2 (or more) PCs per Player

[DonTadow]

Though my friend did it, I dont think I"d ever allow it in my game. Even if i had two players I"d just scale it. I just dont think most players can actually role play both characters. Not just about knowing mechanics and such, but actually role playing each character. At best it turns the characters more into typical board game mechanical pieces instead of roleplayed individual characters.

If I had a table full of experienced DMs, I'd consider it, but I doubt that would ever happen.

 

[Shadowdancer]

We have done it occassionally, when a shortage of players required it in order to get a representation of all the core classes at the table, but it was usually only one person playing two characters. We've never done all of the players playing two or more characters.

The times I've played two characters, I've tried to give them some basic, distinct characteristics in order to keep them seperate in my mind, and in the minds of the other players. Such as playing one female character and one male character, or one elf and one dwarf. And their classes are always different, such as one will be a melee type and one a ranged combatant, or one a rogue and the other a spellcaster.

I currently play a male elf fighter/rogue, and a female half-elf bard/sorceress.

 

[Zendragon]

I've done it a couple of times and worked out great. Each player had 2 characters with a back story as to why the two adventured together. The first time was 1ed Ranger and Cleric/Magic user. Next time was 2nd edition Wizard and Bard. I tried 3 characters one time and that did not work as well. With three characters I had Barbarian cleric, Drow mage, and Human Samauri.

 

[briac]

In the group I'm in we play more than 1 character often, usually because someone leaves the group and we don't want to be short his mage, cleric, etc. There was one campaign that lasted for years where we had several people join and play for a few months and then they would leave. There was one gaming session where only me and one other guy showed up to play(along with the DM), and he wanted to do the main game, we both ended up playing like 5 or 6 guys. It was not fun at all, combat took longer than usual, and we had trouble roleplaying other peoples characters. Overall I don't mind playing more than one characters but there is a limit.

 

[BlueBlackRed]

I've done it before and enjoyed it, but it was quite a bit of work.

Given what I know now I would not do it again, but would rather play a gestalt game.

 

[Beckett]

I did it for some of my players in my first AU game, in part to allow players to see more of the classes, in part because some members of the group weren't as reliable at showing up as others, and I wanted a strong party at all times. Combat worked fine, but for RPing, it became the case of a dominant character and an extra.

My ToEE-GDQ game, I once again had some of the players use two characters. With the game leaning heavily on hack and slash, the extra bodies have been very helpful. Additionally, it helped fill vital roles while still allowing a fun concept character; one player has the cleric, but he also gets to experiment a bit with his other character.

One of the games I play in, we're using two characters each. Again, it seems a case of primary and secondary character, but it also gives me a chance to try out a character concept I had in mind.

 

[Graybeard]

I've done it before and it worked out fine (mostly). Most of us were able to keep the two characters apart (personality, knowledge, etc). There was one person in our group (DMs wife) who could not do that. Everything one character knew, the other did as well. The DM never contradicted her. Even if the party was separated, her PCs always knew what was going on with the other. Overall, I'd have to say it depends on the maturity level of the group if they can handle 2 PCs at once.

 

[Nyaricus]

Due to unavoidable abscences of players, this happens quite a bit at my table. I don't like it since my players are a bit low on the RP scale as it, and it makes each character into something more akin to chess pieces than a living character.

If I could avoid it, I would - but crap happens :\

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I've been part of a group that has been doing this for nearly 20 years.

We have a core group of 3 gamers, each of whom is a DM and a player. Its a multi-level 2Ed campaign that we play every once in a while, and each of us has several PCs at various strata in the campaign. A typical adventure will involve one person running an adventure for 6-8 PCs of like level, with the other 2 players running the PCs. On occasion, some of our buddies will sit in and use some of the peripheral PCs in the campaign.

 

[painandgreed]

Back under 1E we'd do this all the time to either flesh out the party to the desired 8-10 people or in case the campaign was very deadly. I don't remember any issues with doing so. Usually one PC got all the attention and the other one was just sort of in the background. The main characters got all the good stuff but everybody had a main character and the background character got everything else unless something just really hit the mark such as a magic bow for the archer. Sometimes attention would change from one character to the other either due to the player likeing them better or because they fit the story better but there was always one character up front RPing and another that just rolled to hit dice. We always played from 1st level on except for one shots so running an extra character let you come in with somebody fairly decent if your main character got killed.