GMPC or NPC
July 25th, 2008 by jeffxI think someone at Gnome Stew has hacked my site and is posting content similar to what is in my queue. Or one of my players is selling my gaming stories. Or I’m just paranoid. They are out to get me. Aren’t they?
As a rule I don’t play a character when I’m DMing. I already have enough to keep track of and I’m lousy at separating player and character knowledge. I’m sure some DMs can handle it and are even good at it. However, it is a fine line and should be avoided when playing with inexperienced players. In experienced players will tend to put the DM’s character as the leader and then get railroaded. It isn’t intentional. The DM wants the plot to unfold and he has characters willing to follow. A recipie for disaster.
Gnome Stew recently posted a Hot Botton article that talked about this topic.
Now, some of you may ask why this is a hot button question at all. GMPCs are always a bad thing, right? In my experience, not necessarily so. In campaigns that are heavy on the roleplay and investigation, a recurring GMPC can often provide needed support without taking away the glory.
The “recurring GMPC” is nothing more than a NPC and not a GMPC at all. The difference? Motivation. A GMPC is used as a player. The DM wants to play so he creates a character. The motivation is character advancement. Even if it is a place holder PC for an absent player. For a recurring and involved NPC the motivation is the story and would (or should) be designed as such. Regardless of how often the NPC appears.
I recently developed a mercenary for one of my campaigns. The party needed more fighting ability so I created this NPC to help. Because he was going to be with the party a lot, I wanted to make him interesting. I pulled out the character’s back story and race descriptions. I built a dragonborn fighter that plays into one of my player’s tiefling warlock. This NPC has his own character record sheet in addition to a sheet where I list his motivations, quirks, and such. He never has any input into the direction the party chooses so he isn’t a railroad device. It gives me the ability to play a character with a lot of depth without being heavy handed on the plot. It has the added benefit of getting another player into the party, he could just play this dragonborn.