NPCs you'd like to play as PCs.

[The Shaman]

I believe the DM can't and shouldn't also be a player.

"Shouldn't" I understand, but "can't?" Bollocks.

While it may not work for you, it works just fine for others.

I don't mind a foe or a contact being well developed and played, but an NPC that the DM plays along with the group too often turns into a DMPC. I mean seriously, as the DM I have the whole world to run, I don't have to horn into the players' part of the game too.

Running a trusted confidante and ally is part of running the whole world.

 

[scourger]

"Shouldn't" I understand, but "can't?" Bollocks. While it may not work for you, it works just fine for others.

Hence, I noted it as my opinion with the introduction, "I believe..." And, I'll note here that it is based on 30+ years of gaming experience. Your experience may be different.

Running a trusted confidante and ally is part of running the whole world.

Agreed. But, that isn't necessarily a DMPC. And, I've found that the players are perfectly capable of running those trusted confidantes and allies themselves if such a trusted confidante and ally is part of their adventuring troupe.

I see the DMPC as a rookie mistake; the richly detailed NPC, a friend or foe with motivations and machinations, as the hallmark of a great GM. The real rub is that the DMPC is glaringly apparent but the well-run NPC is more subtle (often unrealized by the players).

To get back to the OP, I think running an NPC as a PC is best done in a different game. If an NPC concept is so cool, then that DM should wait until he is a player and then run a similarly conceptualized character as a PC.

 

[Smoss]

When I used to play more than I GM'ed, our DM had an NPC fence that we grew to love - DeMorgan Riis. He was a bit of a bumbler. Always trying to keep up with fashion and such - But oddly wore a frayed sunhat and some cruddy boots caked in mud on his travels (A helm of speak languages and boots of striding and springing). Our DM ended up taking him as a PC eventually - Then later playing his son. He was a fun character...


And I had fun killing him off as GM... MUHAHAHA!
Smoss

 

[Thunderfoot]

I have a grand old time running my NPCs both as friends and allies and as enemies and nemeses of the PCs. that said if there was one NPC I could pull out of the world and "put back in the box" for my private use so to speak, it would be a jester named "Idiot (E-di-yo) the stupid" He was an undersized human thief who was a master of disguise, especially with elves, dwarves, gnomes and halfling style make-up jobs. (he could also pull off a mean goblin or kobold in a pinch.)

He was the king's right hand spy and was actually quite intelligent (INT 15 played as a 6). The king knew the truth but let Idiot "play the fool" to the hilt. All the time Idiot was drooling in the corner or breaking dishes over his head he was listening in on important conversations, traitorous discussions and the like. He was also a master at voice mimicry and a ventriloquist. Probably not a great PC for the regular dungeon crawl, but one helluva great in town, intrigue PC.

He was also pretty wicked with daggers and a backstab...

 

[The Shaman]

Hence, I noted it as my opinion with the introduction, "I believe..."

Fair 'nuf.

And, I'll note here that it is based on 30+ years of gaming experience.

Well, I can whip mine out, too, if you really want to compare.

Your experience may be different.

I've seen some dungeon masters bollocks it up by favoring their character over the other players, and I've seen those players tell the dungeon master to knock that <excrement> off or suffer the consequences, from getting pelted with dice and game books to watching the group dump his sorry ass and play with someone else.

But I've also seen it as a great outlet for groups that want to rotate refereeing duties in a shared setting.

And, I've found that the players are perfectly capable of running those trusted confidantes and allies themselves if such a trusted confidante and ally is part of their adventuring troupe.

If we're talking about someone like a henchman or cohort, perhaps, but that's something of a corner case, in my opinion.

To get back to the OP, I think running an NPC as a PC is best done in a different game.

That's what I understood the original post to mean.

 

[Barastrondo]

Half the time when I create an NPC that makes me think to myself "I would like to play this as a PC, if circumstances were different and somebody else were running this game," my wife zeroes in on the guy as a romantic interest.

It's like she can smell the "this guy has probably got a cool story to him."

Anyway, probably too many to count, from the cursed deathknight in a fantasy supers game to the naga/rakshasa chimera in the modern horror/adventure game. I try not to get too invested in any of them, though; if I have a concept that I really want to play as a PC, I'll stow it away just in case. I don't want to ever succumb to the temptation of doing GMPCs in a bad way without realizing it. But I love doing NPCs that are characterful enough to be protagonists in their own right, so by these standards it happens a lot.

 

[Gentlegamer]

I was tempted to turn Meepo from the Sunless Citadel into a recuring, Gollum/Gurgi-like character that might be pretty fun (for me) to run as a PC, given the right group.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

Guys, this thread is NOT about DMPCs. It's about characters you've created and run as NPCs that, given a chance, you'd like to play as a PC, you know with the whole sitting on the other side of the screen thing.

But hey, some great characters out there.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

Oh and I've given XP where I could, but must spread the love before giving more XP to the rest of you.

cheers

 

[Evilhalfling]

Father Mason would have been a good PC. He is the high patriarch of the god of earth (+ strength & infrastructure) He was written up as a companion character and turned over to the players for a single session (where the players all used higher level NPCs). After which they wanted to keep him.

He was patterned after other athletes turned old & political.
(John Kerry, Jack Kemp, etc) handsome with a perfectly quaftted head of silver hair.
He walked with a slight limp and a staff - until he used its dynamic property to turn it into a 12 lb maul and flatten things. On a crit his basic attack would daze, knockdown and push 1.