Creating NPCs Based On PCs

One of the core principles we can return to again and again as DMs is this: Build the world around the player characters. In today’s article, let’s apply that principle to one of the most important elements of our games: Creating NPCs (non-player characters) based on the PCs (player characters).

Why Build Around the PCs?

When we build the world around our player characters, we give players something to latch on to in their roleplaying. Something that says: this story is about you. That can apply to locations, quests, factions—but it’s especially useful with NPCs.

Think of it like this: player characters are the protagonists of the story. Any NPC of the story is really only a side character who is there to accentuate the main characters—the PCs. In Mike Shea’s The Lazy Dungeon Master, the very first step is to review the characters for that exact reason. By keeping the characters in the front of our minds, we craft a story with them at the center.

Distorted Mirrors

One of the best techniques for building an NPC around a PC is this: create a distorted mirror of a player character. We can take some defining aspect of the player character and twist it for the NPC.

The NPC can match any of the player character’s aspects, like:

Species
Class
Background
Subclass
Faith or belief system
Hometown or homeland
…

Then, we reflect that aspect differently—even opposingly—in the NPC. Here are some ways to flip the mirror in the NPC we create:

A fellow cleric of the same god who believes their deity has forsaken them.
A fellow gnome who believes their kind are inferior, and aspires to become a “greater” species.
A fellow rogue who sees parties with mixed classes as a weakness—each class should stick to their own guild.
A fellow bard who hates the hometown they share with the PC and spreads nasty rumors about it.
A rival who married the PC’s old flame after the PC left on their adventuring life.
A successful merchant who got rich in the business the PC walked away from.
A fellow ranger from the same region, same subclass even—but who uses their skills in the service of an empire the PC despises.
A fellow fighter who turned to worship a god, and thinks warriors without a divine purpose are a disgrace.

When the player character meets their “distorted mirror” in an NPC, there’s a built-in roleplaying hook. The player has a natural reason to respond to the NPC in a dramatic way.