Care to tell of memorable NPCs from your games? Designing mine,

Our party recently randomly encountered a mimic party. There was a treasure chest fighter, a barrel rogue, a beautycase bard, a crate factotum, and a golden statue cleric - currently shattered, waiting to be raised. They all came from the same dungeon that was looted by adventurers, and decided to try that adventuring business out themselves.

There's also a half-giant cleric that follows this homebrew goddess of blacksmiths and mothers, often hanging out with the player party. Her mission statement: protect the little ones (i.e. everyone else)! She has a thick Russian accent and a white tiger animal companion.

>>53708374
>We had a seargent who was in charge of a squad of guardsmen accompanying the PCs.
>He was basically their Liaison and a quick way for them to get the guardsmen to do what they needed without too much thought.
>I named him so the player's could interact with him more naturally, but little did I know this baptism meant he was fated for greater things.
>Called him Seargent Kelly.
>They got in a pinch. Ambushed in the woods.
>The guards were dying everywhere.
>PCs couldn't hit for shit.
>Sarge throws a nade. Roll for it. He insta kills 3 guys.
>I didn't mean to GMPC him, but I knew this was a sign, I had to roleplay what would follow.
>He looks back at the PCs.
>"You go on with the mission, I'll take care of these guys. Nobody kills my boys without paying for it."
>Draws out his knife. Goes full retard/commando.
>For some reason, PCs love this guy too much. They refuse to let him die alone.
>The rolls were real.
>Pc finally hits something. Sets cultist ablaze.
>Kelly stabs a few more in the chest and leg.
>One PC slaps the shit out of a cultist with a hammer, splitting the body in half against a tree.
>The minor skirmish is over.
> Kelly, sitting by the burning corpse, contemplating.
>"The smell of burning flesh and blood. Reminds me of home"
>PCs not sure if he's kidding or not, but they don't care, they're just glad the fight is over.
Truth be told, I designed this guy as a nobody PCs could talk to if they needed anything. He's become an in joke, a meme, and a hero among us.

>>53708374
I have a bunch of these and I love them.

>Playig 5E introduction, get to Phandalin.
>Red Brands harassing people in the market? Not on on our watch!
>Paladin gives inspirational speech, inspires some of the villagers to fight back.
>Butcher is into it, grand nearest thing and actually finishing off a bandit.
>Turns out the nearest thing was a sausage.
>One player jokes:

"And that, kids, is how your father got the unfortunate nickname of "Sausage Beater."

>DM thinks this is funny.
>Makes it into a running gag.
>Every time players come through town the butcher is doing more to push the brand. Basically a meat version of the Soup Nazi.

>>53708374
>Giant who constantly puts on airs and tries to act like he's more civilized than other giants. Has poor grasp of civilized concepts but pretends to understand them.
>Siege mage given up as a prisoner in an armistice at the end of a major war. Has bounced around noble houses as equal parts party magician and bargaining chip.
>Frog man sent away from his tribe to find metal for weapons so they can win their war against the hardshelled clam-men. Doesnt actually know what metal is. Sends all sorts of things home and frequently makes trade deals without understanding what the other party is actually asking for.
>One-armed aged monster hunter. Likes to drink. Has a half-giant son who's a real shitstain.

These are my player's all-time favorites.

>>53708374

>Dr knotagnome
Just a regular human alchemist who enjoys wearing long coats and fake mustaches.

>lady penelope
Halfling madam of "the velvet cunt" the classiest and least subtle bordello in town, she knows everything there is to know about the locals and then some.

>The Major
Retired adventurer and ex soldier, he lost his tastebuds in the war. You can find him in the red herring inn, swapping stories and chatting up the inn keepers daughter.

>>53708374
I like to incorporate previous PCs and give them minor roles as a sort of "where are they now," so if you're strapped for ideas, pull something from that folder full of level one character sheets and pretend you got to play them.

But to answer your question, I have three silly characters in an otherwise serious setting:
The first is a recurring character that my group adores: A bear possessed by a spirit as a cub in a wizard's experiment, (for SCIENCE!) and ended up giving the bear human-like intelligence and sapience, as well as the ability to perform some magic (the bear claws inhibit a lot of spells, naturally). The bear cub was bullied by his classmates (those damned elitist elves) in wizarding school for being a glorified science experiment. He eventually had enough of that and ran away from home so he could study on his own, eventually becoming a formidable mage in his own right, but developing a bad case of alcoholism in the process. Nowadays, he just goes bar hopping across the world because he's had his fair share of adventures and doesn't really care about whatever's going on around him. But he might dispense some wisdom or advice about what the party is doing if he decides he likes them enough.

The other character is a monk with a lady-boner for JUSTICE, and is what happens when a shonen protagonist is dropped into Game of Thrones but manages to survive it all through sheer determination. Sometimes shows up to help fight whatever evil is afoot, but for the most part, time and JUSTICE wait for no one, and companions only slow her down. She suplexed a pirate in her first appearance, and things have escalated since.

