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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pawsplay" data-source="post: 4722218" data-attributes="member: 15538">There are drawbacks to it, but it can certainly work in the right circumstances. We've had cases where attendance was uneven, so someone's PC would be turned over to a fellow player or the group as a whole, with myself as the GM having veto over anything that seemed completely out of character. It's also a good way to field a larger group when you have something specific in mind.The dangers are:- Lack of knowledge about a character's capabilities.- The awkwardness of role-playing with yourself.- Insufficient screen time to develop a personality for each PC.All of these can be remedied with conscious effort. If the players spend a little extra time they can get to know each PC well enough so that they won't forget abilities, leave out bonuses, and the like. The GM, in turn, should be easygoing about letting players correct oversights, but then again, really hard-minded about saying, "No, we already played that out," when it would mean undoing important events in the game. Learning to role-play with yourself is not a hard skill. First of all, try to avoid needing to talk with yourself. If it's just informational, just narrate: "Joe and Zoe discuss their options, and they decide Joe will ___." If the dialog would be useful or entertaining, practice the look-left-look-right approach. Finally, as far as the PCs go, don't overburden them with complicated backstories. Just take a little time to come up with the relevant background information and make sure the players spend time identifying what motivates each character and what relationship they have with their PCs. Make sure each player's PCs have relationships with the PCs of other players. Drawing a little relationship web might help. Just writing, "They met at the wharf last month, and since working together they have tended to banter," can add a lot to the game. I know different groups handle metagame stuff differently, but especially in this situation I think it's okay for the group to hive-mind their decisions, even OOC stuff, provided the individual characters do not act on OOC knowledge. If that becomes a problem, the GM can start enforcing rules about communication.Definitely, definitely, track initiative as a group, ideally, with something visual.</blockquote>

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