Welcome to Behind the Screen, a hopefully regular feature on the Nightly.Net news page. Behind the Screen will offer general advice for beginning to expert level Dungeon/Game masters that will be universally facilitating no matter what roleplaying system you run. And as this is the first one, introductions seem to be a fitting topic.  Introductions in any form can make or break the gaming experience, whether they are meeting a villain, fellow player, some bar wench, an ally, a mob, or anyone (or anything) in your campaign world.

Introducing an element into your game world can be a very simple thing to do. Making that element of your world memorable is a much harder task.  You can introduce the human bar wench who needs her baby boy rescued , or you can introduce “Lihara” the human maiden who is working as a bar wench to earn money to pay some of her dead husbands debt to rescue “Alphonse” her 3 year old son. The choice here is whether or not to add flavor and depth to even the most mundane characters in your world.

Non-player characters (NPCs) are one of many ways to give your world life, and a great way for a DM/GM to connect with his/her players via roleplaying. Any NPC interaction that is meaningful to the party should be memorable. Give them a name, a backstory, flaws, emotions, and damn-near flamboyant behavior.  This allows the NPC to stay fresh in the party’s mind even if they are at a faire and meet dozens of other denizens.  Citing the faire example from above; the party is walking around the faire, asking about rumors, troubles, general knowledge questions, and nothing is turning up. As the continue to explore the faire the learn less and become more discouraged when suddenly a clown pops out laughing and performing. His name is Pepe, a small gnome sold into slavery forced to roam with the fair and perform small cantrips for table scraps or else be executed. Pepe pulls the party in between tents tells his story and explains what knowledge he knows about the fair and other rumors. He then pops over to some other group of background NPCs and begins to perform.

It’s quick, dirty, but believable. And will stand out amongst the flood of NPCs. And if you roleplayed it well, Pepe will become more important to the character (and the players) than the reward (assuming they are of the Good alignments.) By making the NPC seem more human and more alive in his introduction, he becomes more memorable to the players. Good NPC introductions followed by thought out interactions make for a fun encounter. Remember to plan for every possible situation and encounter with the NPC.

-Alex W.

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