Given the scheduling conflicts I have with my SCAP group, we're switching to a once-every-other-week schedule on a week-day night, which means we'll be playing SCAP through to, oh, 2007 or so. ;)
However, two of the players and myself are thinking of round-robin GMing we few three on the alternate weeks.
This means I finally get to play a PC, woo-hoo! But, before we start, I wondered if any others did a weekly or bi-monthly game where DMing rotated? Any advice? Thoughts?
I'm thinking we'll just use the various fabulous Dungeon adventures when I or my fiance GM, and I'm not sure where the other player will draw his adventures, but what would you suggest for handling the multi-GM role?
I see three major alternatives:
(1) We each have two PCs, one for each GM. So, when GM A is in charge, my PC A and my fiance's PC A are playing, but when my fiance GMs, I use my PC B, as does our other player... so that there's no overlap.
(2) We each have a PC, but at any point in time, only two of them are active.
(3) We each have a PC, and the GM's PC is an NPC for the duration of the adventure, with a whole lot less central role.
Make sure that all the GMs have a bull session once in a while (outside of game), to compare notes and tie up loose plot threads, weave 'em together, that sorta thing.
I'm not too keen on multiple GMs running the SAME adventure, considering that you would need to read ahead in the material to properly prepare the adventure and understand the motives and abilities of the villains and NPCs in the story; obviously, if all three of you have studied the material, the enjoyment of any element of surprise, dramatic plot change or shock value will be lost, which will water down the game experience for all.
I'm taking under assumtion that, by even coming up with this plan, that there is an implied pledge not to meta-game when playing as opposed to GMing...
To maintain the rotating GM plan, I would suggest that each of you run separate adventures and simply alternate which adventure gets played session to session; you will preserve the rotating GM schedule and also preserve the dramatic tension, and thus the entertainment value, of each individual game.
M
I do some rotating with my brother. I am running the Shackled City Adventure Path. He is DMing the Age Of Worms campaign. We alternate chapter by chapter. So at the time being, we have played chapter one in both campaigns and I currently torment them in Drakthars way (SCAP).
As a twist we both use the same campaign world (Kalamar). But his adventure plays at a later time. There are some references between our campaigns though. For example in the AoW I play a gnome, who originally comes from Cauldron.
Another thing I did a couple of years ago, was running alternate short adventures in the City of Thieves setting. That worked well too. Especially if you have players who cannot dedicate time on a regular basis. In a City Setting it is easy to drop out and integrate players on a session by session basis. And if the GMs share the same world and environment it might be fun to flesh out that setting from different point of views. The only tricky things are big political changes, which might rearrange the complete setting.
(1) We each have two PCs, one for each GM. So, when GM A is in charge, my PC A and my fiance's PC A are playing, but when my fiance GMs, I use my PC B, as does our other player... so that there's no overlap.(2) We each have a PC, but at any point in time, only two of them are active.
(3) We each have a PC, and the GM's PC is an NPC for the duration of the adventure, with a whole lot less central role.
I'd go with the seperate PCs one for each GM. I doubt the players will really mind having a couple of characters - there are so many cool options that most players can think up half a dozen characters they would like to try out.
My group round robins in two ways myself and Jeremy run the main game with one of us Dm and both of us as PC's which can be confusing but we make it a point to talk each week and make sure that we don't fluff ourselves and make it too easy for our own chacters to get through. we have a central location for our group which is a villa just outside of waterdeep he does more of the side trek adventures while i keep a overview of the plot. We also have a lowlevel group that our higher Pc's have hired to do the jobs that we don't have time for which Rudy is gonna Dm He has only ran one other game so we are gonna be guiding him in how thigns go but really letting him do what he wants apart from what the high group does. but here are the rules we have
1. no moding for your PC
2. at least once before game talk to other dm about consquences of loot and what not
3. if you have info on plot events no using it to your advantage
4. no placing of magic items that you want for your character
5. adventure approval by other dm.
6. have fun
My group is doing a round-robin at this time; so far, so good.
We enforce the following:
1. Each DM goes 4 or 5 sessions, completing an adventure (or "level" of a larger comlex).
2. When it's time for you to DM, the other players run your characters. No "NPCing" your own PCs.
After a DM holds his last sessions he passes along XP info to the next DM. The players get a bit of extra knowledge this way, especially when we try to overlap plots, but so far it's working pretty well and fits our active schedules better than a one-DM situation.
