So I’m insane. I’ll start with that. I built a custom world to play in and have been running a group for roughly 13 months. Well I decided to co-run with a second group meant as a one off but if it goes well will entertain continuing. One thing I do want to so is actions of both groups effect the world; so group A could influence B and not realize it.
So there is no overlap right now they are on separate continents but the idea of when A gets to continent B is taking place, the experience is up in the air.
Has anyone dealt with overlapping co games?
I plan something minor: The group will get a cure from the characters of next campaign. They won't meet directly, though. This will hopefully make a nice easter egg.
When it comes to your plan, TV Tropes' Rule of Perception comes to my mind: If the players don't notice it, it doesn't happen. So you should probably tell them, either ingame or out of character.
Further, maybe it's good to plan how much interaction you actually want to support. Is it ok if B undoes the work of A? Do they keep hearing about each other or do they have to research? What if they want to meet?
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Send them for the same goal, so they have a chance to witness the aftermath of what the other party did to their would-be encounter. Like they arrive at their destination, all prepared for a big fight, just to find everyone slaughtered and the bodies looted. The sort of scene they leave behind... only another party could have done this. Lol.
. . . Has anyone dealt with overlapping co games?
It's been a long time since I've returned to it, but I ran a modern nights game for OWoD set in a metropolis area. I had two different gaming groups and each would do things that would affect the political landscape, the ripples of which would affect the other. The two groups never met, but they never stopped messing it up for everybody else. ...and to be fair, it's just that sort of game setting.
If they hadn't been running around the same city, they probably wouldn't have had any impact on each other. As it was, it was mostly stories and rumors but also reactions to reactions... like odd little dominos you can hear but can't see.
One thing is a player from group A retired a character (wants to be someone different) so Group B is gonna bounty hunt old player as an npc. Thats the hook but along the way they find thier real adventure and there actions will effect Group A.
First, look up "head of vecna", if you haven't heard that story already. Second, do you ever want to run both groups at the same time? Is that even possible? If no, then my suggestion is keep them apart so they cannot interact directly.
Not possible from a headache situation lol
One is virtual other in person.
Plus the only interaction I want is cause and effect.
I would either;
A) have the two parties pursue the same goal... it's a race... may the best party win...
B) have the two parties actively work against the each other... like hired to interfere with forces unseen... constantly undermining the other party's efforts... because it's hilarious...
That is hilarious
The group I play with actually ran a couple games like this at one point in time… we sadly didn’t get to finish either game though due to a rather unfortunate situation that resulted in the loss of all prepared campaign material…
We knew going in that both groups would have interconnected story events, and that things done by one group could impact the other in all sorts of ways…
The most notable such event involved a boat… the group I was in had in our possession a boat for a short time. At some point our boat was stolen from us and we set out to get it back. Meanwhile the other group was tracking down a certain individual, when they caught wind of his location aboard a pirate ship. They infiltrated the ship, took their quarry, and at some point the pirate ship was destroyed… fastforwards a few sessions to my group still tracking down our stolen ship. We had been tailing it for a good while and we lost sight of it for a bit, but when we caught sight of it again it was just in time to watch it blow up.
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I had the idea to do this with Murder in Baldur's Gate. The way it works is that most parties will work for only one of three NPCs, which means that they'll skip 2 out of 3 quests. Another party could work for another NPC and do some of the other quests. At the end they'd have to fight the big bad evil quantum ogre together.