Hey All! 

There is something I have been thinking of doing with the game I am currently running with my 3 close friends and was curious if anyone had done the same and how well it worked and if they enjoyed doing it. So I have had this one OC with an interesting backstory and secret that I made for another campaign I was in that never really took off. I have been wanting to try to implement him into this campaign and had the Idea of not only being DM but playing this character as part of the party as well. Have any of you done a dual player/dm role before? did you enjoy doing so? Was just curious :) 

This is called a DMPC and it's a pretty controversial subject. They are notorious for becoming the "main character" and having extra benefits/knowledge that regular players do not.

You can do it and you might not have any of those problems, but just be warned that it can be tricky to pull off in a way that doesn't start to detract from the experience of your players.

Yeah, DMPCs often don't work well.

One thing that can work is to make the character just an NPC. Maybe they travel with the party for a time, and then leave. They help out on a particular mission, but then they're done. You can even have them come back later. Just try to avoid making one a permanent party member.

When I was first teaching my friends 5e, I found it useful to have a DMPC to model behavior, but in order to keep them from dominating the party, I made him unable to speak (excepting spells, since he was a paladin), and intentionally made him a more humble type person so as not to take up a leadership role. 

So yeah, DMPCs can work, but you really have to watch how much DM knowledge/power they have access to, and think about imposing some such restrictions on them to assure the players you're not abusing your position. 

Quote from Jonesie_2423 >>

There is something I have been thinking of doing with the game I am currently running with my 3 close friends and was curious if anyone had done the same and how well it worked and if they enjoyed doing it. So I have had this one OC with an interesting backstory and secret that I made for another campaign I was in that never really took off. I have been wanting to try to implement him into this campaign and had the Idea of not only being DM but playing this character as part of the party as well. Have any of you done a dual player/dm role before? did you enjoy doing so? Was just curious :) 

An important thing to remember, when DMing, is that the story is about the PCs, not about your NPCs, no matter how much you like them. If you have a character with an interesting backstory you want to tell ... write a short story.

I avoid doing this because:

1. I've already got enough going on to keep track of.
2. I have meta knowledge and the DM PC will need to make decisions. 
3. There's a lot of "Horror Stories". 

Personally, I find it better to just use a character like you described as a recurring guest across multiple campaigns. For example, I have a halfling cleric NPC whose traits are that she will call on any deity she believes will help at the moment and she loves gold. So she will provide help... but the characters will have to pay. "It's a small price to be payin' to save someone from certain doom!" And when she put away a Tymora symbol and pulled out a Selune one (the party's paladin's deity) it was hilarious... not to the paladin, of course... but to all the players at least. And I can pull her in to any campaign any time the PCs need a high level cleric's help.

You could use your OC as a recurring guest as well. Give some hints as to the secret. And hopefully your players will eventually have a group that picks up on the secret and you've got a little mini-adventure for them. 

But my players aren't your players. Your game isn't my game. A DM PC may work out well for you. 

Even if unintentional, everything your DMPC would do in your game is done at the expense, in so many senses, of your friends' characters.  There is only so much limelight in a session, and the DMPC is even better situated to pull focus than the rest of the party since your PC also has the unique position of being behind the DM's screen.  Even DMs who feel they can balance the DM responsibility with playing a PC, they're still compartmentalizing to do that and that takes effort that drains from the energy from the rest of the game.  With those dynamics spelled out, it should be pretty clear why a DM shouldn't give into the temptation of playing a DMPC.  Hold onto the character and adapt them to a game you're able to actually play in as a player.  If you show your players that being the DM can be rewarding in itself by showing them a good game, one of them may actually offer to take on the role for a one shot or a campaign of their own.  Otherwise, you're showing them a case of the DM's role being a thankless task, so that they have to bridge the screen to have fun, and who'd ever want to be the DM if that was really the case?  

