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If the DM plays his own PC is it ok for the party to kill him and take his stuff?
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<blockquote data-quote="doctorbadwolf" data-source="post: 8414795" data-attributes="member: 6704184"><p>See, that is an example of bad DMing. That sounds fracking terrible. </p><p></p><p>OTOH, I've got 2 campaigns that I took over from another DM, and both technically have a DMPC. They level up when the party levels up, they're assumed to be with the party unless there is a reason for them not to be, they get to just be cool every once in a while, they have ongoing plot threads from when they were just regular PCs that have become more like "recurring NPC quest-lines" in how they're handled, and the PCs are free to ignore them. They don't, because this guy is one of their close friends and they like him (both of them), but they could, and they know that. </p><p></p><p>In my Eberron game, the group just basically got a quest to accompany Khalid the Shadar-Kai Monk/Rogue (Cobalt Soul/Inquisitive) to his home in Thelanis, in the shadowy kingdom of Shaelas Val, and on to the City of Night, to bring what he and the Vryloka Paladin have learned about their people's shared past and lost true homeland to The Sisters, and possibly find what they need to complete the puzzle of that lost land, and find it again. </p><p></p><p>This is a type of story/quest that I do sometimes with NPCs that aren't at all part of the party. It's "recurring NPC X"'s personal quest. There will be tie-ins for multiple PCs in different contexts, moments to shine for multiple PCs, opportunities to be the person who saves the NPC or finds what they need or forces them to face something difficult, etc. </p><p></p><p>In a fight, Khalid often takes out minor mooks, stalls a dangerous enemy at an opportune moment, provides opportunities for others, or even just serves as a vehicle to introduce a complication like enemy reinforcements arriving, by way of using his turn to narrate him doing some wild monk nonsense only to stop dead in his tracks, go "oh [curse], we got maybe half a minute before we are royally [curse word]" to announce the arrival of a new dangerous enemy or whatever. My style of running combat tends to occassionally involve huge fights that the PCs are at the hinge-point of, with most of the battle happening around them. NPC allies tend to be involved in those peripheral elements of the fight unless needed at the side of the PCs.</p><p></p><p>But Khalid is, from a roleplaying perspective, fully a member of the party. If he died, they'd be calling on Jorasco for a rez. It wouldn't work, because of his origins and who he serves, and they'd have to either perform a ritual to allow it to work or go on a 1-2 session quest to find his soul, but they'd try. </p><p></p><p>And it adds to the game, and is a useful tool in my kit. The trick is simply to not use them as a vehicle for your own aggrandizement, or to make them The Chosen One, or whatever.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="doctorbadwolf, post: 8414795, member: 6704184"] See, that is an example of bad DMing. That sounds fracking terrible. OTOH, I've got 2 campaigns that I took over from another DM, and both technically have a DMPC. They level up when the party levels up, they're assumed to be with the party unless there is a reason for them not to be, they get to just be cool every once in a while, they have ongoing plot threads from when they were just regular PCs that have become more like "recurring NPC quest-lines" in how they're handled, and the PCs are free to ignore them. They don't, because this guy is one of their close friends and they like him (both of them), but they could, and they know that. In my Eberron game, the group just basically got a quest to accompany Khalid the Shadar-Kai Monk/Rogue (Cobalt Soul/Inquisitive) to his home in Thelanis, in the shadowy kingdom of Shaelas Val, and on to the City of Night, to bring what he and the Vryloka Paladin have learned about their people's shared past and lost true homeland to The Sisters, and possibly find what they need to complete the puzzle of that lost land, and find it again. This is a type of story/quest that I do sometimes with NPCs that aren't at all part of the party. It's "recurring NPC X"'s personal quest. There will be tie-ins for multiple PCs in different contexts, moments to shine for multiple PCs, opportunities to be the person who saves the NPC or finds what they need or forces them to face something difficult, etc. In a fight, Khalid often takes out minor mooks, stalls a dangerous enemy at an opportune moment, provides opportunities for others, or even just serves as a vehicle to introduce a complication like enemy reinforcements arriving, by way of using his turn to narrate him doing some wild monk nonsense only to stop dead in his tracks, go "oh [curse], we got maybe half a minute before we are royally [curse word]" to announce the arrival of a new dangerous enemy or whatever. My style of running combat tends to occassionally involve huge fights that the PCs are at the hinge-point of, with most of the battle happening around them. NPC allies tend to be involved in those peripheral elements of the fight unless needed at the side of the PCs. But Khalid is, from a roleplaying perspective, fully a member of the party. If he died, they'd be calling on Jorasco for a rez. It wouldn't work, because of his origins and who he serves, and they'd have to either perform a ritual to allow it to work or go on a 1-2 session quest to find his soul, but they'd try. And it adds to the game, and is a useful tool in my kit. The trick is simply to not use them as a vehicle for your own aggrandizement, or to make them The Chosen One, or whatever. [/QUOTE]
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If the DM plays his own PC is it ok for the party to kill him and take his stuff?
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