I've created a campaign, and have had several players join that campaign after creating their characters. Is there a way for me, as the creator of the campaign and the DM, to import one of my many already created characters into that campaign?
You can import a character, yes. This is called a DMPC, and most experienced D&D advice sources recommend against it. Trying to mix the role of DM and player tends to make it harder to DM properly and risks the DMPC developing Main Character syndrome. It's not undoable, we had a DMPC in my first ever D&D game and it didn't cause too much issue, but we still stopped doing it after that learn-the-ropes campaign. It's almost always better to keep a clean divide between player and DM.
So how is it done in the DNDBeyond interface? I see a way to create an unassigned PC from scratch, or to create a pregenerated PC, but I don't see how to import one of my already created PCs into the campaign.
It is perfectly fine to have an npc in the party to fill in a gap. It was a very common thing back in the day. You just need to be careful to not let the npc’s become the stars or impart knowledge that you know as the dm, that a player wouldn’t. Don’t solve the puzzles that kind of thing.
It is perfectly fine to have an npc in the party to fill in a gap. It was a very common thing back in the day. You just need to be careful to not let the npc’s become the stars or impart knowledge that you know as the dm, that a player wouldn’t. Don’t solve the puzzles that kind of thing.
This. In most of my campaigns, I've run a permanent NPC to pad out the party and give them the skills and firepower they need to make the campaign work without crippling enemies. Just need to make sure they're a quiet background character that only gives quiet nudges when the party gets stuck.
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If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
I find it a bit funny that the person is just asking "how" and everyone, 'cept Sposta, is popping off with opinion pieces about DMPCs.
Jeebus peeps. 🤣
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I'm not playing in the campaign... My question was purely technical in nature. I'm about to run a tutorial for my friends on how to DM a game using DNDBeyond tools. So I wanted to create a campaign with NO players, just me. For purely technical reasons. But I guess people feel they need to give advice even when not asked.
I'm not playing in the campaign... My question was purely technical in nature. I'm about to run a tutorial for my friends on how to DM a game using DNDBeyond tools. So I wanted to create a campaign with NO players, just me. For purely technical reasons. But I guess people feel they need to give advice even when not asked.
Just be aware that there is a limit on how many characters can be in a campaign at one time (12). Sometimes you have to remove one of your characters in order to make room for a player.
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"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
When I first played 1st edition AD&D way back when, my friend and I rolled up characters and we each took turns DMing for both characters. It was a good way to learn game mechanics and develop some DM style. We got around the flaw of the DMPC becoming the protagonist by making the DMPC the sidekick whenever we played, and we got around the flaw of the DMPC knowing all by relying heavily on the random dungeon and wilderness tables in the DMG. This sort of meant our games were lacking in story for a while, until my buddy started to develop his chops as a story teller. And I started buying premade adventures. Once we hit our stride, we built a bigger group of core players and our characters never needed to play together again. However, in the very last encounter of our long-term campaign, I brough my DMPC back as a meat shield. From a mechanics perspective, it had negligible effect, but from a nostalgia perspective, it felt right.
You can import a character, yes. This is called a DMPC, and most experienced D&D advice sources recommend against it. Trying to mix the role of DM and player tends to make it harder to DM properly and risks the DMPC developing Main Character syndrome. It's not undoable, we had a DMPC in my first ever D&D game and it didn't cause too much issue, but we still stopped doing it after that learn-the-ropes campaign. It's almost always better to keep a clean divide between player and DM.
True.... but only to a point. It is true if you are trying to play your own character as an equal to the other players. In that case, everything above is true.
In my game, with a small group of players, I have added NPC's which have organically joined their party. These characters tend to assist on a task or get rescued by the PCs. They fill in gaps in much needed roles and allow me to create more challenging encounters without the fear of a total party kill most of the time. I sometimes use them to create other plot lines. Sometimes I can feed clues to the players when they are stumped, and other times, I have them present poor solutions to throw them off course. As an experienced DM, I use these characters as part of a story and NEVER consider them MY characters (for the reasons stated by Yurei1453 above). I never have them try to take choice magical items (although I will sometimes plant items that the PC's can't use but the NPC's can). My current campaign is nearing its end at close to three years of weekly play. The NPC's are like family members to the PC's now, but have far from broken the game, but have rather enhanced it. In fact, one of them is marrying a player character in a few months.
