How to properly foreshadow NPCs

Question

I am new to DMing. I have done two sessions as of now (two one-shots).
The world is a homebrew of mine.

The idea is to make a one-shot and see if the players (3 friends) are interested in it, and eventually (hopefully) having a campaign after that.
I already tried it with one of the players that happens to be a DM of another common campaign. He provided some feedback on this one-shot, even though he didn't see all of it.

My question

What can be used to foreshadow a NPC as interesting?
Basically I did two foreshadows:

1. One with a very strong and scarred man, which worked (he got a somewhat carefree but not unpleasant attitude, and I got to tease he was way stronger than average due to him pushing the player to the ground by mistake).
2. The other one is heard talking to the city wizard through a contraption (he is not physically there). The conversation ended up with a display of magic that shows the city wizard trying to restrain the other one, only to get humiliated by the difference in ability.

My player for this test run seemed to enjoy the first NPC a lot, and seemed genuinely interested in getting to know more about him (but continued the mission) so I provided a hook to make it so he can continue the story there later. However, he didn't seem to want to interact much with the remote NPC, which I gave him an opportunity for

I understand it's not just up to me if my player(s) like or don't like a NPC, but I would like to know how I can improve the presentation of the second one, to increase the odds some of the players are interested.

More generally, I am interested on how to tease NPCs properly.

My setting is fantasy, the NPC in question is supposed to be a top magician.

Answer 1

Don't do that

The only plausible way to get players hooked on something is to connect it with their characters.

You play a tabletop roleplaying game. You didn't specify what game it is, but for the most part these games are about player characters, not NPCs. Players have no reason to be interested in any NPC — they have their very own characters.

So if you want players to interact with a specific NPC, give them a substantional reason to do so right from the beginning of the session, especially when it's a one-shot. They might be direct subordinates of this NPC, or relatives, or friends, or mortal enemies, or servants, whatever. What this NPC can't be is just a mysterious person on a street.

If you still want to introduce an NPC as an in-game event, make players decisions matter. They might want to save this NPC from certain death. Or maybe, punish him for the crimes they saw. Or completely ignore him. Don't pre-plan their actions, make your players feel important. You're not the story teller — you're the set designer.

Answer 2

Give them multiple chances

If you want players to pick up on anything, wether it's NPCs or something else, and this is important for the adventure, don't just provide one clue or opportunity to do so, give them multiple. When its about information, this is called the three clue rule - don't just provide one clue, provide three. You never know what the players will pick up on or what will catch their fancy. With time, as you get to know them and their interests better, you may get better in guessing what works with them, but it's never 100%, and that's fine. It's what keeps it interesting to you, too.

In your case, I think its not that surprising that the players did not engage with the wizard NPC - he wasn't even there. To them, he was just a disembodied voice in a box. The one character that was there in front of them was the wizard he humiliated. He also did not directly interact with the players like the first one did.

Next time, you might put him there personally, and maybe he does something right in front of them, or better yet to them. This increases the chances they'll take notice. But even in the scene you had, it sounds like a player could have developed interest or suspected the "voice in the box" was somehow important. They just didn't. So if that matters, give them more chances.

Answer 3

Foreshadowing is great but different from creating engaging NPCs

I thought it might be useful to clarify this. To foreshadow something means

be a warning or indication of (a future event)

Foreshadowing in general is a great idea. You know the villains, secrets and major events in your campaign, while the players do not. So weaving in small hints about what is to come can be a powerful way to make the game world seem more real. But it has other things it can achive, too. For example,

• If the master wizard in the device they encounterd is a major villain they will have to face later, then having them observe how he humiliates or destroys innocents or powerful other people can help to build up tension, showcase how dangerous he is, and help motivate the PCs to defeat him.
• Or, you can use foreshadowing to inform the PCs about future events, for example the players can overhear someone in a tavern discuss the war going badly against the southrons early on, if for the future of the campaign you have planned an invasion of the Sauthron army as a backdrop for your adventure. If the guy in the tavern mentioned that the southrons' advantage were their wyverns, and the players remember, this can give them an edge, as they can prepare fighting wyverns by obtaining antitoxin.
• You can warn them of dangers, like the players observing how the thieves' guild kill someone with a poisoned arrow shot from the shadows. Bystanders then can let them know that the black arrows are a well-known warning code of the guild, and if the PCs later have business with the guild, they will know to be careful.

All of these are useful, and in some cases, they can help to introduce a villain. But these are different goals from making the NPC "interesting". You are not trying to create a memorable NPC when you foreshadow, your are preparing the players for what is yet to come, heightening its impact.

"Interesting" NPCs

Generally the PCs will be primarily be interested in things that affect them, or the quest they are on. But not every NPCs can be important for that. Not every barkeep or shop keeper has a deep secret that is connected to their adventure. There still are ways to create interesting, or maybe one should say engaging or memorable NPCs, for example look at How can a GM quickly create interesting, engaging NPCs?

