Single Character or Multiple Characters?

[mathus]

Just recently I have lost a number of my players. On the night I actually play instead of DM'ing like I usually do I convinced the DM to allow my friend and I (we are down to just two players on that night) to allow us to both play two characters.

I find I am having more fun playing two at once than when I was just playing one character. It gives me so many options being able to coordinate my own battle tactics with myself.

My question is: Have you played multi-character games/campaigns and what did you think of it?

[Ross]

I only ever played one character at a time, but I've only ever played a half dozen games. Seemed fine with just one to me.

DM'ing though, it depended on how many players we had in the group. With individual initiative we could get a good mix of participation during battles, but I did find that some equipment swapping would happen with two characters. The other drawback was when a player disagreement happened and gang tactics would occur.
But, for the most part I'm all for the 'harmless henchmen' side of things.... it's not easy being a henchman!

[Niemz]

I have let players run two PC's on many occasions. The main problem is that playing "in character" is greatly diminished for one or both of the PC's.

[merkader]

I think people who DM are normally better at running more then one character. They just seem better at keeping different agendas for more characters straight. Usually if we are light on players (and we always are) I allow multiple henchmen and sidekicks.

[Shadow]

I've tried running multiple characters myself, and seen our other members do it, and I have to agree with both Niemz and Merkader on this one. Myself, I can't do it, and for the same reason I have issues DMing; I just can't switch from one character to another that quickly. Odd too, considering I talk to myself a fair bit, but it's a public speech related issue for me... I dunno why, but I'm frustratingly shy in person. On the internet, not so much =P

By contrast, I've seen people run several characters at once and do very well, to the point of having arguments and almost fights with themselves. And yes, usually it is the DMs who do it best, because they're used to handling groups of NPCs at a time, so a few characters is nothing for them =P

[Decind]

I like to concentrate on one pc at a time.

[chabit]

I prefer one character at a time, but if the need arrises I can play more.

[TheGratefulNed]

In actual tabletop games or single story arcs, I prefer a 1:1 player to character ratio. Now for online settings with multiple storylines and free-form RP areas like Stix's Dark of the Day I enjoy making up several PCs.

[bender]

I think it works best if you have players who are devoted to Role Play and who actually have motivations for their characters. I also feel like in some cases having 2 characters is a necessary evil, and don't particularly mind if I'm DMing a smaller group if the players take on 2 characters and 1 becomes them and the other is the "quiet type" outside of combat.

[strider]

I have played multiple characters in sessions, and yes it can be hard to "stay in character" when doing so, but I can manage to play 3 characters in a session and still stay "in character"

The most I have ever played in a campaign was around 20, however this campaign was more"Roleplay" than actual fighting, and we only did it once.

[Kitty]

I can barely keep track of what my 1 character is doing, let alone multiples. We did try a war campaign once. 10ish characters per person...... all we did was take turns rolling the dice, there was hardly any "role playing" at all. Not so much fun.... and it is really hard when you're trying to keep everyones HP/XP/etc straight @..@

[Zagog]

I enjoy playing with a single character however it can be fun to run a side-kick as well now and then. example- Batman and his side-kick Robin the boy hostage.

[Kitty]

I'd have a hard time keeping my characters straight. I think that I still have some characters who are in the middle of a campaign somewheres in the realms and we never got around to finishing those quests. . . LOL - guess I'll have to go retrieve them LOL