But if this really is your own character that you are trying to play alongside the others, take Yurei1453's advice.
I'm not playing in the campaign... My question was purely technical in nature. I'm about to run a tutorial for my friends on how to DM a game using DNDBeyond tools. So I wanted to create a campaign with NO players, just me. For purely technical reasons. But I guess people feel they need to give advice even when not asked.
Just be aware that there is a limit on how many characters can be in a campaign at one time (12). Sometimes you have to remove one of your characters in order to make room for a player.
Actually, it’s a limit of 12 players to a campaign, each player can have up to 99 characters in the same campaign.
I'm not playing in the campaign... My question was purely technical in nature. I'm about to run a tutorial for my friends on how to DM a game using DNDBeyond tools. So I wanted to create a campaign with NO players, just me. For purely technical reasons. But I guess people feel they need to give advice even when not asked.
Just be aware that there is a limit on how many characters can be in a campaign at one time (12). Sometimes you have to remove one of your characters in order to make room for a player.
Actually, it’s a limit of 12 players to a campaign, each player can have up to 99 characters in the same campaign.
Wait, what?
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
I'm not playing in the campaign... My question was purely technical in nature. I'm about to run a tutorial for my friends on how to DM a game using DNDBeyond tools. So I wanted to create a campaign with NO players, just me. For purely technical reasons. But I guess people feel they need to give advice even when not asked.
Just be aware that there is a limit on how many characters can be in a campaign at one time (12). Sometimes you have to remove one of your characters in order to make room for a player.
Actually, it’s a limit of 12 players to a campaign, each player can have up to 99 characters in the same campaign.
Wait, what?
Yup. With 12 players in a campaign, 1 DM can share content with 12,000 1,200 characters.
I'm not playing in the campaign... My question was purely technical in nature. I'm about to run a tutorial for my friends on how to DM a game using DNDBeyond tools. So I wanted to create a campaign with NO players, just me. For purely technical reasons. But I guess people feel they need to give advice even when not asked.
Just be aware that there is a limit on how many characters can be in a campaign at one time (12). Sometimes you have to remove one of your characters in order to make room for a player.
Actually, it’s a limit of 12 players to a campaign, each player can have up to 99 characters in the same campaign.
Wait, what?
Yup. With 12 players in a campaign, 1 DM can share content with 12,000 characters.
You're out by a factor of ten - 1,188, or 1,200 to 2 s.f. Still more than I can imagine using.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
I'm not playing in the campaign... My question was purely technical in nature. I'm about to run a tutorial for my friends on how to DM a game using DNDBeyond tools. So I wanted to create a campaign with NO players, just me. For purely technical reasons. But I guess people feel they need to give advice even when not asked.
Just be aware that there is a limit on how many characters can be in a campaign at one time (12). Sometimes you have to remove one of your characters in order to make room for a player.
Actually, it’s a limit of 12 players to a campaign, each player can have up to 99 characters in the same campaign.
Wait, what?
Yup. With 12 players in a campaign, 1 DM can share content with 12,000 characters.
You're out by a factor of ten - 1,188, or 1,200 to 2 s.f. Still more than I can imagine using.
You’re absolutely right. I wasn’t paying attention when I posted that. Thank you for the correction!
A DM should never play 1,188 DMPCs in a campaign, no matter what you think of the new NPC monster stat block format. At least not until D&D Beyond introduces a folder system. (Short effort to get the most useless answer on here).
I think you could totally play as a character while you DM. I do it some times and it's a great way to get a player's perspective on things, which leads to better DMing
A DM should never play 1,188 DMPCs in a campaign, no matter what you think of the new NPC monster stat block format. At least not until D&D Beyond introduces a folder system. (Short effort to get the most useless answer on here).
The DM could at most have 99 DMPCs/PNPCs, the other 1,188 would all be PCs.
I've created a campaign, and have had several players join that campaign after creating their characters. Is there a way for me, as the creator of the campaign and the DM, to import one of my many already created characters into that campaign?
