A friend of mine and I want to both DM a campaign for a group of our friends who are new to tabletop games in general. I was wondering if there is any specific advice for having two DMs and how that would work?
I would think you change DM role every session.
Any notes made by either of you or the other is of course shared, the funny curse on PC X should be kept in mind, right?
Plan ahead between the two of you.
That's what comes to mind.
I think you need to specify what you are talking about a bit more. Are you planning on both being DMs at the same time, or taking turns (and maybe playing a character while the other DMs.)
In addition, why you want to both DM the same campaign instead of running different campaigns or just one or the other of you doing it might be useful.
In addition, why you want to both DM the same campaign instead of running different campaigns or just one or the other of you doing it might be useful.
The main reason we want to do a dual DMing is because its been a long time since we've all seen each other and we thought we'd see what it'd be like to simultaneously DM. I was mainly wondering if anyone had any experience or ideas with that in mind.
We also use the World Serpent Inn to share a campaign.
I get to DM sometimes, and also play a rapscallion rogue sometimes.
If you're going to share DM responsibilities, then it is best to each pick control over a certain geographic area. You control Town X, while your co-GM controls Town Y. When the party is in Town X, you run the game and know all of the behind the scenes secrets. When they go to Town Y, your partner runs the game.
How big is your group of PCs? Is it a large group? Will you be co-DMing at the same time? Or will you be trading off GMing responsibility?
Or will you each be GMing a different group and at some future time, both groups will meet and interact with each other?
A friend and I did this a few years back. It was impossible for him to make sessions on a regular basis. And we didn't want extra characters tagging along on the off chance he could make it that night.
So whenever he was available we just jointly DMd. I'd hand him a copy of notes, give him a brief rundown of NPCs & off we'd go. We'd interject things as we saw fit & generally play off each other as well as the PCs.
It worked out really well in cases where the party split up to accomplish different things. I'd be Dming a few players, he'd be DMing the others. Interesting results....
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My buddy and I co-DM'd a campaign once, as neither of us wanted to be forced to do all of the prep-work. We didn't DM simultaneously, instead trading off sessions.
We sort of shared a character too; the character had multiplicity personality disorder and switched personalities when we traded control of him. It worked out pretty well... until I ran a session where his character ended up dying. >.<
I do not usually write big posts but:
My wife and I tried dual-GMing for a group of our good friends for a PFS module. Everyone in the player group (5 players) was an PFS experienced player and both of us are experienced PFS and non-PFS GMs.
Prep-wise it was pretty fun and we both had a good time building fun encounters, combats, set-pieces and NPC interactions. If anything, I wound up doing a fair bit more than her during the preparation, building custom printed maps, some nice 3D set-pieces, coming up with some role-played mini-games for certain social encounters, helping to build stat-blocks, etc. While I would say during prep I did maybe 65% of the work, we were working together and having a lot of discussion/planning for the mod and were generally working together really well. The disparity in time put in here really didn't show, since we were nearly always discussing the module while working on materials for the session.
It was very nice to have a partner to bounce ideas off of and talk openly with about the module. We came up with things together creatively that I know neither of us would have thought of on our own. Often when one of us is GMing, the other is usually playing in the session, so my wife and I rarely get to openly chat about scenario preparation. Either that or both of us are GMing and absorbed in our own prep, beyond asking each other the occasional rules question or helping out with printing/assembling maps for each other.
Where we had trouble, however, was during that actual running of the game. We thought we had split things fairly evenly on-paper for running the module, with her handling combats and box-text and me handling most NPC interactions and mini-games (chases, social encounters, etc.) that didn't involve combat. When it got down to it though, it wound up probably being the opposite of the prep, with her running about 70% of the session's time, compared to maybe 30% for me.
This resulted in quite a few long stretches where I didn't have much to do. In fact, it was a lot more skewed than we really anticipated, with her winding up having to be a lot more active than I was during the actual game session itself. It made it more stressful on her, while I was really at a loss on how to help.
