characters

In learning to write fiction for BREX, I discovered the concept of character-driven stories from Johnn Four’s article The 3 Line NPC Method: How to Create Story-Full NPCs Fast. Johnn writes the advice from his perspective as a Game Master for TTRPGs, but I have found his ideas to be superb for writing characters for fiction. A GM needs to be able to role-play his NPCs; a writer must also role-play his characters in abundant situations. I highly recommend reading and studying the entire article for all the goods if you think this idea may help your writing (it is lengthy), but the following link will take you to the specific section that lays out how to use the 3-Line NPC Method.

To sum it up, a 3-line NPC is a non-player character described in the following 3 lines: appearance, portrayal, and hook. Appearance is what you would first see upon encountering the character. Portrayal defines a few key role and personality traits and informs how to role-play the character. The hook is something meaningful, intriguing, exciting, etc. that can expand the plot of the story. Those 3 lines create a powerful package of details that makes writing for the character a joy because you know quite a bit about them from the start including motives and tendencies.

I like to create a bunch of characters before I need them to build up a reserve or library to draw from as the need arises for new characters. As a GM Johnn encourages introducing a new character each session to keep the story moving forward. I have adopted this mentality in my writing. I try to introduce at least one new character in each episode and so far (5 episodes in) I’m having a blast. I have had to create a couple characters to fit specific roles I had written about in my script and it felt less fun and free than writing random interesting characters and then dropping them into the story. I try to let character creation drive the story as much as possible rather than having to create a specific character to fit the story, but it does happen sometimes.

3-line NPC Generator

I was sold on the concept, but I’m very inefficient at coming up with interesting information to write characters; so I created a random generator to spark ideas which I can interpret into interesting elements. I now use this to create all the characters for my story. I still have to do a lot of the work for interpretting the details and writing the story hook, but this tool makes it so much more enjoyable. You can find and use my generator here: nathanparkinson.com/npc. You can even modify the source code and customize your own version however you’d like. I’d love to hear if you find this useful.

Example 3-line NPCs

To give a proof of concept, I will provide a few 3-line NPCs I have generated using this method. You can find explanations for each section at the bottom of the generator page.

Grithim: dwarf librarian

Appearance: (middle-aged, male, dwarf, Merdite, peasant); simple stylish hat, short beard, fiery red pants; impatiently sorting through ring full of keys to unlock something; yelling at students kissing in the library.

Portrayal: (low-skill) Librarian – administers or assists in a library.
Amateur bonsai arborist; impatient; blunt; short-tempered, emotionally fragile (lawful neutral)

Hook: A former circus tamer. Due to an impatient mistake he made his son was killed in the ring by a beast. To distance himself from the memories he left the circus and took a position as a librarian. He is learning bonsai to try to improve his patience; he succeeds sometimes. He is often lost in a cloud of emotion, presented as impatience or distance, as he processes his grief; he misses his son.

Kythar: evil guild master

Appearance: (elderly, male, giant, Ursmite, wealthy); epic hair, metal-plated pants, elaborate silver flute on waist; negotiating in the market about castle business.

Portrayal: (high-skill) Guild Master – leads an economically independent producer (a “guild,” an association of craftsmen or merchants that often holds considerable bureaucratic power).
Sweet odor; swift; duplicitous (neutral evil)

Hook: In jealousy he betrayed his ‘best-friend’ to death and deceived the family that he did all he could to save him. In gratitude they gave him a special family heirloom, a silver flute. It is said that the darkness of his heart corrupted the life stones in the flute, cursing it never again to play a joyful melody.

Atikel: crazy bird lady

Appearance: (middle-aged, female, human, Merdite, destitute); tattered feather dress, bird’s claw clutching strange stone hangs from neck, small birds flit around her; fighting to keep a large bird in a cage.

Portrayal: Fowler – catches or ensnares birds.
She loyally served one of your relatives in a naval capacity; always smells nice/wild (chaotic good)

Hook: She needs your help to save her naive daughter from the scumbag pursuing her. She has convinced him that buying her daughter a certain bird will win her heart, but she knows it will drive them apart. She wants to use Brex as bait for the bird.