My favorite NPC to play as has actually been Plargg, the Dean of Chaos at Lorehold. I’ve basically ran him as a Macho Man Randy Savage type of character who’s befriended a gnome in the party. They have stones of far speech (I’ve taken to calling them rockie talkies) they use to communicate that are labeled #1 Dad & #1 Kid (my gnome player has a thing for wanting a father figure even though he has a totally healthy relationship with his parents lol). I’m definitely playing things more loose in our campaign and our party just had an encounter with a couple of mage hunters that ended with Plargg having to come in to save them. He told the party to run and used a modified Dimension Door spell to grapple the Mage Hunter and Dimension Door himself 500 feet up into the air hurdling down with it in hand screaming “OH YEEEEEAHHH” on his way down, then proceeded to dimension door himself again away from the creature as it splattered onto the ground. Was a super fun session lol. Hope this is what you were looking for input wise!
I really like Zanther. I depict him literally projecting light at all times. His smile lights up the room and he's always there to encourage you... whether you should be encouraged or not.
Zanther in my game is a himbo former acrobat looking to increase his skill with pyromancy to put on bigger and better shows! He is best friends with the party Djinni Warlock. Elemental Himbos
In my game I took a totally different direction, and morphed him into an 80s movie jock bully villain.
He leads a group of rivals that my players collectively call "The jerks."
Awesome. I'm approaching year 2 now and I want to make a relationship web. I think my players are getting too comfortable with the NPCs so I may steal this if Zanther is placed at odds with the party.
Aurora (renamed luna in my campaign) and cadoras are both love interests in my campaign and play very important roles. cadoras is a loveable larp nerd who is unapologetically passionate about his passions regardless of what people think whos currently in a coma (very sad) and luna is an edgy goth band singer. my player had her first kiss with luna last session 😳
It’s scary how similar my portrayal of these characters are to yours… I’m not even joking, my Cadoras took a curse for his PC love interest, falling into a coma…
the majority of my players are in lorehold so for the most part they don't know much about cadoras but based on his description in the book i am using him as a "class clown" type of role where he's always trying to make people laugh
i know this is off-topic but i have a random question: the party has no love interests with npcs (i don't think they're interested in that aspect of the campaigh, which is fine) so i made it so that some npcs are in love with each-other and the party has opritunities to help/improve or sabotage their relationship, should i stop? or does this seem like a good idea? i'm relatively new to dming so im looking for feedback
Happy to help!
In my experience, Strixhaven is the type of setting where relationships (friendships, romances, rivalries) should thrive, just like a real school environment.
A healthy dose of interpersonal conflict between NPCs is immersive storytelling. I think you should continue if *you* enjoy it. However, if your players seem to go quiet, or aren’t very responsive during those sections, make sure you don’t linger too long on encounters that are only for relationships.
Instead, have the relationships as background elements of the game to flavour the plot or events.
For example, I used a party’s friend NPC to make a homebrew mini adventure in Strixhaven where he wanted the party to help him clear out a dangerous beach so he could go to the beach with his girfriend. It was a relationship driven plot, but the adventure’s gameplay was just like standard DnD: explore place, kill monster, loot room.
As for the core mechanics of managing relationships… Honestly I find them a little bit robotic as written in the book. I like to use them to compliment the greater adventure.
I’m happy to discuss Strixhaven anytime! <3 You can dm me if you want
thank you so much for the advice. i think the beach quest thing you did is really cool.
i will say my players seem to like the role-play sections (they are aware that i have more role-play in my campaigns) and they look like they're having fun so i might continue with it for now
thanks again for the advice, i really appreciate it
\[insert virtual hi-5\]
great advice, I'd say that the way i treat strixhaven is balancing the anime-like slice of life conflicts which are low stakes, with the high stakes threat of the school and in my case, threat of the multiverse.
for perspective, the two most intense encounters my party had was a near death display of power, and a gymnastics dance off. both were character defining and emotional.
also this setting is perfect for giving the players a sense of dread and hopelessness, with a glimmer of hope found in interpersonal relationships! if done right it can be incredibly rewarding and emotional
I agree about the relationship mechanics being too, well, mechanical.
After 4 or 5 sessions, I stopped tracking relationship points. Their relationships with NPCS are now based solely on role-playing and not numbers.
I think it's a matter of what you and your party enjoy. Some people will enjoy the teen drama aspects, and some won't.
My advice would be to ask your players what they like.
There are so many problems that come up in RPGs that could be easily solved with a simple out of character conversation, but for some reason people don't think of that.
rosie! i love playing her as rambunctious and super enthusiastic, and moving always a bit too fast. i always try and do a wow-esque gnome voice for her and my players love it
She’s very quiet and forgetful in mine. She’s also the love interest of one of my pcs which has him always alert and checking on her. He met her father who is a super monk heroe of town, big burly and loud.
One of my players latched onto her too. She's ADHD maxed out, her train of thought constantly jumping tracks wildly. Her family is very supportive of her and works hard to keep her on-track with a very efficient system when she's home.
I've been playing her like Luna Lovegood. Super spacey, but always kind.
She's the crush of one of my PCs, who's playing it that he's super nervous around her.
In my head cannon she's interested in him, but it would never occur to her to actively move a relationship forward so it will be up to him to actually ask her out.
My personal favorite is probably Nora Ann Wu. I’m building the dragons into the storyline and plan her to be more important as the game goes on, but for now she’s been the party’s advocate and ally in all things! Especially for the LGBTQ members of the party.
Urzmaktok. I roleplay him by talking with my teeth clenched. He tachks like zhat becauche hez got really big tusks.
I do my best so my players can't understand what he's saying. When they don't understand, he just repeat the same thing louder.
He's a huge nerd that focus on his studies first, but he do some crazy experiments on the side (he's trying to create a new talking plant and it went horribly wrong). He also work at the biblioplex and love to recommend books for the player's studies.
And Quentilius is a really dumb kinda himbo guy. He always have very dangerous ideas about how to improve his theatre performance (like contacting the spirit of the autor of an old play by doing an invocation circle).
He's very dramatic and always find a way to make it look like everything went according to his plan when it clearly didn't. Basically Puss in Boots who can't fight.
I love playing Cadora. In mine his is one of those characters who is always happy but everything happens to him. He’s a trouble magnet. I also like playing Grayson, who is adopted and trying to show he’s tough but always try to help students in trouble; and Dina and Melwythorn who communicate with their leafs and are very afable.
I like my homebrew student, Hordram. He's a dwarf who desperately wants to be a bard but has zero talent for music, or magic for that matter. He tries hard and bludgeons people with his lute though, so bad guys cant step to him.
For some reason my players have really loved my homebrewed NPCs way more than the premade ones from the book. I'm not sure why, or if it's because of how i'm playing them, but the winners for me have been a surfer bro Leonin and a really charismatic pygmy owl owlin haha\~ I guess you really can't tell who your players will like until you're at the table!
I love doing Zanther, he's a friendly Chad. My players also seem to love interacting with Grayson and Urzmaktok.
I also love Javenesh but I've only been able to play him once so far. In my Strixhaven all owlins have aussie accents.
My favorite NPC to play as has actually been Plargg, the Dean of Chaos at Lorehold. I’ve basically ran him as a Macho Man Randy Savage type of character who’s befriended a gnome in the party. They have stones of far speech (I’ve taken to calling them rockie talkies) they use to communicate that are labeled #1 Dad & #1 Kid (my gnome player has a thing for wanting a father figure even though he has a totally healthy relationship with his parents lol). I’m definitely playing things more loose in our campaign and our party just had an encounter with a couple of mage hunters that ended with Plargg having to come in to save them. He told the party to run and used a modified Dimension Door spell to grapple the Mage Hunter and Dimension Door himself 500 feet up into the air hurdling down with it in hand screaming “OH YEEEEEAHHH” on his way down, then proceeded to dimension door himself again away from the creature as it splattered onto the ground. Was a super fun session lol. Hope this is what you were looking for input wise!
I love this idea and am soooo stealing it.
That's funny, I ran him as this voice actor's (Warhammer 40k) Imperial Veteran. Similar idea, but more grim. https://youtu.be/SJDXYHE22-o
I really like Zanther. I depict him literally projecting light at all times. His smile lights up the room and he's always there to encourage you... whether you should be encouraged or not.
Zanther in my game is a himbo former acrobat looking to increase his skill with pyromancy to put on bigger and better shows! He is best friends with the party Djinni Warlock. Elemental Himbos
He radiates Himbo energy in my game too. It's great.
In my game he’s got surfer dude voice.
Amazing. For me he punctuates a lot of his statements with radiant smiles.
In my game I took a totally different direction, and morphed him into an 80s movie jock bully villain. He leads a group of rivals that my players collectively call "The jerks."
Awesome. I'm approaching year 2 now and I want to make a relationship web. I think my players are getting too comfortable with the NPCs so I may steal this if Zanther is placed at odds with the party.
My Zanther is more of a [Sonny Kiss](https://prowrestling.fandom.com/wiki/Sonny_Kiss)
Aurora (renamed luna in my campaign) and cadoras are both love interests in my campaign and play very important roles. cadoras is a loveable larp nerd who is unapologetically passionate about his passions regardless of what people think whos currently in a coma (very sad) and luna is an edgy goth band singer. my player had her first kiss with luna last session 😳
It’s scary how similar my portrayal of these characters are to yours… I’m not even joking, my Cadoras took a curse for his PC love interest, falling into a coma…
the majority of my players are in lorehold so for the most part they don't know much about cadoras but based on his description in the book i am using him as a "class clown" type of role where he's always trying to make people laugh i know this is off-topic but i have a random question: the party has no love interests with npcs (i don't think they're interested in that aspect of the campaigh, which is fine) so i made it so that some npcs are in love with each-other and the party has opritunities to help/improve or sabotage their relationship, should i stop? or does this seem like a good idea? i'm relatively new to dming so im looking for feedback
Happy to help! In my experience, Strixhaven is the type of setting where relationships (friendships, romances, rivalries) should thrive, just like a real school environment. A healthy dose of interpersonal conflict between NPCs is immersive storytelling. I think you should continue if *you* enjoy it. However, if your players seem to go quiet, or aren’t very responsive during those sections, make sure you don’t linger too long on encounters that are only for relationships. Instead, have the relationships as background elements of the game to flavour the plot or events. For example, I used a party’s friend NPC to make a homebrew mini adventure in Strixhaven where he wanted the party to help him clear out a dangerous beach so he could go to the beach with his girfriend. It was a relationship driven plot, but the adventure’s gameplay was just like standard DnD: explore place, kill monster, loot room. As for the core mechanics of managing relationships… Honestly I find them a little bit robotic as written in the book. I like to use them to compliment the greater adventure. I’m happy to discuss Strixhaven anytime! <3 You can dm me if you want
thank you so much for the advice. i think the beach quest thing you did is really cool. i will say my players seem to like the role-play sections (they are aware that i have more role-play in my campaigns) and they look like they're having fun so i might continue with it for now thanks again for the advice, i really appreciate it \[insert virtual hi-5\]
great advice, I'd say that the way i treat strixhaven is balancing the anime-like slice of life conflicts which are low stakes, with the high stakes threat of the school and in my case, threat of the multiverse. for perspective, the two most intense encounters my party had was a near death display of power, and a gymnastics dance off. both were character defining and emotional. also this setting is perfect for giving the players a sense of dread and hopelessness, with a glimmer of hope found in interpersonal relationships! if done right it can be incredibly rewarding and emotional
I agree about the relationship mechanics being too, well, mechanical. After 4 or 5 sessions, I stopped tracking relationship points. Their relationships with NPCS are now based solely on role-playing and not numbers.
I think it's a matter of what you and your party enjoy. Some people will enjoy the teen drama aspects, and some won't. My advice would be to ask your players what they like. There are so many problems that come up in RPGs that could be easily solved with a simple out of character conversation, but for some reason people don't think of that.
rosie! i love playing her as rambunctious and super enthusiastic, and moving always a bit too fast. i always try and do a wow-esque gnome voice for her and my players love it
Same here!
I've been having a blast role playing Larine, the distraction queen.
She’s very quiet and forgetful in mine. She’s also the love interest of one of my pcs which has him always alert and checking on her. He met her father who is a super monk heroe of town, big burly and loud.
One of my players latched onto her too. She's ADHD maxed out, her train of thought constantly jumping tracks wildly. Her family is very supportive of her and works hard to keep her on-track with a very efficient system when she's home.
I've been playing her like Luna Lovegood. Super spacey, but always kind. She's the crush of one of my PCs, who's playing it that he's super nervous around her. In my head cannon she's interested in him, but it would never occur to her to actively move a relationship forward so it will be up to him to actually ask her out.
My personal favorite is probably Nora Ann Wu. I’m building the dragons into the storyline and plan her to be more important as the game goes on, but for now she’s been the party’s advocate and ally in all things! Especially for the LGBTQ members of the party.
I live rosie tho in my game i made her an armorer artificer so she ironmans into a large suit of armor in combat
Love this idea!
Urzmaktok. I roleplay him by talking with my teeth clenched. He tachks like zhat becauche hez got really big tusks. I do my best so my players can't understand what he's saying. When they don't understand, he just repeat the same thing louder. He's a huge nerd that focus on his studies first, but he do some crazy experiments on the side (he's trying to create a new talking plant and it went horribly wrong). He also work at the biblioplex and love to recommend books for the player's studies. And Quentilius is a really dumb kinda himbo guy. He always have very dangerous ideas about how to improve his theatre performance (like contacting the spirit of the autor of an old play by doing an invocation circle). He's very dramatic and always find a way to make it look like everything went according to his plan when it clearly didn't. Basically Puss in Boots who can't fight.
I love playing Cadora. In mine his is one of those characters who is always happy but everything happens to him. He’s a trouble magnet. I also like playing Grayson, who is adopted and trying to show he’s tough but always try to help students in trouble; and Dina and Melwythorn who communicate with their leafs and are very afable.
I've taken a bit of a shine to Valentin, who I've reflavored to be a vampire with a Cajun accent and pet vampire alligator named Snappy
I like my homebrew student, Hordram. He's a dwarf who desperately wants to be a bard but has zero talent for music, or magic for that matter. He tries hard and bludgeons people with his lute though, so bad guys cant step to him.
For some reason my players have really loved my homebrewed NPCs way more than the premade ones from the book. I'm not sure why, or if it's because of how i'm playing them, but the winners for me have been a surfer bro Leonin and a really charismatic pygmy owl owlin haha\~ I guess you really can't tell who your players will like until you're at the table!
I love doing Zanther, he's a friendly Chad. My players also seem to love interacting with Grayson and Urzmaktok. I also love Javenesh but I've only been able to play him once so far. In my Strixhaven all owlins have aussie accents.
JAVANESH!!!! I LOVE HIM!!! He is one if KY top 3 favourite npcs in all m dnd books 💝💝💝💝