Interesting Characters and Even More Interesting Villains for RPGs

 So you want advice creating engaging, interesting characters and villains for your RPG campaign from a RPG expert. Well! You've come to the wrong place. Wait, don't go yet. I know what you are thinking. If it's the wrong place why am I still reading this? Hear me out. I may not be an expert, but I have some tid bits that may come in handy for you. 

RPGS are amazing. I mean really, an entire world to delve and explore with nothing more but some paper and dice. It can be a bit daunting starting out. Especially for new DMs (Dungeon Masters) or GMs (Game Masters). If you are reading this, I am assuming you know those terms. 

The most compelling characters in a rpg game have got to be the characters that stick in your player's mind, well after the actual session. There's been a few times where one or more of my players (independent from each other) have contacted me to express their thoughts on a character, or feelings. One player literally sent me a drunk video where they cussed out a villain. It was one of my shining moments. I knew he must have been stewing on that for a while. 

So how do we make compelling characters? I'm going to break down my process for you in a round about way. It is definitely not extensive. You can pick and chose what works for you and roll with it. 

I am going to interject real quick before I get into this, some NPCs become important to players that you hadn't originally planned for. That's okay. Roll with it. Make that NPC even better by brining them back into the campaign, even if you only planned for them to be brief or even minor you didn't give them a name. 

Okay back on point. 

So here's my process. If I want to have an NPC, or more accurately possible villain, be important to my PC's, I try to identify any possible ties first. Before I even pick a gender or race or background, I look solely at ties. What are my players? What are their goals? Likes? Dislikes? Phobias? For example, one of my player's decided he wanted his character to be low-key raciest towards Orcs because of past run ins. So I created Flynnigan Stormraider, a half orc enlisted solider with a stoic personality and a give no-fecks attitude. He was not the villain. You better believe he made an impression on that player nonetheless. So much so there was an obsession, which is exactly what I wanted. 

Now, for the villain. So here's where things get a little tricky. I don't create villains. I create characters. Hear me out. Villainy is all about perspective. Stormraider may be a good guy at the end of the campaign, who fights for his kingdom, pays his taxes, and upholds the law. However, to someone else he could be more of a villain in their story. It's less likely, except when you think about it like this. You're a hand picked soldier by your commanding officer to infiltrate the enemies' camp and bring back information about their next move. This information could have the potential to save many lives and stop a potential ambush. So you infiltrate, doing your duty for your kingdom, when you are found out by a meddling, stone-faced half orc who starts following you everywhere you go and not letting you slip away with the crucial information. To make things worse, a group of traveling adventurers have now been poking their noses in your business. Now who is the villain in this scenario?

It's questions like these I feel we need to ask about our character's motives and background to truly bring them to life. It's easy to create a NPC that's all about valor and good or a villain that continuously tries to kidnap players and put them in ridiculous traps in attempt to "kill" them and request 1 million dollars in exchange for not blowing up the very planet they live on. Which, don't get me wrong, can be super funny. However, there's a time and place to be funny and sometimes you gotta lay on the feels to make a truly unique and memorable experience. 

Also this brings another dimension to the character and can invoke sympathy and conflicting emotions from the players. Now imagine you are the player, you just finished an epic adventure capturing a spy amongst a group of soldiers and now you are traveling to the next kingdom for your next adventure. While traveling a thunderstorm hits, you stumble upon a nice family that takes you in and feeds you generously. The children recount tales from their father, who isn't present at the moment, and all his good deeds for the Kingdom and how when they grow up, they want to be just like him. It isn't too long for you to piece together this family is the family of the spy you just defeated and he isn't going to be home any time soon. 

Kind of pulls at your heart strings doesn't it?

This is how I make compelling characters. I try my best to give them reason for doing what they are doing besides the "evil for evil's sake". What about obvious evil monsters? Same thing. Evil monsters like devils and demons aren't waiting around twiddling their thumbs waiting for an adventurer to meddle with. There has to be a reason. Even if that reason is simply presented opportunity to gain something.

Well I feel like I have gone over this process quite a bit. It's not everything by far, but hopefully these little tids have jump started some creative juices. 

Chao for now.