Gestalt Wrath of the Righteous Campaign (Inactive)

Game Master Divinitus

How many times do you have to refresh a screen in an hour before before a psychiatrist will diagnose you with a condition.? Recruitment results anticipatory compulsive disorder

Oh Paizo Gods hear my plea

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Grimli Chastip wrote:

I'm looking forward to this!

Let's go find the beard burner so we can congratulate him if he gets in and we don't.

LOL I'm on it.

How many times do you have to refresh a screen in an hour before before a psychiatrist will diagnose you with a condition.? Recruitment results anticipatory compulsive disorder

Oh Paizo Gods hear my plea

Your humble subject begs that you set up email notification for these boards

As long as it is less than once per minute, you should be fine...o_O At least, that's what the doctors told me...O_O

Obviously he should just accept all of us. Yes, all of us. Think of the amazing batlles we could have! Then whittle down the PCs by killing them off one by one. Eventually you end up with the group, the ones who survived.

*blows the horn from Survivor

I agree, beard singer. But I think that I'm voting Xzaral off the island first!

:P

*blows the horn from Survivor

I agree, beard singer. But I think that I'm voting Xzaral off the island first!

:P

No no, it's the survivors who stay, you only get to vote someone off by murdering them?"

Grimli Chastip wrote:

*blows the horn from Survivor

I agree, beard singer. But I think that I'm voting Xzaral off the island first!

:P

No no, it's the survivors who stay, you only get to vote someone off by murdering them?"

I'll second that vote. All in favor?

But with that many heroes? Will any of us actually die?

Probably not, but we can at least singe that ponytail mullet of his...

Probably not, but we can at least singe that ponytail mullet of his...

Works for me. Let's do it!

HaHa! I'm on it!

Starts passing out mead. Has anybody heard anything? Is he doing it by mail? The waiting is driving me up a wall.

I hope it's posted before I have to go to bed.

Malzii cautiously accepts the mead, sniffing it curiously for a moment before taking a gulp. She shrugs. "Lots want to fight the demons...lots and lots," she says as she gazes around the packed waiting room. "Takes time to sort them all and find the bestest and strongest. Can always play games to pass the time, though!" she adds as she digs in her pack and pulls out a crudely carved set of stone dominoes and looks around hopefully.

Tell me about it, I'm about to pass out, which is strange because I'm usually up for another eight hours even though I shouldn't be.

Usually more of a card fan, but I'm in. I sit down next to you.

Starts passing out mead. Has anybody heard anything? Is he doing it by mail? The waiting is driving me up a wall.

Thank you. I'll take one of those. Need something to calm the nerves.

The Ways of the GM are many and mysterious. Sometimes other things come up (like throwing a rave party in our homes). Sometimes we get bored. Sometimes we have too many submissions we like and try to decide if we can take on two tables - because games are big responsibilities, and we try to treat them as such.

The best thing to do is just take a deep breath, relax, and go do something else for awhile. ^^ He'll announce the players when he's ready to, and getting antsy just makes it feel like it takes longer.

Yes, like doing what I am doing. I made an impromptu gaming night with friends.

Wish I could do that. Most of my friends have moved so that's not an option for me.

So many posts.

I can't wait to find out who gets in. :) This is a very impressive line-up.

Maybe That GM Guy was full of s$@!, just messing with us?

Given the lineup, I doubt he was messing with us.

I'm guessing he's torn on who to put in, and is probably contemplating if he has the energy to run two tables (or possibly three, depending on how insane he is).

Yeah, can't be an easy choice from a GM perspective. Well all, given the wonderful characters, I'm thinking of starting a way of the wicked campaign, anybody who's interested, send me a mail and if I do decide to start one, I'll toss you a mail back when I'm recruiting.

I rarely play evil campaigns. I GM more than I play, so I'm always the bad guys. Playing the good guys is better for me. :)

It seem rather odd that he'd be silent for so long, even if he hasn't made his final decisions, I'd still expect a post officially proclaiming that, since the deadline is passed, the thread is closed to further interest.

Sorry for the wait everyone! I was pretty tired last night and fell asleep in my chair.

