Hi to all! In my first session as a GM I realized that interpreting even a simple seller or a shopman can be difficult, since the Players were interested in what they could say or even conceal, and gave them a lot of importance while i thought at them as mere seller...Then I realised itwas difficult to me to say always interesting thing about people wandering and the staff in taverns...Someone can give some advice to run the urban environment and first of all to make conversation with shopper easy and maybe brilliant?

Thank to all!

For opposed checks etc., just pull the stats of the basic NPC that fits, townsfolk or specialist. At times up a stat when it fits them (the really personable fellow +1 Fellowship) etc.

Decide what information you want to have sent out to Players, what bits important to the adventure, preludes to next adventure, responses to their curiosity, fluff filling out campaign setting, snippets for individual PC backgrounds, etc. At times just have a great roll mean a chance to get a bargain on something, or to have a hard to find item pop up for purchase, escpecially if it fits your campaign or a hook (e.g., NPC one notes he really needs to get some of X, Bretonnian Brandy or Varlerian, NPC two gives a lead on finding some of that - oh but what do you know the first leads to smugglers and the second to beastman-infested woods - adventure ahoy). You want them to stick around in town for a few weeks for your campaign reasons, then let them get a bargain on longer term rent, dinner the next week etc. Think of bane things like the waitress overcharges you but you`re too liquored up to notice, or worse she`s a pickpocket too, the merchant is insulted by you and refuses to deal with you anymore (that`s a failure and chaos star), or sells you hot goods (success and chaos star). You can hold all this lightly if you like and just riff or create tables and lists to help you remember etc.

You don't have to work out who says what so much as what you want out and about and when is the right time to let it flow for that triple success, pair of boons etc.

Rob

For everyday people who aren't recurring NPCs I usually just give them one big quirk or flaw and hang everything on that. It's never subtle either, so it can mask the fact that they are a one-dimensional character behind that quirk.

The innkeep has a lazy eye who's gaze continually follows random people behind him. The blacksmith ends every sentence muttering, "ahoy ahoy boy-o." The merchant obsessively picks at his teeth, to the point that it gets in the way of speaking clearly. The laborer has ash on his hands, soils everything he touches, and is very touchy-feely with the characters. The priest reacts to everything with suspicion, reflexively cutting off characters and questioning them.

Just grab the first thing that comes to mind and run with it. Blow it up and make the encounter about it. The players want to ask the innkeep something, but the wandering eye gets in their way.

Doc, the Weasel said:

That's the best counsel right here !
I do that also, been GMing for over 20 years. Works fine !

Just to add a tip here, you should create a page full, 30 or so, of these "one quirk ponies" and write them down. Name - Quirk - extra notes if need be.
THIS LIST WILL SAVE YOUR ASS.

And will make GMing what we call stock characters a very fun thing to do indeed. Play big, make the players laugh, make them angry, make them flummoxed, but make them react ! Then you'll know you've got their attention and everyone has fun.

Players love to roleplay with tavern wenches and old barkeeps. You'll face this problem all the time, so be prepared and have fun with it !
And don't forget, even with a list, if you come up with some great idea on the fly, use it and jot it down for future reference.

The list of quirks idea is a good one. Another thing I tend to do in my own games is to mentally cast an actor in the role of each NPC. Then, when that NPC shows up, I do an impression of that actor.

Note, however, that this only works because I suck at doing impressions . That part is important. If you're actually talented at sounding like other people, you'll have trouble with this method.

But because I'm so bad at it, my players don't hear Kevin Costner or John Cleese or Rowan Atkinson, because I don't actually sound like any one of them; they just hear Oskar the Cartwright or Graf Schneckenauer or Three-Fingered Willi. However, because I've assigned an actor to each NPC, when the PCs meet the same NPC again six months from now, that NPC will have the same voice, mannerisms, and stock phrases that he had the first time the PCs encountered him.

(By the way, do NOT use a recognizable catchphrase of any actor. No matter how bad your Arnold Schwarzenegger impression is, if you start spouting lines like "I'll be back" and "Come with me if you want to live", your players will quickly twig to what you're doing, and the game of "guess which actor the GM is trying to impersonate now" will distract from the game you're actually trying to run.)

If you use this trick, you'll find that it leverages your natural inability to do convincing impressions in order to make you look like some sort of improvisational genius.

Doc, the Weasel said:

Great advice man. That's exactly it. When handling single use NPCs it's all about first impressions and that one or two details that catches your eye. I always describe these kind of NPCs with 2-3 words and if it's a spontaneous NPC I just think of something and then jot it down in case they may run into him the next session. Sometimes these NPCs develop into full fledged NPCs though if the players take an interrest in them - I love that, because those NPCs tend to be very memorable personalities.

The free pdf book Game Mastering has some great table of manerism and looks that can be used for very quickly making an NPC.

I've found that using a name of a person is better than "Some Random Peasant tells you xxx with your folklore check."

It also means that you can use that peasant again later as a kind of contact.

I just write a few names down (if you need some, use the ones from the start of my house rulebook). dl.dropbox.com/u/167876/WFRP3%20HAFNER%20Houserules%20v8.pdf Then I just try to think about one trait that makes them unique (such as the guy has one red shoe, a wooden talisman on his neck, a twitch or something.

jh

You've already been given some brilliant suggestions on creating characterful NPCs on the fly, but for completeness' sake, here's my tip (copied from another recent thread on preparing for games) - it's actually pretty similar to Jakeboone's:

One way of creating a personality is to take the personality of someone you know (even if not well), and use their most obvious traits to characterise the NPC.

eg. PCs are arrested by a guard and introduced to the captain. What sort of guy is he?

Quick think about someone I know - let's say my secondary school teacher: neither clever nor dull, moderately friendly but kind of annoying, supposedly having an affair with another one of my teachers, seems like someone who drifted into her job without giving it much thought.

So; the captain in his raspy voice addresses the PCs in a disinterested manner. He seems to be asking some reasonable questions, but will not necessarily notice small holes in their cover story, and if they think quickly and blather well, then they can run rings around him. He'd like to wrap things up as quickly as possible, as he wants to get out of the watch post in time to see his mistress before he heads back home. There we have it - a 'fully developed' NPC personality in a few seconds.

The important point here is not to accurately try to capture a real person, but to use them as inspiration you need to give them a personality, and you, the GM, the confidence in playing the character consistently. The process of turning a real into into a watch leader often creates a new NPC, who can then become a recurring character if needed.

Best advice I got was from an old Dragon magazine way back in the day.

Create a 5-10 of prepared personalities, don't give them job or anything specific, just mannerism, dress code behavior and a name keep on hand when you brain is to busy to come with this up on your own.

I find this is very important because players tend to ignore a bartender name “Bob”, but if his name is “Boris Koch” he may be a part of the story line a lead etc.

Lately I’ve been come very lazy at doing this so I just go to http://dailyempire.guildredemund.net/ and refresh a couple of times until I get somthing I like, but I allways keep it writen down andredy to go.

It's not all about them

I once got so bored with a stock npc 'nobody' that I gave him a stroke in the middle of a conversation. Players didn't know wether he's been poisoned, touched by the Gods or was mad. Completely threw the entire session out of kilter, what with the watch being called and everything, and needed lots of ad-libbing, but was definitely not boring.

I think it's important to let the characters realise that the world goes on without them. Every now and then add a random factor - start an npc domestic in the middle of the conversation; send them off to the toilet and don't bring them back; get bitten by a dog; find the pc's just oh so boring; be too busy to talk to them; fart noisily.

(That being said, when my players start to investigate something I practically spoon feed them it's so rare!)