I am designing a new campaign world for my players, one that is a lot darker and much more serious than the last. I want the first adventure to show the lack of hope and pure cruelty of this world, and was thinking that for the first adventure, I could have the players become friends with this npc, and really care about this person, and then most likely have him killed by a high level monster. But he problem is that I don't know how to make an emotional attachment to an npc, do you who how to effectively do this?
Thanks!
"In the first campaign I ran, I tried to drop one of the PC's wives in acid. He rescued her and they lived happily ever after.
It was then I realized I was thinking too small. He knew as a PC his wife would be in danger. If I really wanted to do something, they'd have to never see it coming.
So I gave the PC a kingdom.
Then I dropped the kingdom in acid."
Take from that what you will.
If you make an honest effort at a sympathetic backstory and manage to tell it to the players without just blabbering or making them feel like background characters themselves, they'll probably come around to the NPC.
Of course, they could also hate/mistrust him because you pay him so much attention. They could also spontaneously fall in love with a throwaway NPC/Monster, in which case you just sub them in as the martyr.
PCs are fickle and difficult to wrangle. If they show even a passing interest in something, take the shot while you have it.
Instead of the plot mandated love one death, why don't you make it part of the adventure to prevent said death. Make it difficult to save them, but clearly possible. That way, they feel bad about not saving the NPC instead of shrugging their shoulders and saying "eh, its a CR15 monster, nothing we could have done". If they succeed, then they get the message that only through brutal struggle is it possible to enjoy a sliver of happiness in your world, but it is possible.
I am designing a new campaign world for my players, one that is a lot darker and much more serious than the last. I want the first adventure to show the lack of hope and pure cruelty of this world, and was thinking that for the first adventure, I could have the players become friends with this npc, and really care about this person, and then most likely have him killed by a high level monster. But he problem is that I don't know how to make an emotional attachment to an npc, do you who how to effectively do this?
Thanks!
How you do these things depends on the players, and some players will never care. Also losing a friend does not equal "lack of hope and cruelty". PC's lose party members, and it won't imply that. You would need to change the tone of the setting or at least the primary areas the adventures will be at. Maybe having a world where there is 30% illiteracy, a lot of people are starving, there are the have's and have not's with not a lot in-between. There can be a lack of law enforcement for the have not's or the government turning a blind eye for various reasons. Basically just make the world a terrible place to live in.