Ok, so I have been thinking about who is getting selected and I am still not sure whether I want to run a second table, since there are so many AMAZING PCs, but not nearly enough slots in the campaign.

Does anyone have any suggestions about this? I have never run two tables of the SAME campaign before, so I don't know how well that would work. I tried asking my buddy 'That GM Guy!', but then I remembered that he GM'd 9 games on ONE website, not to mention any others he GM'd, so I'm not sure if his personal experience could accurately parallel mine.

Again, sorry for the wait everyone!

Sorry for the wait everyone! I was pretty tired last night and fell asleep in my chair.

Ok, so I have been thinking about who is getting selected and I am still not sure whether I want to run a second table, since there are so many AMAZING PCs, but not nearly enough slots in the campaign.

Does anyone have any suggestions about this? I have never run two tables of the SAME campaign before, so I don't know how well that would work. I tried asking my buddy 'That GM Guy!', but then I remembered that he GM'd 9 games on ONE website, not to mention any others he GM'd, so I'm not sure if his personal experience could accurately parallel mine.

Again, sorry for the wait everyone!

Start another campaign thread and state that it is gestalt wrath of the righteous campaign 2 and the recruitment is closed, unless you are looking for more people. Tell people which game they are assigned to.

Then you will have two separate "campaigns" to run on the board. It will simply be a matter of time constraints on your personal time.

I'm not sure what else to say unless you are worried about cheating.

In that case, running 2 of the same campaign should be no different than running 2 different campaigns. As is, you must already depend on players honesty to not "scout" the campaign modules since those things can be bought for said purpose, already purchased with intent to run or use the material, or may even be available online to view for free at someplace like scribd. I don't see it being any different to depend upon players to not scour the other gameplay thread. For that matter, players can already scour other gameplay threads of the same module, not to mention checking out the forums dedicated to each adventure path.

But, if cheating is still your prime worry, ask That GM Guy. If he covers it for 9, his method should work for 2. Nothing should change in that regard, except for being easier.

I was mostly referring to does it lead to GM burnout quickly or what?

I've only had experience running multiple games face to face, and those were 2 different games (Star Wars and D&D, respectively).

Based on my experience, as long as the players maintain interest and are engaged in the story, their enthusiasm can help you keep going. Running 2 tables of the same campaign may be easier, unless you have 2 VERY different groups style wise. At the very least, stuff you prep for one game may be usable in another.

Ultimately, it's up to you. If you're worried about burning out, stick to one table. You can always start a second one later if you want.

I ran two copies of the same game for awhile. In my opinion as far as burnout was concerned it wasn't that different from running two games. The biggest issue I felt was confusing who did what in which game. If I were to try it again I'd find a good way to differentiate the two groups. For example, maybe define them by clearly different names. Maybe go racial, one core races the other non-core. Alignments, good vs. morally gray. Maybe class based, like one with all roguish types the other fighter types (which kinda works with gestalt). Also notes. Notes are so much your friend. My method was google docs on both groups.

Thanks for the update. Take your time and good luck.

Excellent points!

Give me a few hours before I decide what to do and then I will post.

Burnout happens when you get bored. It's not a function of one vs two threads. It's a function of interesting players, posts/sessions, and real life commitments. The best salve for burnout is making friends with the internet strangers in your game.

Best of luck with your decision.

Thanks Glory. Take your time, my friend.

From my experience it really comes down to you.

Running two of the same campaign is much easier since you have to spend less time preparing maps and things of that nature. And you only have to keep one main story in mind. Prep work is easier.

The one big issue is keeping the two individual stories seperated in your mind. For example if group A kills NPC Y and group B doesn't. Remembering who did what can be an issue. That issue is mitigated mostly in a PBP game, because even if you forget you can search the tread to remember.

All that having been said, it is true what was said about your players enthusiasm will help you keep going.

My only piece of advice is, it never hurts to try 2, but I would not start more than two until you are comfortable with those. Of you feel you've got these two groups down well then in a few months start up a new campaign (from your list with a twist), but don't start a bunch of games all at once until you have the pace of that game mastered.

