What makes a NPC intelligent?
To fully understand the rich depth and potential of our Intelligent NPCs, it's important to delve into the contextual factors that guide their interactions in your tabletop role-playing games. This context is threefold -
The scene sets the stage for the interactions. It includes the scene description – the surroundings, the atmosphere, the ongoing events – painting a vivid picture that the NPC can interact with. It also includes the other characters present in the scene, so they know they aren't alone in the room. This context provides the backdrop against which the NPC operates and adapts.
This is the core identity of your NPC. It includes their personality, which guides their responses and interactions; their goals, which drive their actions and decisions; and their behaviors, which reflect how they go about achieving these goals. This context also encompasses their memory, a dynamic repository of their experiences that evolves over time, influencing future actions and decisions. An NPC's context can be shaped and reshaped over the course of your game to evolve the character naturally.
The target context refers to the characters that the NPC is interacting with, the 'targets' of their actions or dialogues. This includes generally available information about the target that everyone in town knows. Is the target notorious in town or a new face? Are they known for their heroic deeds or infamous exploits? This context enables the NPC to react realistically and meaningfully to the target.
Each of these contexts interweaves to create an immersive, engaging, and responsive NPC. They can adapt to the shifting dynamics of the scene, evolve in line with their experiences, and react in tune with their understanding of the target. This comprehensive understanding of context helps the NPCs to enrich your TTRPG adventures and bring your stories to life. So, prepare to be enchanted by their depth, dynamism, and realism. Let the adventure begin!
Our context has grown quite layered as we've expanded, so we've made the following diagram to help understand the layers:
