Honestly some of the best experiences I've had with DMPC has been when our forever DM used them to make them into active characters rather than party members. Don't get me wrong, they can be used like this to properly fill holes in the party and they can be done well but it really does feel like the DM has their hand on the scale. It tends to work out better by removing the guiding choice aspect so the players can at least perceive that they choose their fates.
Jokes on our DM, we basically forced them to have a DMPC. It's my first DnD campaign, and I threw a table at a kobold, grappled them, and tied them up. Now we made him our leader and we're trying to make him become a god.
Imo the Kobold not talking, having no emotion, and having story that the players could interpret was a stroke of genius. The Kobold acts as an additional asset to the party in terms of gameplay and story perfectly, and didn't get in the way it sounds like.
Though there are scenarios where having an NPC with personality can help. If you can make them likable. A kobold, in particular, can easily be considered cute and be treated as a pet by the party while filling out the necessary role *and* can have a developed backstory/character arc to make him more interesting. While the whole soulless and silent thing is interesting and memorable, it doesn't have to be that way. It all depends on the DM's ability to make a character the players fall in love with and want around.
This is the best Kobold art I've ever seen. Kobold have the problem that they are described both as being dog-like and dragon-like depending on the source. This art manages to capture both better than I've seen before bu making a dog shaped face with draconian featurea.
@@ss3nm0dn4r8 technically draconic kobolds were around before d&d, but since that's due to Chainmail and Gygax was part of both, that's close enough lol
Definitely going to do my best to take this into consideration for my first campaign I'm gonna be running. Gonna have two seperate 5 ppl parties in the same world, sessions likely on seperate days each week. I had a character that'll be a secret, optional ally, and he's gonna be strong, but I'll try to take inspiration here. It's got good points, I don't want him to steal the spotlight. Only assist here and there where needed, and not much else. Wish me luck.
One of my current parties has a dmnpc and he's just another member of the party, though he does have a joking god complex, but he never does anything that ruins the fun of the party
My group had a DMPC known as Squee, the goblin, mostly used as a punching bag and was somehow a good cleric, despite being a thief whose signature weapons are forks. I loved that Goblin.
It's enough to make a grown man cry. I'm definitely not that grown man. I swear, I just yawned... with some allergies... in the rain... I don't know why, but I have a soft spot for kobolds.
I had a Bard DMPC who wound up mainly as a healbot, she was also there to fill out the party which only consisted of my two brothers as players and lacked a dedicated healer. Having a case of the Critteritis, she was an archetypal horny bard, which was my excuse for her not knowing Jack shit about the actual world around her. Eventually I added more players and decided to try to kill her off, but the party's paladin dragged her to a temple to keep our main healer. And I did tone down the horny bard bit as she eventually found a stable relationship that played out behind the scenes mostly, so she was really just there in combat to spit out cure wounds and healing words.
I have a healbot DMPC as well. The players didn't start out with a Cleric, and complained about needing one. So I said "I'll see what I can do", and then did nothing for several sessions. One session, while my players were exploring a jungle, they found a native woman who had been beaten up and left in a terrible condition. After some Society checks, they learned that she had been beaten and exiled for a crime she didn't commit, and that her being a priest in training was the only reason she didn't get executed. So the players went to her village to clear her name, and find the real culprit. They succeeded, and she joined the party after, as her assistance was the only thing she had left to give them. I make sure to have her decisions be informed by her character, the laws and beliefs she has been raised on, rather than the plot. In fact, one time, she was the only one arguing why they shouldn't follow the plot (which ended up with her basically getting kidnapped by the Barbarian, to force her along the plot. In her defense, they wanted to go to her peoples' equivalent of Hell to steal from their equivalent of Satan, and as a bit of a coward, she didn't wanna come along). For a first time DM, I think I've done a good job, and my players do seem to like her.
@@elfmonster1476 that sounds like a really fun character, and a great way of introducing a DMPC with an important plot line without making their story the focal point, but rather a lens that allows them to look into one of the setting's cultures
@@fluxshaman8251 Thank you. I'm happy your party ended up liking your bard enough to resurrect her after you killed her off as well. I think DMPC's can be done well, as long as the DM go for the role of "Best supporting actor" for them, rather than the hero of the story, and also keep in mind that this is supposed to be a real person with real hopes and dreams, and not a "Plot Button".
