So have you ever ended up the 'MC' of a game?

So have you ever ended up the 'MC' of a game?


Think being the leader or winning the girl or getting the cool one liner last hit on the final boss or some other similar situations?

How did you and your group handle it?
Were you loved or did you have to deal with some bullshit drama?

Just curious because my group is going through some shit because of this and I'm curious how other people handled it.

In one of the campaigns I was in a few months ago, I returned to the group with a throwaway old-man character that was supposed to die, or only be there for the one session I had him involved in. Some time later, and he was the longest surviving member of the adventurer's guild, and also the strongest, and most competent. During his time there, he was granted ownership of a town, and about 6 titles. Campaign ended just before he ended up turning it into the plot for Shrek.

Forgot to add, near the end of the campaign, he pretty much became a questgiver, literally giving the other players gold, and supplies for aiding him on things he wanted to do.

since I am the DM no

but I make sure that every player has a chance to be in a spotlight, and they take turns being the MC, with each campaign an arc focused on a different PC

Most of our games have a character that we naturally come to refer to as the "MC" as they come into the protagonist/leader role. Its not always to same player and often times there is no one who stands out as the "MC," but we've never has any drama over it since we are a bunch of, fucking, adults.

Tell your group to grow the fuck up and commend your fellow players for roleplaying something that stands out enough to be considered the main character

>Tell your group to grow the fuck up and commend your fellow players for roleplaying something that stands out enough to be considered the main character

That's basically what happened with my group. Two people ended up getting kicked Let's just say jealousy is one hell of an emotion.

Happens to me sometimes, but no one worries about it, cause drama is for pussies.
I think its cause I usually play paladin, and LG characters make for decent heroes.

My character isn't the leader but constantly steals the spotlight so may referred to as the MC. Her abilities can be extremely over powered if my rolls are really lucky and if the situation is right. As it turn s out I have been really lucky in quite a few specific situations and as a result has been VERY over powered. Also the leader is a Cersei-tier leader so it's not hard for me outshine him.

Wouldn't necessarily go that far, but for the longest while I was basically my DM's plot device when my character had gotten a curse that was slowly changing him into the vessel of your dime-a-dozen eldritch horror. Until I wasn't.

like all things, it depends

if the player or the dm is trying to force it, the rest of the group is probably going to hate it unless you're a cult of some sort already

if it just organically happens, most groups should be adult enough to deal with it

if someone isn't having fun but isn't being a pissbitch about it, give them a break and let them spotlight an adventure or two

I did once, while playing not!Arsene Lupin. Strange thing is that the two others got the spotlight fairly more often than me, since I was basically here to succeed when they failed.

Pretty much every time, since no one else in the group can handle the spotlight.

Campaign? Not. One game? Of course! Especially if you are playing a shonen anime game, the party is all unconscious except you (second weakest party member) and every single enemy is still standing, hungry for blood.
And then you reveal you've taken a feat giving additional power bonuses for every defeated teammate.
And then you curbstomp everyone, including the main boss, all while saving the team from a collapsing palace and cyber samurai's swords.

It was just one game, mind you, the group is made up of adults that are capable of talking and having fun, and the GM kinda balanced it next session by creating an enemy(completely believable, giving good plot hooks and fun to fight) which I, using my powers of badass science, couldn't possibly beat.

My last campaign i stole the spotlight more often then not. This is somewhat because of my tendency to get REALLY in character. A few examples include sneaking into a supermarket turned into a cannibal butcher den, blowing all my money gambling then winning it all back in one hand, and surviving three bites from three different zombies

>So have you ever ended up the 'MC' of a game?
Yes.
>Think being the leader or winning the girl or getting the cool one liner last hit on the final boss or some other similar situations?
Did all of the above.
>How did you and your group handle it?
I personally didn't like it. I consider gaming to a be group activity, with everyone putting in their say, and ending up de facto "The Man" because the other players save one didn't want to roleplay, only throw dice. The one had a lot of back and forth with me, and we bro'd it up.
>Were you loved or did you have to deal with some bullshit drama?
There wasn't open drama, and I made as many chances for others to step into the spotlight as I could. I never introduced us as "Myself and.." but always "We are...", shit like that.
I felt mightily uncomfortable with it all, tho, and let the GM know about it. But the other players really didn't step up to the plate and engage the world, so... eh. I had fun most of the time, tho, and at the end, due to my actions, we had the respect of the entire region and had a personal audience with the king himself.

