[khorboth]

I've had the arrangement work out well. Once. With a trusted player, I let her play her character's dependent (little sister). The understanding was that I was temporarily offloading GM duty to her, but could take it back at any time. When I did so, there was no argument. The rest of the players understood what was going on as well.

The net result was a dependent who had a deeper personality than I had time to develop. The other PCs grew attached as well. There were no hard feelings anywhere. When it was time for the little girl to be threatened, no players were put out, because everyone knew that was her game purpose. And, with her being a deeper character, everybody cared more.

If you're missing any link in this chain, it won't work. You need a trusted player who won't object when you suddenly take control back. That player ALSO needs to be a strong enough player to make the other players like the dependent. All the other players need to understand ans appreciate the situation. If the other characters resent the dependent, that's not necessarily a problem.

It even led to a good plot point once. The dependent was mind-controlled at one juncture. When I had her do something odd, the player respectfully mentioned that this went against the established character. I agreed and had her do it anyway. This intimate familiarity was a good thing.