I think I'm about to start a second, but I am in a bit of a quandary.
I have a bunch of 4 people who want me to DM a game for them (they have all played before) but I am already DMing another campaign with 4-5 players and I don't want to add 4 more. I could handle adding two of the 4 new guys to my current game, but the 4 of them are a package deal.
So I've agreed to run two seperate games, but I am having serious doubts about this. I have a full time job and a girlfriend and barely enough time for my current game. I love D&D but I'm getting stressed out over what I should do, which is not cool for something that's meant to be fun.
I was thiking of playing a few one-offs with the second group while continuing my current campaign. Anyone else (with a job etc) had any success DMing more than one game, or is it more trouble than it's worth?
I don't want to say no to either group - they are all my friends :(
Director of Narrative
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I have two games. Sunday nights I run my campaign and a few months ago I started playing in a campaign DMed by one of the guys who plays in my campaign.
I wouldn't suggest DMing two different campaigns. Having the time for and keeping up with one campaign is more than enough for me, but I don't know your threshold.
It is very relaxing to wear the player hat once a week between wearing the DM crown.
Yeah I think that's good advice, thanks Daigle. I know people play more than one game sometimes but I think DMing 2 games is a bit much. Maybe when I was still in school and had no other responsibilities!
Maybe I'll tell the second group that either two of them can play in my current game, or *gasp!* maybe one of them can DM and I'll play.
But if anyone has any experience of DMing two campaigns at once, I'd like to hear it anyway.
I have DMd two campaigns at once. I've even done three, but that was in college. Now married with full time+ job and a three year old it is more challenging. Currently I'm running one campaing and a series of one shots. That seems to be going well because I use Dungeon adventures for the one-shots and my home-brew for the campaign. My time seems to work out well. The challenge is that I am considering running a SCAP campaign in addition to these. My head hurts trying to figure out how to fit everything in.
For what it's worth, if your time is limited, I think you have a couple of viable options:
1. Run two campaigns, but make them parallel so that your prep is done once or at least there is a ton of overlap.
2. Run one and play in one as noted above. My control freakish ways make this difficult for me, but it might be the wise choice for you.
3. Collapse into a ball of stress.
Note: Gaming should not be work. It should be fun. If it causes you to stress or feel pressured or overwhelmed, then take a break. During that break read the 'why I play D&D thread' on this board.
I hope this helps in some small way. If you have more specific questions, post away.
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I DM a Red Hand of Doom campaign that started off at first level and is currently about to assult Rhest (can you say TPK?).
I play in a World's Largest Dungeon campaign as the divine and arcane support, multiclassing Favored Soul and Sorcerer.
These games each meet once a month.
Wish I had time for more...
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I've DMed two games at the same time before, here's how it worked for me.
At one time I was Dming two different groups (6 people and 3 people from memory) through two games set in the same campaign world. About every second or third adventure was the same one for each group (modified for the group size, and with a few names changed etc), which made it a bit easier for me - but I still got a kick out of it, the two groups would often approach the same scenarios in completely different ways. At that time I was studying full time (and it was a VERY full time course) and working part time. I DMed each group every third weekend (and was playing in another campaign the other weekend).
More recently (full time work) I was DMing two campaigns, both made up almost exclusively of adventures from Dungeon magazine (which freed up my time A LOT in terms of writing adventures etc). This worked for a while, and in theory should have kept working if not for some increased real life commitments and some tension within one of the groups. I still DM one of the groups regularly, the other has become a rather sporadic game for a reduced number of players...
I play in one.
Run one epic Forgotten Realms campaign, trying to start an Eberron campaign via Fantasy Grounds, run a quasi-campaign once a month for a new group (considering doing STAP), considering another.
Keep a notebook with you at all times, one of those cop/reporter-style flipbooks. Jot down notes and ideas when they come to you. Cull ideas liberally from Dungeon and Dragon mags.
