DMPCs, anyone?

[DnDChick]

You know what PCs are.

You know what NPCs are.

What about DMPCs? Dungeon Master Player Characters?

I love to play DnD, but I am almost always the DM. My group enjoys my gaming style, and I like DMing. But, I also like to run a character. Not some nameless NPC tavern keeper or hireling...an honsest to goodness character.

Of course, I never allow my character to act on my knowledge as a DM...generally I run a DMPC for the roleplaying and for the fun of it.

Anyone else do this?

 

[Claude Raines]

I've done this quite often in the past, usually when gaming groups were quite small.

 

[Moe Ronalds]

last time our DM had a PC he decided he had to be special. We were all first level, he was a sheild guardian. I thought it was just an NPC, but then he was playing him when he wasn't DMing.
Needless to say, me= non-happy camper. And his little brother who was playing with us was a pegasus!

 

[josh rotten]

moe your DM seems like a dick


oh and i play a little human theif by the name of junt, my female players love it when he comes around but most of my male players can't stand him but love to Roleplay with him

 

[Elaer]

I've done it in the past, although its something I try to avoid. The problem is that the focus is supposed to be on the character's not the Dungeon Master. On the other hand, I agree that it kind of sucks to be DMing all the time and never have the opportunity to develop a persona. My friends and I used to switch of DM regularly, so that everyone got in on the action. We also gave the DM the average of everyone's experience to put towards our characters, but we had an understanding on what we would run, that isn't the way I would suggest going about doing it.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Hurm...

I would say this isn't a very stupendous idea.

The reason?

First of all, part of the fun in playing a character is, IMHO, not knowing what's coming next...reacting to the unknown. It's hard to do that as the DM, since you design everything.

Second of all, as a player, you often get quite attatched to the characters you play. As a DM, it's dangerous to get involved that deeply in that character, because then the story begins to revolve around them, and not the PC party. You bend rules and stretch laws for "coolness" because you can.

For most DM's, running reoccuring NPC's, or even the "nameless redshirts" should provide vast roleplaying opportunities. Where else can you be wicked orcs, fallen heroes, mysterious informants, and average commonners thrown into the thick of things all at once?

I dunno. If it works for you, that's the important thing. I just think it introduces more problems than it solves, as the key enjoyment of being a PC (discovery of the unknown) is lost as a DMPC.

 

[hellbender]

I run a DMPC with the co-DM with no problems whatsoever. I am in a two campaign scenario (one evil, one good) I co-DM the evil and two other DMs co-Dm the good.
Never had a problem with it and experience points are gained based on the DMing done during the session, not the roleplaying as obviously it is pretty pointless to try to roleplay your best as a PC while DMing, with the foreknowledge of the game. Sure, the DM does roleplay his character, but must often take the sideline and let those not in the know figure out the plot.

hellbender

 

[Deadguy]

Within Reason

For the one-one-one campaign, I included, right from the start, an NPC who works alongside the (sole) PC. Since the PC is a Wizard-Bard multiclass, his friend is a Fighter-Rogue, providing protection and muscle for those fights which go toe-to-toe. At first he was just an NPC, but as time went by I grew very fond of him, and he became my character in the campaign. As others have said, I have to be very careful not to load him down with my knowledge as DM, but I find thta I can do that with few problems. The DMPC is not very bright (though he's grown smarter as he's levelled up, putting his first two stat point increases into raising Intelligence then Wisdom).

This way, I get to experience my campign setting as a player as well as the DM. I've found it helpful, seeing the campaign from the other side too. It's certainly made me modify some choices that I realised made the campaign less interesting.

 

[RiggsWolfe]

I have often run a DMPC and in fact, my players expect it, and tend to enjoy interacting with them. I typically use them to fill a missing spot in the group roster and also to inject a bit of "me" into the game.

Really, a DM with experience should have no problem in doing this and not turning it into a show for the DMPC. Sometimes you might slip and you know it, typically, if I find the DMPC is getting too much attention (often caused by the players ironically) I tend to kill them off.

I would say new DMs should avoid DMPCs for the obvious reasons.

 

[hong]

I have often run a DMPC and in fact, my players expect it, and tend to enjoy interacting with them. I typically use them to fill a missing spot in the group roster and also to inject a bit of "me" into the game.

I've done this before too, for a small group with only 3 players. There was a fighter, cleric and sorcerer, and I rounded out the group with a monk and a rogue. I didn't directly control the DMPCs though; I let the players run them whenever it came to dice rolling.

Done right, it's a good way to get out of the "DM-vs-players" mindset, I think. The DMPCs were generally lower level than the PCs, and didn't have any uber-items, so they didn't overshadow the players.