Warding Off the Dreaded GMPC

Deus Ex Dramatica

Atticus, you and Chloe spend the evening wracking your brains and delving through the clues, but you can’t figure out how the Order of the Ancient Eye and the Daily Tribunal are connected. You know its there, but you can’t connect the dots. Luckily for you, Mattias, your trusty valet/butler/medic/sharpshooter has been helping you, and he’s discovered the link! Nah, he didn’t need to roll, he’s just been paying more attention than you!

Wait, why are you all packing your dice? Where are you going?? I haven’t gotten to the part where Mattias kills the ancient Eye-Priest with a shot from his magic rifle! Come back!

When it comes to role-playing games, game masters often end up doing most of the work. While players also have things to do, the fact is that the GM usually ends up shouldering most of the burden of keeping the game going. This is to be expected, really, since it’s usually on the game master to provide the basic story hook, populate encounters, develop non-player characters, and so on. Meanwhile, the players get to show up and play the heroes, and all of the cool stuff happens to and because of them. As the GM, it’s easy to feel like you’re missing out, especially if you’re like me and always the GM, never the player. At this point, it might be tempting to have your own character, which joins the player characters on their adventures. Now the GM gets to be a hero, too!

Enter the GM/DM-PC, and the death of fun.

Before I get into why a GMPC is bad, I want to clarify how a GMPC is different than a standard NPC (non-player character). Normal NPCs are what populate your game world; either as everyday people who the players interact with on an incidental basis; or as major figures and characters in their own right, who’s motivations help drive the story. Basically anyone who isn’t a player character is a NPC, and they can be as shallow or as deep as needed depending on the situation. A GMPC, on the other hand, is a NPC who accompanies the PCs and behaves like one of them, but who is controlled by the game master.

Where the NPC is important, but ultimately takes a “backseat” to the player characters, a GMPC is right up in front with the PCs. However, unlike a PC, a GMPC is both omniscient — in that they know everything the GM knows — and they can take advantage of the GMs ability to warp the reality of the game to suit their own needs. What do I mean by that? Well, maybe the GMPC never misses, or only misses occasionally. Maybe they always find the important clue to the mystery. You get the idea. The point is, a GMPC can quickly rob the players of their agency and importance, while at the same time eliminating any stakes the story might present. After all, it’s hard to feel like you’re in danger if Johnny Never-Dies is always there to do the heavy lifting.

Some times, however, a NPC has a good reason to tag along with the players, and the GM has to walk a line between fulfilling the NPCs role, and also preventing them from morphing to the dreaded GMPC. For example, I’m running a game where the players rescued a priest from a dungeon, and have asked the priest to accompany them on the rest of their adventure. The party doesn’t need a healer, but having another combatant will allow the characters to take on tougher challenges. In a situation like this, there are a few things I like to keep in mind to prevent the NPC from outshining the characters.

• Keep the NPC passive. In other words, the NPC never makes decisions on their own, where the plot is concered. They always defer to the players. This works in combat, too. Either keep a simple set of parameters in mind for how the NPC will behave in combat, or give one of the players control over it when the fighting starts.
• Play them stupid. I don’t mean make them dumb, but rather, play them as unobservant. For example, my NPCs would never attempt to find a secret door or a trap when entering the room — that’s the PCs’ job.
• Always redirect focus to the PCs. When a NPC is accompanying the player characters, there will be times when attention is drawn to them. I find it best to acknowledge it, and then invoke the first rule: keep them passive. For example, “The temple acolytes notice Hassan, and ask the priest what a devotee of the Mother is doing with such a ragtag group. Hassan greets the acolyte, and replies by telling him that the Mother often gathers lost children together, and asks one of the PCs if they agree.”
• Don’t talk to yourself. This rule applies to NPCs and GMPCs alike. RPGs are a collaborative experience, and no one at the table wants to hear your GMPC priest argue with the NPC heirophant for an hour. Always redirect to the PCs to keep them involved, especially when there is more than one NPC involved.
• Give them supporting roles. Rather than make a NPC which needs to be at the heart of the action or drama to be effective, give them a supporting role. The priest from my example above is perfect — his job is to hang back a bit and support the characters, rather than wade in and take all of the glory and fun.
• Make them weaker than the PCs. This is pretty self explanatory. If your PCs are level 3, make your NPC level 1, or whatever the equivalent is in your game.

The last tip I’ll provide is to just not run “tag-along” NPCs at all, if you can help it. The simplest way to avoid this problem is to not let it come up. This might mean a little more work in a game like Dungeons & Dragons, especially if some critical role (like a healer) is missing, but with a little work, most games can be run without the need for specific archetypes. For D&D, make sure the players have ready access to healing supplies, for example.

We all like to be in the spotlight, and we all want to be the hero on occasion. But remember, as a game master, you get to breathe life into every character in the world, whereas the players only get their characters. You can craft incredible NPCs, and watch the magic happen when they interact with characters the players have created. That’s the beauty of our hobby — everyone gets to contribute to the story in a meaningful way. I’ll take that over always being the hero any day.