Is it feasible? Basically, I hate to talk. Not my favorite thing to do, as I have a pretty bad stutter even around people with whom I'm comfortable speaking. My friend and I, however, have some pretty good thoughts for a campaign, we mesh well combining ideas, and I'd be happy to help run it from behind the scenes while he does the talking.
Any tips, pointers, pros/cons? To be honest, we're most likely going to run it anyways, but I'd like to have an idea of any potential pitfalls.
To throw another monkey wrench in the mix, neither of us have ever DM'd, and we both are only on our second foray into the D&D universe (Pathfinder for both campaigns).
I watched our previous DM doing his thing, I'll be doing the same for our current campaign, and I've also perused the game master info section of the PFSRD site, so I have a general idea of how it all works.
Many thanks to all for your input.
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Are you both also playing characters in this campaign? That can bring up some issues. It sounds like to me that you will be helping design the game and your friend will be doing most of the GMing on the day of the game since you do not like to speak. It might be better to just help with game concepts and play a character, and let your friend GM.
For example you can set up a basic premise, lets have the party adventure in Geb and have these BBEG be our focus. Then let your friend put together those details so that you will be oblivious to them just as your other players are. You can also do things like keep track of initative, damage taken ect to help the GM, but not have to worry that you are precived as having some benefit the others do not.
I think Nimon has the answer right on. It sounds like you do not so much want to DM, but rather would be happy to provide assistance to the individual running the game. The challenge in such a situation is, of course, making sure that you do not know too much and can enjoy the sessions as a player. If, however, you intend to simply be an observer (as I imagine this dislike of talking also extends to time as a player) and record keeper ... I see no issues/pitfalls at all with the two of you working together. Other than the standard pitfalls of working in a group that is (competing ideas, compromise, etc).
On a side note, I have been a part of three campaigns in which all of those participating in the campaign took turns at being the DM. We rotated on a per-adventure/per-module basis (so a rotation about once every 2-3 weeks playing once/week). There were 5 of us ... so you basically got the fun of being a DM for 2 weeks out of every 10 and the other 8 weeks you got the fun of being a player while having time to really build a great next module/adventure for when your turn came around. Those were great campaigns. Not linear at all ... multiple story lines keeping us all interested (with cameos or bits of stories crossing DMs) ... and a relaxing pace for DMing.
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Gear is a huge issue here. Make sure both GMs agree on treasure parcels before handing out goodies. You don't want to discover you have to very different ideas of where the party should be in relation to WBL. Don't try to backseat drive if you're in the player chair, and try to avoid talking about what you have planned in upcoming sessions in any greater specifics than your general story-arc and what kind of new variables (gear, npcs, etc) you might introduce to trim down on your out of character knowledge. Sometimes, no matter how good a player you are, that stuff can slip in and influence the game.
Respect each others opinions and styles, and agree on any house-rules beforehand. Never punish the other GM's character for something he did to your character while he was in the driver's seat, as the will lead to some cray Hatfield/McCoy type stuff.
Alright, thanks everyone. My plan is to be more of the idea guy and story teller when need be, not a PC, cuz the campaign my friend and I are working on seems like it'll be hella fun to run. Maybe I'll just keep track of the finer details and NPC's, and jump in when something special is happening.
Anyways, thanks for your help. It'll be a while before we run this campaign, but this'll help me set it all up.
While in the minority of how things are done DM and Co-DM have long traditions especially in larger groups. Before I became a DM I was a co-DM. When I was just starting to become a DM I helped the primary DM with combat and rules.
Set up the duties of each and which duties you will share. This will help any confusion. While one DM is doing things with one Player the Co-DM can be helping another Player.
Make sure that the primary DM has clear 'final authority' though. Otherwise you will run into bad situations as players might try to play one off of the other.
The co-DM should be the one looking up the rules while the primary-DM is keeping the game moving.
- Gauss
My brother and I co-DM an adventure path. We both have characters in the AP. I run his when he is DMing and visa versa. We do a module each.
My first foray into DM'ing was as a co-DM in a D20 Modern game. We had 6 players, and the story we ran had them inadvertently split up into two groups of three, but they maintained close contact and so we ran them at the same time. Both were dealing with the same corporate entity but with different individuals. We each played certain NPCs and collaborated on what to do next.
It was the most fun I've ever had playing a d20 game.