[3dom]

Side note : I am rarely an angry or hateful person. This is a common exclusion, and with some discresion possibly advised. Name not (read: properly) mentioned.

A couple of problems have surfaced.

1) Some one in our game kinda quit 'cause we started doing something else as well which he dislikes *cough he cough* *cough sucks eggs cough* *cough no offence meant to anyone else cough*. Now we didn't have enough players.

2) He made off with the PHB and DMH. (OT)

3) We haven't been able to get a game orgainised in ages.

4) Characters were *accidentally* too good. (OT, and bad on my part.)

As soon as we get the PHB and DMH back (hopefully we get to do it by force), we are going to start a new campaign. But with only 3 players, 1 DM? I decided to bust out an old sheet, mod it, and become part of the party. Although I know everything that can and will happen, I know how much I would know and only use that much of my omnipotence. It seems like a controvertial and silly idea, but I could use some feedback.

[Jimp]

Having only 3 players may not seem like much but games can still work fine. Raven and myself have DM'd games with only ~3 players a few times. One game Raven DM'd only had myself and Vaskre playing and it worked out fine.
If you feel you need to add in an NPC controlled by you, try and keep in mind what that NPC knows and how he/she acts. You as the DM might know those are Orc tracks but if your NPC fails his Survival check he will still have to act like he think they're Human tracks. It can be tricky to do though, moreso when playing IRL and not over the net.
I suggest practicing a bit with 1 person playing and you controling an NPC companion. Just an informal practice shot at it. If you feel like it won't work out, then don't do it in the game. If you feel you can do it then do, just be careful.

[Dthclaw]

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1) Some one in our game kinda quit 'cause we started doing something else as well which he dislikes *cough he cough* *cough sucks eggs cough* *cough no offence meant to anyone else cough*. Now we didn't have enough players.

I've been rather patient here, but I think it's time to just out and say it: grow up. Name calling does not in anyway improve your situation, and telling us that you hate a particular player via name-calling does not gather any particular sympathy or useful advice.

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2) He made off with the PHB and DMH. (OT)

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As soon as we get the PHB and DMH back (hopefully we get to do it by force)

If you can't simply tell the person to hand back your property, and if you think violence is going to somehow make the situation and your personal future prospects any better - gaming or otherwise - you have a lot more problems going on right now than deciding whether or not to play as both DM and PC.

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3) We haven't been able to get a game orgainised in ages.

Not relevant to the problem at hand.

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4) Characters were *accidentally* too good. (OT, and bad on my part.)

If it's OT and not really related to deciding whether or not to DM a PC, why did you bother mentioning it?

As to the problem at hand, if, as Jimp said, you can distance yourself from being a DM while doing player roles, you can pull it off. But it is difficult, and it divides attention, quality, and effort that could be better spent making your role as a DM for three that much better.

[Vaskre]

Lying was in there, too, Jimp, until he got killed by that Inquisitor... There was trolls in the forest, I swear! Ahem.

Anyhow, to get more on topic, you can pull it off if you're a good roleplayer, but this is where you have to start being honest with yourself. Can you seperate IC and OOC extremely well? Do you have the ability to manage a PC and run the campaign without slowing it down? If either of those is no, then you shouldn't do the character.

And 3 PCs is plenty to run a campaign with, just tone down your encounters a bit if you're worried about it being too rough.

[Raven Bloodmoon]

Or you can do what i did and don't bother toning it down at all. Just smack them with something right out and see if they survive. First couple encounters rapidly give you a feel for the party's strength, or affinity to involuntarily spelunk in graveyards, as the case may be.

[super sorcerer]

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But with only 3 players, 1 DM?

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Characters were *accidentally* too good

I think this 2 problems solve each other. It is 3 character that fight almost like 4 and that mean the combat sesion problem is solved. Noncombat event can be role-played with 3 players as easily as with 4 players, and with 3 players there are never 2 characters that want one thing and 2 characters that want another thing and it may take more than half an hour of argueing before they agree to use counter diplomacy checks, while with 3 players there will always be 2 vs 1 and it will be much easier.

Anyway a 3 character party is not that small as you think, a party of a ranger a cleric and a wizard can handle most chalenges that a standart 4 character party can handle.

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As soon as we get the PHB and DMH back (hopefully we get to do it by force)

I played without PHB and DMG a few times and it was not that hard. you print from SRD the pages about the characters they play and roll random treasure from there and you can usualy deal easily with everithing else (it is not that hard to decide for DC for a few simple tasks).

I hope I helped you and I hope your game will be played soon.

[Sitraahra]

I've played with just myself or another as GM and 1 player [this situation is unique in that you can really make it ABOUT that character], buy I would often kill to have 3 good players to 1 gm. unless the party really needs balance [no spellcasters, no fighting-types, going into a trap filled dungeon with no rogue] theres absolutly no reason to have a GMPC,a nd even then, instead consider having any number of NPC's instead...non player cahracters can lend a hand or provide GM intervening guidance while not stealing the spotlight [hopefully]

I ahve seen many GMPC which ended up becoming powerhouses for the GM to exihbit. In a game where we were round-robin Gming, I went tot he other extreme and made very sure my character made bad choices, was often in the dark, and was attacked frequetly. He almost died three times, by far more ruthless then Iw as to any other player... and after word, two players came up to me and said how much they appreciated me not protecting my character.

It can be done, and, and with mroe flair then myself, but its a difficult path: there will always be the tesion of true knowledge VS character knowledge,a dn wanting to advance your character while keeping things fair

as for a copy of the DMG and PHB, the SRD [open source D20] can be found easily and downlaoded for free online, and has everything you need [though not neccesarily everything you want]