GM Tip: Creating consistent NPCs on the fly (Patreon)

Any character is made real by 2 questions. What do they want? What do they have access to?
Once these come into conflict with a story element, the character is alive and you can come back to them whenever you want.

This could be a quiet life and a farm. So when a monster starts wrecking the farm and adventurers show up, this becomes a quiet life, some payment and adventurers. 2+2=4

If it's a villain or a political figure, there are just more steps - Goal: A lavish lifestyle without the threat of death, which means needing protection and power, which means an army of followers. etc.
Access: Money, violence, excitement, prisoners, artifacts, etc.
If they need to go and get a resource then they will or they find someone else.

You only need to think about the short term goal during most conversations and let your order of logic do the rest.

Happy gaming.

PS. The character portrait above is a quick image for the Sci-Fi game I'm running.