I know Cave Toad is about to start running a multi-table game. Don't know how he plans to do it, but you can ask him about the technical sides. As for burn-out, I don't know what to tell you. One campaign is usually enough to burn me out, not because of losing interest so much as from getting exhausted building encounters, but that's because I always try to homebrew everything like an idiot.

Taking more notes can also help. If you really want to make sure you've got everything, you could use Realm Works, but any basic word processor would work just fine for plugging in the major details.

My only real advice for running multiple games is to set a pace for yourself - perhaps one post a day is definite, and anything above that is a bonus.

Any advice Rednal gives is probably some of the most sound you'll receive.

That being said, all the suggestions in this thread are really solid.

Regardless of what you do decide, make sure it's absolutely the right choice for you.

I've run two tables on the same game a couple of times on here. It's not that hard to keep them separate. You learn to double check yourself.

It has advantages, as you can copy/paste things from one to another when they enter the same town, etc.

Haven't noticed any burnout differences.

In a case where you are going to have to update all the combats to keep them relevant, running two tables is kind of efficient actually since you are already going to put in the extra work, you might as well do it for a larger audience.

To add to what Buzz is saying, I'd suggest lockstepping the two tables as far as level goes.

That is, rather than using EXP, level at the pace of story. That way, when they are at the same points in the story, they are the same level. That keeps you from having to redo work. Since it's an AP, you know what levels they should be at the start and end of each book.

Good point by mdt. No reason to make extra work.

Also I would note that the biggest drag when running a pbp game is when you are losing players and have to re-recruit. With a bigger supply, you might lose more, but you can just consolidate as long as you keep them at a similar pace.

Yeah, I've gotten to where I recruit at least 6 for a game nowdays, and usually within a month or two I'm down to 4.

Worst is running PFS because you can't re-recruit. I had to bot a character from halfway to the end of Eyes of the Ten because he was the only melee.

On burnout, speaking from the player side of things, and as someone who occasionally GMs a home game as well as plays in one or two campaigns online, I think I would stress looking ahead at what might come up in one's own life a few months ahead and other details that might affect one's energy. I'm a perpetual student, so I have a bit more free time in the summers, but keeping in mind that the school year always rolls round again means I know myself better than to ever try to keep up with more than two online campaigns, and those at a fairly easy-going pace. Similarly, I found one game awkward for a particularly wide distribution of players over the globe: it can be trickier to keep up comfortably if your time zone is six hours behind the GM's.
Just letting everyone know as things come up really helps: one of the other games I'm in is currently on hiatus, and we're still in the first volume of our AP after two years of play, with characters coming and going, but a couple of us have been there since the beginning, and our GM is really friendly about things that come up in everyone's real lives. Mainly, I think, it's about everyone being on board with what everyone can commit to, being realistic about that, and not pushing oneself harder just because - if you're not sure you can or want to try to keep two tables running, don't force yourself.

I second drbuzzard's comment about having a pool of players to offset player dropout. I'm in a Reign of Winter PbF campaign where the DM started with two tables, and after the first few months our group lost a couple of people and the other had most of theirs leave for one reason or another. He combined the two groups and we have had a solid group for the last two years that has made it to the third book.

i have not done much PBP GMing but what i have noticed at least when i GM in RL the longest games i have ran, i was only able to keep burnout from happening was many dependent on the players more than me if my players are giving me a lot to work off it gives me things to think on and makes my creativity grow so i can keep the game going in substituent sessions.

A Gm can only do so much its the players that keep the story moving

edit

I second drbuzzard's comment about having a pool of players to offset player dropout. I'm in a Reign of Winter PbF campaign where the DM started with two tables, and after the first few months our group lost a couple of people and the other had most of theirs leave for one reason or another. He combined the two groups and we have had a solid group for the last two years that has made it to the third book.

i can attest to this i am in a core PBP game and the gm had two tables but for various reasons both tables had players drop so the gm did combine the tables and now its 5 players that post a few times a day ^_^

A couple of people spoke to me about their suspicions that you were jerking us around. To keep them from being punished I won't mention who. That said, i mentioned if things went wrong I might run a table of this. I could still do this if anybody's interested, but for the sake of avoiding spoilers, I'd rather play through the first book before I start.

Also keep in mind. For various reasons I've never successfully GMed a campaign through to the end.