Multiple characters and Roleplaying?

[fym66]

I like me games to have a good bit of roleplaying. Now, I'm not here to say anybody plays wrong or that I do more than you. But, I do want some other peoples opinions. At the start you have 4-5 characters that your GM helpfully kills off to 1-2. Some of my PC's lucked out like a champ, and have three. I would like them to play only one, so they can get to know the character and role play that person. Some of the players want to play all their characters.

Now, no one is right, but what do others think? Do you role play more with with fewer characters? Do you play more hack and slash with more on your side?

[cjoepar]

I only let them level up 1 character to 1st level. That becomes the main guy. We treat any others that survive the funnel as henchmen from that point onward, keeping them at 9 experience points. If the player's 1st level character gets killed (which has been pretty common for my experiences), they then have another character waiting in the wings to level up to 1st and they can easily bring them into the story. That way they can still role play their other characters a little bit, but no one has more than a single guy advancing in level.

[Clangador]

I only let them level up 1 character to 1st level. That becomes the main guy. We treat any others that survive the funnel as henchmen from that point onward, keeping them at 9 experience points. If the player's 1st level character gets killed (which has been pretty common for my experiences), they then have another character waiting in the wings to level up to 1st and they can easily bring them into the story. That way they can still role play their other characters a little bit, but no one has more than a single guy advancing in level.

So are these henchmen under the player's control, or does the judge run them?

[Golgothmog]

I've always liked the idea of troupe style play... having more than one PC on the roster per Player. I wouldn't be adverse to letting Players keep whatever PCs they could get through a funnel as a kind of stable and pick between them depending on the adventure... knowing that they'd only be gaining XP for whichever PC was in play. Alternatively keep the extra PCs around as NPC resources... and possible spares if someone gets snuffed.

On the other hand..
Trying to play them all at once gets tricky and from what I've seen of funnels a lot of players don't differentiate much between their portrayal of their zeros, some don't even think to name them... just treating them like extra lives in an old video game... and I suspect it might be similar if they had multiple level 1+ PCs in play... rather than playing them as independent unique PCs.

[cjoepar]

I only let them level up 1 character to 1st level. That becomes the main guy. We treat any others that survive the funnel as henchmen from that point onward, keeping them at 9 experience points. If the player's 1st level character gets killed (which has been pretty common for my experiences), they then have another character waiting in the wings to level up to 1st and they can easily bring them into the story. That way they can still role play their other characters a little bit, but no one has more than a single guy advancing in level.

So are these henchmen under the player's control, or does the judge run them?

The players generally run them, but I have on occasion overruled some action that I felt was uncharacteristic, usually if they were pushed forward into some dangerous situation. My players are pretty good about not treating them like disposable Star Trek red shirts, so it works pretty well most of the time. I also do not roll any morale checks for them after adventures - they thin out plenty quick enough anyway.

Similarly, if a 1st level character bites it and the player doesn't have any zero's on deck, they roll up 4 new guys and all 4 of them join up with the party at the next opportunity. I treat these the same way - if more than 1 makes it to 10 xp's, the player gets to level one guy and the others stay at 9 xp until they are needed, or die.

[fym66]

just treating them like extra lives in an old video game... and I suspect it might be similar if they had multiple level 1+ PCs in play... rather than playing them as independent unique PCs.

That's the problem I have. I have a player who power games in a few too many systems. Now, I don't really care as I've dropped a few of his level ones now, but honestly I don't see as much investment in the story when you basically are running a team. I let it slide because our group is smaller, but once we build a bit more, I'll be a bit more firm on the single character rule.

[Clangador]

I let my players have more then one PC each so they have a spare character if one dies.