[quote=@Mae]
I was imagining 1 PC per player. I was thinking of an option where people can have multiple characters but stable them so they have one active one (so they have one at a time they're actively playing, but the other character can do something basic in the background e.g collect basic materials, take a trade caravan to another town,ect) so people can experience different aspects of the game if they feel like their 'main' is too specialised.

However, I think I'd want the game to be underway a bit before then, if I opened that up at all. 
[/quote]

That would be really helpful for characters like the one I'm planning, as her "empire" (see: shop) expands, a stable of NPCs that do the background work of such things would be handy to have, and offer flavour and life to the town, as they would offer up other players someone to talk to in their day-to-day, but won't require a whole collaboration for chatting with an NPC.

For instance, someone comes into my shop, and I'm not there, my NPC Staff can attend to them as a wordless affair in their post, or ask them for assist, and I reply in my post later on, and get them to where they need to be, or a combination of both where I would fill in the blank space between where they come and go.