I dwelt on this for a while and offer thsi suggestion. Start your PCs off at level one and download the Temple of elemental evil if you already haven't.
*SPOILERS*
There are seperate factions within the temple, Lareths lolthlings, the four elemental cults, zuggtmoy's cult, and Iuz's infiltraters. all y'all read the adventure together and put the monsters loyal to each faction on a 3x5, or on a seperate peice of paper or what have you, and give each DM a cult following of his own to lord over, follow the rules presented in the temple recruiting section to introduce surprises upon the other sides. so as a result you'll wind up with
1) the PCs mucking about in the temples plans
2) the cults themselves infighting, but not under the control of one GM
3) perhaps you'll be compelled to adventure with the "evil" NPCs against the village of Hommelt to deny a resource to the "do gooders"
IMO it'll turn the temple nto a more living experience and not a static adventure (not that theres ever a "standard" TOEE run
We have two separate gaming groups that each meet weekly under normal circumstances: 3-5 in the Saturday group and 5-6 in the Tuesday group. There's three of us that DM, but here's how it works:
We each run our own world setting and there's NO overlap. PCs and NPCs in Middle Earth stay there, and the same for those in Oerth or Toril. This really is necessary to allow the DM the creative power to develop his / her setting as she wants. Also it takes care of the tension that can easily come with DM #1 making a decision that DM #2 doesn't agree with, then DM #2 has to deal with the after-effects of something he wouldn't have set up himself to begin with.
With each having his / her own setting, We can let the world(s) develop as we want, we can give players equipment suitable for that world without worrying about it being too high / low for another DM's setting, we can have our Pantheons act the way we want, etc.
The most difficult part is being consistent in the rulings we make so that the players have the same expectations regardless of who is DMing. The most experienced of us is the "primary" DM... meaning that even if he's a PC, if one of us makes a call that is totally contrary to the way he normally runs things, he tells us so. We also do a LOT of talking in between sessions to hash out areas where we differ on how ruling should happen, etc. It's a great exercise, however, as it forces us to think through why we make the rulings we do, which makes for a stronger, more logical ruling later.
It's great to have more than one DM so we can each take breaks and rotate, but I STRONGLY suggest that if you do it... they each have their own individual world setting. I also suggest the DMs talk ahead of time about how they want to handle situations that WILL arise about differences in DM style rather than waiting for it to happen in the middle of a game.
I agree with Tiger Lily. Round-robin GMing works best if each GM runs their own world with a separate set of PCs. That way there's no conflicts and far less chance of an out-of-character knowledge problem. Each GM gets the chance to be a player and although the characters will advance more slowly, everyone ends up happier.
Something a fellow GM and I are currently working on is an Eberron/FR Crossover campaign (Who says Eberron has conflict with other campaign settings).
Essentially the Players have to sets of PCs (one for each world), XP from each game contributes to both sets of PCs. Thus if I run the first game and the PCs gain 1,000XP in the other GM's game the PCs are automatically level 2, with 1,000 XP under their belts.
This kind of game gives players a sense that their characters are growing no matter what game is played, the DMs get to keep the specifics of each adventure secret but they share broad strokes. (i.e: Levels 1-3 should have the players perform some risky endevour that draws the attention of Agents of The Dreaming Dark or Realmsian Cult of Dreams) See specifics are hidden broad strokes are seen.
Hope this helps.
I dwelt on this for a while and offer thsi suggestion. Start your PCs off at level one and download the Temple of elemental evil if you already haven't.
*SPOILERS*
There are seperate factions within the temple, Lareths lolthlings, the four elemental cults, zuggtmoy's cult, and Iuz's infiltraters. all y'all read the adventure together and put the monsters loyal to each faction on a 3x5, or on a seperate peice of paper or what have you, and give each DM a cult following of his own to lord over...
Pisces, this is exactly what my group has been doing.
We began play in Hommlet using 1st Edition rules, but soon switched over to 3rd. I immediately divided up the ToEE (I know the module best). I'm DMing Levels 2 and 3, and another DM is handling Levels 1 and 4 (and also the ruins above.) So far it's worked well.Our third DM wasn't left out, but he desperately wanted to create his own adventure, so he's creating a evil-controlled keep that will connect with the whole ToEE plotline.