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<blockquote data-quote="Dagger of Lath" data-source="post: 3180108" data-attributes="member: 43621">My point is that if they are synonymous then the term DMPC needn't be applied to that phenomena, and there are useful definitions of DMPC which cover ground that NPC is too broad to specify.Indeed there should be people in the world vastly more powerful than the PCs. The villain should certainly be more powerful (yet somehow lose at the last minute, or in 1% of games win... just to keep people guessing <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink&nbsp; &nbsp; ;)"&nbsp; data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> )Yes, the rule in our group is that your character can only gain treasure/special abilities/etc when you're a PC. That way people can't drop items for themselves while they're GMing.In my opinion, a DMPC is simply an NPC who travels with the party filling the role of a member of said party. Cohorts operate under specific rules (and belong to one PC above all others) and the terms hireling and henchman have been killed for me by Nodwick <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink&nbsp; &nbsp; ;)"&nbsp; data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> plus they're not all that appropriate if the person isn't hired or henched.I think we need a term for an NPC who travels with the group in that fashion, so that we can discuss the Mary Sue problems that can crop up and warn people off of them. Or discuss the good ways of including a niche-filler.Just remember that there are groups out there (like mine) which round-robin GMs and thus everyone in the group needs a PC.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Dagger of Lath, post: 3180108, member: 43621"] My point is that if they are synonymous then the term DMPC needn't be applied to that phenomena, and there are useful definitions of DMPC which cover ground that NPC is too broad to specify. Indeed there should be people in the world vastly more powerful than the PCs. The villain should certainly be more powerful (yet somehow lose at the last minute, or in 1% of games win... just to keep people guessing ;) ) Yes, the rule in our group is that your character can only gain treasure/special abilities/etc when you're a PC. That way people can't drop items for themselves while they're GMing. In my opinion, a DMPC is simply an NPC who travels with the party filling the role of a member of said party. Cohorts operate under specific rules (and belong to one PC above all others) and the terms hireling and henchman have been killed for me by Nodwick ;) plus they're not all that appropriate if the person isn't hired or henched. I think we need a term for an NPC who travels with the group in that fashion, so that we can discuss the Mary Sue problems that can crop up and warn people off of them. Or discuss the good ways of including a niche-filler. Just remember that there are groups out there (like mine) which round-robin GMs and thus everyone in the group needs a PC. [/QUOTE]

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