Poll: Who did play in a group where the master had a "pet NPC"?

[blackshirt5]

Check out this thread in the wizards' boards for sheer amusement. Some DMs bragg about their DM PCs, how cool they are and how the PCs adore them.

Yeah right. And why majority of those DM PCs are "kewl" demonic races like Fey'ri or Tiefling?

That's probably the stupidest thread I've seen in a while.

Why are they "kewl" demonic races? Because these guys couldn't DM their way into Faerun if they had a party with a dual-wielding good drow.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Oh yes.

And they all had the same personality, regardless of race/class/sex/background. Of course, the NPC was teh key to most of the plot hooks.

The DM gave them the same XP as the PCs (which was fine, I guess), but when handing out roleplaying bonus XP, he sometimes gave more to the NPC than to some fo the PCs!

Needless to say I'm not a fan of DM PCs ... an NPC with the party for a short period for story purposes is fine, or as a hireling, but no DM PCs!

 

[DWARF]

As I DM, I've had several of those, but the rarely, RARELY are on the players side.

 

[Zappo]

I never said it did Zappo.

Sorry. I was in a hurry and I wasn't clear.

What I meant is: it's OK to have a villain that is recurring and cooler than PCs. The term "DM's pet NPC", which has a negative connotation, almost invariably refers to a character that helps the PCs out (too much), and rarely to a villain. As we've seen in this thread, uber-cool recurring enemies, or even NPCs that aren't enemies but at least don't follow the PCs around to do their job, are widely used.

Though now that I think about it, I must say that there is such a thing as a pet villain. The kind that always seems to be smarter than the PCs, and seems to always get his equip and stats ret-conned so that he can foil the next PCs' plot to kill him.

 

[blackshirt5]

Sorry. I was in a hurry and I wasn't clear.

What I meant is: it's OK to have a villain that is recurring and cooler than PCs. The term "DM's pet NPC", which has a negative connotation, almost invariably refers to a character that helps the PCs out (too much), and rarely to a villain. As we've seen in this thread, uber-cool recurring enemies, or even NPCs that aren't enemies but at least don't follow the PCs around to do their job, are widely used.

Though now that I think about it, I must say that there is such a thing as a pet villain. The kind that always seems to be smarter than the PCs, and seems to always get his equip and stats ret-conned so that he can foil the next PCs' plot to kill him.

OK, much clearer now.

I don't think the party wizard, Tak, is a pet NPC(and I hope that the players would tell me if he was). A self-righteous, know-it-all, sex-obsessed-with-a-the-self-control-of-a-pit-bull-doped-up-on-spanish-fly wizard, but not a pet NPC. I made a wizard to help cover that base within the party(nobody wanted to play a wizard), and he's just kinda stuck around and become an integral part of the group. Like I said, he doesn't show them up, although he does love to use flashy evocations like Fountain of Blood and Fireball in battle, and damn the consequences(FAve Quote: "Well then you should've jumped out of the way Angcuru!"). He's become a reliable member of the party, and I try to make sure that I don't pull too much attention to him.

 

[Gez]

Well, I have a fondness for some NPCs, but they definitely aren't there to be seen everyday and be deus ex machina. To the contrary, NPCs are IMO better appreciated when they are seen rarely. They may keep their mystery factor that way.

 

[rkanodia]

That kind of NPC is much better than the DM's pet type. My current campaign happens to include a skillful-yet-bumbling gnomish scientist who is following objectives parallel to the PCs. I had intended him to be a supporting character for the first session only (possibly popping back in every now and then, presuming he hadn't been killed), just to add some flavor to the game, but the PCs ended up finding his blend of silver-tongued sarcasm and gnomish ingenuity well enough that he's become a recurring character. In fact, one of the PCs wants to 'adopt' him as a cohort via the Leadership feat, which I will try to work into the story.

The success of this NPC is giving me a good idea for making the world feel more dynamic. Basically I will try to introduce an NPC or two every session who is somehow tangientially related either to the current storyline or the players' long-term personal goals. If they like him (or intensely dislike him!), he can show up again; if not, no loss, but at least the PCs know that they aren't the only people who do anything of consequence.

As for the villain... so far, there's a recurring villain who is cunning and predatory, if not extraordinarily unusual, but more of a rival than an evil to be vanquished. Next session (fourth of the campaign), though, my PCs will hopefully meet a villain who is going to be way cooler than they could ever hope to be.

 

[Vocenoctum]

I've had or run into just about them all;

EgoPCs: these are the DM's former characters from past games. They can't be beat, only worked with or for.
(in an SR game, the GM had such. They were horrible. I took a shot at one, he told me I missed. I pointed out I hadn't rolled yet, so he said roll. I rolled, he goes "you miss" and I dropped out of the game later on, when it got WORSE.)

DMPCs: when the group is short handed, or there's a spot ("we need a rogue") that no one wants to play, or, in my case the players never let you play, you're always the DM. I've had these and they tended to be low key. My DMPC's didn't instigate stuff, and were basically extra healing and strength of arms. The players really did seem to enjoy it, regarding it as another player.

PlotNPCs: these are those NPCs that you stumble on, and they stay with the group, even though you don't need them, and usually don't WANT them. They are some future plothook, so you're supposed to work with them, even though it's horrible metagaming, since you don't like them.
(a game I'm in had several of these at one time, they were too irritating in speech and manner, and too often instigated things where the rest of us didn't want to get involved.)

The main problems I have is when they overshadow the PCs, but you also have the matter of more dicerolling. Once my brother was DMing, and it was combat. In a game we weren't familiar with, it was running slow, but then we reached a part where a bunch of NPCs were fighting. We performed our actions, and it took him nearly a half hour to go through all his NPC's actions.

The problem with the egoPCs is broader than liking your NPCs, the DM even stated in a later conversation that "the story is mine, the players are just watching it unfold". Huge difference in gaming style from what I prefer, and even without that, I'd never play with that person again.

 

[Numion]

Because these guys couldn't DM their way into Faerun if they had a party with a dual-wielding good drow.

Truly priceless! LOL!

 

[rkanodia]

Say, the "EgoPC" just gave me an idea. Lemme see if I can find Timron's old character sheet; now he would make a priceless addition to the BBEG's hit squad!