Her mother is very worried about her, and is on a journey to find her and bring her back home before she gets hurt. Her mother also happens to be a kensai monk carrying a not!Fume Ultra Greatsword that she looted off a demon while on a quest for JUSTICE of her own.

did a game once where we had to work with a
wise little goblin who was a drill sargeant for a city guard, dude talked with a gruff voice akin to an angry growl at all times, used mostly an axe and acrobatics during fights, knew one or two spells.

yes, it was basically an axe wielding yoda who could speak correctly but he was awesome nontheless

In a shadowrun campaign I had there was a plot line about Nanobots being used to overwrite a person's mind and personality. Basically CFD but all twisted around, if you know the setting.
Anyway, a Corp caught on to them and instead of send out their own guys, they'd drop a bunch of Nanobots on the local civilians and they'd start a fight.
His catch phrase, which everyone from the gruff gangers to little old ladies would say, was "Ready to die shadowrunners?" They sound priced to usually fumble the rooms because while they got the skills of him, they didn't have the attributes of a professional. Still, it meant that literally anyone they met could be there to kill them. Was fun.
His counterpart was the good npc, whose catch phrase was "You want to tell me what the hell is going on?" It was funny to see him come back after they killed him that first time.

>>53710119
>red herring inn
Do they serve fish?

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Most of the memorable NPCs either became part of the party, or were latched onto by the party for being cool or cute.

>Shadowrun elf, member of the ancients, pretended to be a civilian at a Humanis 'peace and tolerance' banquet that was a ploy to get the partygoers blown up - pulled out a grenade launcher and a pistol and started fucking up the Humanis goons before the party could react. Made a few cameos after that.

>Shadowrun Ghoul that was eager to get hired by the party when we were looking for crewmembers for our ship/hideout. Was blinged out as fuck, had a gold jaw to replace a missing one, charismatic and showy. Deemed unable to join the crew because 'he was too awesome and we didn't want him to die.' Ended up taking a ghoul with a compartment in his chest for smuggling.

>Shadowrun human, ex-security officer - had been a tough-as-nails mercenary in Africa before getting a cushy job, and did not appreciate the party wrecking the base he was stationed at and ruining what should have been a cozy retirement, despite them sparing his life. Ended up forming a party of other runners to fuck them over.

>Shadowrun human, hitman. Calm and professional, was willing to give the party out when they accidentally got involved in his hit. Implied to otherwise be pretty evil dude.

>Pathfinder, skeleton NPC - can't remember his name, something like Poone (some sort of dirty joke). Dressed vaguely like Napoleon and kept showing up throughout the game, even helped the party in combat once when they were outmatched.

>D&D 5e, catfolk ex-slave (not like Khajiit, but like a smaller fluffier thing). Immediately loved by the party and they got her a job at their base of operations as a maid.

>>53714147
They served special fish pie. It's special because it has no fish in it.

>>53708374
My PCs like to "adopt" random (often unnamed) NPCs, so I flesh them out on the moment and they often become player favorites.
>Simma, bumbling gnome alchemist, accidentally poisoned her village's well when she was trying to make the water mint-flavored. Players took pity on her and made her their lawful servant. She'd make them one random potion every few day of adventuring and she kept watch over the mounts.
>Sergeant Serge. Recurring NPC in all of my games, and a few of my friend's games. Always a representative of the law, always has a moustache. Competent if opposed to the players, incompetent if on their side. In any case, never helpful. He's a familiar archetype and he's pretty funny to play/put up with.
>The little myconid. Just an unnammed TP sized myconid my players spared when they stumbled upon sleeping myconids and decided to kill them because they thought monstruous looking = will be agressive. They felt like asses (well, not exactly, they were simply a bit disturbed, these are PCs we are talking about) when they realized myconids are pacific. So they adopted the little guy after doing a quest to repay the survivors. He can only speak in gesture and doesn't do anything in combat, but he did save one player's animal companion when they were ambushed.

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>>53708374
Tyler Archer. Human mercenary, skilled sniper. Was practically the only normal human in a group of altered humans and aliens (the setting was supernatural scifi space opera, so you had things like werewolves running around with aliens). Consistently kicked ass as a badass normal, and soon the group was taking him over the various other mercenaries they had on board while going out on missions. They loved his snarky, carefree attitude.

Unfortunately, his mortality caught up to him when they were in a pitched boss battle against this huge AI construct, and he failed a dexterity roll to get out of the way of a falling pillar, and couldn't soak the damage so was killed. NPC partners had died before, but they hadn't been as torn about losing one before then. Had a large funeral for him after that mission.

I'm seriously considering bringing him back, resurrected by the AI hivemind they fought (which they haven't found out yet is actually not the bad guy). Maybe have him show up as an unnamed sniper that helps them out in random situations until he reveals who he actually is.