Most of all, know when to say, "I need a break." I'm a big fan of quality over quantity, but if you feel that your games are suffering because you're spreading yourself too thin, try arranging your schedule so you don't play as frequently or something along those lines.
It's hard to say "no" when someone asks you to run a game, huh? :P
I'd say the big secret is to make the games distinctive enough that they don't blend together. I wouldn't run two fantasy games at the same time, unless they were really different settings.
Currently we have a lot of games going. No kidding.
I'm currently running a D&D Play by Post game of The World, right here on Paizo in the Campaign Journals section. It's set in Shandura.
With my hometown group we have games Thursday (sometimes Friday) and Saturday. Thursday is another game of The World, run by my friend known on here as Galin, set in Valadun. In the evening on Thursday we sometimes have a SECOND game, a Spycraft game run by Azure Samurai. Friday a friend of mine who lives an hour away sometimes comes down and we either play Solaris VII (Battletech) or a homebrew supervillains game of his (messed-up-freaky-horror-movie supervillains--heh-heh). Saturday we just started a Legend of the Five Rings game, but that will likely be transitioning to another game here soon (we're thinking possibly one based on Warhammer 40K, but it's still up in the air).
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I've had good luck running multiple games in the same world. I set them far enough apart that they don't overlap directly, but close enough together that I can use the same backstory and some of the same off-stage threads.
This allows me to re-use all my macro-design stuff (country and city names, pantheons, politics, whatever) so I only really need to design the local stuff for each campaign. A further advantage is that I can sometimes use events from one campaign as off-stage events for another.
I should probably note that I don't do much in the way of world-threatening plots. Even if one group fails miserably, that failure doesn't threaten to destroy the world as a whole.
DMing several games can work, but don´t set the schedule too tight. If you play one group weekly, by all means schedule the other bi-weekly at most, probably rather once-a-month.
Tell the players that you want to make it work, but that it might happen that you just can´t handle it.
It bears repeating: if it is no fun for you, stop it! It is a game, not more work.
Stefan
I'm currently runnning a AoW game and a STAP game. Each has four players. It can be tough at times (I work full time, am married and have two kids) but if your using the published adventures it's not as bad. It also depends on how much you feel you need to tweak published adventures. I keep them set in Greyhawk and run them pretty much as printed with changing out one or two things based on the characters. I alos run each game every other week so that I have enough prep time and tow use up two days out of my week for gaming. It can be done. Also make sure you let your players know that you'll do your best but there may be times when you fall behind or can't give it 110%.
Did the 2+ games at one time years ago. On top of every other problem listed above, I came very close to burning out on the game. Total emersion therapy almost washed the spark out of me. I won't make that mistake again. If you can deal with it, have a blast, but watch out for the signs of burout. It would be a shame to see the gaming community lose a member because they overdosed like a junkie! lol.... Enjoy
I run one, and unfortunately haven't played in one for a while :(
I DM two groups and play in three others(one is DM'ed by a player from my own group).
My own D&D campaign started again last saturday but the rest is currently on hold or canceled. The Ebberon campaign where I play in, went on the fritz because people wanted to do a forum-play-style thing that I just don't like(for me D&D is at a table, talking, dice rolling). The Modern 4-series I DM is currently on hold, the players are too busy.
The D&D I play in went on hold also, DM is heart-broken and can't get his head together.
And I told the player in my D&D campaign that was DM'ing to put a sock in it and prepare his adventures better. Its one thing if we get one Deus-Ex-Machina encounter but four in a row(two sessions) is way out of line.
RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
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I DM one and play in another currently. Both games are run on Friday nights and each are staggered to run every 2 weeks. (Meaning that we game every week, but alternate games.)
Given the other DM's tendency to completely screw everything up and make all the players give up on his campaigns within the first 2 months, I imagine that this arrangement is destined to be short-lived.
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RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
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And I told the player in my D&D campaign that was DM'ing to put a sock in it and prepare his adventures better. Its one thing if we get one Deus-Ex-Machina encounter but four in a row(two sessions) is way out of line.
