I write guest articles for GnomeStew occasionally. My second was published today 🙂
I write guest articles for GnomeStew occasionally. My second was published today :)
I write guest articles for GnomeStew occasionally. My second was published today 🙂
Oh hey I saw this and didn’t even check the author. I liked this a lot, and it’s very close to how I make NPCs – I just don’t have a catchy acronym.
For the Agenda bit, I separate out the Goal and the Plan to achieve the goal. Every day tavern owners and the like don’t have real complex or complete Plans, but stronger NPCs do (this is a Front).
Instincts and Secrets I usually roll into Moves. I include like 3-5 moves which cover this sort of stuff – like “Tell them about my missing daughter” or “Punch stuff instinctively”.
PS I’m a big fan of meta stuff like this, so keep it coming.
Thanks man! I could have easily done it the way you’re doing it, but I wanted an easy way to remember it. I had worked in it even before I got so into DW, but everything fell into place when I started learning about Instincts and Moves (I originally had motivation for M).
Excellent article.
NPC secrets are the driving force of good story twists. If you know the secrets of even minor NPC’s, some of those minor NPC’s may become major bosses en provide major story twists!
This is important when you play to find out what happens. You do not know how the story wil develop but when it does, your boss NPC is right there with a reveal to twist the tale.
Thanks!
I agree, I like to know all my NPC secrets. You never know when you’re player is going to say “I just want to go on a quicky quest this session” – sometimes my players will go several sessions just “playing in the sandbox” before getting back to the main plot. By knowing my minor character’s NPC’s I can easily and quickly give them a quest that doesn’t feel rushed or clichĂ©d.
More than once I’ve had “throw-away” NPC’s becomes much more important in the story because of “playing to find out what happens”!