Quote from: Bren;992466I don't know why someone hasn't written an RPG featuring clear rules forbidding the GM from ever playing a pet NPC. Certainly that should fix the problem.

Quote from: Krimson;992479I don't like the term but I understand the concept. It's fine to have favorite NPCs and even ones who might take advantage of GM Fiat for the sake of plot BUT they must never usurp player character agency. Favored NPCs should be there to move the plot or offer adventure seeds but Player Characters should still be the ones who take the risks and reap the rewards, or die trying.

My old 1e group kind of had what you could call DMPCs. Three of us rotated as DM, so it was natural that the current DM's PCs would act as NPCs at times. My oldest character became immensely wealthy and would go out and adventure when it was really important, but for the most part at a certain level ended up acting as a patron for lower level characters. It could even be fine if a similarly leveled PC belonging to the current DM went on and adventured with the PCs. But there are certain rules that we followed.

1. When a character owned by the DM was adventuring with the PCs, they would never earn XP.
2. These PCs would also not get their choice of loot though there were exceptions.
3. If a PC owned by the DM was to reap rewards for an adventure it would be under the condition that either the players were in agreement, or more commonly that another player was asked to make rolls for said character.
4. (I don't really have a list, I'm just making things up as I think of them) In the case of DM Fiat, favor shall not be shown to this character that is not shown to the other characters, ie in the case of a Deity who may offer limited intervention on an adventure important to said Deity.

There is nothing wrong with a DM/GM having favorite characters that they use as NPCs. But that character must never have a mechanical advantage over Player Characters. Having one could be handy but as a DM/GM I almost always followed the latter part of my arbitrary Rule 3, that is, having other players roll the bones for them. As someone who DMed as part of a rotating group, if there were rewards such as magic items that I thought my character might want, then I would either negotiate as a DM offering them opportunity to gain their own goodies, OR more frequently I would have said character compensate the other Player Characters financially. If a Player vehemently disagreed, then the DM/GM should just suck it up Your pet NPC is not a protagonist. They are not the heroes in the adventure. At best, they are support like any NPC retainer.

Quote from: Skarg;992485Most of this sounds like a group of players who are overly adversarial and suspicious. Not letting someone roll dice insinuates that you suspect them of somehow cheating on the die roll, no? And what do you mean by no mechanical advantage for NPCs over PCs? It seems full of assumptions that no one in the group can impartially GM, run NPCs, compartmentalize thinking, and that preventing that misbehavior is worth interfering with what happens in the game world. Sounds like it would tend to backfire and reinforce and perpetuate the negative mindset.

Quote from: CRKrueger;992463The kind of crap people are talking about happening in this thread I haven't seen since I've been in the first campaign of a 12 year old.

Quote from: Bren;992466I don't know why someone hasn't written an RPG featuring clear rules forbidding the GM from ever playing a pet NPC. Certainly that should fix the problem.

Quote from: tenbones;992662is this really necessary to put in print? I don't want people that dumb playing my games, heh.

Edit: On second thought... they probably wouldn't anyhow. /Moot Engines Engage!

Quote from: Dumarest;992482I see what you're doing...