In my current game. I have a tiefling wizard thats lvl 6, who is teaching them how to play because all 4 players are new. He's their favorite character so far.
I think you could actually make a limelight-stealing uber-DMPC work. He could be this badass who gets most of the glory and steals the rest, dramatic music plays on his turn , he's impossibly arrogant but tries to sound humble in a super condescending way, everyone loves him everywhere they go, basically a celebrity, but every now and then they run into someone who knows him personally even a little, and they hate him, possibly as much as the party, and at some point, some hideous truth is revealed about him, or he gets into a little trouble in combat and he displays craven cowardice, or he swaps allegiance for personal gain, thereby becoming the big bad, or suchlike.
Jirik's soul got stolen, as a fact. It was stuck in the lich's philactery and was freed via his dead body (reanimated by the wizard) destroyed that aforementioned philactery. The arguable point is whether Jirik lost his soul recently, dying via by intense burns when he reached the lich's room and confronted it alone before the rest of the party arrived (which would make it so before that the kobold was the lone survivor of an immense horde of kobolds and left traumatized to the point of mute apathy, and who after being reanimated overuled the Animate Dead's control property via sheer force of will)... OR whether Jirik lost his soul a long time ago, either via dying in battle while wearing the lich's collar or via attempting to remove the collar and failing (which would make it so the blank-faced Obongo the party knew was already a soulless husk, moving on its own through an undying will to face the lich and free the imprisoned souls, which would explain why the wizard's Animate Dead spell reanimated him again but could not control the little guy, since he was an undead with its own will).
During my second time running a table as a DM, I had a four player table set up, but after 2 sessions, we had one of our players drop out (life stuff, you know how it is). With only 3 players, a lot of the things I had planned out just would not work, so, I bit the bullet and created a DMPC to help the party along and give them that little bit of extra support that we lost... and my players loved it. To my total surprise, they loved having my DMPC with them. I'm not even entirely sure what I did, other than doing everything I could to separate the character from me as the DM, but once that campaign was over and we got another 4th, the 3 from before basically begged for me to include my own character in the next campaign I ran. It was a bit surreal and I still have no idea what I did to make my DMPC so loved other than doing my best to be genuine with them and make it clear they are not an extension of me, the DM. Edit: My character was Cecil Aurelia, a Life Domain cleric. She was basically just a healbot, but she did pack some pretty powerful spells for if the party needed it, but I was very conservative with using them. She was part of a noble family who had their kingdom overthrown as part of the story, and while she had plot relevance, her story was mostly just to be there and support the party. I planned on having her sacrifice herself at the end of the campaign, but, at the last second, the Fighter threw himself into the ritual she was going to stop, killing himself and destroying the ritual. To this day I still don't know what I had done to make a DMPC that was so loved by my players, and it was so long ago I don't remember all of the details, but I remember the atmosphere at the table was very positive and general good vibes all around.
funnily enough this is what the famously underpowered Ranger class was originally made for: they were basically supposed to be NPC guides for an adventure module not player characters they only really made sense as PCs when most of the adventure is going to be taking place in their home turf like a survival scenario or somesuch, they're basically the adventurer equivalent to a trail guide.
I did had a DMPC, in my campaing, that my players really love her, she was deeply into the plot and I managed to put into the backstory of my players. It was my 2° campaing and in the final battle she stayed to fight the army, while the players went to finish off the final boss.
I think making your DMPC a Kobold is kind of an instant W. They're naturally weaker than any 1 party member, and learn quickly to fill roles the party is missing even if it isn't likely to be a magical role, like a thief, guard, or carriage driver. A fully silend DMPC is a good route to take, but Kobolds are funny little scamps that I honestly enjoy RPing with. Maybe this is just down to how my DM ran our adopted Kobold.