Engaging NPCs share one common purpose with foreshadowing: they make the world seem more real. If all barkeeps are the same fat, uncleanly slob, this is not only boring, it is also not believable. If NPCs have their own little back stories, even if those have nothing to do with the main quest, this also makes the world seem more real, because that quest is not the only thing going on in it.

But creating such 3D NPCs is also very different from foreshadowing: instead of helping along the main plot, it may even lead to the players instead get lost in side adventures. For example, if the barkeep tells the characters that his wive is suffering from this wasting disease, a tidbit that was just meant to make him feel more real, and the players pick up on it you may find yourself in an unplanned side adventure, where the players try to secure knowledge and medicine to stop that disease, activity that has nothing to do with your main story, but piqued the interest of the players.

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P.S. My recommendation is to listen to your players and what they are interested in, and improvise to allow side adventures they want to undertake. If you have the bigger picture in mind, you always can weave in pointers back to hint at your main plot. For example in case of the barkeep with the sick wife, the apothecary can tell them that the medicine is not available, beause the thieves guild robbed the transport and now controls the supply, and you are right back to the PCs seeking out and negotiating with the thieves guild.

Answer 4

What exactly is your goal?

You say you want to make a One-Shot with your friends and turn that into a campaign and it looks like it is developing fine. But then you sound disappointed that your players didn't engage further with your second NPC and that with the first NPC they seemed interested, but:

continued the mission

You should not be surprised by that. A roleplaying campaign is basically just a serious of adventures, missions, quests or whatever you want to call them, which in turn are further seperated into encounters, plus some downtime between those missions. Your players are playing their mission because that is the game and it seems like they are having fun with that, this means you as a DM are doing a great job. From my experience good players will actively try to stay on course with the adventure out of politeness towards the DM, because they know this is want you put the most time in and probably want them to do.

So in the end you have a functioning game, isn't that what you wanted?

How to use NPCs

Of course NPCs are an essential part of any role playing game, but as stated before this game is about going on adventures not talking to NPCs all day, so it should come as no surprise, that your players would rather do the former than the latter. If you want your players to engage with your NPCs you have to include them in the main parts of the game. Either as part of a mission or part of the down time between missions. There are so many roles that you NPCs can fill in those scenarios:

• Make them the quest giver
• Make them an obstacle such as a bad guy or just a town guard that doesn't let them through at first
• Make it so they have to take the NPC with them on the quest
• Make it so the NPC is in a prison cell inside the dungeon and needs to be rescued
• Make the NPC the local store owner, tavern keep, town crier, city ruler or some other role in town, that they are likely to run into

Presenting game elements

As a DM your goal is to present the players with interesting things, NPCs, adventures, towns etc. that they can interact with. First of, keep in mind that your players only have limited time to interact with any element of your world during a given session. If they are having fun talking to NPC A, they might not even make it to NPC B during the session and that's okay, as long as they are enjoying themselves.

On the other hand it is perfectly normal if your players are not interested in a certain game element, such as an NPC. A tip here is to not overprepare, but only create a basic outline, so that if your players aren't interested you are less frustrated, because you didn't put to much time in it. This often happens when designing quests. Problem: "I made this really cool dungeon, but my players will never see it, because they didn't like the quest hook.". Solution: "Only make the whole dungeon after the players accept the quest.". You can apply the same principle to your NPCs.

Rome wasn't built in a day

You are a new DM, making a custom campaign world, with a custom game system, trying to introduce new players into the game while also wanting to make memorable NPCs. Doesn't this sound like a bit too much? Take your game one step at a time. First develop your gaming group with a couple of friends with some simple adventures and then try to improve on those by trying to learn new gm techniques.

Don't focus to much on making 'memorable' NPCs

Matthew Colville a famous DM with his own Youtube channel full of advice, once asked his community what they wanted to learn about NPCs and the most common answer was that they wanted to learn how to make NPCs 'memorable'. In the end this is just a fancy buzzword, that can mean different things to different people.

For many it means 'make my NPCs just like the ones on [insert famous D&D show here]'. I don't know if this is the case for you, but just as general advice: don't focus on that too much, this is not a requirement to be a good DM or have a good game. This is something online DMs do because it is a good way to engage a larger audience into the games narrative. You don't have an audience, you have players and again those want to play the game by going on adventures and not admire your NPCs all day.

Answer 5

Some ideas to create interest in an NPC:

• Have the PCs hear rumors about him in town
• Make other NPCs talk about him with awe or respect
• "Deja vu": make them stumble upon the NPC in several occasions that are too odd to be coincidences
• A PC sees him in a dream or senses his power with magic detection
• Make a part of the town change based on his presence or mood
• Have him use his influence to harm or help the PCs
• Make him a red herring or a dead end in a case the PCs are investigating
• Make it so he has something the PCs want
• Give him some experience or knowledge about an evil the PCs are fighting