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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Thunderfoot" data-source="post: 2923575" data-attributes="member: 34175">A DM PC is just a bad idea - if you want to be a player, then play, if want to be a DM, then run the game.  I find that there is a difference between NPCs and DM PCs as well, a line that has been increasingly obscurred as this thread continues.  The reason most DM PCs grind the players gears is because they become the center of the game, seen it done on more than one occsaion.  A supporting person in the party that has no say in what happens, no real purpose than to be a a quick band-aid fix to a deficiant area of the party and doesn't automatically know everything is an NPC.  Currently, I run a campaign with another DM (both of us DM at the same time) so if an NPC needs to tag along for whatever reason, one of us can "play" the NPC until its departure time, keeping the "temp player" out of the know of things like combat (making it equally dangerous for the NPC and eliminating "kill steals"), allows skills to be used and failed in plain sight of the characters (no "hidden agenda" theory here) and though the overall direction of the campaign is known by both of us, allows each of us to control a little corner of the universe during game time if needed so that the Deus Ex Machina thing is kept to a bare minimum.  It still isn't a perfect solution, but it works.  The idea of a "round robin" DM system lends to the DM PC and CAN work if everyone involved is willing to make it work, otherwise it ends up as a modified "Monty Hall" with each DM rewarding the party for trivial matters and the stroyline so shared that it is basically a bunch of folks sitting around writing a story that the outcome is assured of to buff up their characters (ie the "feel-good camapaing").  Most of these folks have a lot of trouble at conventions due to the "unfairness of treasure distribution versus risk factor" due to their skewed take in their own games.Personally, stay away from DM PCs, use NPCs wisely and let the characters have fun.  IF you chose to DM, your fun should come from the thrill of the chase, not the kill, ie the planning of problems for the characters to solve, not solving your own riddles.</blockquote>

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