Player Cameo

[EmceeLadyHammer]

I currently play on a table and also running my first table as DM. I'd LOVE to cameo the players on the table I play, on the table I run. I'm looking for inspiration on senarios in which my table would run into the characters I play with. We play 5e. I know you don't know anything about my world or story, but I have a lot of wiggle room to intro most concepts, no matter how ridiculous. The players I need to intro are:
Emcee LadyHammer - tiefling druid dessert circle
Bramble Fuzztfoot - Halfling rogue with a sub class in necromancy
Fritta - centaur fighter with a third eye that sees magic... Did I mention she has wings?
A friend of mine suggested having a portal open and the group comes through in mid-fight against a foe before exiting through another portal. I like the idea, but looking for a little more interaction with my players.
I appreciate your input and creativity!!

[Incorrect]

I am always weary of GMs who bring in characters from another game.
If you want to do it, I would suggest keeping it short, and not related to the story. Someone walking by on the street or drinking at another table in the tavern. I like the portal idea.

[Pleh]

I don't see anything wrong with it.

My question, as a DM to myself in your position, would be, "why am I bringing in old characters instead of just writing new ones that already fit in this world?"

By the time you're posting to a forum, you are dedicating a disproportionate amount of prep work to the idea. Why are these old characters better for your game than creating new ones?

[DMThac0]

My first warning is that you should let those old character be NPCs not DMPCs. As a newer DM it's too easy to want to show off what your old characters can do, why they're so cool to you, and then you're basically playing your character with a group of henchmen played by the table. Feel free to cameo a character or two, have them be an NPC in town who gives them a quest, trains them for something in an upcoming quest, something simple so they can be on stage for a time. Then have them go away, have them leave the stage just as quickly and quietly as they showed up.

My epic level Drow Sorcerer Dragon Initiate has made cameos a few of my games, he usually shows up as my way of showing players something mysterious and dangerous. A lot of my players know his story, they understand that he's epic level, they know he's been traveling the planes, so when he pops in unexpectedly..they pay attention.

My tavern owner turned character has been in most of my games as the information desk for my players. He started out as an NPC, he was a hub for many of my adventuring parties. Eventually my players fell in love with him and he became an actual character. Now he still owns his tavern, he's still a central hub for parties to visit, but he's got better stories to tell.

I'll cameo one of my old player's characters into games too, he's a half-demon half-ogre fighter. This character survived AD&D and much of 3.x. I'll pop him into games where my players are getting a bit too full of themselves and knock some sense into them by having this singular PC cameo and then mop the floor with them.

Each of the characters cameo for a reason, once they have served their purpose, they are taken off screen. If the players want to pursue the Character/NPC and make more of the situation, I'll allow it for a time. They will not join the party for more than a two sessions, I don't want the players to use them as a crutch. If the players are being belligerent and pushy...these guys have fought their way through some serious situations, a few upstart adventurers aren't worth their time, so they just wave and walk away.

[Knaight]

This sort of thing has a tendency to end up pointless and self indulgent from the players' ends; you should probably at least consider if that will be the case this time. Speaking broadly it's much more likely to work if the characters getting cameos were earlier characters of the same players - and even then I'd be hesitant to do so.

[EmceeLadyHammer]

Thank you everyone for your input! I still plan on moving forward with the Cameos. My D&D network is pretty small, so the players at my table are well aware of the few past games I've played in and characters, just like I know theirs. My players have thoroughly enjoyed the cameos so far and appreciate the time I have put into giving them good entrances. They've even asked for second appearances for their favorite characters. The characters I've mentioned in my original comment are the ones they are anticipating the most and I want be able to deliver in presentation. The cameos are brief and maybe no more than a few sentences at most being exchanged. The very first one I did, the hero's show up in a town that was just trashed, this scene is actually the ending of one of our one-time drop-in games and all they saw was the back of a character from that game and his familiar as they turned a corner. Even though it wasn't very significant, my players thought it was cool that I was able to bring in that scene and make it relate to our story. I hear what everyone is saying though and again I appreciate the feedback.

[EmceeLadyHammer]

My first warning is that you should let those old character be NPCs not DMPCs. As a newer DM it's too easy to want to show off what your old characters can do, why they're so cool to you, and then you're basically playing your character with a group of henchmen played by the table. Feel free to cameo a character or two, have them be an NPC in town who gives them a quest, trains them for something in an upcoming quest, something simple so they can be on stage for a time. Then have them go away, have them leave the stage just as quickly and quietly as they showed up.