Go on about it, OP.

As a DM, I'm very wary of this. I always do everything I can to make sure everyone's the hero.

Like, the charismatic guy? He's the charismatic hero, but he's not THE hero. He's just the fast-talker of the group.

Oddly Exalted does this best, because in Exalted everyone is literally their own wuxia protagonist. When the Circle is together, it's a superhero team up, like the Justice League or Conan meeting Elric with Solomon Kaine riding shotgun. (At the same time, Exalted has the problem of the characters not really needing to work together, because four Solars can topple entire kingdoms.)

Well, I'm , and I ended up the MC simply because I had the will and the mechanical ability to interact with the world and the other players, even the ones who could... didn't.

Current group I'd trying to overthrow the government because it's being run by an evil necromancer. Is it cliche? Maybe, but it's what we doing. I'm my character is the only one who was born in the country so they elected to make me the face of the rebellion.

>Playing a spy from a rival nation
>Always keep myself in the background unless it's something involving being a sneaky cunt or lying bastard since nobody else in the group can sneak/lie to save their lives
>the one to make plans for the party, let others take credit
>Most NPCs don't think anything of the unassuming swordsman hanging out in the back
It's fun being the "secret boss" pushing the party in certain directions.

It's too bad that the reason I end up making all the plans and being deceptive is because the rest of the party is about as creative as a piece of toast.

Not myself, mostly because I'm used to be the DM.

But yes, often this happens. If you play with sensible people, there's rarely any problem for that. Every character in the group has his niches and some are more associated with being the protagonist than others. Same with the personality of the players, that should not be that of the PC but often it is to some degree.

Let's be honest, you are the problem if you expected to be The Protagonist but didn't make a character for it. Books about shut-in autists that never say anything exist and can potentially be more interesting than those about classic heroes. But this is not a book, I must put the same focus on everyone, you decide what to do when the focus is on you and since actions have consequences your contribution will be less or more protagonistic depending on your choices.

Being the MC is not about being powerful. If I had a player acting like the MC, it was never the one with the most solid build. This later kind often prefers to not have much screentime until battle starts. They're Legolas surfing on shields and killing mumakil, not Aragorn having the whole plot revolve around him.

You misunderstand. Every Solar Exalted is specifically his own unique hero, and starring in his own series. Even in the fiction, Circles rarely work together as a unit: Often, one guy goes off on his own and does something, then the group reunites when something really massive comes up.

There are only 150 Solar Exalted, which means the PCs are forces unto themselves. Having 5 in one place is extremely unusual.

In my typical group game, we play it lot closer to the "Firefly method" as I call it. So no real Big "MC". We have a principal character and then all the rest of the main characters.

But yes, I do tend to become the "MC" of the group unless otherwise noted. When we played Rogue Trader, everyone wanted me to be the Rogue Trader. When we play Cyberpunk, I tend to just naturally fall into the leader role - even though I'm playing some Luddite with a chronic-hero syndrome.

But no drama, because drama is for pussies. My group is usually filled with passive people anyway. And the GM (when it's not me) tries to involve everyone at some point.

Sort of? I'm my GM's favorite player and the only one who will move the plot along willingly or interact with his world and npcs, so I get a lot of scenes

>but we've never had any drama over it since we are a bunch of fucking adults.
Gayyyyyyyyyy

But when they do unite, which I guess it's what your actually playing because otherwise it would be shit, who of this 5 gets more screentime?

Again, Legolas like any other member of the fellowship that is not a hobbit, is an unique hero that could be the star of his own show. He has the abilities for it.

But what he is capable of doing is completely irrelevant. Pretty much all games and stories have powerful characters, stronger than the protagonist, but this doesn't make them the main character.

Basically everything you said is irrelevant since it's based on the faulted presumption that being relevant and influential in-universe makes you automatically relevant for the story.