facemaker329:
Honestly, I've never understood the fiery passion some people hold against GMPCs
In my case it's less fiery passion and more this particular instance is pushing a number of buttons* at once, setting my post tone to "strongly against".
* The Buttons (in actual order of severity, greatest to least)
1 - If you don't trust me to uphold the social contract of the game, why am I in your game?
2 - The game is about the heroics of the PCs against/within the world. We are not here to watch the DM's characters be mighty in our place (or to upstage us at a few key moments). We have tv shows, books, and movies for that (or for you really old folks, like me, radio shows).
3 - I don't like railroads. Any NPC whose job is to act as tour guide or strict navigator is actively working against my enjoyment of the game.
2a - Support NPCs are cool. Emergency 'pull the PC's out of the fire' NPCs are cool, if used sparingly. NPCs who are foils are cool. And lastly, NPCs are who just along for the ride because the PCs like the NPC are cool (Inversely: NPCs that the PCs are saddled with, and hate, but must keep in the group can also be cool).
2b - McGuffin NPCs are also okay. Example: Princess Nastypants has the magical power to heal the World Crystal, get her to the World Crystal deep in the heart of the Evil Emperor Wizard Elgrab's territory and she can heal it. The PCs are not being 'upstaged' in the 'save the world' plot because without them, she could never get to the World Crystal, and likely
the PCs will have to deal the Evil Wizard Elgrab and deal with her forces and all the evil hazards of the empire and Princess Nastypants will be useless outside of being used as glue to hold the World Crystal together.
3a - Having set goals and destinations are fine as long as "how we get there" is left to the PCs. I'm perfectly happy agreeing to "There will be set pieces and plot moments and you agree to go there to deal with them and I'll alert you to them either subtly, at first, or with a clue-by-four to the head if necessary".
Some advice on GM/NPCs. See... the GM has all the information in this war. And information is key in war. So they know that [ENEMY] type will feature heavily and can make a PC that is particularly well suited to fighting [ENEMY]. So while Smashy McGMPC is (on paper) no more potent that the other heros... every time the group faces [ENEMY] Smashy will '
[be aggressively awesome]'. And if [ENEMY] features heavily in the game, Smashy will be a constant superstar. This is where well intentioned GMs who 'want to play' often go awry. The second, and worse manner in which they will go off a cliff into the rocks of "whoa there" is they will insert
several different versions of Smashy. So when Smashy can't rock out, Smushy will. Or Swishy. Or Casty McInsanelyOverpoweredFireballs. Knowing the system (often better than the Players) and the terrain of the game means their GMPCs can
always win every war. And lastly, if the dice come up "Nope, your dead" on your favorite GMPC, let it happen. Do not save them. You'll be better for it in the long run.
Yes, I, your esteemed author of this rant, lived in that house for awhile (I was young, and dumb, and full of [PROFANITY]). Take my advice, move in there.
quote:
(unless it's an occasion where the GM is using the character to outdo everyone else in the game...)
9 times out of 10 that is what a GMPC is for (IME). Now, an NPC run by the GM, tucked into the party (as a support or foil)? They tend to be okay, and yes, there is a difference both subtle and vast between NPC and GMPC. And like porn, I know it when I see it (the first clue? The GM calls the character a GMPC).
In this case... because of the system at work here, I can't tell the difference. And yes, I am the type to be slightly more forgiving of PCs making stupid mistakes that cost my Character rewards than I am NPCs. I will
always favor adding a PC to a party over an NPC (even if my Character doesn't treat their Character well). So if we're hitting my arbitrary "too many PCs limit", yes I'll eye any additions warily, unless I can identify them as PCs right off (even then I might eye them warily).
And of course there have been times I've preferenced an NPC over a PC, usually because the Player or the Character were insufferable [PROFANITY]s,
and a role
needed to be filled. Or, I just really enjoyed that NPC for whatever reason and the PC was, as above, insufferable.
This message was last edited by a moderator, as it was against the forum rules, at 17:50, Sat 28 Sept 2019.