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Message: <blockquote data-quote="fusangite" data-source="post: 2093247" data-attributes="member: 7240"><p>Can you please explain to me why this "DMPC" is not an NPC? What characteristics does it have that make it not an NPC? I just don't understand how being around the party all the time makes this character cease to be an NPC. I've read all 80 messages in this thread and I get absolutely no sense of how this sort of character is not just an omnipresent NPC. What is it about the category "NPC" that makes it unable to accommodate the phenomena you are describing?I don't get a sense from the letter or apparent spirit of the rules that there is some kind of normative standard for what it means to be an NPC.There are all kinds of situations where GMs go to quite a bit of trouble to prevent certain key NPCs from dying at the wrong time, or at all. I just don't see how GM action to prevent NPC death somehow pushes the boundaries of the NPC cateogry.I'm currently playing in a campaign where an NPC traveled with the party for a few months. Of course he took watches when we camped. And when he did that or joined in conversations, I didn't think "Oh wow! Our GM is really pushing the boundaries of the NPC category." In a campaign I ran a few years ago, the party took an NPC ranger with them for 6 episodes because of their lack of wilderness abilities. Of course this individual participated in combat when he was with them. I really don't comprehend what about running an NPC in this way pushes the boundaries of the category. Sometimes you run long-term NPCs who are very involved with the party. Sometimes you run short term NPCs who are not. I don't understand how running long term involved NPCs causes the entity of cease to function as an NPC.I agree. I just completely fail to comprehend any way that they are not NPCs. They are a kind of NPC. And, in fact, I cannot recall a campaign I have run in the past 8 years that has not included such an individual for at least two episodes. But never for a moment did I think to myself, "this character has gone beyond being an NPC."Sounds like our positions are pretty close after all except that I think you may be overestimating the universality of these conventions.</p></blockquote><p></p>

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