Best NPC generators and NPC creators 2023

While they’re a lot of fun, Tabletop RPGs such as Dungeons & Dragons (DnD) and Pathfinder can be incredibly time-consuming. Dungeon masters (DMs) spend hours planning before a gameplay session to ensure their players enjoy a grand adventure full of mischief, monsters and – perhaps most importantly – exciting characters. 

But as so many DMs quickly find out, building an entire campaign’s worth of imagined personalities is no easy task. That’s how non-playable character (NPC) generators came about. These tools help RPG fans create basic outlines of characters within seconds, taking the stress out of having to think up character names, backgrounds, likes, dislikes and more. 

But most NPC generators don’t provide the user with many customizability options, only the basics such as race or gender. There is also no way to request extra details. However, there’s a new kind of NPC generator - powered by generative AI. AI-powered NPC generators can create original characters with genuine depth by using the power of generative AI, such as large language models, text-to-speech, speech-to-text, and other machine learning models. The NPC generated have vibrant personalities and colorful backgrounds and can also demonstrate contextual awareness of the world around them.

This makes them a great fit for video games, too. Picture an open-world video game where every character you encounter is as unique as the last. We surveyed gamers about their thoughts on AI-generated NPCs, and the majority said they thought they’d help to make games more immersive (62%), interactive (62%), and realistic (54%).

If you’re interested in learning more about NPC generators, here’s everything you need to know about the best AI NPC generators and NPC creators, and how you can use tools such as Inworld’s Studio to make your own AI characters. 

What is an AI NPC generator or NPC Creator? 

An NPC generator or NPC creator is a program that enables users to create non-playable characters with minimal effort. Some NPC generators (or creators) will only give you basic descriptions and outlines. Others are more sophisticated and use generative AI to help create dynamic characters with a distinct personality. 

NPC generators can be broken down into four main types: character description generators, NPC personality generators, character appearance generators, and AI NPC generators. 

Character description generator 

A character description generator (or NPC description generator) lets you quickly create an overview of a fictional character, including traits such as their political views, in-game stats, moral values, IQ, and hobbies, without getting bogged down with all the physical details. They’re helpful when creating fictional characters for novels, short stories, films, audiobooks, plays, and more. 

NPC personality generator

An NPC personality generator is relatively similar to a character description generator. The main difference is that, as they’re more geared toward non-playable characters, they focus more on their personality traits and background than in-game stats. 

Character appearance generator

A character appearance generator creates a character according to a few set rules (such as gender or race) with a written description or illustration. They also describe some personality traits and other features, although typically with less detail than other generators.

AI NPC generator

An AI NPC generator uses generative AI to bring an NPC to life. These tools enable everyone from tabletop RPG players to game developers to build an infinite number of highly dynamic characters that otherwise would have taken months (if not years) to create

Take our Inworld Studio as an example. Users must first enter the basic blueprint for their character, including who they are and what motivates them. The generative AI will then use this as the basis for the character’s personality and expand on it, building a nuanced, AI-generated NPC. 

AI NPCs can also demonstrate contextual awareness of the world around them, meaning they can react to in-game events and news without the need for additional programming. They’re also great for interactive tabletop games – even allowing you to speak with the NPC while playing. 

The best AI NPC generators and NPC Creators

Below is a comprehensive list of the best NPC generators available today, including information on how to access them, where they’re the most useful, and any drawbacks to be aware of around each generator.

✨ NPC Generator

• Website: www.npcgenerator.com
• Overview: NPCgenerator.com is a DnD NPC maker. Each randomly generated character receives a general description, personality traits, ability scores (i.e. strength), relationship status, sexual orientation, alignment (e.g. good or evil), and even a plot hook to bring them into the story. 
• Type: Character description generator, character appearance generator 
• Use cases: Tabletop RPGs such as DnD or Pathfinder
• Benefits: NPCgenerator.com allows users to customize the results with five different options (race, sex, alignment, plot hooks and occupation).
• Drawbacks: It’s purely text-based, so some imagination is necessary to fill in the blanks. 

