How do I roleplay an NPC smarter than me?

How do I roleplay an NPC smarter than me?

marathon rick and morty before sessions

Know the setting.
Actually think about what you're doing for once in your life.

Step 1
>Hey GM, can you help me with my roleplay and correct me if I say something stupid?

There is no step 2.

The same way a writer writes a character smarter than them: just say some dumb technobabble shit and let the INT rolls do the rest.

Talk less. The smart man knows when to shut up.

Look at OP.

>NPC

He hasn't got any adults to turn to user.

Metagame-lite, and try your best to explain it in game terms.

Okay, easy mode: He's the villain
>hard mode: he's a friendly NPC who helps players without turning into a GMPC

Planning. Have your character just plan shit out very carefully.

Speak loudly, quickly, and use big words. :^)

Ask the GM to let you roll for ideas. It sucks to ask things like "how do I solve this puzzle," but if you're playing a character with far greater intelligence than your dumb ass the GM should accommodate by giving you extra hints and more help than other players.
Alternatively, don't play characters that you can't represent.

OP's question is a little difficult to answer as we don't know what the character's role is or how their intelligence comes into play. I have 50 different answers lined up, but they're kind of dependent on what the character's role in the story is.

As the GM you should already be smarter than the players, so just bee yourself.

The same way you roleplay one stronger or more dexterous.

>the king rolled 19 so it seems he foiled your plans!

Just say Zimbabwe every now and then and wait for everybody else in the room to die from laughing too hard.

>NPC
Well you're the DM so just say something reasonably logical and make their plan(s) work out.

Literally just memorize 5 or 6 moderately smart words and say them constantly.

Like “indubitably” and “irreconcilable”.

Shit would be fuckin’ hilarious. Especially if you used them wrong.

That's inconceivable!

...

You can't.
Find someone smarter to do the job

Read a book about a smart person and base your character on that. Try to do things they did without doing stupid things you might have done.

Remember that smart people have gaps in knowledge and fail as well and they'll be believable.

Have them speak like their peers and culture around them so they seem grounded.

Is the character good at finding connections between things? You already know everything that's going on, so you can just say "yeah he figured this out because he passed his int roll."

Is the character a creative inventor? You already know what's possible in the setting, so having him come up with something interesting from time to time is as simple as deciding he's done it (or having him play by the rules if you want to be strict and your system has inventor rules). Steal liberally from history and from other works in the same genre, but always keep it fresh and fun for yourself and the players.

Is he a Xantos-level planner? You dictate where his resources are and what he's got in place already (even if you didn't think of it until the characters encounter it). You can prepare some stuff for this ahead of time and just slot it in where it's convenient. You can even give the players shots specifically at counter-preparing or outright attacking these prepared elements you've got up your sleeve. Counter-ambushes and shit, players love it.

Is the character a Diogines of Sinope tier madman-philsopher? Well, uh, you'll probably want to study philosophy in that case if you want a really deep character. Pick real-world philosophers from regions and time periods similar to your setting. Use futurists and science fiction authors for future settings. The key is to have him give the other characters a push in the right direction with a few pointed questions that also sound really cool.