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Hello all,
A couple of friends and I are going to start our own Pathfinder group. There are three of us. At least two of us are going to share DM duties. We are going to use Pathfinder Core rules only.
I'm not sure what the best way to handle switching DMs in terms of the DM's character. Should the DM play his character as an NPC when he DMs and then as a PC when one of the other guys is the DM? What other strategies have you used for this type of situation?
Thanks for your advice.
I've done this. What worked best is the current DM's PC becomes a player controlled NPC. It worked not bad in my group though when I was the DM I ended up killing my own character, had to be fair though.
For continuity sake both DMs should run a DMPC. That way when the other DM is running you are just playing your character and there isnt some new person in the group that may leave in the near future. While you are the DM your PC is just an typical NPC controlled by the DM that is part of the party. Simple enough I think and since there are only 3 of you its pretty neccessary.
Now Second, you have a 3 person party. This means you should either allow things like leadership for the 1 player who isnt dming (to fill whatever need is missing from the 3 players) or make sure you use classes that are as versatile as possible (perhaps both). Druids Clerics and Paladins are probably at the top of that list for the core rules. Your party is still going to be weaker then a 4 person party so keep that in mind when designing encounters.
Now in terms of running the game the first think i recommend is keeping an open mind. Remember there are two of you working on this, be willing to flex the story you had in mind based on what the other person comes up with. Collaborate on main story events, but try to keep things secret from eachother so the other one get the true 'player feel' when you are running the game. And if the other dm takes the story in an unexpected direction, just roll with it, and build on it instead of trying to revert back.
I concur about handling the DM PC as an NPC.
A good way to handle the separation of DMing is to establish side-by-side countries or geographic areas (or even above-ground vs below-ground) "turf" where one of you has creative control. Then you can direct the adventures into those areas when its your turn.
Under the DM Geographical Neighbors model, it's also possible to establish certain NPCs who might assist the party in those areas, who in effect can substitute for the DM's PC if need be.
We ran a large campaign (8+ PCs) with lots of DMs (4+). We based it out of the World Serpent Inn, and each time we played was basically a one-shot adventure for that session. DMs usually left their PCs behind at the inn when they DMed, but we had a lot of players, so that didn't matter too much.
For a small party, you're going to want to be both versatile AND try to fill the "4 roles" as much as possible. A druid is a really versatile character that can fill multiple roles, and the animal companion is a great tank. In 3.5, we played a game where the PCs were an elven druid archer (me), a sword and board fighter (actually a khopesh), and a rogue/wizard/fighter/arcane trickster. Eventually we got a DMPC evoker, but we were pretty good on our own too.
The same group also ran a campaign with me as a scout, an aristocrat/bard, and a wizard/truenamer. The bard had Leadership and a gnome rogue/cleric. We eventually added a paladin PC too. The scout worked as a decent tank until we got the paladin around level 8 or so.
But basically, you want versatile PCs that still fit the 4 roles. Paladins make good tank/healers, Rangers make good tank/skill monkeys, Druids are good tank/healer/buffer/blaster/skill monkeys, clerics are good healer/tanks, rogues are good skill monkeys that can tank and UMD. Bards are versatile, but they're weakened in small parties since there are less folk to buff.