Two PCs per Player

[LordEntrails]

I play or allow 2 characters per player quite frequently. Yea two PCs does mean you will get some meta-gaming coordination. It's all about fun isn't it? So if I've only got two players, they will usually each play 2 PCs. The fun outweighs the metagaming concerns, imo.

[DRGsabin]

First, you are going to run into the issue that if one player can't make a game, two PC's can't make the game.

There are ways you can add more bodies on the field without adding additional PCs, or perhaps you, the DM, can play a PC and just exclude yourself from the decision-making. Depending on the campaign, you might have NPCs accompany the party often, I've found this to be extremely easy to pull off in the Pathfinder Kingmaker campaign I'm DMing when a player can't make the game.

I'm not too familiar with the 5E ruleset if that's what you're playing, but in Pathfinder, the summoner class is often banned for the very reason that many consider the pet to be the equivalent of a second full PC. The leadership feat is often banned for a similar reason, it basically gives you the equivalent of a second PC. You can find ways like this to add "more PCs" to the group without adding more PCs, by allowing "overpowered" things you might not allow with a full table. In my opinion it might be better to just limit to 1 PC per player, and find a way as DM to give them kudos to make a party of 3 as strong as a party of 5, I.E. throw in extra gold in rewards, the examples above, etc.

[Ellspeth]

Hi, I am going to respond the specific question about experience playing more than one PC, with some tips
First I will note that before I started playing RPG's I had all ready earned my degree in theater and acting through a studio theater program. To earn the degree we had to appear in at least one stage show each term (minimum 4). The first show I was in actually had entirely different characters in each of the 36 scenes, the common character was the dining room, where each scene took place. Everyone of us played between 4-7 characters our first show. So I'll share some tips.
First, have each player make their character as different as possible, i.e a male and a female, or a dwarf and an elf, or a tank and a druid, so on. This makes it easier for them to keep their characters separate and distinct, and makes it easier for them to create a different "voice" for each. Alternatively, for someone not comfortable with that, have them play identical twins, who are frequently in tune with each other at what we would call a "meta-gaming" level.
The latter would also be true of two PC's that were partners before they joined the current team.
Now sometimes when I play more than one character in a game it is because a player had to miss that night, and some GM's will have another willing player run their character as well. When I do this I make my best effort to play that PC as their owner would run them. So far none of them have died when I ran them, though I take the same risks their regular player would.
As far as planning their moves in coordination, that only works seriously if they get back to back rolls on initiative. Any other PC's or NPC's going between their moves can blow that plan out of the water anyway.
Most party's after working together for sometimes even a short period learn to anticipate what their team will do, especially if they planned ahead anyway.
Another, we play a Star trek game with only 4 players by choice. However we each have built and run extras, red shirts, who while named are not invested with the same level of role-playing those characters. This is often because we inevitably have to split the party, and that way all 4 of us are present no matter how the party splits.

[HarryK]

What I did in my RL group is, not so much 2 PCs per player, but 1 "main" PC and a follower. The follower was mostly under the direction of the player unless they were directed to do something that went against traits that had been assigned to the character, in which some kind of roll was made (leadership, morale, or whatever). The "cowardly" thief launching a frontal attack against a group of enemies, for example.

This was mostly a combat thing, but if a follower had an ability or skill that would come in handy during a social encounter, a player might ask if the follower could assist.

For our group, that was preferable to playing multiple full blown PCs per player, both from my perspective as a DM as well as the players not really wanting to run multiple "full" characters.

You can definitely run into meta gaming as mentioned, as well as confusion in terms of personalities or who did what, when. Some groups may not care though. If it's fun for everyone at the table, go for it!

[Minty23185Fresh]

Thanks everyone for contributing to the discussion. There are great suggestions in each post. You’ve successfully assuaged my concerns about two PCs per player. We’ll take all of these comments and eventually get them molded into what works for us.