateurish, something that would be much easier to RP if the NPCs were less combative for combatives sake.

Honestly, I am not sure on the whole voice acting thing. Those are professionals, even voice actors. It is their unique talent and trying to emulate it badly will do more hurt than good, I am afraid. It would be like trying to finish with a dunk when playing Basketball in the park if you are a regular Joe/Jane. Just won't work. Not your style, not your range of capabilities and your game will be worse for it. Stick to what you actually are able to do and do that better.

That explanation of Aabria's NPCs was good, but I still can't stand her style of DMing. It's such a shame because she's a great player!

Aabria's NPCs working only at "home" and not in a live play seems like a cop out. It sounds like she puts pointless NPCs to have something happen but she doesnt know what to do with it so it leads to nothing. Forcing roleplay in that way isn't satisfying.

So you have to remember, Matt's show is designed as a TV show, not a actual game, He is 'Playing" with voice actors, and is basicly just telling a story for YOUR entertainment. They are not making their characters more memorable for themselves, they are making them memorable for YOU the audience! Roleplaying can include much more then just "ACTING" like a "ACTOR" You are watching a show, you do realize that dont you. The reality is, I would rather play with a DM who is great at creating situations for you to interact with, then one who just tells flowery descriptions! Been there done that for 40+ years.

Hi BA, I mean this with the best intentions but I really feel like you should stop using these "clickbaity" thumbnails using the faces of Matt, Brennan and other notable figures in order to draw attention. It really devalues your channel, because the content is excellent but it feels cheap to rely on the recognition of these famous people. It also makes it really hard to notice or find your videos in my subfeed. Regarding the NPCs, I think that Matt have great NPCs that are obviously carried by his acting skills and one of the bigger contributors of the 'Mercer' effect. I love them, but you can't set that expectation for yourself in your home game.

4:40 🤢

Critical Role has a team of writers and a director.

I didn't even know such a thing as dungeons & drag queens existed. Pretty good video up until that point

Lol. “Best DMs in the world.” Bro, what are you talking about? These are some of the worst DMs you could find. In fact, I hesitate to call them DMs. They’re just wanna be actors performing for an audience (the viewers) for clicks and advertising revenue. They’re traveling salesmen, and their “players” are D&D tourists. A real DM makes it about the players, and their imaginations. The players are supposed to be the stars-not the DM. The DM should be a referee and a narrator. These people that you’re holding up as superstar DMs are nothing more than content creators who found a niche market (TTRPGs) to monetize.

Lost me at dungeons and drag queens. Disliked. Thx for VEC though, its a solid method.