Playing a character while DMing. Yes or No?

[zonetrooper1]

In this case, what happened was I had two sons playing and our friend. The two sons played half orc fighters and my friend a druid, who's race escapes me at the moment. When the youngest son got board (he's six so I was expecting this), his character went to the teenager who was playing both characters now. I rolled up a dwarven rogue to kind of round things out. He acted pretty much like an extra blade in battle and he stepped in when his skill set was useful to the party, but I made sure he didn't act on anything they wouldn't have and I made sure the players made all the decisions. There were a few times when I used him to remind the party to check for traps or something like that. My players are very green. But again, he is a rogue and would have done this regardless so I didn't see a conflict. I did allow him his share of treasure and XP though.

Interesting replies so far. I thought for sure more of you would be against it. Cool.

 

[korjik]

My biggest problem is that anytime the DM is playing his character, he is playing with himself

I am generally against it. As a DM I have better things to do that play an extra PC, but on the other hand, they are great way to get in exposition, and they are a great way to introduce story hooks.

As a player, I tend to be a bit impatient, so everytime the DM is playing his character, I just want to say 'get on with it!'

If the DM is not favoring himself, and is not slowing the game down, it isnt a bad thing. I only really think it is appropriate when the party is short handed tho. Even then I am not all that keen on the idea

 

[The Shaman]

I've done this a number of times, with AD&D, Traveller, and Boot Hill, and no one in any of the games ever had a problem with it; I don't find it difficult to keep my finger off the scales, and I run my characters as low-key, going with the flow, with maybe one or two things about which they feel strongly, just to give them a personality anchor, so that the leadership comes from the other players.

Using something like Mythic GME makes this even easier.

 

[RPG_Tweaker]

I've run a few DM PCs...

IMC, they function somewhere between the typical NPC henchmen/hireling or plot-related guest and a full player character.

They are typically someone to fill a party role that the players either aren't interested in, or have simply overlooked.

While such characters have a notorious reputation of being DM "pets", enjoying a protected status, or as several horror stories go, frustratingly "outshining" the PCs... I purposely try to avoid such conditions, as it is ruinously unfair to the players.

The way I see it, if a DMPC is played properly and equitably, they can add to the overll experience, and better yet, their death or departure from the pary can create some wonderfully dramatic interactions and new plot-lines.


For example, I introduced a DMPC bard, Remy the Red, to a party of mostly fighting-types who served as a great source of exposition for the capmaign as well as a herald for the party's exploits. I used his interest in stories to extract more elaborate histories from each PC rather than the typically lackluster "Ragnar's parents were killed by orcs. He was raised by a master swordsman". This not only helped everyone get to know each other better, but gave me a rich source of PC-related plot-lines to explore.

In return, several players became equally interested in his personal history and goals; one player even effectively acted as Remy's personal bodyguard, targeting any enemy that dare attack him. At one point, when I was going to "retire" him by having him go off to pursue a personal goal, the party went so far as to sacrifce a prized keep they'd acqured to help him... their decision was unexpected, and quite touching... and the adventure led to some exquisitely cinematic quality roleplay.


I say, if the meta-game goal of a DMPC is to create adventure and glory for the party while giving some emotional "comraderie" with the players... I fully support the idea.

 

[KidSnide]

A party NPC is a perfectly reasonable tool. It provides one more character for the party (balancing out small groups). It provides a regular character that guest friends can play for a session. And, it provides a means for the GM to provide "let's get things going" input from an in-game source.

There's nothing wrong with it. It can be annoying when used stupidly, but that's not different from any other GMing technique.

-KS

 

[TanisFrey]

When the DM plays the character as the center of attraction, the one who gets the prime spot light you run the risk of boring you players. You can make their character feel helpless and along for the ride.

I played in a 2ed game as a ranger about 6 level. We had a party of 8 PC and the DM PC. The DC PC was, as we later found out, an archwizard (15th level plus) who dual classes into a rouge to hide from the leader of a group we were attacking. She was hiding from the bid bad of the campaign. Per the DM she had hidden for a time within the enemy organization. So when she joined us and we attacked an outpost, the thief in the party never needed to find traps or hidden compartment or find anything hidden. We the players were never given the opportunity to search, the DM ruled that her PC just found the hidden compartment and told us what each and every item within was. This happened before we could say that we were searching the room for loot.

 

[Merkuri]

Having a PC while you DM will never feel like having a "real" PC. At least, it shouldn't. You know what's coming, so there's no mystery. Combat is like playing chess with yourself. Getting new gear and powers doesn't quite feel the same because you're giving it to yourself.

So if you want to add another character into the party, don't call it a PC, because it's not. Call it an NPC. You can give it XP and level it up as if it were a PC, but it's not a PC. It's not your avatar in the game.

If it really becomes a PC, if you find yourself looking forward to getting loot and killing bad guys, if you want to lead your party to victory, then somebody else should probably DM because it sounds like you prefer to be a player.

 

[shadzar]

Interesting replies so far. I thought for sure more of you would be against it. Cool.

Youngest son passes off character to eldest son?

Why didn't the druid player also take on a second character?

I am in no favor of having even number of players, but in case of decision making, even being green, the druid player having another could have given them both a little more.

If both characters weren't half-orcs, it could have given them both a chance to try different characters as well.

It doesn't really matter what other people think about your game, so long as it works for you and your players.

 

[EvilCat]

So if you want to add another character into the party, don't call it a PC, because it's not. Call it an NPC. You can give it XP and level it up as if it were a PC, but it's not a PC. It's not your avatar in the game.

If it really becomes a PC, if you find yourself looking forward to getting loot and killing bad guys, if you want to lead your party to victory, then somebody else should probably DM because it sounds like you prefer to be a player.

But I do look forward to getting loot, victories and XP awards, because my character looks forward for it (just swap "XP awards" with "power"). I just act in-character and also keep people around the table interested. Player has to care about others' fun too.

 

[Rel]

I think the main reason I rarely do this anymore is that my brain is already going a million miles an hour to keep up with all the stuff I need to do to run a great game. Having the extra work of keeping track of another character is nothing I care to have to juggle on top of that.

I also feel like I'd need to be extra careful to make sure that not only was there no favoritism toward my character but not even the appearance of favoritism. That's also work that I don't need to be doing while trying to run my best game.