D&D General Am I the only one who plays D&D with more than 1 character per player???

[Gadget]

Not to pick on you specifically as I've seen similar sentiments given by several other posters, but:

Wouldn't this analysis-paralysis suggest there's an argument to be made for generally simplifying characters down by quite a bit, both in generation and in play?

Well, that is a whole other kettle of fish. If could mean some table rules are necessary to hurry things along (egg timer, variant initiative system, etc.), but the game and how it is played has evolved quite a bit since the old days. The days of going into a "dungeon" with a group of large size, noting bothering to name fighter other than fighter #1 because you know he is likely to bite it and one of the henchmen/hireelings is going to get "promoted" to PC, are not as prevelant. Besides, many people want more complexity, to a degree; it helps define their character more mechanically.

Not saying one way is better than the other, though I think 5e is less complex than, say 3.x was, and seems to be more of a happy medium in that regard for some people.

 

[Lanefan]

We do it, along with having a DMPC, because of having only three newish players and needing 5 PCs to avoid regular death. They are high enough of a level now, though, that if my PC dies, we will try without adding a new one and see how it goes, possibly also with my player that is running 2 PCs.

This is just it: if the choice is between having a party NPC and having a second PC, I'll usually prefer it be a second PC whether speaking as player or DM. As player I'll gladly take on a second; as DM it's simply easier for me if I don't have to worry about party NPCs (unless they're dumb grunt wind-'em-up-and-send-'em-in Fighters; I can run those all day because they don't require any thought or effort on my part ).

We're used to an average party size of 6-10, depending on a host of factors: how many players are at the table, how many PCs each wants to run, what holes the party thinks it has in its lineup and whether they've recruited NPCs to fill them, etc.

 

[Richards]

I've DMed several campaigns where players ran multiple PCs.

• When I taught my two sons to play AD&D 2E, they each had three PCs and picked two of them for each adventure, giving us a 4-person party with the individual members often being different each time.
• When 3.0 came out, we started up a campaign with the self-imposed rule that both of my sons would make and run two PCs, there could be no overlap in character classes (so only one fighter, one rogue, etc.), and that when a PC died they stayed dead and the player had to build a replacement PC from those character classes we'd never had before in that campaign. It was a way to allow us to "explore" all of the 13 character classes before creating a PC using a class we'd already tried out. (Once we had gone through all 13 classes, then they could make whatever they wanted from that point on.)
• My first 3.5 campaign with my current group had two PCs for most of the players and they decided which PC they'd run through any particular adventure. All of the PCs were part of the same Adventurers Guild.
• My second 3.5 campaign with the same group imposed a "one PC per player" limit but we had a female dwarf NPC cleric as part of the team, so we switched who got to run her as a second PC for each adventure. So one person each adventure was running two PCs. (I didn't want to run the cleric myself - I prefer it when the players handle all of the PC decisions.)

Johnathan

 

[Imaculata]

If I may ask, was this in D&D and if so, what rules or system did you use for said naval combats? (I've tried designing a homebrew system for this and I'm not sure it's the least bit any good, so I'm always on the lookout for ideas)

I used pathfinders Mass Combat system to make each ship and their crew into one unit, with modifiers for attack and defense based on the ship's upgrades and the average level of the crew. The health of each ship was based on the ship size and average hp of a section of that ship.

I made some minor changes to the system to make it work, such as giving each pirate faction a one time special ability. It sped up play drastically, while allowing every player to take part.

 

[The Green Hermit]

This is just it: if the choice is between having a party NPC and having a second PC, I'll usually prefer it be a second PC whether speaking as player or DM. As player I'll gladly take on a second; as DM it's simply easier for me if I don't have to worry about party NPCs (unless they're dumb grunt wind-'em-up-and-send-'em-in Fighters; I can run those all day because they don't require any thought or effort on my part ).

We're used to an average party size of 6-10, depending on a host of factors: how many players are at the table, how many PCs each wants to run, what holes the party thinks it has in its lineup and whether they've recruited NPCs to fill them, etc.

I agree, but only one of my players is able to deal with two PCs. Another one tried, but after about five sessions asked to retire one of them. The third player is just too new to have control of more than one.

I don't mind having a PC to control, since I never get to actually play, but at the same time, I really look forward to the point where I can just DM.