Got a talking cat with memory issues but is a living encyclopedia when she remember anything. most the party loves her but one is super suspicious so in typical cat behavior she attached herself too him like a parasite and folllows him everywhere XD
We are allways switching the DM in my group. Same characters for 8 years now. The Dms PC is sometimes busy doing something (perfect explanation to go and learn new skills in the meantime), but in most cases he is just a slightly less aktive player character, who starts doing stuff when told so by the players. I in fact build a large part of my dwarfen campaign around my dwarf. We need troops for main campaign so it seemed to them like a good idea to go to the oldest dwarfen city where my dwarf is from. He is a warrior of the most respected order of his people and has extremely high skills in giving propaganda speeches. As a player I often changed the plot drastically by giving speeches, making conspiracies or intimidating NPCs... It was quite often the strategy they could rely on to work saving them in most situations. What they did not expect was to end up involved in deep dwarfen politics, religious conflicts and a conspiracy against my dwarf made by much more powerfull and even sneakier dwarfs, where they had to save him from being shaved end exiled in the first adventure already... including a pretty emotional sceene where he thought about suicide to protect his clans honor. One of the best moments was, when I let my dwarf get shot (not killed but down for the encounter), so our very silent priest had to come up with the right words to deescalate a confrontation where otherwise a bunch of innocents would die. He nailed it so hard xD
I run my DMPC *only* if they’re missing an absolute vital role *AND* my party asks *me* Alternatively, I run my favorite DMPC, a wandering Hobgoblin Bard, who is so insanely good at supporting, that no party member has died that he has been part off. He has also never taken the attack action.
As far as dm pcs go my personal favorite was ireena from curse of strahd. Our dm initially made her without combat experience she was eager to help in a fight but not strong. Her personality fit very naturally with the group she wasnt a yes man blindly agreeing with us but definitely became some one we wanted to protect. pretty early on we saw that lack of combat experience and decided to train her with our down time. It genuinely felt like she was growing stronger thanks to our effort.
An elf DMPC I think named Amelia, who my DM used for a campaign, was about as unobtrusive as Obongo, but at least had a speaking role. She would answer questions and fulfill requests, but otherwise she was just the carriage driver Ranger taking care of the transportation since the setting necessitated faster journeys considering how far apart objectives were and nobody wanted to be a Ranger besides me, but I changed my mind when I was told I MIGHT be made the pack mule. Edit: it would be unfair to Amelia and her creator to leave her story out, in hindsight. So. Amelia was utterly forgettable, unimportant, only acted to defend the wagon and provide scouting intel...until the DM sprung on us that she was a POLYMORPHED SILVER DRAGON! That was just, LEFT FIELD, but she promptly True Polymorphed back to her usual form and asked that we just treat her as normal, that she wanted to leave her past life behind and such. This of course did not happen as later in the campaign, we needed a blood sacrifice of a dragon and...well, she didn't die, but Amelia offered herself and was too weak to help us in the final stretch, sadly.
Im most cases, a dmpc should be powerful enough to save a party from a tpk but reserved enough to know when to stay back. My fav example is twig from the legends of avantris witchlight series. Others they may indeed need to be different. It just depends on the style of play that is engaged in by the table.
I tend to use DMPC's as a "soft guide". Similar to the Firekeeper in Dark Souls. I am never in the way, but I tend to point in the general direction with the character and say "do crime >:3"
When I play a party dmpc I almost always make them operate async of the party but in direct helpful ways, and to cover bases they aren't. Generally I find the best thing to do is keep them in the backline or background as much as possible and allow them more foreground as a vessel to teach your party about aspects of the world they may not know, but that still requires them to earn the rapport of the dmpc and if they lose that rapport they lose the help and info. Your dmpc should never outkill a party member unless the party is clearly acting passively to provide opportunity, and again, should act in the backline and background. They don't always have to be weaker and oftentimes are better off when they are equal in power but only act on their volition, only in understated ways, and only in dire situations. I have a recurring dmpc when I run certain settings and I operate him as a sort of mentor for the party rangers and rogues, as well as a neutral opinion or third party perspective that does not vote on issues. Other than that, he does some stuff that I might not see parties like to do like foraging, cooking etc, and sometimes help them un-flub lockpicks and the like, but only if they vocally ask. I'm also a fan of dmpcs who show up sometimes, do some work, then leave to do their own arcs and go on their own adventures, to be met with again later. Makes the players feel like they aren't the only worldshakers without stealing their spotlights.
meanwhile I'm over here desperately trying to get my players to ignore the NPC they resuced during our first session. I finally had to level her up. She's a level 3 wizard now because they just keep including her in stuff.
with the one time I've used a DMPC, it was actually fairly good, at least from what I could tell. The campaign was based on a world I've wanted to make for some time, and said DMPC was actually going to be one of the main characters in the story, but in terms of the campaign, she was simply just an young woman that the current BBEG at the time wanted, but didn't do much else besides try to stay hidden. I also believe she was one of the three NPC's I've made where the party actually gave them Nicknames, with hers being "The child" (for context, the other two were nicknamed "Twink" & "Gerard Way", which were both antagonists). I'd probably change her a bit to work better, but so far, she was great, and I'd actually try running the campaign again if I could.