My epic level Drow Sorcerer Dragon Initiate has made cameos a few of my games, he usually shows up as my way of showing players something mysterious and dangerous. A lot of my players know his story, they understand that he's epic level, they know he's been traveling the planes, so when he pops in unexpectedly..they pay attention.

My tavern owner turned character has been in most of my games as the information desk for my players. He started out as an NPC, he was a hub for many of my adventuring parties. Eventually my players fell in love with him and he became an actual character. Now he still owns his tavern, he's still a central hub for parties to visit, but he's got better stories to tell.

I'll cameo one of my old player's characters into games too, he's a half-demon half-ogre fighter. This character survived AD&D and much of 3.x. I'll pop him into games where my players are getting a bit too full of themselves and knock some sense into them by having this singular PC cameo and then mop the floor with them.

Each of the characters cameo for a reason, once they have served their purpose, they are taken off screen. If the players want to pursue the Character/NPC and make more of the situation, I'll allow it for a time. They will not join the party for more than a two sessions, I don't want the players to use them as a crutch. If the players are being belligerent and pushy...these guys have fought their way through some serious situations, a few upstart adventurers aren't worth their time, so they just wave and walk away.

Thank you for your feedback. My table is very familiar with these cameo characters as well. The players just get excited to see their old characters or characters they know interacting in the game even if those NPC's aren't directly interact with them. I did however, take a character from a drop-in game I played and made her a boss in this game. She was too awesome to only play once and her backstory works perfect for her role. I have a druid character that I'm really attached to and I can see her being the "tavern owner" that shows up in every story and maybe offers a little bit of advice. Thank you again for your input and advice. It's helpful and gives me something to think about.

[Maelynn]

I had a few cameos from my play table to my DM table, see if they're ideas you can put to use.

- the annual Fighter's Festival holds an arena where people can sign up for 1v1 or 2v2 fights. Only thing you can lose is your honour and your betting money, because special pendants are used to prevent deaths. One of the teams my players could encounter was a duo of my old Dwarf Barbarian and my current Tiefling Paladin. I downgraded their stats to make them suitable but challenging opponents. I also used this setup to cameo a side-NPC from an earlier quest, and even a humorous reference by having a Bard/Rogue team named Miguel and Tulio. Lots of options.

- one of my fellow players has a character that wears black leather trousers (Half-Orc metal guitarist Bard) and somehow always ends up in a ditch, utterly pissed, without his trousers. So at my DM table, where the same player also plays, one of the possible random events they could get was that they found a pair of black leather trousers in a ditch by the road, smelling of stale beer and sweat. (this one got slightly out of hand when another player, blissfully unaware of the reference, noticed the quality of the leather and the stitching, so she cleaned them with Prestidigitation and is quite insistent on returning them to their owner)

- this cameo isn't a character I directly know, but is from an old campaign of one of my players. He's told me enough about his character that I can use a chunk of it and write a quest around it: he 'won' a ship from a pirate captain in a game, although the captain in question suspected him of cheating. The matter was never resolved, according to his DM... but I plan on picking it up by setting up a confrontation and having the old character ask the party for their help.

[DMThac0]

Thank you for your feedback. My table is very familiar with these cameo characters as well. The players just get excited to see their old characters or characters they know interacting in the game even if those NPC's aren't directly interact with them. I did however, take a character from a drop-in game I played and made her a boss in this game. She was too awesome to only play once and her backstory works perfect for her role. I have a druid character that I'm really attached to and I can see her being the "tavern owner" that shows up in every story and maybe offers a little bit of advice. Thank you again for your input and advice. It's helpful and gives me something to think about.

I love cameo characters, bringing family of dead characters in, or referencing old adventures through NPC dialogue. All of these types of things help the players "buy in" to the depth of the fantasy world. It helps you use familiar faces, places, and things to orient your players in a direction, they're wonderful tools. They're great tools to use if the players get in over their heads, I had my Drow save my players from a terrible disaster and then taunt them for being weaklings. They're great tools to teach them important story beats and elements, to give them a "reality" check when they get too arrogant and you don't want them to TPK, and in general just pay homage to all the history you have with your players.

Have fun with your cameos and many happy adventures as DM.