D&D General The "DM's PC"

[Flamestrike]

Cue the DM who inserts his own PC from a different campaign into the game.

The instant they do that, I endeavour to kill that NPC by every and any means possible.

It's usually impossible to do 'for some reason' though.

 

[Weiley31]

I know at our tables, we sometimes have our characters from our other games be NPCs in our other Campaigns. The Druid player in my current group has a bunch of siblings, who are also PCs that the Druid player plays as in his Campaigns on his end and they end up being used by the other players in our group as NPCs in their own games. Sometimes we borrow each other characters to be NPCs in our own small group's games. (Mostly as quest givers, NPC cameos, or a one-off Sidekick for a single quest.) It gives a strange kind of "connected universe" feel to the games. In the Campaign I'm DMing, my Battlemaster pc, from our current Campaign, is gonna make a small cameo appearance where he passes by the PCs and goes "I think you won't find any excitement in that town my friends" and just keeps walking on in the opposite direction away from said town. (Of course my Battlemaster pc is gonna be completely wrong and miss all the action happening while the PCs deal with it.)

When our main DM needs some more time to polish something for our current Campaign, or needs to take break, I offer to DM a separate Campaign that we engage in.

 

[Older Beholder]

I found this was common when I was getting started back in 2nd Ed
I don't really remember what the reason for it was, but given the DMPC often turned out to be a God of some kind, I figured it was more of a safety net for new DM's that need a quick solution to the party getting stuck.

I can't recall anyone doing it after we left high school / moved on to 3E

 

[Ovinomancer]

I think this discussion has mixed up a long term NPC that travels and works with the party with a character that the GM has a personal stake in. I will readily agree that if the GM has a personal stake in the NPC, and treats them more like a PC than an NPC, there are many problems and issues likely to arise. However, it's also entirely possible to have an NPC adventuring with the party that the GM is treating like an NPC. I don't have any more personal stake in NPCs adventuring with the party than I do to any other NPC or PC. Since I have zero problem with a PC dying, and I roll in the open, it would be obvious if I favored any NPC. I don't.

I'm often of two minds about giving players NPCs to control. I will sometimes do this, but, over time, I'm slowly moving towards not doing it. And this is because I feel that the players already have an important job -- to advocate for their PCs. And, NPCs aren't just tools for a player to use in that advocation, they should have their own goals and motivations to create a vivid game. If I'm giving the PC the NPC, it should be with those goals and motivations, so actions can be chosen well, but that puts the burden to play multiple characters on the players. And, that's not a problem, players are capable of this. The problem really comes from having to advocate strongly for characters that might have different goals, or wildly different abilities. I saw this at the end of SKT, where the module encouages letting the players run giant allies, a few of whom have ulterior goals. This means a player might have to play an NPC in direct contradiction to their advocacy for their own character. This is deeply unfair, and runs into the same problems that many poster here are pointing out about a GM being invested in an NPC adventuring with the party. That moment really solidified some issues for me (and, if anyone's wondering, the player did a wonderful job of playing the giant's motivations, but it was at the expense of the rest of the party), and I'm much less likely to hand over anything other than simple NPCs (like soldiers or summoned monsters) to the players to run.

 

[aco175]

Perhaps a better phrase for some DMs is the DMHenchman. I would say that the DMNPC I run is more of a henchman or follower that I control for the most part. He tends to have less power than the PCs and mostly stays in the background unless needed or to aid in fighting or healing. He does not even roll for magic, but the other players give him an equal share.

We can use the DMHero for those who force a god upon the party to force the rest of the group to do circus tricks.

 

[Umbran]

To bad you don't engage in honest discussion....

Mod Note:

Too bad you had to make this personal. You're done in this thread.

 

[the Jester]

I generally really dislike DMPCs, both as a player and as a DM. I'd much rather adjust an adventure to suit an undersized party or use hirelings/henchmen/genuine npcs as opposed to DMPCs than stick a DMPC in there.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

As a general rule, I do not like DM NPCs. It almost never goes well.

I have two exceptions that I have used in the past.

1. The deus ex machina. In a few campaigns, I have included a "DM NPC" that was a specific plot point that would accompany the adventurers in order to accomplish a specific goal.

2. The "retired PC." When PCs get super powerful, they can be retired and become setting NPCs; when they are encountered again, they are "DM NPCs" and can be interacted with on a limited basis.

Again, I don't like DM NPCs. If a DM wants to play, they should rotate duties or join another game as a player. I've seen far too many campaigns go astray when a DM oversteps their bounds with a DM NPCs and I think it's best to avoid the temptation.

Yeah, this, and even 1 needs solid player buy-in to not be rubbish, because like, 9 times out of 10 when a GMPC ruins a game, it's because they were acting as a deus ex machina. I have specific examples from the 1990s lol, but I will not bore us with them at the present time. I have seen a few times where the NPC was known to the players and so on, and they had buy-in, and it made complete sense for them to be there, where it worked, though.

 

[Mistwell]

What I mean is a frequently used NPC that either is an ally or even a member of the party. Obviously it is just an NPC, although if it is a multi-DM campaign, I suppose it could also be the DM's PC when they play. In the past I have sometimes used such an NPC, whether to flesh out party ranks, to be a source of information or guidance in some way, or just add a bit of regular interaction.

How have you done this? Again, I'm not talking about the countless NPCs - even frequent contacts - that the PCs will encounter, but one that is either a member of the party, or perhaps regularly drops in and out of contact. Are they just another party member or do you use them as a source of info dumping when necessary (e.g. Gandalf), or somewhere in-between? What problems have arisen? Etc.

There was a point early on in 5e where the party had no healer and I sent a friendly allied Cleric along with the party. However, I had the Cleric wait in the first room of the dungeon, guarding some of their stuff, and they would not go further into the dungeon with the party. If they party wanted to go back to that room and rest or get healed they could (or could try), but they didn't get an NPC with them during the rest of the adventure.

I would simply not control an NPC along with the party most of the time. If you want to play, be a player. The spotlight is for the PCs.

 

[Ovinomancer]

There was a point early on in 5e where the party had no healer and I sent a friendly allied Cleric along with the party. However, I had the Cleric wait in the first room of the dungeon, guarding some of their stuff, and they would not go further into the dungeon with the party. If they party wanted to go back to that room and rest or get healed they could (or could try), but they didn't get an NPC with them during the rest of the adventure.

I would simply not control an NPC along with the party most of the time. If you want to play, be a player. The spotlight is for the PCs.

I most agree with your takeaway at the end, but point out there's plenty of space in the non-PC realm for an NPC that adventures with the PCs. The thing to avoid is having any personal attachment, past what you would for a player's PC or another NPC, in this NPC.