Web DM Talks NPCs | 5e Dungeons and Dragons | TTRPG
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- Опубліковано 28 вер 2024
- One of the most important tools a Dungeon Master has in Dungeons and Dragons or any TTRPG is their NPCs. On Web DM Talks, we're giving our tips for creating the most interesting, memorable, and effective NPCs and how to keep track of them.
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Written & Hosted by Jim Davis and Jonathan Pruitt
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Web DM was created by Travis Boles, Jonathan Pruitt, and Jim Davis
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I would totally buy a book made from you guys: WEB DMs guide to tables
If you're interested in that kind of book, one exists called The Tome of Adventure Design. It has so many tables.
Every table you will ever need!
little Bobby Tables?
@@handlebarfox2366 "I understood that reference." -Captain America
WEM DMs: actual content in a 5e book
Long term player / DM here. 30+ years on and off but always trying to stay fresh. This was a fantastic episode guys just like the random tables one and so many others. It is discernable that you are relating a lot of genuine revelations and experience I love that I can also detect some excited realisations in your interactions due to the improvisational style that course through your discussions. I was still was able to take 4 pages of useful notes and ideas from this. Keep up the magnificent work guys.
Thanks for the help brothers. You are making it much easier to correct the mistakes I’m making as a new dm
Glad to help
I'm DMing an online game, and we don't use video, just voice, and I find that I gesticulate anyway, and it helps a lot.
Jim should start Web DM ASMR to come out of his voice acting shell. lol
We've actually talked about that on our Patreon podcast haha!!!
I just noticed that Web DM crown royal bag in the foreground artwork. Nice touch :)
Your Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness joke was well received Pruitt. I didn't know I needed it.
I love rewatching these they still give me inspiration
Jim you're the second DM I've heard of standing while DM'ing, it really makes me want to give it a try
It really is a more active and engaging way to DM, I've found
It also helps you stay awake and attentive.
Used to do it all the time at Adventurer's League. It helped me keep an eye on all of the players, and I could walk around if someone wasn't speaking loud enough
Thanks to you I've started incorporating reaction rolls into player/npc reactions. When players attempts persuasion/deception/intimidation checks, the result is not an automatic success. What I do is keep the initial reaction roll number and if the characters succeed or fail their check I roll a 6 sided dice and add or subtract that number (plus modifier) to the reaction result.
Playing a session and thinking about how my NPCs could use some work. BOOM UA-cam notifies me that my spirit animal WebDM has posted a new NPC video. Seriously love you guys!
I have made every single NPC as a player character. I also have every single player character that has played in my world. I stopped making NPc's and just started cycling through player sheets. I've got a stack of character sheets about 5" Thick. I've been dming since 85.
Jim Davis is much more attractive than Matt Mercer.
Ngl, hard agree
Comeliness score checks out.
Especially with the new hairdo
But how does he pronounce sigil?
I like using Charismac saving throws for first impressions.
THIS! THIS IS THE VIDEO I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR FROM WEBDM! I am so interested to see a sample Play sheet too. I've been taking notes on this one! Big Thanks!
Sample play sheet is over on our patreon for now! Patreon.com/webdm
One of my players made fan art of a minor NPC of mine, the first time that has ever happened to me, I was so touched!
However, aside from the odd Dwarvish grumble, the NPC was completely mute ... Don't know what that says about my vocal skills.
Fun video. Loved the tips.
Glad your enjoyed it!
I admit I'm bad at doing NPCs, so I always just straight up rip of characters from tv and movies, and tell the players to just imagine in D&D; You walk into a bar, the barmaids and cook are basically Alice, Mel and the gang from the TV show Alice. You meet the Duke, he's basically Max Von Sydow from Conan the Barbarian. Doc Brown makes a great wizard! I know it's a cheap move as a DM, but it works great, gets good player engagement, and also allows you to really improv up their stars and abilities, etc as you go along.
I hope to create such immersive worlds and npcs
Thank you.
35:10 TIDBITS
I've never really heard of the 4 medieval humors. Can anyone recommend a *GOOD* video or podcast that explains them? I'm mostly interested in how it can be useful from a writing and DM perspective, but I also do care about history.