I currently run 2 DMPCs because my party pulled a found family on the first and then kept bribing the second with the promise of loot. They for the most part function as a source of alchemical utility and laying out options when the party gets in its own head too much
I have a DMPC in my game as well. Also, a Kobold named Coal. I didn't even roll stats for her. She has negatives in damn near all stats except Dex and Con, and even those weren't much to write home about. Hell, I made her a cavalier Fighter without a mount, for gods sake. I had intended for her to be a sidequest for the party that they would have to care for while also adding a hit or two each fight. (Her story is that she could see through illusions due to a curse at birth that would eventually drive her insane with eldritch knowledge.) So she was there more to help only a little and be a bit of a comedy setup for the setting. Only 5 sessions in they gave her Gauntlets of Ogre Strength, a Mace of Disruption, AND an Oathbow who sat on the back of the party's Tree person. She was an actual problem that killed a Beholder with 2 crit attacks. What in the hell happened to my sidequest?
DMPCs are an unfortunate necessity with my games given the consistently low player turnout, and some I've done well...others not as much. I think the best one was Pulsar from a game inspired by Paper Mario (yes, seriously), but my favorite was an NPC who had such good luck that it got ascended to minor hero: the Gungan known as Arno Gris.
had an interaction with the bad kind of dmpc once. he just kinda put in a kinda high level super geared character that he had used in a previous campaign (i mean i get it, fond memories etc etc but yikes) while we were fresh, not just characters, but to the game in general. he even went as far as to transform one of us players to a cow-like creature and lay claim to everything he owned, talking about how much he could sell his gear for and it was free money. ever since then my opinion is that a dmpc either shouldn't be a thing or that they should be about as important as a squire
I'm kinda gonna have to use a DMPC....see, I can't get my group together often enough more than one or two of them for anything more than board games like Unmatched or Munchkin or the like...stuff that can be played by 2 or 3 people minimum. The MAJORITY of the group (3 people out of 5) are not really experienced with TTRPGs and I'm NOT an experienced GM by any stretch of the imagination, having never run a single campaign in my life. We've finally found a setting they are interested in and are trying to plan things...but for a simple test run with the one guy who can actually show up pretty regularly it's gonna basically be a 2 player game with me as the GM and having some DM/GMPCs to help fill things out a little bit so we can both get into the setting and figure things out.
The kobold had already had his soul stolen.... He was a souless husk through the entire camp... They freed him.
Honestly some of the best experiences I've had with DMPC has been when our forever DM used them to make them into active characters rather than party members. Don't get me wrong, they can be used like this to properly fill holes in the party and they can be done well but it really does feel like the DM has their hand on the scale. It tends to work out better by removing the guiding choice aspect so the players can at least perceive that they choose their fates.
What do you mean by "active characters rather than party members?" What's the difference?
@@Ardorstorm They're a played character with their own emotions, feelings and motivations. Unlike Obongo who has no expressions and is 99% quiet.
Jokes on our DM, we basically forced them to have a DMPC. It's my first DnD campaign, and I threw a table at a kobold, grappled them, and tied them up. Now we made him our leader and we're trying to make him become a god.
Kidnap In order to worship them
I like the way you think and I fully support this new kobold god!
I like to imagine this kobold is horribly confused about your intentions. 😅
@Daniel_Lancelin Let's just say it took a lot of convincing
I for one welcome our new kobold overlord.
Imo the Kobold not talking, having no emotion, and having story that the players could interpret was a stroke of genius.
The Kobold acts as an additional asset to the party in terms of gameplay and story perfectly, and didn't get in the way it sounds like.
Though there are scenarios where having an NPC with personality can help. If you can make them likable.
A kobold, in particular, can easily be considered cute and be treated as a pet by the party while filling out the necessary role *and* can have a developed backstory/character arc to make him more interesting.
While the whole soulless and silent thing is interesting and memorable, it doesn't have to be that way. It all depends on the DM's ability to make a character the players fall in love with and want around.
Came for silly kobold story... was not expecting emotional investment and tears...