✨ Inworld AI: AI NPC generator & NPC generator

• Website: www.inworld.ai 
• Overview: Inworld allows users to create AI-powered characters with a vivid personality and complex backstory using natural language descriptions in their easy-to-use studio. Inworld characters are capable of forming memories, creating their own responses and feeling emotions in real-time.
• Type: AI NPC generator, NPC generator
• Use cases: Video games, tabletop games, and more 
• Benefits: Inworld's Studio allows you to automatically generate characters from a minimal description and customize them any way you want. You can then interact with these characters either by voice or text. Inworld also provides pre-configured RPG character creators like our D&D Character Creator for generating innovative character ideas and the D&D Game Master who can design a gaming scenario and guide users throughout the session. You can also experiment with Breaking Bad or Lord of the Rings-themed RPG adventure chats.
• Drawbacks: Because Inworld Studio isn’t RPG-specific, you can create any kind of character you want. That could leave you overwhelmed by the possibilities.

✨ RPG Tinker: D&D 5e NPC Generator

• Website: www.rpgtinker.com/ 
• Overview: RPG Tinker is a tool for building NPCs for DnD 5e (fifth edition). This generator leans heavily on in-game statistics and abilities, creating unique characters that can be immediately used in battle. It’s also highly customizable, providing a number of base templates to choose from (including roles such as beggar, farmer, and artisan) and allowing modifications to hit ability scores and hit dice.
• Type: Character description generator
• Use cases: This generator is primarily geared towards Dungeons and Dragons 5e. It could be used for other editions of DnD, although its stats and abilities may not be as accurate depending on how the rules have changed.
• Benefits: RPG Tinker is particularly good for building NPCs that intend to be brought into battle, allowing users to print off a dedicated sheet they can refer to during the fight. 
• Drawbacks: This generator doesn’t really provide any details on the appearance or personality of an NPC. It’s also only truly useful to DnD players using the latest edition of the game.

✨ RanGen: Personality Generator

• Website: www.rangen.co.uk/chars/pergen.php 
• Overview: The RanGen Personality Generator randomly creates sets of character traits that can be used as the basis of an NPC character.
• Type:  NPC personality generator
• Use cases: Useful when creating any fictional character, regardless of medium.
• Benefits: The generator is easy to use and can generate up to 20 characters at a time.
• Drawbacks: It only generates very limited details about the character, although this might be seen as a positive for a more experienced writer who is just looking for a starting point.

✨ RanGen: Character Appearance Generator

• Website: www.rangen.co.uk/chars/appgen.php  
• Overview: Works in a very similar fashion to RanGen’s other generator, except this focuses on appearance rather than personality. 
• Type: Character appearance generator 
• Use cases: Useful when creating any fictional character, regardless of medium. It also includes a special setting for anime characters.
• Benefits: It paints a surprisingly vivid picture of each generated character, describing not just their face but also aspects of their body and overall style. Characters sometimes even hold objects of importance, helping to spark additional ideas about what their motivations could be. 
• Drawbacks: There are a number of customizability options, but there is still room for a lot more custom options. For example, if you were looking to generate a character from a certain background or age range, it could take a while to generate something that fits.

✨ Character Personality Generator

• Website: www.character-generator.org.uk/personality/ 
• Overview: This generator creates highly detailed descriptions of characters and covers the basics, such as name, age, ethnicity and sexuality, as well as more finite details, including hobbies and motivations.
• Type: Character description generator, NPC personality generator
• Use cases: Useful when creating fictional characters for novels, films, podcasts and more.
• Benefits: This generator packs in a lot of information for each character, even going so far as to include aspects such as their favorite food and their romantic partner. 
• Drawbacks: Only generates basic information regarding a character's appearance. There’s also no way to customize the time period, meaning every character is based in the modern day.

✨ DnD 5e Random Character Generator

• Website: www.tetra-cube.com/dnd/dnd-char-gen.html 
• Overview: This DnD NPC maker from Tetra Cube generates random characters for the fifth edition of Dungeons and Dragons. While it doesn’t provide any information on stats, each DnD NPC is detailed and has key background information, such as their biggest flaw (for example, they may be being hunted for a crime). 
• Type: NPC personality generator
• Use cases: Dungeons and Dragons
• Benefits: This DnD generator features colorful art cards that help users to visualize the characters.
• Drawbacks: It’s only useful for creating DnD NPCs.