You can import a character, yes. This is called a DMPC, and most experienced D&D advice sources recommend against it. Trying to mix the role of DM and player tends to make it harder to DM properly and risks the DMPC developing Main Character syndrome. It's not undoable, we had a DMPC in my first ever D&D game and it didn't cause too much issue, but we still stopped doing it after that learn-the-ropes campaign. It's almost always better to keep a clean divide between player and DM.
Please do not contact or message me.
So how is it done in the DNDBeyond interface? I see a way to create an unassigned PC from scratch, or to create a pregenerated PC, but I don't see how to import one of my already created PCs into the campaign.
You have to use the “join link” at the top of the page for that campaign just like your players would.
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It is perfectly fine to have an npc in the party to fill in a gap. It was a very common thing back in the day. You just need to be careful to not let the npc’s become the stars or impart knowledge that you know as the dm, that a player wouldn’t. Don’t solve the puzzles that kind of thing.
This. In most of my campaigns, I've run a permanent NPC to pad out the party and give them the skills and firepower they need to make the campaign work without crippling enemies. Just need to make sure they're a quiet background character that only gives quiet nudges when the party gets stuck.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
I find it a bit funny that the person is just asking "how" and everyone, 'cept Sposta, is popping off with opinion pieces about DMPCs.
Jeebus peeps. 🤣
Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond.
Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ this FAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
Because the how was already explained. And because the op was told not to do it as it’s a terrible idea. A second perspective can be quite valuable.
I'm not playing in the campaign... My question was purely technical in nature. I'm about to run a tutorial for my friends on how to DM a game using DNDBeyond tools. So I wanted to create a campaign with NO players, just me. For purely technical reasons. But I guess people feel they need to give advice even when not asked.
Just be aware that there is a limit on how many characters can be in a campaign at one time (12). Sometimes you have to remove one of your characters in order to make room for a player.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
When I first played 1st edition AD&D way back when, my friend and I rolled up characters and we each took turns DMing for both characters. It was a good way to learn game mechanics and develop some DM style. We got around the flaw of the DMPC becoming the protagonist by making the DMPC the sidekick whenever we played, and we got around the flaw of the DMPC knowing all by relying heavily on the random dungeon and wilderness tables in the DMG. This sort of meant our games were lacking in story for a while, until my buddy started to develop his chops as a story teller. And I started buying premade adventures. Once we hit our stride, we built a bigger group of core players and our characters never needed to play together again. However, in the very last encounter of our long-term campaign, I brough my DMPC back as a meat shield. From a mechanics perspective, it had negligible effect, but from a nostalgia perspective, it felt right.
True.... but only to a point. It is true if you are trying to play your own character as an equal to the other players. In that case, everything above is true.
In my game, with a small group of players, I have added NPC's which have organically joined their party. These characters tend to assist on a task or get rescued by the PCs. They fill in gaps in much needed roles and allow me to create more challenging encounters without the fear of a total party kill most of the time. I sometimes use them to create other plot lines. Sometimes I can feed clues to the players when they are stumped, and other times, I have them present poor solutions to throw them off course. As an experienced DM, I use these characters as part of a story and NEVER consider them MY characters (for the reasons stated by Yurei1453 above). I never have them try to take choice magical items (although I will sometimes plant items that the PC's can't use but the NPC's can). My current campaign is nearing its end at close to three years of weekly play. The NPC's are like family members to the PC's now, but have far from broken the game, but have rather enhanced it. In fact, one of them is marrying a player character in a few months.
But if this really is your own character that you are trying to play alongside the others, take Yurei1453's advice.
Actually, it’s a limit of 12 players to a campaign, each player can have up to 99 characters in the same campaign.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Wait, what?
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
Yup. With 12 players in a campaign, 1 DM can share content with
12,0001,200 characters.Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
You're out by a factor of ten - 1,188, or 1,200 to 2 s.f. Still more than I can imagine using.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
You’re absolutely right. I wasn’t paying attention when I posted that. Thank you for the correction!
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
A DM should never play 1,188 DMPCs in a campaign, no matter what you think of the new NPC monster stat block format. At least not until D&D Beyond introduces a folder system. (Short effort to get the most useless answer on here).
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I think you could totally play as a character while you DM. I do it some times and it's a great way to get a player's perspective on things, which leads to better DMing
The DM could at most have 99 DMPCs/PNPCs, the other 1,188 would all be PCs.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting