When playing NPCs and Villains in a game it can be difficult for a narrator to come up with efficient methods of conveying their personality. Sometimes we can get away with simply using the characters moveset, but that won’t always work and it requires the players to be paying close attention. So how would you ensure players, without prior knowledge of the characters, get the difference between Spider-Man (Miles Morales) and Spider-Punk (Hobbie Brown).

Quotes and Catchphrases.

Quotes and catchphrases are wide terms which mean two different things but both can be easily implemented at the table or during prep.

A quote is a simple 1-2 sentence phrase that sums up a character and how they see the world. While we can use a quote as is they also act as a guideline for us as we play the character.

For example a quote for Miles may be “Change always comes. What matters is how we face it.” This reminds us that Miles is a character that doesn’t dwell on the past and is always looking to do the right thing. Hobbie we could use “The whole point of being Spider-Man is your independence.” This reminds us that he cares about one thing above everything else, being allowed to express himself without restriction.

A catchphrase is much simplier. Its a bark a character makes during a fight to quickly remind the players of their personality. A great example is The Thing saying “It’s clobberin’ time!” This reminds us of not only how he thinks, the way he speaks, but also builds tension since the players now have expections for what will hapen need. By making a pool of 1-3 catchphrases we can quickly build an entire combats worth of dialogue.

For Miles we could use “Thwip!”, “Can we make this quick?”, and “I almost wore the same outfit, that would have been embarrasing.” For Hobbie we could use “Nazi punks f*&k off!”, “Get out of here poser.”, and we can double up to by giving him “Thwip!” too.

With these quotes and catchphrases in hand we can not only convey our NPCs more effectively to the players but also ground their personality for us as we play them. A final benefit for using them is that you can combine them with the Monologuing rule from the Core Rulebook. Now we can give our villains additional Karma during combat in a manner that fits neatly with what our players expect.