This is the best Kobold art I've ever seen. Kobold have the problem that they are described both as being dog-like and dragon-like depending on the source. This art manages to capture both better than I've seen before bu making a dog shaped face with draconian featurea.
~~When in the vid is the art of the kobold?~~ ofc it's in the thumbnail. Yeah, it's good lol
because D&D specifically made up the dragon like version
@@ss3nm0dn4r8 technically draconic kobolds were around before d&d, but since that's due to Chainmail and Gygax was part of both, that's close enough lol
I keep picturing the ones from wow
Someone was cutting onions around here, I’m not emotional over a kobold, no sir not me
Definitely going to do my best to take this into consideration for my first campaign I'm gonna be running. Gonna have two seperate 5 ppl parties in the same world, sessions likely on seperate days each week.
I had a character that'll be a secret, optional ally, and he's gonna be strong, but I'll try to take inspiration here. It's got good points, I don't want him to steal the spotlight. Only assist here and there where needed, and not much else.
Wish me luck.
i wanna give Jirik a hug
I wanna give jirik headpats
I wanna give Jirik a hug, a forehead kiss and a grilled cheese cut diagonal.
I'm not crying, you're crying
"it's just the rain"
Made me cry too.
One of my current parties has a dmnpc and he's just another member of the party, though he does have a joking god complex, but he never does anything that ruins the fun of the party
My group had a DMPC known as Squee, the goblin, mostly used as a punching bag and was somehow a good cleric, despite being a thief whose signature weapons are forks. I loved that Goblin.
It's enough to make a grown man cry. I'm definitely not that grown man. I swear, I just yawned... with some allergies... in the rain...
I don't know why, but I have a soft spot for kobolds.
These little reptiles definitely have a hidden heart-stealing perk...
I had a Bard DMPC who wound up mainly as a healbot, she was also there to fill out the party which only consisted of my two brothers as players and lacked a dedicated healer. Having a case of the Critteritis, she was an archetypal horny bard, which was my excuse for her not knowing Jack shit about the actual world around her.
Eventually I added more players and decided to try to kill her off, but the party's paladin dragged her to a temple to keep our main healer. And I did tone down the horny bard bit as she eventually found a stable relationship that played out behind the scenes mostly, so she was really just there in combat to spit out cure wounds and healing words.
I have a healbot DMPC as well. The players didn't start out with a Cleric, and complained about needing one. So I said "I'll see what I can do", and then did nothing for several sessions. One session, while my players were exploring a jungle, they found a native woman who had been beaten up and left in a terrible condition. After some Society checks, they learned that she had been beaten and exiled for a crime she didn't commit, and that her being a priest in training was the only reason she didn't get executed. So the players went to her village to clear her name, and find the real culprit. They succeeded, and she joined the party after, as her assistance was the only thing she had left to give them.
I make sure to have her decisions be informed by her character, the laws and beliefs she has been raised on, rather than the plot. In fact, one time, she was the only one arguing why they shouldn't follow the plot (which ended up with her basically getting kidnapped by the Barbarian, to force her along the plot. In her defense, they wanted to go to her peoples' equivalent of Hell to steal from their equivalent of Satan, and as a bit of a coward, she didn't wanna come along).
For a first time DM, I think I've done a good job, and my players do seem to like her.
@@elfmonster1476 that sounds like a really fun character, and a great way of introducing a DMPC with an important plot line without making their story the focal point, but rather a lens that allows them to look into one of the setting's cultures
@@fluxshaman8251 Thank you. I'm happy your party ended up liking your bard enough to resurrect her after you killed her off as well. I think DMPC's can be done well, as long as the DM go for the role of "Best supporting actor" for them, rather than the hero of the story, and also keep in mind that this is supposed to be a real person with real hopes and dreams, and not a "Plot Button".
Where are those dam onion ninjas
In my current game. I have a tiefling wizard thats lvl 6, who is teaching them how to play because all 4 players are new. He's their favorite character so far.
I would love to see what a commercial disguise as a video game will look like
Really wholesome story
fuck, I'm crying ... why'd you have to pull on my heart strings?
