Running Multiple Characters

[Sword of Spirit]

I'd love to see my players talking to themselves while role-playing two characters.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

I'd love to see my players talking to themselves while role-playing two characters.

99% of the time, we don't use first person so I have had a player state, "(character 1) says this and then goes here but (character 2) disagrees and stays put", or similar. The player may even describe one of his characters persuading the other of a course of action.

It's really not that difficult.

Sure, some people may not find it as satisfying but I am simply saying it can be done.

 

[Jhaelen]

99% of the time, we don't use first person

Wow, that's (almost) a no-go in our group. When using third person, you are already distancing yourself from your character, so it's less immersive and the roleplaying inevitably suffers - imho, that is.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

Wow, that's (almost) a no-go in our group. When using third person, you are already distancing yourself from your character, so it's less immersive and the roleplaying inevitably suffers - imho, that is.

That's why I would stress/emphasise that it is simply how we do it.

For us, it is actually immersive because none of us are actors, ham or otherwise, but third person seems to allow us to get into the fundamental ridicilousness of pretending to be an elf without breaking down into, "Why are we doing this in our 40s again?" So for us it's actually less distancing that first person with all of its cringeworthiness would be.

But that's purely our group and how we have developed over our 30 years playing together.

 

[Random Axe]

Our group has played both styles before, and I prefer one character per player; very likely that the rest of our group now feels the same.

We had a D&D campaign where the original DM required we make up two separate characters, probably because he assumed it would be a tough campaign and he wanted us to have a backup character when the first one died -- never actually worked out that way and our huge party survived and thrived to major levels before we finally retired the campaign.

Another time we had a Werewolf campaign where we each played one character, but our pack was filled in with a ton of other NPC garou that it eventually amounted to the same thing, where each of us became responsible for running multiple NPCs along with our own main PC. That also became a lesson in streamlining the campaign party.

 

[Serendipity]

I can. It was much more common when I was younger (esp when the amount of actual RP occurring was minimal, in all honesty). Today I can and have (recently even) - though I think my ability to do so has everything to do with having spent most of the 90s and about half of the 'Oughts stuck in the GMs chair. With some characters it's fine, especially the small handful of really old ones I still have running around. With newer characters, and some more complicated, I either can't or would rather not.
Still, sometimes, under the right circumstances, it can lead to bang up games.

 

[shadow]

I generally dislike players having multiple characters because it seems to dilute the role-playing aspect of the game. I've seen players have difficulty role-playing multiple characters, so they end up being extremely generic or pretty much the same character. However, it might depend on the player. Right now, I'm running a Castles and Crusades game with just two players, so I let each player have two characters so they have a chance to survive.

 

[Lwaxy]

I love doing it, and running a campaign right now where everyone has 13 PCs (one from each of the campaign worlds) although they do hardly run more than 2 or maybe 3 at the same time.

Yeah some PCs fail to get much spotlight, but then, if they don't work out at all they will be replaced sooner or later.

We use 1st and 3rd person intermixed when everyone has only one char at the table, and always use 3rd person for clarification if there is more than one.

 

[doghead]

I am currently running two characters in a pbp game here on the boards and enjoying it. One character is talker, the other a doer, which does mean that they play to different aspects of the experience to a degree. Neither character my own, they are both abandoned shells that I am ghost hacking. Perhaps that makes a difference in the level of investment I have in them. I am not sure. It doesn't feel very different.

PbP probable lends itself to playing to characters more easily than face to face games. You have time to switch between characters mentally as you write. From the point of view of the other players, it also makes little difference if the two characters have a discussion between themselves that takes place in one post, or across multiple post (other than it playing out much faster). I don't have to actually sit around and talk to myself, and they don't have to sit around watching me try

thotd