Sure you mention gestures and mannerisms, but what about manners and gestureisms?
What about the sidekick system in Tasha's?
can we get a PDF/word doc as an outline for an NPC form?
We have exactly that for all patrons on patreon.com/webdm!
Just do a bunch of drugs? Sounds like a plan to me
Jim Davis, Jonathan Pruitt > Matt Mercer
You know the creators are good when you wish a 59 minute video was longer
Dawww
Bruh i wish 90% of their shit was longer
@@emmettochrach-konradi2785 That's what's SHE SAID 😏
17:30 I've had the opposite experience with my players. Usually the NPCs I have call them by a wrong name or a nickname are the ones they trust.
Chief among these is a Lich that just thinks they're annoying, but doesn't want to waste a Disintegrate on them because they are so beneath him. So instead he just tells them to do whatever stupid and dangerous thing he can think of and hopes they never come back. Of course they always come back to "turn in the quest" and he throws a random piece of junk at them which they call their "reward".
Or have a lich create a dungeon so he or others can watch as a " reality tv game show," just to train adventures to run more profitable missions for him. Along with the lich being one of the PC great great great grand parent and they are just looking after the rest of their family blood line.
One day I hope this lich realizes he doesn't actually want these people to die, like a grumpy owner of a cat he didn't want, but he fed them and now they are stuck with them and they'll be damned before they let anything happen to the other
Ha! 79th viewer! But the first 78 were probably NPCs, so I’m first.
I love that they have built a green screen so that Jim can record his part from beneath his duvet
Haha! Would be nice- Jim actually films in an unheated New England basement at moment...
@@WebDM
Oof. Explains the layers.
Standing while DMing is such a great tip. It really does help.
I friggin' love you guys and the tidbits of wisdom you drop. Thanks for keeping conversations going, and helping us develop our games further!
Thank you so much!
Its a special kind of awesome when a video is almost an hour long and at the end you're disappointed that it isn't way longer!
Thanks guys. I'm DMing tonight, and this was the kick in the butt I needed.
Go get em!!!
@@WebDM And I did. Thanks again!
Binge watching WebDM Videos makes me sad that I don’t have a group of friends to regularly play DnD with.
Search for dnd discords
@@MediumDon this🤓👍
46:05
Hey, seems like you're not aware. There's a nifty section in the DMG (page 244) for exactly this.
The gist of it is, the roleplay before the roll determines the NPC's attitude. This would depend on the PCs' choice of words and topics versus the NPC's goals and beliefs.
The follow-up roll then depends on that table. If they muddle it up and the NPC is actively hostile, then a 20 basically amount to "won't go out of their way to harm the PCs"
which is more or less what one would expect.
The "catchphrase" is great advice. It's exactly what I do to find certain NPC's voices and demeanors. It helps me remember who they are, as people.
The snarky, judgmental, trickery domain Cleric calls people "Asshole" in a distinct, sharp way.
The obese mob boss who believes he's untouchable says "I'm too big to fail!"
The rebellious lizardfolk eldritch knight says "Come and get me!"
Even if the NPC never uses those phrases directly to the party, during play, I say them (or think them) to myself before any scene involving that NPC. It really helps put me in the NPC's mind, before their scene.
The most annoying NPCs are friends and family.
Certainly can be
What about each npc has just 2-4 key topics, if you say one of them the roll gets +3. Ogre has food, shinnies and if the player says "there is food over the hill" they get +3 to the roll for adding the topic of food to the conversation.
Thank you for the Firefly reference! Made the whole video that much better
I'm loving these long videos!
This was so dang helpful, I have been struggling with some npc work, but feeling reinvigorated now!
Awesome!
Idk if you’ve mentioned this but are you guys gonna do TCoE?
Edit:TBoE -> TCoE
Soon
I once was playing a campaign where the players had run into a family of vampires a few times. Once they had to ask them some questions assuming the immortal creatures would not a bit more than they did. And while the father did not the daughter did practice arcane spellcraft and was happy to talk with people about it.
