A lot of campaigns have NPCs that are memorable while being extremely powerful; be it high-level villains, upper-class types with enormous resources, patrons who could grant (or take away) boons to the PCs, or significant allies that had power or resources that could help the PCs in their causes.  But what I want to know about in this thread were those NPCs who had none of that, that were very low-level (or 0-level) characters and were not otherwise remarkable in terms of what they could 'give' the PCs but somehow stood out as very memorable parts of a game.

What was it about them that made them stand out?  Was it a question of personality, or something else?

a different npc to the one i mentioned in the other thread but related to it still was a young girl who was saved from a skeleton attack that the cleric latched onto i dont think she will be coming with them but i expect the npc to come up in conversation a bit (and quite likely in wills (oh that gives me an idea)

Not sure if this counts, but I had a little girl NPC with precognition in a Rifts campaign I was running come up to the Mind Melter (a kindred spirit because he was psychic) before they left on every adventure that originated in their home town and drop cryptic hints about the future.

I introduced a little old country lady into a game who had a run down farm and a few cows and made butter. She was a fussy, pushy but nice old lady with a huge bun of white hair. The PCs stayed at her farm, and the elf character gave her some feedback on what elves think of human made butter.

She created a new herbal flavored butter based on her experimentation on the elf character. It was packaged with a really extreme caricature of a silly looking smiling elf face and called "Elf Butter" - she became very famous and her butter became extremely popular throughout the human dominated lands.

She became more and more useful over time as a source of information, and treated the PCs very well - her "boys".

The elf character became famous, but couldn't shake the "Butter Boy" image.

Many good NPCs, as every group I've gamed with has some good actors in it (including me). But here are a few I actually remember well:

Fagen Femlor: a "master filer" consulted by the PCs to delve into the minutiae of the local bureacracy.

The Flying Mussolini Brothers: these performers (and their pet bear) showed up  to make some coin during the PCs travels to a great religious (and otherwise) festival (well, let's just call it a bacchanal) at the Foot of Mount Mann. Players played the parts. They were so funny, we brought them back a couple more times.

Laxar: douche bag cleric administrator who so annoyed the PCs, he became a recurring pain in the ass. Ended up dying (while fleeing) during battle with an undead army. To further incense the PC's, friends of Laxar made him into a hero and erected a statue in his honor for his "actions on the battlefield."

Dimitry the Familiar: hated this guy. Another player's bat-like familiar who had a Russian name but spoke in a really bad Spanish accent. The character dominated a couple of sessions because the DM liked him so much (I consider this the karmic "get back" for inflicting Laxar on a previous, unrelated party years before [see Laxar, above]).

Old Couple in the way: I forget the names, but, in a supers campaign, this pair of geriatrics always seemed to be at the site of the battle. Befriended by one of the heroes, who showed up at their house and received many warm bowls of healthy soup.

A C3P0 unit that was rented out by hotel resort to be used as a guide and translator for guests.

He was a cross between Marvin the Android and Felix Unger, his contempt for the player characters was only over-matched by his fear of what they would do to him in their next adventure.

In my Slavers game, one of the players chose the urchin background.  Her gang of hoodlums has really buddied up with the party.  They run messages and keep lookout for the party in Greyhawk City.  Scribbles is the main kid, a halfling urchin who knows how to read and write.

Well, there's Meepo, a pretty famous kobold.

And Kuko, another kobold from my own campaign (eventually died when a PC tossed a gold coin into a room, suspecting a trap...Kuko went after the coin, getting eaten by the demon taht was in the room).

And there was Siegfried (bad with names, but I think that was it), a pompuous knight who always wore his plate armor, strutting about the city and willing to tell all about his family heraldry.

Pavarotti, a charlatan of immense constitution, who successfully seduced a PC. He was poisoned with pastries laced with Iocane Power...the pastries were so good, he ate a few extra, even knowing it was poison.

Chuckles the Flameskull, tasked to "blast" anything that moved through a particular door. The Players eventually pushed him through the door, so he fireballed himself, not that it did any good.

Fubar the Friendly Demon...a minor imp that tried really hard to scare the PCs. It worked for a little while.

Slud the Cruxian...a Cruxian (turtle-man). Who. Spoke. Really. Slowly.

Thag the Chaos Ogre, eventually recruited into the party. He eventually ate the halfling cook ("Hur? She said she'd feed me!")

Jamballa the Unbalanced: local berserker warrior who somehow managed to survive despite refusing to wear armor...the players eventually slaughtered him to get his +1 bone mace.

Hissar the Lizardman Guide: Tended to extend his ssssssssss's.

Karnax: Imperial guardsman. The players really tried to get him killed, and he demonstrated his bravery time and again. He ended up drowning.

I'm sure I've missed a few.

Bunch of goblins peanut vendor street urchins who were being paid to spy on the PCs. The PCs decided that was an excellent idea and outbid their enemy and bought their own spy network for peanuts, literally.

We've has more active non-class NPCs than classed ones.

Memorable ones being.

The husband and wife team of PSH mayors in Gamma World, Jordan and Ferris, who were pattered after Green Lantern and Star Sapphire.

A particularly devious Dohwar merchant in the ongoing Spelljammer campaign. Darn penguin!

A regular dwarf in Dragon Storm. was using magical pylons to force any dwarven gargoyles into gargoyle form in its radius of effect and then work them in his mines. This guy wasnt even a necro or tainted!

The memorable ones always seem to come down to personality or entertaining quirks.

Barkeeps with excellent wit
A monk who took an oath of silence that the players try to make laugh
Random farm person #346 who loved a lost cow and apparently hit some heartstrings

I've never intentionally created a memorable NPC, so I stopped trying and they pop up just as often as they did when I was trying.

Quote from: snooggums;820854Random farm person #346 who loved a lost cow and apparently hit some heartstrings

i am already having my heartstrings pulled by that sentence alone

Quote from: Daztur;820762Bunch of goblins peanut vendor street urchins who were being paid to spy on the PCs. The PCs decided that was an excellent idea and outbid their enemy and bought their own spy network for peanuts, literally.

The peanut reference reminded me of an instance in which the PCs were investigating goings on in a town with a sizable, private merc garrison belonging to a pair of local, powerful adventurers. As I had no names prepared for the garrison at all, I named one of them something like Corporal Almond. Instantly, all the other NPC soldiers and crew were named after various nuts, i.e., Private Philbert, Captain Peanuts, Private Brazil, Cashew the Cook, and so on.

NPC Twilek girl in a d6 SW game (essentially the Kid template but with zero actual ability in anything). She latched herself onto the Smuggler/Outlaw team on a Hutt home world (running from some baddies after stealing a block of spice) and got them into endless predicaments. Even though the girl was nothing but trouble, the PCs raided Jabba's palace to rescue her from the slave pits.

In our WFRP2e game, Gerard was a lowly scribe we inherited after ending up in charge of the town of Carcass. He stayed with us and grew into an information broker running a network of informants all around the country.

He eventually became the spymaster to the ruler of the nation when we'd done our part to restore the monarchy and unite the country into one. Though he did then get murdered by the vampires we'd been fighting a war against.