I think you could actually make a limelight-stealing uber-DMPC work. He could be this badass who gets most of the glory and steals the rest, dramatic music plays on his turn , he's impossibly arrogant but tries to sound humble in a super condescending way, everyone loves him everywhere they go, basically a celebrity, but every now and then they run into someone who knows him personally even a little, and they hate him, possibly as much as the party, and at some point, some hideous truth is revealed about him, or he gets into a little trouble in combat and he displays craven cowardice, or he swaps allegiance for personal gain, thereby becoming the big bad, or suchlike.
I mean yeah, at this point, you made a twist villain, and a twist villain should in fact steal the show at some point.
is it just me or is it implied that the kobold had its soul stolen.
Jirik's soul got stolen, as a fact. It was stuck in the lich's philactery and was freed via his dead body (reanimated by the wizard) destroyed that aforementioned philactery.
The arguable point is whether Jirik lost his soul recently, dying via by intense burns when he reached the lich's room and confronted it alone before the rest of the party arrived (which would make it so before that the kobold was the lone survivor of an immense horde of kobolds and left traumatized to the point of mute apathy, and who after being reanimated overuled the Animate Dead's control property via sheer force of will)...
OR whether Jirik lost his soul a long time ago, either via dying in battle while wearing the lich's collar or via attempting to remove the collar and failing (which would make it so the blank-faced Obongo the party knew was already a soulless husk, moving on its own through an undying will to face the lich and free the imprisoned souls, which would explain why the wizard's Animate Dead spell reanimated him again but could not control the little guy, since he was an undead with its own will).
This was a ton of fun. :) I also like positive stories like this one FAR more than I like horror stories of bad players or bad DMs.
During my second time running a table as a DM, I had a four player table set up, but after 2 sessions, we had one of our players drop out (life stuff, you know how it is). With only 3 players, a lot of the things I had planned out just would not work, so, I bit the bullet and created a DMPC to help the party along and give them that little bit of extra support that we lost... and my players loved it. To my total surprise, they loved having my DMPC with them. I'm not even entirely sure what I did, other than doing everything I could to separate the character from me as the DM, but once that campaign was over and we got another 4th, the 3 from before basically begged for me to include my own character in the next campaign I ran.
It was a bit surreal and I still have no idea what I did to make my DMPC so loved other than doing my best to be genuine with them and make it clear they are not an extension of me, the DM.
Edit: My character was Cecil Aurelia, a Life Domain cleric. She was basically just a healbot, but she did pack some pretty powerful spells for if the party needed it, but I was very conservative with using them. She was part of a noble family who had their kingdom overthrown as part of the story, and while she had plot relevance, her story was mostly just to be there and support the party. I planned on having her sacrifice herself at the end of the campaign, but, at the last second, the Fighter threw himself into the ritual she was going to stop, killing himself and destroying the ritual.
To this day I still don't know what I had done to make a DMPC that was so loved by my players, and it was so long ago I don't remember all of the details, but I remember the atmosphere at the table was very positive and general good vibes all around.
funnily enough this is what the famously underpowered Ranger class was originally made for: they were basically supposed to be NPC guides for an adventure module not player characters they only really made sense as PCs when most of the adventure is going to be taking place in their home turf like a survival scenario or somesuch, they're basically the adventurer equivalent to a trail guide.
I did had a DMPC, in my campaing, that my players really love her, she was deeply into the plot and I managed to put into the backstory of my players. It was my 2° campaing and in the final battle she stayed to fight the army, while the players went to finish off the final boss.
One of my favorite examples of a good dmpc like this is definitely Paedan from the dungeons and daddies podcast. Easily one of my favorites.
I think making your DMPC a Kobold is kind of an instant W. They're naturally weaker than any 1 party member, and learn quickly to fill roles the party is missing even if it isn't likely to be a magical role, like a thief, guard, or carriage driver. A fully silend DMPC is a good route to take, but Kobolds are funny little scamps that I honestly enjoy RPing with. Maybe this is just down to how my DM ran our adopted Kobold.
Great ending but what a terrible day for rain.
Agreed
Got a talking cat with memory issues but is a living encyclopedia when she remember anything. most the party loves her but one is super suspicious so in typical cat behavior she attached herself too him like a parasite and folllows him everywhere XD
I love this.
Aww geez, I was not expecting to tear up at the end there.