I have her go off on this excitement fueled rant about this niche aspect of magic and in the middle of it somewhere she curses.
And I instantly switch voices and have the father tell he "watch your language" and this just had the players rolling with laughter.
These are vampires and they are weird evil creatures but at heart this is still a family and kids will be embarrassed of their parents and the parents will attempt to control their kid.
Those vampires became some of the groups favorite npcs because they released that they are not monsters of pure evil but just a family who lives under different circumstances
Very cool!
Disrespect a vampire can result in broken bones, vampire doesn't make a habit of bullying the locals, vampire doesn't over bleed the locals, vampire is the heavy muscle in the village/ city's Night Watch. Unlike some " mortal " nobles that go nearly out of their way to make up reasons to whip the peasants or to add a new tax on them, all the vampire ask for it's ..
" Protection " is a pint of blood from you once a week. And depending on the campaign setting if the vampire has animal control over the " creatures of the night," the wolves leaves the village herds/ flocks alone and the vampire keeps the rat population down.
I still don't want to find myself around an angry hungry vampire.
Keep being awesome, WebDM!
YOU keep being awesome, Nick!
Do you count a having a set of 8 npc that i using in all my campaigns as sin, if my main group grow to know them personally and liked them?
Hello no, if you've made something that players in the past have enjoyed there's no harm in recycling that same/similar NPC in future campaigns with the same people or different groups entirely
I miss these guys.
"... Miranda..." It seemed like Pruitt can accidentally said the name out loud while the rest of the sentence remained mere thought. No one in the production room had time to ponder the odd utterance or even begin to ask who the deus Miranda was before Pruitt was a whirlwind of salt'n'pepper beard, fist, and unabridged ass-kicking. Bones broke and staff cried out in pain, or simply gurgled from punched throats, but the cohost made no further sounds until the room's other occupants were still.
Travis steps into shot, calling out, "like an otter's pelt!" Pruitt's eyes rolled back into his head and he was on his way to the floor half a heartbeat later. The title card rolls...
Great to see HeroForge getting love! It's very addictive, and for December, we're getting new components every day!
Some ideas I like to use: 1) Make all NPCs still 1st level in some class. If they're a farmer then their a 1st level druid, or ranger. whatever their class that is how thye make their basic living,, 2) This is also where is helps to have a faction, local religion, and recent traumatic event. Factions are easy, just two factions vying for power, make them based on class, race, or alignment, so maybe it's fighters v magic users, or elves v gnomes, or lawful good v chaotic evil. Pick two major pantheons ivying for religious supremacy. A traumatic event could most likely be a massive battle, or horrible onster attack, or wrath of a god; whatever the event it has left scars and wounds and created two opposing opinions on what happened and who's fault it was. 3) With these you slap together complex NPCs right quick by quickly aking up their class, faction, religion, and who they blame for the traumatic event.
Maximalist NPC sheet has their family tree and their daily schedule for a seven day week.. On top of TBIF, stats, skills, etc.
One of my favourite phrases for an NPC of mine was "isn't it a jester's prerogative to know things he shouldn't?"
One of my less favourite phrases was when I just kept saying "anyway" in the exact same intonation at the end of every sentence because I, the DM, was nervous XD
The intros get better with every upload. Great video guys!
Thank you Zack!
look at that luscious mane
Social contract, when the PC talk to me in character, I respond in character. I usually talk in character to introduce a social encounter (giving the cue, this is the time to talk, something might come of it). So far so good.
This is exactly what I needed, thank you so much for the help!
In the words of the esteemed Matt Colville, "if the DM says trust me, you should absolutely trust them. If the NPC says trust me, you should absolutely not trust them."
You should make and sell a NPC social encounter character sheet.
We have a prototype available for all patrons on patreon.com/webdm now! Will eventually get it up on dtrpg or something probably
I use the DC 5 to 30 table as a guide to what the PCs get. no matter what they roll, there will be something they are told from lie/ not helpful to more than they need/want.
"The main reason I use a playsheet to enhance my NPCs and make them better, is because it removes my bias."
