Is it possible to have a dummy player in SMP?

Is it possible to have a dummy player in SMP?

You need a client. But it doesn't have to be a fully fledged client, you can use the console client instead, it consumes very, very little resources.

A typical setup would be running the console client on the server machine and making it connect to localhost.

The console client has the ability to automatically reconnect if the connection is lost. It can even send commands at startup or run a scheduled script.

Yes it is. First, you'll need a Bukkit server. If you dont have one already, the setup is well documented and relativally straight forward. I'll also link you to their website. http://bukkit.org/

Then, you'll need to install this plugin: http://dev.bukkit.org/server-mods/citizens/

I won't be able to help you as well as their own wiki in game, so I suggest you stick to that, but as far as I know, that is the best way to spawn NPC's.

Hopefully this helps. Have fun.