Yup, that's pretty much the issue our other DM has too. How hard is it to avoid using uber-powerful NPCs that overshadow the PCs constantly? In my experience, the answer is: Not frickin' hard AT ALL!
uhm, 4
I DM the STAP at the table and play in two PBP-games on dnd-gate.de.
hehe if my players could have their way; I would be gming every night of the week; if I had a nickle for every time someone told me that when they win the lottery they are gonna employ me as a full time gm; well, I would be well off.
anyway,
I run one, play in three,
but mine is every other week; the other is on my non run week; and the other is by weekly on a different day. The three I play in are not run very good, but is mindless dribble with good freinds that help me in this rough period in my life. My friends had been needling me over and over to run a game again; so now were back at it and the phone calls are starting and sheesh; like I have described on other posts. Very flattering, but they are beginning to blur the lines of my existance. Nice to be getting bribed again with beer, food, and stuff :)
Run one, play in one. We play every two weeks for about 10-12 hours, alternating campaigns, so I run my campaign once a month.
I used to run four games from '01-'03 then my head exploded (3.5 came out). Took me a couple years to recover.
This is the first and last time I'll ever say this:
Crikey.
I'm currently runnning a AoW game and a STAP game. Each has four players. It can be tough at times (I work full time, am married and have two kids) but if your using the published adventures it's not as bad. It also depends on how much you feel you need to tweak published adventures. I keep them set in Greyhawk and run them pretty much as printed with changing out one or two things based on the characters. I alos run each game every other week so that I have enough prep time and tow use up two days out of my week for gaming. It can be done. Also make sure you let your players know that you'll do your best but there may be times when you fall behind or can't give it 110%.
This is right on line with my thoughts. DMing two games can get alot easier if you make sure one of them only requires reading the preformed adventure. Take a look at the awesome adventures published in Dungeon. See if stringing three, four, or ten of them together works for your DMing style.
One of the biggest things for me is the huge amount of time that is saved each week by using published adventures. It really allows me to do many of the other fun things I like to do each week. If you are going to attempt this second group, Dungeon adventures is my recommended way to do it.
just my two coppers,
-Roth
personally, I cant use a premade adventures; although there have been times i used the theme or shell of it. They just don't have any depth and we dont do stand alone - meaning get together just to do a dungeon; its all campaigns now with continued building of storyline toward a goal. But then, I dont have gm cramp either; hehe is that like writers cramp?
Yup, that's pretty much the issue our other DM has too. How hard is it to avoid using uber-powerful NPCs that overshadow the PCs constantly? In my experience, the answer is: Not frickin' hard AT ALL!
Exactly, every now and then the PC's need to be rammed into reality by showing that however big they are, there are bigger fish in the sea.
BUT! Not when the DM throws in a dragon, literally goes at the table when he opens the MM; 'Oh, its a bit stronger then I expected...' and then happily throws in the dragon anyway. We nearly managed to kill a dragon 4CR's above us with just one ranged combatant and he suddenly decides to pop in a wizard NPC to finish the thing off. Yeh, those last 4 hp would've been a killer indeed. [/sarcasm]
Blargh, off-topic I know but I just had to rant. >.<
I DM 3 games right now.
Every other Saturday I run Age of Worms set in Faerun.
A month ago I started running Shattered Gates of Slaughterguarde every Wednesday, set in Faerun.
And up until the TPK last night, I was running Expedition to Castle Ravenloft set in Faerun every other Sunday, opposite the Saturday game. Now I'll probably start them on SGoS.
I keep up with all the games by letting the professionals do most of my work. Forgotten Realms is so chock full of depth that it overshadows any world I could dream of building, so I set all my campaigns there.
I run mostly published adventures. Dungeon magazine has kept me going for years, and now it seems like WotC is stepping up on their adventure quality. And I still work on my own stuff when I have the chance. AoW has required me to fill in some holes to keep the party on track for level. All in all, my prep time can be done in a few hours, but I like to spend more when work and the fiance allow it.