Well, evidently from your experience you had more experience with what I would consider to be an NPC than a DMPC. If you are not having fun behind the screen then take a break. I am getting a litle sick of here DMs rant and rave about how players suck and whine and that we don't bring anything to the table. At that point I wonder why am I even at the table why doesn't the DM rollup some more characters and play my himself. I don't have a knee jerk reaction when I see a NPC even if it is a DMPC because I have seen them played very well.īut I do resent when an NPC comes into a party and they are a high level and they are just so much better than the PCs that they take on a major role not leaving room for anyone else. In the games I played in where their was party NPCs that worked we thought of them as a part of the party they got healing first if they were in the most danger of dying we shared loot and magic items fairly we never thought of them as just the NPCs.Īs a matter of fact when one died we went on a quest to try and bring him back at great risk to us. I think well played NPCs add so much to a game. Especially if the DM cheats in his own favor. Hmmm, in a game where D&D is cooperative role-playing and "ars artis gratia" - the game for its own sake - asking an NPC to join the party/letting the DM join in doesn't seem likely to "harm" any of the partcipants.īut in a game of powergamers where the goal is beating everyone else by having the best build, then I can see the objection. the only real difference I've seen is that they tend to be more transient than other party members, more likely to be dropped off after an adventure. If you take the attitude that all characters are characters, it's easy for NPCs to join the party and become something more. Of course, if nobody wants to play with you/look at your paintings/listen to your songs, your right is not so useful.Īll characters should be role played, that is, the character should be played as the character, no more, and no less, whether that character is a woodcutter, a seer, or a guy who ends up joining the party. Running a game gives you the right to do anything you want - it's the right of an artist to create what he sees fit, critics be damned.