So, I guess that would be my biggest suggestion in terms of advice for dual-GMing, to make sure that not only are you fairly evenly dividing the prep for whatever you're running, but also making some strong estimations about the splitting of actual GMing time at the table. Either that, or doing your best to both being actively involved at all times, even going to far as to split up combat duties, miniature moving/placement, etc. in order for both of you to be tuned in with what's going on.
EDIT: I really liked Galatina91's post above mine, but I guess my only disagreement in terms of advice would be to be careful about splitting up duties based on the type of stuff in the scenario, for example RP vs. Combat. Much like in Galatina91's post, my wife is just more efficient and stronger in running tactical combat than I am, where I tend to excel more than her in running NPCs, creative social encounters, chase scenes, etc. That's the main reason we split our running as we did. That being said, I think it would have benefited both us to have a fair bit of crossover, even if say I was just assisting with moving minis during combat or keeping track/calling out of the initiative order or some other similar small items. Similarly, she could have assisted with handing out props, handout sheets, etc. or taken on the role of minor NPCs during more complicated social encounters so that we were both participating on some level nearly all the time.
Three friends and I are actually currently running an experimental game where we're ALL DMing. The way we're doing this might not work if you have a set storyline you want to do, since it's by definition kind of uncohesive, but here's our method:
-We switch off by the session, each person DMing one session.
-Anything created in the game by any of us is now canon, and nothing exists in the setting until we create it (it's a homebrew world).
-We plan out roughly enough encounters for our session, and wherever we leave it that night is where the next person takes over.
-We don't share notes or plot plans with each other.
-We level up once each of us has run one session (so every four sessions).
Like I said, this wouldn't work very well if you have a particular plot in mind, but it's been pretty fun so far. If you want to make it more organized and cohesive, the best advice I can give to plan it out with your co-GM in advance. I'd suggest switching off over trying to GM in the same session; it just seems like it'd be simpler.
I really liked Galatina91's post above mine, but I guess my only disagreement in terms of advice would be to be careful about splitting up duties based on the type of stuff in the scenario, for example RP vs. Combat. Much like in Galatina91's post, my wife is just more efficient and stronger in running tactical combat than I am, where I tend to excel more than her in running NPCs, creative social encounters, chase scenes, etc. That's the main reason we split our running as we did. That being said, I think it would have benefited both us to have a fair bit of crossover, even if say I was just assisting with moving minis during combat or keeping track/calling out of the initiative order or some other similar small items. Similarly, she could have assisted with handing out props, handout sheets, etc. or taken on the role of minor NPCs during more complicated social encounters so that we were both participating on some level nearly all the time.
well that's more or less what happens: i move minis and draw maps while she handles combat, if she needs, else i go on the balcony and smoke a cigarette. when i'm running the plot she sometimes intervenes when i forget details, or when she has some witty idea eg. about what an NPC might say in a given situation. or she reviews the next few encounters on her laptop. all in all we actually benefit from a lighter workload during a session, including one taking 5 while the other runs things.
(i'm the boyfriend.)
I really liked Galatina91's post above mine, but I guess my only disagreement in terms of advice would be to be careful about splitting up duties based on the type of stuff in the scenario, for example RP vs. Combat. Much like in Galatina91's post, my wife is just more efficient and stronger in running tactical combat than I am, where I tend to excel more than her in running NPCs, creative social encounters, chase scenes, etc. That's the main reason we split our running as we did. That being said, I think it would have benefited both us to have a fair bit of crossover, even if say I was just assisting with moving minis during combat or keeping track/calling out of the initiative order or some other similar small items. Similarly, she could have assisted with handing out props, handout sheets, etc. or taken on the role of minor NPCs during more complicated social encounters so that we were both participating on some level nearly all the time.well that's more or less what happens: i move minis and draw maps while she handles combat, if she needs, else i go on the balcony and smoke a cigarette. when i'm running the plot she sometimes intervenes when i forget details, or when she has some witty idea eg. about what an NPC might say in a given situation. or she reviews the next few encounters on her laptop. all in all we actually benefit from a lighter workload during a session, including one taking 5 while the other runs things.
(i'm the boyfriend.)
awesome