How do you RP an NPC character

[Sam1 Bellisserian]

How would I go about Roleplaying a NPC character such as a shop attendant or fast food worker.  Say I walked into a burger joint and wanted to order a burger but there was no actual person there to Roleplay with me. How would I go about setting this up to RP the NPC as well? Sorry if this is confusing.

[Orwar]

   You wouldn't. NPC means it's a non-player character.

   There are ways around it, like including the NPC's actions into your own writing, like:

   Orwar walks up to the counter, briefly glossing over the menu before ordering a milkshake. He watches the clerk head over to the milkshake machine before turning to look around the café. As the clerk returns to the counter, he turns around, forming a vague, strained smile as he picks out his wallet, nodding as the clerk announced that it'll be L$18; he slides a L$20 bill across the counter and grunts 'thanks, keep the change', takes the milkshake, and meanders off on his merry way.

[Sam1 Bellisserian]

2 minutes ago, Orwar said:

   You wouldn't. NPC means it's a non-player character.

   There are ways around it, like including the NPC's actions into your own writing, like:

   Orwar walks up to the counter, briefly glossing over the menu before ordering a milkshake. He watches the clerk head over to the milkshake machine before turning to look around the café. As the clerk returns to the counter, he turns around, forming a vague, strained smile as he picks out his wallet, nodding as the clerk announced that it'll be L$18; he slides a L$20 bill across the counter and grunts 'thanks, keep the change', takes the milkshake, and meanders off on his merry way.

Perfect! That was EXACTLY what I wanted. Thank you so much!

[Lucia Nightfire]

I've thought about attaching a consumer based AI service with my adult NPCs, but it's expensive as hell.

I was also recommended OpenAI and GoodAI, but haven't looked into them yet.

[Quistess Alpha]

if your NPC is a therapist, you could have a chat with good old Eliza. . .

[animats]

23 minutes ago, Lucia Nightfire said:

I've thought about attaching a consumer based AI service with my adult NPCs, but it's expensive as hell.

I looked into that too, using Rasa, but it takes traffic to train the system. Rasa is intended for phone-answering systems ("My purchase didn't show up"). Questions it can't handle go to customer support and are logged. Someone later adds answers for them. Over time, you get coverage for most common questions. This is useful for a call center that gets 10,000 calls a day. Not useful for an NPC that gets 10 interactions a day.

As a test, I took the Frequently Asked Questions list for GTFO and put them into Rasa. It worked, but having 10-20 questions and answers was useless. You need hundreds. it's all do-able, but a big project with a small payoff.

LL tried something like that for customer support. It was too dumb.

[Profaitchikenz Haiku]

4 hours ago, animats said:

LL tried something like that for customer support. It was too dumb.

I spent ages way back in the eighties fiddling around with variants of Eliza and a couple of Baysean Expert systems, and never came up with anything that could be deployed in a one-size-suits-all manner. As of now, computer systems don't evolve, and that limits their adaptability.

I've always liked Neal Stephenson's attitude to AI, it's a goal that's almost unreachable. Instead, take two people, produce a baby...

[Madelaine McMasters]

Though it's not what you're asking for, I probably seemed like a NPC in every RP place I ever visited.

Gleeful ignorance of canon is key.

[Vanessa Amethyst]

Walk around and make comments about arrows to the knee and curved swords to anyone who walks past.