This is mature and insightful advice: preparation you take to restrain yourself from your habits. Fantastic.
Forgive me for stretching things here, but I am about to make an analogy with . . . . cooking, and people that don't follow recipes. They think they are being "so creative", but they usually just fall into repetitive ruts. On the other hand, a recipe will keep you on track.
As an inexperienced DM, I needed this video.
This will likely be incredibly helpful
While I don't have much opportunity to play 5E, I use GURPS NPC notes for my NPCs. You can look at a GURPS character and immediately know what they are about. Jim has mentioned it (years ago), but the allies, enemies, greed, etc with various frequencies are very useful. While I am sure it is similar to Jim's Play Sheet, it really is a codified note for what the NPC is all about IMHO.
Who were they talking about at 1:15? Alliance?
Noted mat mercer hair plagiarist it’s Jim’s truename
Tonight I'll dream of melancholically smashing pumpkins with Pruitt. Probably to the sounds of Siamese Dream.
I like to use the social skills in various rpgs as a way to give the players insight into the NPCs. (i.e. insight into what they would want to negotiate for or what their goals are). This keeps persuasion rooted in negotiation instead of mind-control since the players still need to provide something to the NPC to get them to agree to major undertakings.
I found an NPC generator that included triggars - the sort of behavior that sets the NPC off, like threats, and then had a chart for how that NPC's demeanor changed after being triggered. I thought that was cool.
I get that they're a long-time sponsor and you've got every incentive in the world to not comment or care about it, but are you guys aware of the recent drama vis-a-vis Heroforge's new TOS and their claim to own all characters made on their site?
I mean, every character you build is a derivative of their assets. They've got no claim on the character, per se, but the mini is their work, remixed by you. Unless they release the assets on a creative commons license, by default, the mini is theirs, that they allow you to print.
When I send Heroforge money, they sell me a physical copy of a character that I made using their assets. I own the physical model that I bought from them. They don't own the intellectual property of the character that their model represents. They do own the assets that were used to produce the digital model, and therefore they own the digital model.
@@TheodoreMinick yeah, that's their explanation on their twitter, but the language of their actual TOS is that they own the "character design", and until that needlessly obtuse framing in the actual binding document of their site changes, the after the fact explanations of what they meant by it is meaningless.
So the tos says character design, but you commented that it says characters. How revealing.
It is in fact a design. Of a character. Made of their assets. Find something more important to be upset over.
This might actually be the single most useful video for a new (or newish) DM ever.
So what's the story? Now it's the long video one day, and an excerpt from said video a different day?
I would love a video of you guys going over an example of a sessions play sheet and how you structure a session.
A big thank you to your editor. That guy does an amaizing job.
Brilliant!
You guys taught me to be a dm, much thanks.
Awesome video! Thank you!
Recently I've been running premade adventures and even campaign. NPCs are pretty well explained but I'm struggling to prepare games for the table efficiently for my table. I think that could be a good subject for you guys.
Premade does not mean "easy prep" at all. To me it's even harder.
Great video. Thanks
Just what I wanted for my birthday! A nice hour long video!
Happy birthday!!!
Miranda?
Tasha's Cauldron of Everything has some rules and tables for determining how to research what different monsters want and the sort of offerings you can give them to placate them. Have you had a chance to look at these and evaluate how they are in context to what was mentioned in this episode?
Unpopular Opinion: DMs who "just like to wing everything" are just lazy and tell subpar stories.
This is old, but I love using Fate system style aspects to define NPC'S. Give them three aspects and you've got a lot to sink your teeth into!
Also, with reaction tables, a successful persuasion can just add a number to the 2d6. I feel like that's how it worked in the Castle Greyhawk module at least...you roll a 25 persuasion. Great! I'll add 5 to my reaction roll. Now the possible range is 7-19.
Same thing I do personally is adjust my posture and way I holld myself for different npc's.
Jim needs a pandemic haircut bad 😜
The only thing Jim needs is MOAR HAIR
What matt said
@@BNRmatt Cry havoc! And unleash the hair of moar!