Attempting to write a "Tandem" Campaign... ideas?

[DirtSailor]

If you are a member of the Military Gaming League, bugger off. This post isn't for you.

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So... I'm the Navy Community Branch Manager for an eSports League. While eSports and streaming are our primary gaming focuses, I recently suggested adding a Roll20 5e game to our channel and the response was far more than I anticipated. Also far more than can be reasonably played at a non-physical tabletop.

Then my wife had a brilliant idea. Instead of trying to run a 10+ man party, why not run two 5-6 man parties, alternating games between the two of them. The catch? These are not seperate campaigns but rather are intricately linked in ways that are not immediately apparent, but slowly over time both parties make the connection.

The first session for each might involve a shipwreck on a floating island, but where one party runs their ruined sea going vessel into the side of a colossal turtle; the others' skyship crashes into a more literal floating island in the sky. Parallels that are identical on a macro scale, but different in one key element.

There will possibly be one NPC who appears in both sessions oddly regardless of time, distance, or whatever divides them. Over time the parties draw closer and closer together, with a final confrontation and conclusion to the arch where everyone is finally at the table together.

Thoughts?
Ideas?
Campaign seeds?
Who's the BBEG?
What DOES seperate the parties?

[KahnyaGnorc]

Twin Worlds/Alternate Dimension campaign. The Big Bad could be an alternate version of the groups' mentor/Nick Fury-esque connector, or it could be a Gestalt of both versions of a character merged in some freak accident (the Gestalt wanting to merge the worlds together and rule it)

History Repeats Campaign. The two parties are separated by time, both following a prophesy. Party 1's actions become history for party 2. The Big Bad ends up being a time traveler, trying to create temporal paradoxes to break the prophesy's fulfillment that he'll lose.

It's All a Game Campaign. In a powerful, corrupt, and decadent empire of magic, the nobility play games by putting commoners into created demi-planes/dimensions that act like video games (the PC's start out unaware). The parties are in different "instances" of a "game," thus the similarities. "Glitches" start happening, as the different instances begin to merge. Are the PC's growing power the cause? Wild magic? The empire's magic failing? Or is there a noble/royal in the empire who decided these cruel "games" must stop?

[Roonfizzle Garnackle]

An option would be to run the AP Kingmaker in a couple ways, perhaps with one group sponsored from Brevoy and the other from Mivon, or perhaps one group does the Varnhold area, and the other the normal route, or even BOTH parties sent out on the same task, in the same area.

If you were to send one from Mivon, you could have them start in the part of the map where book 2 takes place, and have each team hear about the accomplishments of the other, without letting them know that they're other party until they meet face to face.

If you were to have them both run the AP, you could have them just explore different areas of the massive overall map, and just come together for Kingdom Building.

I don't know the turnover of your ship? base? location, but, if several of your personnel end up on differing assignments down the line, it could be relatively easy to merge the teams when the numbers get smaller.

Disclaimer: I'm only gently familiar with 5E, so am less sure how easy it would to be to convert to that system, but it may be on par with the effort to brew up something intricate based on the above flash of genius.

[DirtSailor]

Thank you for the suggestions, folks. I think I've got a plan!

[Tel-Ange]

I am currently running a Two party Necropolis campaign with the groups alternating Weekends, in an enclosed city ( I used Adobe Illustrator to modify the map of Chicago) filled with Undead of all types in a mix of the Fallout & Walking Dead Genres. The two parties are each in different parts of the city on missions for the Adventurers Guild. They think the other party are NPCs working for the Guild and compete to finish their missions so they can get the better choice of their next mission. The actions of each party’s interactions with the Undead, different factions scavengers in the city, etc...affects how NPCs interact with the other party when they cross paths. I then allow PCs who do research to ask the other party for information about different areas; indirectly filtered through me, so they don’t meta-game.

Both parties are reaching 10th level now and starting to realize that their NPC guild mates are the other players. Thanks to a few deaths the opposite parties have each run into former PCs now Undead boss monsters.

Both groups are having fun competing and learning about their guild mates from other NPCs. I have even had one group unsuccessfully attempt to hunt down the other group to prevent them from acquiring a magic item necessary to enter sealed dungeon. They hunted party set traps and eluded the other group; with only an hour of in game head start.

Tandem campaigns can be really fun for everyone as the two campaigns collide.