D&D 5E If the DM plays his own PC is it ok for the party to kill him and take his stuff?

[Eltab]

Have you had previous experience with this DM hogging spotlight or solving the group's problems for them via a DMPC?

I've played a DMPC. I started in the group as a player. When our DM finished the IRL school year he moved back home. The group asked me to take over as DM. (I consider this a complement and statement of trust.) My PC stayed with the party for a time, moving into the background as the plot progressed. in-game excuse: beat up and suffered 2 failed death saves, survived anyway; i re-statted him for permanent physical disability. He left the group and became a 'spokesman for patron' type NPC when we reached The Big City.

Granted the OP situation is different in that the DM wants to begin with his own PC, but I am unwilling to presume this will auto-create problems, without more description of DM and his history.

 

[Yaarel]

Not i don't think it is. Correct me if i'm wrong but a Mary Sue is a derogatory term referring to a character that who’s just too good, perfect and without weakness, to be plausible, which also can be of greater importance etc

Player Characters are not fitting that description.

Heh, the suspicious phrasing is intentional.

In my view, the DM is responsible for playing the setting of the story, and the players are responsible for playing the heroes of the story. (Together, both the player decisions and the DM responses and guidance are creating the story.)

If a DM is inserting a hero − an actual player character that the DM normally plays when a player − it feels transgressive and ... inappropriate. Maybe like a parent insisting on playing one of the positions in a junior little-league sports team. The DM has power and there is a power differential with the players. There can be legitimate reasons for a DM to do this, and it can be done well. In our own games we rotate DM, and sometimes seek out or run into one of the DMs player characters. But when a DM does this, heh, the DM is guilty until proven innocent.

 

[Plaguescarred]

Heh, the suspicious phrasing is intentional.

In my view, the DM is responsible for playing the setting of the story, and the players are responsible for playing the heroes of the story. (Together, both the player decisions and the DM responses and guidance are creating the story.)

If a DM is inserting a hero − an actual player character that the DM normally plays when a player − it feels transgressive and ... inappropriate. Maybe like a parent insisting on playing one of the positions in a junior little-league sports team. The DM has power and there is a power differential with the players. There can be legitimate reasons for a DM to do this, and it can be done well. In our own games we rotate DM, and sometimes seek out or run into one of the DMs player characters. But when a DM does this, heh, the DM is guilty until proven innocent.

What is transgrissive and inappropriate is not having a DMPC, NPC, sidekick, hireling or companion tagging along but when a DM that don't manage it well and give too much spotlights or play favoritism as there's plenty of DM's campaign that run fine with either of these.

 

[Yaarel]

What is transgrissive and inappropriate is not having a DMPC, NPC, sidekick, hireling or companion tagging along but when a DM that don't manage it well and give too much spotlights or play favoritism as there's plenty of DM's campaign that run fine with either of these.

It can be done well, but tends not to.

How impartial can a DM be toward ones own character?

It is like a judge deciding to be the prosecuting lawyer too!

It is better to let a player control the DM-PC, similar to letting a player control the PC of an other player who cant make it one night to the session.

 

[ECMO3]

Have you had previous experience with this DM hogging spotlight or solving the group's problems for them via a DMPC?

Well I have no previous experience with this DM and quit the game when I found out he ran his onw PC in it.

 

[Plaguescarred]

I did run many campaign that had such NPCs, either by being in an all rotating DM game or for exemple when running published adventures with an unsufficient ammount of PCs where no player want to run 2 characters, i would have a DMPC that progress with the party.

In the DM rotating campaign, it was understood that when our turn was coming up, our character would become DMPC and we tried not to advantage it say by dropping powerful treasure tailored to it and things like that.

Everything was run fairly in general.

 

[Steampunkette]

I practically always run a DMPC for 3 reasons.

1) Forever DM. It gives me the chance to have a character in the game which I can think of as "mine" in a cooperative sense.
2) Party Filler. Usually some healing, but often enough just a high enough skill use option for a party that skipped it.
3) Notemonkey. I rarely have anyone in my groups who takes notes with any seriousness, so the DMPC can prod players IC to remember things.

In order to avoid any sense of impropriety, I hold myself to the following rules.

1) Sounding Board, not Leader. The DMPC is never a story-important character, leader, or otherwise going to take the spotlight. There is no DMPC Storyline or Character Arc in the campaign. They're Facillitators. They might introduce the players to the noble, but they stand back after introductions are made.
2) Enemies attack either tactically or proximity. Animals go after whoever is closest and/or most immediately threatening. Otherwise intelligent characters will go in with tactics like "Geek the Mage" or set traps. The DMPC is targeted by the same rules as any other character.
3) DMPCs make great trapfinders. If the party misses a trap, there's a 50/50 it's gonna wind up hitting the DMPC during whatever encounter happens there.
4) DMPCs are expendable. While they won't get the heroic sacrifice moment, they're more likely to get killed to show off how dangerous a particular villain is than one of the PCs.
5) DMPCs are modular. In some games there's a bunch of different DMPCs available for the party to have tag along. Depending on what's happening, any one of them will be available and useful for the task at hand. ONE. At no point will two DMPCs being in the party.
6) NPCs take priority over DMPCs. If there's a story-character traveling with the group (perhaps being escorted or dragged through the wilderness) DMPC will fall silent until the NPC is no longer with the party.

 

[Swarmkeeper]

I had one group that would do a lot of inter-party (but not inter-player) drama and RP, and the DM said thatr without a DMPC they felt bored and left out of that. And we had to figure out if that was acceptable or not.

The DM feeling like they need a DMPC to be involved in PC roleplay is a big head-scratcher for me. As a DM, I have plenty of spotlight in the game - if anything, I want the spotlight turned out to the PCs as quickly and as much as possible. I love it when the PCs are having inter-party drama and RP. Mainly, the players are now entertaining me as DM and I get to rest for a few (and/or plot my next steps). If I ever felt their roleplay was going on too long for whatever reason, as DM I can simply insert a complication for the PCs to deal with so we can get on with things. Clearly, someone's mileage varies.

 

[Plaguescarred]

A DMPC can be a great source of (mis)information for the DM's toolbox as well!

Some of mine are relatively silent, other more talkative which may sometimes be helpful in their inputs and other times not as much by dispensing false infos it believes are true like for exemple rumors.

 

[Jaeger]

Does this rule of thumb apply to DM PCs too? If alignment is an issue, how about if we set up the watch and as soon as the DM PC is asleep we wake up the rest of the party and sneak away and leave him behind?

This is acceptable.

Would this be considered bad form?

No, it is an object lesson.

Then you tell the GM why you did it.

If the DM doesn't understand what they did wrong, then it is time to vote with your feet.

Unless PvP is accepted in a campaign, I don't think it's okay for the party to kill a character and take his stuff, regardless of who's playing it.

DMPCs are not Player Characters. Nor are they NPCs.

They are the literal embodiment of playing RPGs wrong.