Why the penis insertion? Whats that all about?
Welcome to The Gaming Den
Phonelobster, we use that term to refer to NPC's of this kind as "self-insertion" or "DM-Penis", to represent how they're an extension of the DM's ego typically. As been shown in most cases, while its acceptable the world has other Powerful individuals, showcasing them in the context of other more important characters (The PC's) is essentially Showing off or the DM presenting his Ego.
Neo Phonelobster Prime wrote: ↑Sat Dec 17, 2022 9:15 pm
First of all "How often?". Because you can get away with all sorts of bad decisions as a GM. Sometimes. And there are all sorts of contexts that can make it OK, but the first context required to MAYBE get away with exactly this is "It is incredibly rare". And you start the description with "Usually" which bodes poorly.
Second of all "Why?". What is this bringing to the game, every event that happens is one you put there, you are in control of the events. None of this had to happen as you describe. Generally in story telling "go I will hold them off" with a more powerful character is mostly to hype up the held off threat for a later encounter. So what's the turn around on that when this happens "usually"? Players have limited patience and attention spans, and if the holding off character IS off the charts for the PCs and the held off threat is more than them... what sort of turn around CAN there be? You can hype up the final bosses of the campaign in the first adventure like, once maybe, that isn't "usually".
And the biggest subsection of "Why?" is why is it a "DM-Penis" character? Couldn't a regular NPC ranging from the same level as PCs to about the value of a high level but acceptable threat for the party perform every single role you described and do it better? With more available choices and less threat of the game exploding if the Players make a choice? If it were just a somewhat powerful NPC in the role then those events that you seem to oddly want "usually" actually CAN happen more often. So... why not do that? Why the penis insertion? Whats that all about?
I might do it once per Major Story-Arc that I had running at the time, else a campaign before it I only did it once. That is fair on "Usually", I meant that's what I would do if I was going to do it, and the "Else" part is the default assumption when I'm running a game.
My Players are pretty casual-fair, so they don't really mind having "Cutscenes" (as they dubbed it) where a cool thing happens, and they move on. They seemed generally ok with it, one of the times ended up being showcased as an "All-Time Favorite" Adventure that I ran. That it served as a nice climax for the adventure, but wasn't soley good "because: DM-Penis", it just served its purpose for that scene.
It seems you're asking "why use a High Level NPC vs one of Equal Level-+4" in dffierence? I think people use Higher Level NPC's as its easier to get access to the HIgh Level Spells, or when certain Abilities come online. It doesn't help that Tabletop RPG's make a lot of non-caster stuff less accessible till later on, so if you use someone more "Fighty-Man" Inclined, you may have to climb that hill a few levels higher to get to it (Even with [Tome] Classes).
Anyway, the argument that it's a bad thing, needs to be avoid being spammed is a good way to open up on the subject. I think an acceptable use, It has to serve to it still being about what the PC's are doing, and they're not being put into the background as a result. The DM-Penis NPC, if its there, needs to serve its purpose, and to be put into the background (if not gone) as soon as possible.
Neo Phonelobster Prime wrote:You can hype up the final bosses of the campaign in the first adventure like, once maybe, that isn't "usually".
I think you bring up an interesting discussion point, is how often can one use this technique in a campaign? Given most offenders of this are going to do it in the worst ways possible, or do it without considering the actual abilities of the NPC (which case sounds like that rate should be: Never).