Poll: Who did play in a group where the master had a "pet NPC"?

[Cloudgatherer]

When I was DM, I may have been slightly guilty of this. My "pet" NPC was my idea of a character I would have liked to play (for some reason, I have never played a wizard character very far, as in only a few levels). And so I have an NPC that bears the same name as my handle here.

Now here is where I may be a little guilty. The party shared a common problem, they were all "gated" to the world by mistake by my NPC. However, in the first battle immediately starting the entire campaign, the party sees the NPC imprisoned (per the spell). Now I throw in some intrigue, during the battle (which was eventually won thanks to the party), another wizard fighting with my NPC assumes the NPCs form (known to the party). In reality what had happened is the NPC was indeed imprisoned, but his simulacrum kept up appearances.

Now to solve their common problem, the party needed some way of planar travel. My pet NPC would help, but since he was imprisoned, that was a problem. The simulacrum provided advice to the party for the first few adventures (but did not tag along with them), then mysteriously disappears.

Actually, the simulacrum managed to "swap" with the NPC (scripted, I know), but the NPC was still being hunted (hence his imprisonment in the first place). Assuming another identity, he became a "new" force in the world fighting a separate threat than what the party had managed to get involved in. I crossed the NPC with the party only a couple of times (over 30 different adventures), with more direct involvement at the end. So hopefully this does not overstep the bounds of the NPC in the world.

In a game I'm in, we have an NPC that is part of the party, but then again there are only 3 players and 1 usually does not show (varies who it is). That NPC is part of the plot, demonstrating what the "problem" in the world is. Unfortunately, my character wouldn't mind ditching the NPC, as that particular NPC drains power from my character (and I don't play a very nice character).

OK, so that was a little longer than I planned... sorry about that.

 

[Centaur]

Re: Not to paint a target on my chest, but...

In a way, I feel that every NPC should be a DMPC. Every NPC should have the same level of care in creation, attention to personality and detail, that a full PC created by the DM would. Of course, not all NPCs in the game world will have a stat sheet and personality written out, but the closer to that a DM can come, the more alive his game world.

I try to make every person in my world come alive. And that usually means having a kind of personal attachment to them. But so long as that attachment never means bending the rules for them, or overshadowing the PCs with them, then I think that kind of care actual adds to the richness of the game, rather than taking away from it.

..........

I would have to say that I agree with Lord Pendragon. All campaigns need NPCs and they are invariably of different power levels. In my games, the PCs are never the most powerful people around, but they are alwasy at the forefront of the fight.

I find that when I introduce an NPC to a story, I need to have a complete character sheet including equipment, magic items, and spell books all prepared. If I don't, the NPC seems to convieniently be able to do something that the players need done at any given point. Each time, the single task is of no real consequence, however, over time all these different capabilites add up to some realy scary power levels and the PCs become overshadowed by the NPS capabilites.

To combat this, before I get any NPC seriously involved with the party, I make sure I have a completed Record sheet with all their resources noted down. This way, their capabilities don't get added to al the time. However in making up this sheet, I do get somewhat attached to them. Makes it hard to let them go when the party turns on them or when they are caught in a cross fire of the PCs creation.

In all my games, I try to have one NPC hanging around with the part that is part of the group. In all cases this NPC fills a gap left when the players made up their charcters.

In my Current game, I have five players (2 fighters, 1 fighter/rouge, 1 fighter/sorcerer and 1 druid/sorcerer) as you can see, no real healing ability and no dynamic capability of a wizard. So at the begining of the game, I added an NPC Cleric who has been with them the entire campaign. Recently, they picked up an NPC wizard I had introduced for some comic relefe and have kept him on for some time.

However, in the begining
I was a bad DM. I ran many a game that had NPC pets and even a couple of EgoNPCs. My players hated that and I learned from their voicing of their opinions. Over time I have learned to make my NPCs more like trees in a forest. Meaning that they are there, fully fleshed out to decorate the campaign world and the PCs are free to interact with them or not, as they see fit. Sometimes I use them as plot hooks, sometimes I don't. Many times, the PCs drag them into something they want nothing to do with, but they have a unique (ie. something the PCs can't do, usually due to an earlier oversight) capability that the PCs need access to to complete a current plot line.

My Advice
To Players If your DM is doing something in his game ON A REAPEATED BASIS that detracts from your enjoyment of the game, tell him, either before or after the game session, not during. If he doesn't listen to you, or continies to do it. Drop out and make sure he knows why you have left.
To DMs Be receptive to critisism from your players, if you don't, you won't have them for long. If your players are anoyed with something you are doing, look for a way to curb your "evil" ways. Grow as a DM and you and your player group will grow together.

I know this to work, as I still have all the same players (even some new ones who came over from other groups) I had 13 years ago. Heck I even married one of them and she used to hate some of the thing I did in my games. Now she playes in many of my current games without complaint.

 

[Sir Osis of Liver]

My DM is wicked bad for this. He has a ton of them and they're all immortal epic level uber characters. Most of them would swat Elminster and Drizzt at the same time without breaking a sweat. Not to mention all his wife's PC's are basically the same.

 

[gunter uxbridge]

To ammend my previous post, I did screw up royally once with my NPC. He was a wizard traveling with the party when they were attacked by a group of orcs. The orcs were charging the PCs position when the wizard cast color spray. I rolled REALLY bad for the ocs saves and half of them hit the ground in the first round. My players were mad at me for that one, but this was the exception, not the rule.

The wizard later left the group with another player to help draw off some baddies while the PCs escaped. I was going to have him captured and show up later as brainwashed and converted to the BBEGs side. Could have been fun having a long time ally working against the PCs right under their nose, but the campaign broke up on the game where he was set to come back. Oh well..