✨ Fantasy Name Generator: Character Description Generator

• Website: www.fantasynamegenerators.com/character-descriptions.php 
• Overview: This character description generator generates a fairly random description of a character belonging to a random race. The generator keeps certain aspects of the descriptions the same to retain a general structure for their characters while randomizing important details.
• Type: Character description generator
• Use cases: The generator specializes in fantasy characters, meaning it’s well-suited to any form of fiction as long as it’s within that genre.
• Benefits: This generator describes characters in the style of a novel, which makes it easier to imagine them as fully-realized individuals.
• Drawbacks: The customizability options are limited; you can only choose between a male or female description. 

How to make an AI-generated NPC 

An AI NPC generator might seem complicated, but they’re actually no more difficult to use than any other character generator. The main difference is they require a bit more information to help bring the AI to life, so you might have to spend a little longer in the design process to get a nuanced character. Thankfully, if you’re really strapped for time, auto-generation can help speed things up by filling in some of the blanks. 

To make the process even easier, we’ve put together a short guide on creating an AI-generated NPC using our studio.

Step 1: Create your character!

The first step is to click ‘Create your character’ in the top right-hand corner of the studio. You’ll then be prompted to enter a name and a core description of your character. You should also see a prompt to enable auto-generation. We’d recommend turning this on as it can help fill in some of the extra details in the next section.

Step 2: Flaws and motivations

Now you’re in the main character screen, the next step is to give your character some flaws and motivations. If you’ve used auto-generation, this should be partially completed already, so just tweak this as you feel necessary.

Step 3: Identity

You can change the basic details of your character, such as their name, role, pronouns, age, and more by pressing the edit identity button in the top right. If you’re creating an AI character based on someone well-known, you can even enter a Wikipedia entry that the AI can use as a reference point.

Step 4: Personality

You’ll find the next set of options in the ‘advanced’ section. The personality section features a number of sliders that allow you to change how a character behaves, such as being more positive, extroverted or confident. You can also add specific adjectives that may be relevant to your character.

Step 5: Knowledge

Here, you can enter facts that are essential to your character’s backstory; just make sure you enter {character} first. For example: {character} thinks using AI generators is the best way to create fictional characters.

You’ll also see it's possible to add common knowledge here. This advanced feature provides the character with key information about the world and any crucial events that have taken place.

Step 6: Dialogue Style

You’ll see dialogue style at the bottom of this first page, which impacts how your character will talk and write. There are many different preset options, such as villainous, formal and bubbly, so just choose whichever you feel fits your character's personality best. You can also dive deeper into your character's style with custom options, which allow you to set them to use certain adjectives, adverbs, and colloquialisms.

Step 7: Voice

This section is fairly self-explanatory. You can alter what your character sounds like by changing their tone, talking speed, and pitch. 

Step 8: Goals and Scenes

The last two parts of this section are for more advanced users but are still worth experimenting with if you have the time. Goals allow you to set parameters for a character to act in a certain way in specific scenarios, such as during a confrontation.

Scenes allow you to place a character in a particular location that impacts their behavior. For example, if they were in a burning building, they would likely be in a state of panic. 

Step 9: Avatar

By clicking the image next to your character's name, you can change their image. You can either use an image you’ve made yourself or a custom 3D avatar from within the studio. 

Step 10: Start a chat!

Your character is now complete, which means it's time to start a conversation with them. Be sure to quiz them on all the different facts and key aspects you’ve built into their character to see how they react. If something doesn’t seem quite right, then go back into the editor and make some tweaks till you’re happy with their behavior.

🏹 Use Inworld’s AI NPC creator for free

Interested in trying to create your own AI-generated NPC? Inworld’s Studio is free to use to create and chat with characters so get started creating your first NPC today. There’s only a cost involved if you’d like to integrate your character into a website or game engine. 

You can also chat with a whole range of vibrant characters for free in the Inworld Arcade or sign up for our Early Access for AI Games program to interact with AI NPCs in video games.