How to DM AND play char.?

[Pierson_Lowgal]

Another reason DM controlled party members, call them what you will, are unworkable:

Enemy has a breath weapon, but is the kind of creature that might have a breath weapon and might not - the players at the table certainly don't 'know' about the breath weapon. When it's the DM-NPC's turn, do you move the character into breath weapon range?

My group is often quite small, and we have to use NPCs to round out the party. I find that I have to give control of the NPC's movements in combat to a player because of issues such as this. No matter how you design it, you always run into these kinds of GM vs. GM's NPC knowledge issues.

 

[Dark Mistress]

A DMPC is typically a bad idea if the DM runs them exactly like a PC and expects the same out of them.

Now what the other poster said about a ANPC which works nearly the same but with a few but key differences it works much better and can let a DM RP more. Mostly in pure social scenes among the PC's you can take full part that way ect.

It is still a risk, I would talk to the players first. Explain things and see what they think. If they are ok with it, then give it a try but be careful. If they balk at the idea you would be best to just run it and then tell them one of them will need to run later so you can get your RPing fix too.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I game in several groups, the longest lasting and smallest of which has only 3 regular players. We've been campaigning together for more than 20 years. Because of the group's size, DMPCs aren't just a good idea, they're a requirement.

We rotate duties as DM in this 1ED/2Ed hybrid campaign world, and all have PCs. We have several different campaign levels within the gaming world- high (Epic) mid (10-15) and newbies (1-5+).

DMPCs, as we run them, at least, are used to supply abilities & skills that would otherwise be absent in the party.

The trick is to run them similar to NPCs, in that you never, NEVER let them drive the story.

 

[Treebore]

I would really like to play as a char., but I have tons of ideas for adventures and no one else wants to be DM. I have ideas for a VERY long campaign (lvl.2-20+) so I really don't want to wait to play. I have three theories that might let me do both without spoiling every thing.
1.) I could make my char. leave the party for about a month if I let him join Guardians of the Green.Allowing me to be full-time DM in his absence.
2.) I could draw the basic outline of the dungeon and then roll randomly for traps and encounters ect.
3.) I could just be a silent char. and not say anything unless they already know it, I suceed in a roll (spot creatures..ect.), or to hint them in the right direction to innitiate a quest. The only problem with this is that I tend to be the face char. and I don't like to base social skills soley on rolls. And if I do the talking, then I'll know exactly what to say and therefore always be right because I don't like being wrong perhaps we could take turns being the face char.?
Like I said these are THEORIES so please, if you have a better idea,I'd like to know about it.

DMPC's are a great tool. So option 3 is probably your best bet.

Only use a DMPC if:

1. You can maintain enough separation to not turn the other players PC's into supporting cast.

This will involve lots of things.

You cannot favor your character, and like you mentioned you cannot fully participate and "give" all the answers via you character. You will have to be a background PC, practically an NPC. So the only time you really "get to play" is when the combat starts and you get to roll for your attacks.


Plus you have to be very careful to not show any favoritism to your PC. All the "cool stuff" pretty much has to go to your players PC's.

It takes a fair amount of maturity and the ability to maintain your distance from the character, but its about the best you can do as the DM playing a PC.

So if you honestly think you have the maturity and the ability to maintain your distance, go for it.

 

[Michael Silverbane]

Another option that you might consider, if you don't want to go the full DMPC route (which can sometime lead to difficulties, as has already been pretty exhaustively described), is to have one (or more) of the players take the Leadership feat for their characters, and then you can control the cohort(s), if you so desire. That gives you all the excuse that you need to have a character that tags along with the group, while making it less likely that you will outshine the PCs.

Later
silver

 

[MrWildman]

In my first group I was the default DM from the time we learned it is 7th grade until our mid-20's. When I wanted on the other side of the screen many options presented themselves:

Our main campaign world, my self-consistent, ongoing storyline, was the usual venue. But I was allowed to call a night of what we dubbed: "Fightin' Things". This was just random encounters all night long. maybe arena combat followed by a flying chase followed by a forest ambush. My characters lived longer than most.
Eventually the players became interested in understanding more of the rules. They'd show up with handwritten notes and pencil-drawn maps, formatted like TSR modules. Soon there were three rotating DMs.

