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Gnoman
2011-08-04, 07:58 PM
Has anyone attempted to have persons who are excellent roleplayers but have no interest in game mechanics act as an "auxilliary DM" or "Played Non-Player Character?" The idea qould be that you would give this person about a dozen or so character synopses, and, when one of those NPCs was active, they play the person instead of the DM (while inactive, this person would help with game logs, keeping the story straight, and general DM bookkeeping) which would allow a much more independent NPC relationship.

LibraryOgre
2011-08-05, 10:21 AM
Somewhat; usually, in my groups, we have people who know the rules very well and act as auxiliary DMs, and it's not uncommon to give responsibilities to players whose PCs are not involved in the action (i.e. "You control the hirelings, since your PC is busy casting the ritual")

Fiery Diamond
2011-08-05, 07:56 PM
Somewhat; usually, in my groups, we have people who know the rules very well and act as auxiliary DMs, and it's not uncommon to give responsibilities to players whose PCs are not involved in the action (i.e. "You control the hirelings, since your PC is busy casting the ritual")

I think the OP is actually talking about doing something that's more the reverse: instead of taking someone good at the mechanics and having them help the DM out with the rules or the rolling, take someone who is good at RPing and have them help the DM out with roleplaying NPCs and handling the story. That actually sounds very interesting to me, and would be one way you could have a larger gaming group without bogging down by having too many PCs.

Gnoman
2011-08-06, 07:54 AM
That's exactly what I meaned.

ClockShock
2011-08-06, 08:05 AM
Hence the word somewhat.
The example still suggests that it's possible to have a player deal with typically DM controlled aspects of the game, in order to help everything function more efficiently.

Having such a person just do the roleplay stuff sounds just as good in theory, but i don't think it'd be as easy to find someone interested in playing out NPCs that didn't also have an interest in the game mechanics itself / character building itself.
And of course, they'd also have to be quite objective regarding 'their' characters and let the PCs grab the glory.

If the right person was found however, it would probably be quite helpful indeed.

Traab
2011-08-06, 09:31 AM
It sounds like it could be a good idea for the gamer groups that dont have the incredible dm who can write up an epic campaign, with great role playing, and knows the rule books inside and out. If you happen to have someone who is good at roleplaying, but not an expert at the rules, and a rules lawyer who isnt very good at rp, then having them team up as co-dms would be an effective choice for everyone. This way neither person is struggling to run the campaign, because they can each concentrate on what they know best. And the players are having a better game because instead of a crappy story, or having the action intterupted every round for a rule search, the story can go on with minimal intteruptions.

Gnoman
2011-08-06, 01:31 PM
As a matter of fact, I had it in mind for the opposite. A lot of DMs (in my expereince) focus so much on the storyline and roleplaying that they can have trouble with staple hindrance characters like the amoral noble, the obstructive beauraucrat, or similar, and don't play these roles to the full extent that they could be played. It would also help if they party was split (as usually happens in my games.)