WIP Wednesday: NPC Names We Can Laugh To

It’s hump day and that means DM Ben can once again show you some fun NPC game prep that you might be able to utilize in your own DnD campaign.

If you’ve been following 3D RPG closely this week, you’ve seen us hard at work creating numerous one-shot encounters as the party has just re-entered town after a long cavern crawl. DM Ben tries to avoid a linear game as much as possible and the best way he does so is by introducing several one-off missions that the group can complete at their leisure.

So today we need a couple more NPCs to complete our existing mission menu as it were. And our key ingredients for a new NPC build are:

• a memorable name
• a printed face card (for player notes/memory recall)
• a fabulous miniature
• a simple backstory and purpose
• some optional scatter terrain (to set the scene)

If the DM takes a little extra time to prep these pieces for each mission, it’s a night and day difference for the players.

We’ll focus on two NPCs today: one is rearing its head from an older encounter and the second accents a mission we constructed earlier this week. Let’s talk about how we set these two interesting chaps up per our creation guideline bullets above!

If you don’t recall, our work team is playing the Acquisitions Incorporated D&D 5e module (with a lot of home-brewed content sprinkled in). So this first NPC is an offshoot of an ambush encounter where one of the bandits ultimately surrendered. However, the party was pretty hard on him. They made the surviving thug dress down to his skivvies and left him with a small knife slash to the face so that he could go tell his boss that they messed with the wrong adventurers.

Well, come on…DM Ben just can’t let that sorta encounter go quietly into the night. First off, our WizKids Harbinger Human Bandit mini (a classic) is going to be replaced with this epic 3D-printed EC3D Designs Empire of the Scorching Sands mini. Our perfect face card is from Pathfinder’s Friends & Foes Facecard Deck.

Here’s where the mission part comes in…little does the party know that the guy they let get away was the boss. And not only that, he’s one of the most skilled swordsmen in the realm. He’s not too happy about his new scar momento or being humiliated in public.

The group will overhear these details from two drunk patrons in the pub that night. “Can you believe someone was crazy enough to mess with ‘Merv the Swerve‘ and even wilder, they let him live?! They are so dead!” Roaring laughter ensues!

Now our second NPC is connected to the fun Not Your Garden Variety Farmer one-shot mission from the other day. Ol’ Huckle Riverstone is sending the party on a Mimic pumpkinseed quest but his reward is simply a bag of his precious topsoil. From there, the party needs to visit a local mage merchant who will snatch up said dirt in exchange for some very handy restoration spell scrolls.

Once again, we’ve run through all our NPC build checklist items. Our enchanting face card comes from Pathfinder’s Enemies Facecard Deck. The miniature comes from Wizkids D&D Icons of the Realms: Waterdeep Dragon Heist set (6b/44).

Now our work group is a delightful mix of younger and older players and DM Ben is no spring chicken (age 52). Naturally, he loves puns and old references so his names try to reflect his sense of humor. Consequently, he named this particular mage “Rishardo Montalwand” after the brilliant Mexican-born actor, Ricardo Montalbán (Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan)! So good, right?!

So not only will Rishardo Montalwand do this particular dirt trade, but he will also encourage the group to harvest other parts from other exotic monsters they encounter so that he can continue to grow his spell component shop’s amazing inventory of the rare and bizarre.

But there you have it two more NPCs that can only make your game better!