We allowed a form of the dreaded DMPC (certainly a can of worms, if nothing else, eh?) as what might be called "Guest Stars" or "Cameos", characters from other settings . We also had fun playing teams of NPCs at a time: an order of knights, a church hierarchy, wizard's or thieves' guild, etc. You have stables of customizable characters you can lovingly level to greatness or alternately test to destruction. I became very attached to some that started at 1st level and survived the agreed-upon penalty of receiving 1/2 XP for leaving your world to attain "Name Level" and beyond (Bwa-ha-haa!)

My current group has two regular DMs; myself and another (Woo-hoo!) and our game world has to large continents separated by a vast ocean. I DM the continent of Zarzia and PC in the continent of Anturrum, my friend vice versa. It's working very nicely.

Peace.

 

[WhatGravitas]

The trick is to run them similar to NPCs, in that you never, NEVER let them drive the story.

In my first game, I was also guilty of having a DMPC, mainly because we *wanted* to DM in turns, but then I ended up becoming the main DM, started to enjoy DMing in general a lot more than playing, and got a clue and run her as NPC.

But she wasn't *my* character anymore, she was basically the group's cohort (and ended up being a love interest, at which point she was completely controlled by the player, whose PC courted her).

The problem is, that you won't get your playing fix out of it, and if you do, you are already on the verge of doing something wrong. Or worse.

Cheers, LT.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

An amusing trap for the unwary is this: sometimes you get your players' PCs and your own PC's capabilites & resources mixed up.

Like I said, we rotate DMing duties in my small group, and we have our DMPCs available when DMing...and also when we sit on the other side of the screen, of course.

However, once we were in an adventure and the party (sans any DMPCs, for once) was utterly stymied. We couldn't figure out a way past a certain magical barrier. Eventually, we turned back.

At the end of the evening, the DM asked us why we didn't cast "X" spell- we responded that nobody in the party had access to "X." Convinced we didn't know what we were talking about, he examined the sheets of the PCs used that evening...then we checked out his main PC.

His PC was the one and only PC who could cast "X." (As a player, he was and still is loathe to share character resources, even when it makes sense. Not only is his PC still the only one who can cast "X," he's being similarly stingy in a campaign with another group.)

Moral: If you do use a DMPC, make sure that you don't write adventures or scenarios in which the DMPC is neccessarily the hero of the moment. Its fine for him to hold onto "the McGuffin" for a while, but don't make him the "Chosen One*" who is the only one who can actually use it.

* Except as subterfuge, of course- its OK if you make the players believe your DMPC is some kind of Golden Child if you're setting him up, and that his exalted status is just a precursor to extreme jeopardy of some kind...like the Chosen One must be sacrificed the dawn following the ritual of using the McGuffin.

 

[Jhaelen]

In our Earthdawn campaign we have rotating DMs, we switch after every adventure. When you're the current DM your pc goes into npc mode. I.e. you don't act, you only react. It's really the only good way to make this work. You should NEVER be the person in the spotlight. Nobody enjoys watching you interacting with yourself all the time. It's just as entertaining as watching the conversation or combat between two npcs.

It also means you must be able to watch your pc being led into certain doom at times.

In my experience, if you are actively trying not to favor your pc over the other players' characters you'll often end up putting him at a disadvantage because you're subconsciously overcompensating:
E.g. when placing treasure in an adventure you'll avoid including an item that would be obviously most useful for your own character. In combat you'll make sure your character is included in the majority of attacks, etc.

In my D&D campaign I regularly have npcs accompany the pcs. This is a reasonably good substitute for having your own pc. You don't get the emotional attachment and cannot have an active role, but you get to try out interesting character concepts and builds more often than a player ever could - so it has its rewards.

 

[Pbartender]

Yeah, I don't recommend playing and Dming in the same game. Your idea of random traps, etc... just doesn't sound very practical for anything except a very generic dungeoncrawl type game.

I would suggest you get one of your buddies to run a game alternately with you - play one week, DM the next. That way you get both sides, and nobody is overburdened with the job.

This is almost exactly the advice I was going to give...

Dont' mix DMing and playing within the same game... It's a conflict of interet, there is often a preception of DMPC favoritism even when there isn't, and if you think separating player knowledge from character knowledge is difficult, DM knowledge is even worse. Rarely it works, but in general it's far more trouble than its worth.

Our group typically plays two different campaigns at a time, each with its own separate party of characters, switching back and forth at reasonable intervals. That gives multiple people a chance to DM, and lets everyone play. As a bonus, it helps prevent DM burn-out by giving the DMs a "vacation" to recharge and prepare for the next adventure.