We are allways switching the DM in my group. Same characters for 8 years now. The Dms PC is sometimes busy doing something (perfect explanation to go and learn new skills in the meantime), but in most cases he is just a slightly less aktive player character, who starts doing stuff when told so by the players. I in fact build a large part of my dwarfen campaign around my dwarf. We need troops for main campaign so it seemed to them like a good idea to go to the oldest dwarfen city where my dwarf is from. He is a warrior of the most respected order of his people and has extremely high skills in giving propaganda speeches. As a player I often changed the plot drastically by giving speeches, making conspiracies or intimidating NPCs... It was quite often the strategy they could rely on to work saving them in most situations. What they did not expect was to end up involved in deep dwarfen politics, religious conflicts and a conspiracy against my dwarf made by much more powerfull and even sneakier dwarfs, where they had to save him from being shaved end exiled in the first adventure already... including a pretty emotional sceene where he thought about suicide to protect his clans honor. One of the best moments was, when I let my dwarf get shot (not killed but down for the encounter), so our very silent priest had to come up with the right words to deescalate a confrontation where otherwise a bunch of innocents would die. He nailed it so hard xD
Goddamn that's 2 kobolds now I've genuinely cried a bit over
I appreciate that this was a second edition story. I cut my teeth on second edition in high school.
Tears streaming down my face... Jeez
I run my DMPC *only* if they’re missing an absolute vital role *AND* my party asks *me*
Alternatively, I run my favorite DMPC, a wandering Hobgoblin Bard, who is so insanely good at supporting, that no party member has died that he has been part off. He has also never taken the attack action.
Im sure theyre hard to find but more stories like this
Yeah, I love these kind of stories and will have to hunt them down!
If a DM forces a npc onto the party it's 50/50 going to stab you in the back or actually be the big bad in disguise
As far as dm pcs go my personal favorite was ireena from curse of strahd. Our dm initially made her without combat experience she was eager to help in a fight but not strong. Her personality fit very naturally with the group she wasnt a yes man blindly agreeing with us but definitely became some one we wanted to protect. pretty early on we saw that lack of combat experience and decided to train her with our down time. It genuinely felt like she was growing stronger thanks to our effort.
My DM filling in the role of keeping us from killing each other. IDK how many times we've tried killing each other. But she always drags us apart.
An elf DMPC I think named Amelia, who my DM used for a campaign, was about as unobtrusive as Obongo, but at least had a speaking role. She would answer questions and fulfill requests, but otherwise she was just the carriage driver Ranger taking care of the transportation since the setting necessitated faster journeys considering how far apart objectives were and nobody wanted to be a Ranger besides me, but I changed my mind when I was told I MIGHT be made the pack mule.
Edit: it would be unfair to Amelia and her creator to leave her story out, in hindsight. So. Amelia was utterly forgettable, unimportant, only acted to defend the wagon and provide scouting intel...until the DM sprung on us that she was a POLYMORPHED SILVER DRAGON! That was just, LEFT FIELD, but she promptly True Polymorphed back to her usual form and asked that we just treat her as normal, that she wanted to leave her past life behind and such. This of course did not happen as later in the campaign, we needed a blood sacrifice of a dragon and...well, she didn't die, but Amelia offered herself and was too weak to help us in the final stretch, sadly.
Im most cases, a dmpc should be powerful enough to save a party from a tpk but reserved enough to know when to stay back. My fav example is twig from the legends of avantris witchlight series. Others they may indeed need to be different. It just depends on the style of play that is engaged in by the table.
I actively try to avoid having a companion NPC with the party, but invariably my players will have their characters adopt one.
I tend to use DMPC's as a "soft guide". Similar to the Firekeeper in Dark Souls. I am never in the way, but I tend to point in the general direction with the character and say "do crime >:3"
When I play a party dmpc I almost always make them operate async of the party but in direct helpful ways, and to cover bases they aren't. Generally I find the best thing to do is keep them in the backline or background as much as possible and allow them more foreground as a vessel to teach your party about aspects of the world they may not know, but that still requires them to earn the rapport of the dmpc and if they lose that rapport they lose the help and info. Your dmpc should never outkill a party member unless the party is clearly acting passively to provide opportunity, and again, should act in the backline and background. They don't always have to be weaker and oftentimes are better off when they are equal in power but only act on their volition, only in understated ways, and only in dire situations. I have a recurring dmpc when I run certain settings and I operate him as a sort of mentor for the party rangers and rogues, as well as a neutral opinion or third party perspective that does not vote on issues. Other than that, he does some stuff that I might not see parties like to do like foraging, cooking etc, and sometimes help them un-flub lockpicks and the like, but only if they vocally ask. I'm also a fan of dmpcs who show up sometimes, do some work, then leave to do their own arcs and go on their own adventures, to be met with again later. Makes the players feel like they aren't the only worldshakers without stealing their spotlights.