pulling DMPC is quite hard for most who try to implement idea and most of them intentionally or not just take party spotlight, sometimes to horror story level

party of 3 is small but sufficient number of playing at the table, secrets can be revealed by npc that periodically meet party for various reasons, said npc can provide assistance, eg in Rime i played 2 fights with dog leading party towards owner - in first one it survived only because pcs asked me to give dog death saving throws, and second combat was less challenging fight in campaign for now due to pc dice rolls, dog participation saved them only one attack, by the pace campaign going in discord (we play some daily) i expect to next time play friendly npc in combat approximately 3-4 month from now, and i fine with it - since i don't plan do pcs work, dming is enough for me

so your dmpc can actually be covered by dmnpc, and it can be easier killed, or quit from party way, since you don't have pc bond (which might prevent it or even turn dmpc into Mary Sue) ofc you do you, but i would rather split that aspect - being pc player at one table and dm in other

As many have said, 
- Yes, It can be done.
- Be carefull how you play it, if it is a PC the players have to agree to its inclusion. If its a NPC, remember that he is not the protagonist, mostly a guide for some part of the campaing and its the players decision to go along with it or not (depending how many options you give them or how your group plays).

- You have a backstory you want to play out with your DMPC, that reads more like a Sidequest (or depending on your campaing, part of the main quest), much like in any video game. And as it the action and decisions of it come from the players.

I have had differing experiences of DMPCs in many campaings i played, it was very common in my group to have a "prefrerred" NPC become the DMPC from the start or organically in the story, with many degrees of success (all dms played differently and each campaing was different).
- in some cases the NPC was a proxy or guide because of "social rules" (the party were a bunch of lowbornes serving a lord, the lord being the DMPC because it was the coinduit to introduce the party to the higherups in many occasions, but it never took the primary role on social RP or combat, the players did, and he always came with the party.).
- other cases the DM took too much control on how the NPCs or the specific DMPC influenced the world around, but he played that way even as a PC... so you worked around that and convince him in ways to participate or influence yourself, given the parameters he set for the world. 
- others just had and additional PC to play around, but we all new that and agree on that... it never influeced the direction of the campaing, and everyone had the same level of power.

It all depend how your table plays and if you play with friends or not.

I used an old character of mine as a BBEG and that was really fun because I already knew exactly how he would respond to what the PCs did. This was interesting and similar to a DMPC but you probably are going to watch your character die again ):

There is no such thing as a dual player/DM. You are always the DM first and foremost. That's not to say that you can't run a DMPC and enjoy it, but it's important to remember that this doesn't make you a player and that is not your role in the game.

Running DMPCs also takes up a lot of your attention. Don't run a DMPC if you aren't confident you can also manage the rest of the game at the same time. If you're not a very experienced DM, I would say that it's best to hold off on using a DMPC for now.

If you want to go ahead, there are a few guidelines for running a DMPC. You can break these if you're doing so intentionally and if it's going to create a better time for the players, but generally you'll want to follow them.

1. DMPCs are NPCs first and foremost. They will be on screen all the time, so they need to have a consistent personality, and they need to act accordingly. NPCs should not abuse your metagame knowledge of the setting or the adventure. However, they can act as a way for the PCs to interact with the world or receive exposition that they wouldn't otherwise learn. This is one good reason to have them around. 

2. DMPCs should not steal the spotlight from the PCs. The easiest way to achieve this is for them to have a highly specialized combat or non-combat role that doesn't overlap with the other PCs. For example, in a party with no rogue, having a DMPC that can pick locks and disarm traps makes that NPC an asset, not a liability. However, the corollary to this is that you shouldn't let the DMPC solve the party's problems. They can count on this NPC to help, but the NPC should not be the only solution or the key that unlocks the adventure for the party.

3. DMPCs should have weaknesses and flaws. These can be both combat and roleplaying-oriented weaknesses. These weaknesses and flaws should occasionally crop up and limit the NPC's behavior in some way. Don't make these weaknesses so annoying that your players won't want to deal with them, but they should be there as a reminder that the DMPC isn't some perfect hero.

If you're going to run a DMPC, make sure you have their stats and other information (appearance, personality, flaws, etc.) recorded very clearly and formatted in a way that's easy for you to reference. Character sheets aren't necessarily the best answer for this.

Also, be prepared for this not to work out. If you find the DMPC is disruptive or stealing too much spotlight from the players, then make sure you nip that in the bud immediately. Have the DMPC retire or die a terrible death. But if you follow the guidelines above, your players should see the DMPC as an asset and not an adversary.