Running multiple groups in the same adventure


Advice

Scarab Sages

Has anyone ever had multiple groups, in the same adventure, at the same time (in-game-wise)?

Was thinking of trying to implement this concept at my FLGS, for new (or just new to the group) players to sign up in different time slots. Each group would get a 4hr session, at the end of which their characters go into "stasis pods." When the next groups session starts, they emerge from their pods, 4hr session, then back in the box (or "pods").

Anyone tried something like this before?

Silver Crusade

Let me see if I understand what you're suggesting.

Group A plays in time slot A. Does things. You record the things.
Group A runs out of time and the players leave. Characters remain at Point A.

Group B arrives and plays in time slot B. They do things. You record the things. Group B has run out of time and the players leave. Characters remain at Point B.

It's fairly easy if Groups A and B progress within a fair margin and have predictable answers to challenges.

So, what I want to know is, how do you plan on handling it when Group A has arrived somewhere that Group B technically should have already been and changed in some way?

Generally speaking, adventures are written as a one-group event and many of the encounters and challenges don't reset, and some of the scripted events have permanent results. Unless the groups are physically playing at the same time, coordinating activities fairly is not possible.

If you're just going sequentially and marking down some changes for later groups, regardless of their actual progress, then you might as well just run the same adventure separately for each group. Later groups get a less fair shake on the adventure content otherwise while earlier groups get a more 'pristine' environment to explore.


Not quite what you seem to be looking for, but our club ran 2 groups simultaneously through the Rise of the Runelords adventure path.

GMs needed to keep each other updated with significant developments.
The key concepts that required player buy in were:
1) Both groups were in their own "incident" of encounters, but as far as NPCs were concerned all 11 PCs went into the encounter all together, whther that be

Spoiler:
off into the wilderness hunting boars or just investigating the glassworks.

2) Any significant enemy only permanently died if they died in both encounters. If your group killed a key NPC, but the other party didn't, either you didn't kill them dead enough or it was a similar NPC disguised as the key NPC, or something else - let your players imagination have fun (as they groan knowing they may face that NPC again sometime)

3) Significant relationships with NPCs like

Spoiler:
Shayliss or Aldern
ignored the fact that the other group existed. This is probably the most immersion spoiling concept, but the alternative is one group missing out. It was worth it.

We got through 2 books and it worked out pretty well before one of the groups imploded due to too many unreliable players, but I would consider it again.


Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Sort of. One of my GMs was running Jade Regent with two groups (alternating weeks) because a lot of our friends wanted to play. But they didn't interact within the game world; he basically was running them as parallel versions of the world. However, now a bunch of people have dropped out, so he's merging the two groups. Gonna lead to some weirdness and hand-waving in the initial stages, but fortunately the only player who had a relationship with an NPC in one group that would conflict with the other was one of the ones to drop out. (We already had one player switch groups due to personal issues with some other players, which was accomplished in-game via him traveling through a magical book to this "alternate dimension." Though he later ended up dropping anyway.)

A friend of mine, however, WAS involved in a game where two groups were running in the same world, similar to what I think you're talking about. One group ended up screwing over the other group (partially by accident, partially intentionally) so many times that the second group decided enough was enough. They...long story short, they specifically built a dungeon for the other group that resulted in a near TPK, in what we now refer to as the "Skull of Urd" incident. So be prepared for possible party warfare if you do end up doing this.

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