It's harder, and I wouldn't really recommend it for most players, but DMs role-play multiple characters all the time.
That's ... technically true. As a GM, I 'roleplay' the village blacksmith, and the tavernkeeper, and the guard captain, and the wise old man by the roadside, and the villains, and so on.
But really, I don't. They're wafer thin, consisting - at most - of some background, some stats, an idea of what they can do to help the party, and an accent. They're not even as good as a new character fresh from the printer. They're nothing more than a cardboard mask pulled over their stats and in-game function. Frankly, it's not the same.
Sure, there are the scenery characters, but there's also the ones the PCs are going to have heavy interaction with, and so get more depth. And sometimes, especially when there's an NPC traveling with the party, you get multiples of them on stage at once. (Or if the PCs need to mediate between two factions, or...)
I play two characters in a campaign and it's going well. It's manageable if you have some experience but it's not something i would suggest to a beginner player.
More power to those of you who can do this, and enjoy it.
As a player, I find running multiple PCs to be very difficult. Their personalities tend to get muddied and attenuated. Now if the game session involves little or no RP or story building, then sure, I can run several.
It's just that those kind of game sessions no longer interest me much.
Sure, there are the scenery characters, but there's also the ones the PCs are going to have heavy interaction with, and so get more depth. And sometimes, especially when there's an NPC traveling with the party, you get multiples of them on stage at once. (Or if the PCs need to mediate between two factions, or...)
I play two characters in a campaign and it's going well. It's manageable if you have some experience but it's not something i would suggest to a beginner player.
More power to those of you who can do this, and enjoy it.
As a player, I find running multiple PCs to be very difficult. Their personalities tend to get muddied and attenuated. Now if the game session involves little or no RP or story building, then sure, I can run several.
It's just that those kind of game sessions no longer interest me much.
I recommend running a PC and a Sidekick character over two full-blown PCs.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.