Creating an NPC with Tarot

Tarot cards, while (obviously) not intended for use in TTRPGs, are still very useful for them. Each card has a picture, symbols, and deeper meanings, all of which can be used as inspiration. In this article I will show how I sometimes use my Tarot deck to inspire the creation of NPCs for my TTRPG world.

What this method does and doesn't do

This method described here is system-agnostic, and will help you generate an overview for an NPC, by giving you input for four different aspects of them (Personality, Motivation, Connection, and Secret). You can use it with or without an intended NPC category (town guard, noble, farmer, wizard, etc) to start with.

The method will not explicitly give you any details of the NPC, although it might inspire you to develop them yourself. Consequently, it will not build a stat block for you.

The spread

I use a simple Y-shaped spread for this with four cards, representing different aspects of the NPC:

  1. Personality is in the center.
  2. Motivation is what drives this NPC - what motivates them to act.
  3. Connection represents some sort of connection they have to someone or something else in the world.
  4. Secret is a different kind of connection to the world; the kind of connection the NPC wants to hide.

How to place and interpret the cards

  1. Draw and place the cards one at a time, in numerical order.
  2. After each card has been placed, think about what it could mean.
    • When interpreting the card, you can use anything that comes to mind. Even if you don't know the traditional meaning of the card, you can still use its image to give you ideas visually.
    • Always try to take the context of what is already known about your world into account when you interpret the card. If you interpret a card as a soldier, then perhaps it represents a military faction you've already created? Or perhaps it represents a connection to a specific other military leader NPC?
    • Remember that the ideas you come up with don't have to be final - the cards that follow might give you better ideas.
  3. When you've placed all the cards, look them as a whole. Now that you have all of them in front of you, you might come up with new ideas that you like better than your original ones. If there are lots of Major Arcana cards, does that perhaps signify that this NPC is more powerful or important than you had originally imagined?

Okay. Now that we've been over how to deal with the cards in general, let's look at each one of them more specifically.

Personality

The central card represents the NPC's personality. Given that this is the first card and you have no other ones to provide context yet, don't worry if no ideas immediately spring to mind. You can revisit this aspect later.

Motivation

This is what motivates your NPC. It could be another person, an idea, something they want to achieve, or something completely different. Does the card you placed remind you of something with already exists in your world, which could act as some sort of motivation for your NPC?

Connection

NPCs typically aren't completely stand-alone in the world - they have various connections to the world they inhabit, and this card represents such a connection. It could be a family member, a faction they're a member of, someone they have a debt to, or even an enemy.

Secret

The final card, which "hides under the surface" of the other cards in the spread, represents something the NPC doesn't want the world to know about. A secret lover, perhaps? Or membership in a secret society? A hideous crime in their past that they hope no one will discover?

Example spread

Let's have a look at how this can work in practice. I want to make an NPC to put into my Prep Pool. I don't know what type of NPC this will be. Since it will be part of my Prep Pool, I have no immediate need for it so therefore I don't have anything in particular in mind. Let's just see what the cards turn up.

I've drawn and placed four cards.

  1. For Personality, I got the Three of Pentacles.
  2. For Motivation, I got the Ace of Cups.
  3. For Connection, I got the Ace of Wands.
  4. For Secret, I got The Chariot.

Let's go through them one at a time, and see what we can come up with.

1. Personality: The Three of Pentacles

The Pentacles suit is traditionally associated with the material, and material wealth. Three is a relatively low number, so we can think of this as someone who places less than average emphasis on the material aspects of their life.

If we forget the traditional interpretations and just look at the image of the card instead, we see someone in what appears to be a religious setting, standing on a bench. He seems to be addressing the other two characters from his slightly elevated position. We can interpret this as a man (because the image seems to depict a man) with some sort of leadership ambition.

The good thing is we don't have to decide yet. We continue interpreting the other cards, and see what we come up with.

2. Motivation: The Ace of Cups

The Ace of Cups is the first card of its suit, representing the purest essence of emotions - the theme of the Cups suit. But in this case, the Ace being the first of its suit made me think of it as representing the number one - a low number. This is certainly not a conventional Tarot interpretation of an Ace, but it's the one that came to mind (which is okay - we're not striving for accuracy in our interpretations, we're just trying to find something which inspires us). And this way of thinking about the card gave me an idea; we can interpret this "low number" as "low on emotions", or "lack of emotions". If we continue that thought in a slightly different direction, we can think of it as "loss of an emotion", or the loss or lack of a loved one.

Good! We now have an initial, vague idea for the Motivation for this NPC. Let's continue.

3. Connection: The Ace of Wands

For the Connection, we got the Ace of Wands - another Ace card! This suit often represents action, energy, passion, and ambition. In the case of Motivation, we chose to interpret the Ace as the number one, the lowest of the numbers. Here, we can do the opposite and interpret the Ace of Wands as the first among the energetic, passionate, and ambitious. Oh, right! Since the previous card told me that this NPC's Motivation was loss of love, it makes sense to have the Connection be that person.

In other words, our NPC is in love with someone energetic, passionate, and ambitious. And since the Personality card gave us a hint that the NPC we're generating is a low level leader in a religious context, I think it makes perfect sense for him to be in love with the head of his religious organization. We don't know if he's been dumped by them (a "loss of love" interpretation of the Motivation card), or perhaps harbors an unrequited love for them (a "lack of love" interpretation). There is of course no right or wrong here, we can just pick whatever sparks our interest.

4. Secret: The Chariot

The final card, the Secret, turned out to be The Chariot - a Major Arcana card. People commonly think of this card as representing control, willpower, success, and action. So we can think of our NPC as having a secret along those lines.

Hmm. Perhaps this means that he wants to take control of the situation with his beloved religious leader? We know that this is a Secret, so perhaps it's a shady plan to use his willpower (magic?) to force the subject of his love into his arms?

Conclusion

I know exactly who this NPC is now. At the time of writing, a cult is on the rise in Springhaven, the starting city of my fantasy world. This cult is led by Lady Laryssa Starbourne, and the NPC we've just created is her ex-lover who she abandoned when she formed the cult. Now he's looking for a way to control her mind through magic to get his revenge - but the exact details of how is known only to him.

If the players in my Pathfinder 2E campaign who are playing in this world don't deal with this cult soon, who knows what will happen with this situation? Perhaps I will use Solo play to play as him as a form of prep between sessions, just to see if he succeeds in his plan or not?

Further reading

If I wanted to create a physical appearance for our newly created NPC, I would turn to the corresponding section in the NPC Generator.

And if this article has piqued your interest in Tarot, perhaps you would be interested in reading Tarot Adventure Prep next?

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