Viridian Void Productions

Minimum Viable Person

Title credit to Caleb Zane Huett

What do we need for an NPC?

I have been collecting blog posts on writing good NPCs for quite some time, like a post goblin, and yet, something still nags at me when I sit down to prep - what do I actually need to prepare for a given NPC?

The game I've been running the most recently is Triangle Agency, and, given the nature of PC powers and the setting, it is hard to know which NPCs will last the test of time and which will be brushed aside or shot and killed with a supernatural Gun in the form of a small dog1.

Additionally, I've been inspired by posts like this one from Colin Spirodonov, which states succinctly "If you ask your players to describe an NPC, they’ll only use a couple words anyway. So I use an equal number of words in my prep." Many such sentiments can be found if you look, but even then, I find myself wondering: what actually is the minimum viable person?

In real life, I try to treat people as non-disposable and complex. In RPGs, eh. It's often not worth it! We can all agree that just because we use shortcuts in prep, we are not committing the Thought Crime of reducing people to one or two lines. As many Tumblr users could stand to remember, the game is not real. And we have scenarios to prep! Accordingly, I have assembled what I view as the absolute essentials that I or anyone else who has ever run a game ever to use at their table:

  1. Vibe
  2. Want
  3. Technique

Let's break it down.

Vibe: One Concrete Thing

The first thing any NPC will give off is their vibe. What are they like, and how do we know that? In my experience, picking something strong and concrete is the best way to make an NPC memorable, and this is the kind of thing that a spark table or random oracle is really good for.

In order to decide the vibe, I highly recommend you pick something concrete and observable. The classic example might be an accent, but I hate accents, so instead, I have two main recommendations:

  1. Pick a look based on a community or subcommunity that you have a strong feeling for. Grunge rocker, scene kid, uptight athleisure parent, you name it. This shortcut will give you plenty of grist to improvise the sensory details you need to bring the NPC to life for their fly-like lifespan at your gaming table.
  2. Choose a random noun and go with that. I like Ms. Screwhead's big oracle and their piece on mind pictures for this purpose. I have always been inspired by interpreting concrete objects like "arrow" (as in the worked example below) for NPCs, and it often sends me in interesting directions.

I once rolled "bear" for a Triangle Agency NPC named Architect Voss and, well, he's a large, handsome gay man with a big bushy beard. I don't make the rules. He is super easy to play, though!

Want: The Hole in the Soul

"What does your NPC want?" is a question I have often been prompted to answer and, to be honest, have sometimes found hard to answer. This is especially true for me when I need an incidental NPC to serve as an obstacle - not the main target of the Anomalous investigation, say, but the security guard that is trying to stop you from getting in the building.

In this situation, I think going high-level is a good place to start. One version of this I like is Murkdice's list of 10 wants (derived from Maslow's hierarchy of needs and modified):

  1. Sustenance (water/food/air).
  2. Shelter.
  3. Rest or recovery (includes being injured).
  4. Security.
  5. Stability.
  6. Friendship.
  7. Acceptance.
  8. Respect or status.
  9. Recognition.
  10. Creativity or achieving self-defined potential.

Sometimes, I feel like I know enough about the character to make it more specific. But, even just knowing "okay, this character cares a lot about being accepted by others" or "this character cares a lot about the stability of their job" usually gives me enough to riff, especially for more incidental NPCs. More complex NPCs tend to have a more obvious motivation - this is not for them! This is for the ones where you get stuck.

Technique: How It's Done

Finally, something I think that is often missing (although not exclusively - this section is inspired in large part by Retired Adventurer) is how the NPC does what they need to do.

The minimum viable NPC should also have a means or two by which they solve whichever problems they might be faced with. These problems, in most cases, will be the player characters. This is something I think is great for problem NPCs in particular - after all, most of the time, when the PCs cause problems, you need to know how they cause problems back!

Some examples:

I think both Fate Accelerated-style approaches (like "carefulness" or "cleverness") and specific techniques work well here. Both inform each other, and each give us enough to go on that we can fill in the rest at the table.

Alright, let's put it all together.

A Worked Example: Audrey Malenkampf

STOP READING, MY PLAYERS, SPOILERS FOR NEXT SESSION AHEAD.

Just this morning, I was in need of an NPC for Triangle Agency who is herself a Field Agent. Let's take a look at her vibe, her want, and her technique.

The core part I want you take away from reading this is that none of this actually took me very long. I found that the structure of "vibe, want, and technique" got me to spend enough time that I know who Audrey is, but not so much that I feel like she's been overdeveloped.

This post was a lot of fun to write, as is hopefully conveyed by the slightly mad tone I've taken that is a departure from my previous work. Let me know what you think, unless if you think I'm wrong!

  1. Shoutouts to Titania Carter-Ruck and Bijou. No, I will not elaborate.↩