Occassional PC Monster?

[Bitr_Haag]

I'm curious if any DM's out there would find value in having a player log into their campaign and play the monster's role in an encounter? If the player is on "standby" (via AIM?) and is told when to log in with a character portrait of the monster (use goblin as an example below).

GOBLIN logs in and his token is placed on the map. Knowing the stats before-hand, the player plays the goblin to the best of his abilities and tries to behave like a goblin would (ie fight with dirty tactics until deciding to flee).

Meanwhile, the Monster PC can also provide some "flair" for the PC's (ie "The goblin curses as his swing clangs uselessly against the warrior's shield").

I imagine it might serve a couple of purposes:

1. free the DM up to manage the rest of the battle (ie provide color commentary, manage other monsters, etc...).

2. freak the other PC's out as they realize there's an actual "non-DM person" trying their best to kill the PC's (or at least that's what the DM tells them).

3. Allow a non-regular player the flexibility of participating in a game on occassion.

My personal challenge, as a DM of 4 PC's, is that I never play the monsters as best I could. I always forget a special ability or tactic b/c I'm running the battle, controlling the monsters, managing initiatives, etc... If there was a "helper" rolling dice, choosing when to grapple, etc... It would free me up to do more.

My group of players was not very supportive of the idea but I'm still curious if it would work. If there is a DM out there who wants to try it, respond to this and lets see if we can coordinate our schedules for one night.

Oh yeah... it may not be obvious, but as a DM, I appreciate not wanting your players to die all the time so if there were restrictions, like not actually killing a PC, no sundering their weapons, or flee once you loose 1/2 life, etc... I'd be perfectly OK with that. I'm just trying to suggest an added element of fun for everyone!

Bitr

[Sigurd]

I think I'd find it very cool if I were a DM right now.

From the beginning I think I'd try and have very few requirements of the Non Player Creature (To pick the worst initials I can think of). If the monster is out for blood and intelligent the guest should be as mean as possible.

If the monster was unintelligent I think it would be a waste of a guest spot.


You might expand this and play one NPC in several games. Time consuming but interesting.....


Sigurd

[DarkStar]

Personally, I'm against it. I'd rather prepare my battles (maybe other than random encounters) in every detail. By details I mean: tactics specific to monster's Intelligence, size, race. Take in account the terrain where the fight takes place. Do the monsters fight in their habitat? If so, they already probably have an advantage over PCs, they know where to hide, how and when to attack to weak the heroes.

A skirmish with an ogre is totally different than an encounter with shadows. The first knows his strength well and will surely prefer to bash players, throw rocks or just grab someone and break his spine. ;] While the shadows will keep hiding in the walls, floor or ceiling and make a surprise attack.

If you prepare your battles prior to running the session you should be fine. You are the Dungeon Master, you know what lurks in the darkness and what kind of abomination the PCs will encounter when entering that room - you can prepare yourself, whilst players will have to think quick in order to survive...

[gurney9999]

Didn't want to use PCs as monsters, but...

I didn't make the time to get my campaign really off the ground, but my goal at one time was to have extra players come in and play some of the major NPCs in my game (since these NPCs would definitely be taking part in the action and not just used for conversations/quest giving).

These player NPCs would have guidelines the player would play by (knowledge that they would only be able to share with the PCs at certain points and not blurt out just because they like the players, for example ). but otherwise they would be just that ... players that would have a part in the campaign for one or multiple sessions but not be permanent players in the campaign.

Plus this lends itself to efficient use of the online gaming system... meaning, it's much harder to keep a core group of players together for months/years at a time... but if you know players that might want to come in and be 'recurring characters' in a game, you might have a better chance of success as a DM running a campaign.

[acmer]

Nice idea. I've been thinking about something similar for a long time. Something like "NPC's for hire".

There might be a NPC that the players see a lot, and that NPC could be played by a PC "hired" for the job. Sometimes players are not skilled enough to survive a certain important part of an adventure. They might hire a mercenary from a town (available NPC's listed by DM) to disable traps, cast certain spells or somethig like that. Of course the merc gets rewarded for his services with money and some XP. That'd be a way to keep non-adventuring characters alive.

Problem would be DM's time. More time would be needed to orientate the merc for the game. It somewhat saves time in-game, but of course non-regular players might be a bit hard to "control" by the DM.