My DMPC duo only exist as an encyclopedia to the party
meanwhile I'm over here desperately trying to get my players to ignore the NPC they resuced during our first session. I finally had to level her up. She's a level 3 wizard now because they just keep including her in stuff.
was expecting Jirik to be the true BBEG ngl
I'm not crying, you're crying. Stop cutting the onions. 😢
with the one time I've used a DMPC, it was actually fairly good, at least from what I could tell. The campaign was based on a world I've wanted to make for some time, and said DMPC was actually going to be one of the main characters in the story, but in terms of the campaign, she was simply just an young woman that the current BBEG at the time wanted, but didn't do much else besides try to stay hidden. I also believe she was one of the three NPC's I've made where the party actually gave them Nicknames, with hers being "The child" (for context, the other two were nicknamed "Twink" & "Gerard Way", which were both antagonists). I'd probably change her a bit to work better, but so far, she was great, and I'd actually try running the campaign again if I could.
I currently run 2 DMPCs because my party pulled a found family on the first and then kept bribing the second with the promise of loot.
They for the most part function as a source of alchemical utility and laying out options when the party gets in its own head too much
damn, i had an npc kinda like that in my 5e game, it was even a rogue using the kobold stats
Great story🎉
I have a DMPC in my game as well. Also, a Kobold named Coal. I didn't even roll stats for her. She has negatives in damn near all stats except Dex and Con, and even those weren't much to write home about. Hell, I made her a cavalier Fighter without a mount, for gods sake. I had intended for her to be a sidequest for the party that they would have to care for while also adding a hit or two each fight. (Her story is that she could see through illusions due to a curse at birth that would eventually drive her insane with eldritch knowledge.) So she was there more to help only a little and be a bit of a comedy setup for the setting.
Only 5 sessions in they gave her Gauntlets of Ogre Strength, a Mace of Disruption, AND an Oathbow who sat on the back of the party's Tree person. She was an actual problem that killed a Beholder with 2 crit attacks.
What in the hell happened to my sidequest?
That's a great story.
If i ever dm I would let the players choose the DMPC and improvise (the entire story would probably be improvised anyway)
Kurtulmak should definitely have reincarnate such a desperate fighter...
6:26 hmmm so the Kobold can be replaced by a Capuchin flying monkey.
DNPC Is Dependent Non Player Character and I’m pretty certain it comes from Champions/Hero System
Unless you have a party of murder hobos and they think he's a mole/spy lol. ok this is covered.
Obongo is a meme name obama obunga
DMPCs are an unfortunate necessity with my games given the consistently low player turnout, and some I've done well...others not as much. I think the best one was Pulsar from a game inspired by Paper Mario (yes, seriously), but my favorite was an NPC who had such good luck that it got ascended to minor hero: the Gungan known as Arno Gris.
a classic
had an interaction with the bad kind of dmpc once. he just kinda put in a kinda high level super geared character that he had used in a previous campaign (i mean i get it, fond memories etc etc but yikes) while we were fresh, not just characters, but to the game in general. he even went as far as to transform one of us players to a cow-like creature and lay claim to everything he owned, talking about how much he could sell his gear for and it was free money. ever since then my opinion is that a dmpc either shouldn't be a thing or that they should be about as important as a squire
Oh no.
My dmpc just doesn't get a vote
I'm kinda gonna have to use a DMPC....see, I can't get my group together often enough more than one or two of them for anything more than board games like Unmatched or Munchkin or the like...stuff that can be played by 2 or 3 people minimum. The MAJORITY of the group (3 people out of 5) are not really experienced with TTRPGs and I'm NOT an experienced GM by any stretch of the imagination, having never run a single campaign in my life. We've finally found a setting they are interested in and are trying to plan things...but for a simple test run with the one guy who can actually show up pretty regularly it's gonna basically be a 2 player game with me as the GM and having some DM/GMPCs to help fill things out a little bit so we can both get into the setting and figure things out.
Where was this read from?
nooo... NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!
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First!