Post/Author/DateTime	Post
dreamsofblue 12-18-06, 04:02 AM	Ok, here is the run down. Me and five friends play on Sundays every week with few exceptions. Of the six of us three currently DM and a fourth is wanting to DM next year. We are currently on a rotating schedule, each DM has four weeks to run his campagin then it turns over to the next one. The problem is that player's and DM's alike are having trouble remembering all that happened in a previous DM's game since there is a two month downtime for each DM. We have tried to vote on what to do when the new DM is allowed to start his campaign. Currently, these are the considerations that should be taken into account: Sunday is the only day that we can all game. No other day of the week will do as schedules conflict drasticly. We can only support one game any given Sunday. To much goes on to try to split it up among DM's. Those that DM like to play and no one wants to DM all the time. Likewise everyone likes all the games to one degree or another and the variety of characters they can play. So tonight we took a vote to see what we were going to do when the new year rolled in and we needed a solution. The suggestions and votes were: Play all four games but reduce the playtime per game to two weeks giving only a six week downtime between any one game. This recieved two votes. Play only one game until the end of its' campaign then switch to another DM. Please note that all the campaigns are long running and possibly epic in scope. This recieved two votes. Only keep three games active at one time and the new DM has to wait until one of the other campaigns ends before he can start. This recieved two votes. As you can see this locked us in a three way tie. As we don't have a tie breaker, it was suggested to see what the boards say. So, what do you think? Any other suggestions that we may have missed? ~blue
DracoPhoenix 12-18-06, 04:14 AM	Alternative options below :) : Scale back to one campaign, play for X level bands (1-4, 5-9,10-13 etc) before switching to the next camapign. Play for 6hs a day broken down into ~2hr blocks with 30 mins breaks. Take notes / RP journal (post on blog site :)) and digital copies of your char sheets (spreadsheet of choice will do). This should 1) add to the RP element and 2) help remember what happened. As to how detailed should the notes be, how much would you need to remember what happened? :) (more would be better than less to start with) Give the new guy either the next available campaign or the first 2hr slot so 1) he doesnt wait 4 years only to find out he can't / shouldn't dm 2) he doesnt have to have 6hrs of gameplay prepped on his first run and 3) you have a back up campaign if needed. Find a 7th player to break the tie :)
Redclock_the_Untimely 12-18-06, 04:53 AM	Oooh, tough choice there. :confused: My two cents is this: If the campaigns each have an overarching storyline, try to figure out as a DM what would constitute an adventure or chapter and move to the next DM at the end of each chapter, which would ideally run 2-6 weeks each depending on where you are in the overall story. That would leave you with a definite place to leave off and would make it easier to remember and less to write down about where you left off. :lightbulb
DracoPhoenix 12-18-06, 05:45 AM	Yet another hair brained idea: What setting(s) are you all in? If they're all in the one CS, consider consolidating the campaigns. If you have several characters you're attached to, have it run like a soap opera based around an adventuring guild's members. Then at the start of the session D4 the DM.
KJW 12-18-06, 07:48 AM	Give each DM 3 months to run and wrap up their campaigns. This would allow all four DMs to run their campaign in a year. Another suggestion is for the DM or the players to keep a journal of the campaign so that if the DM wishes to revive the campaign a year later everyone can read and be reminded.
Solik 12-18-06, 02:32 PM	Wrap up the current campaigns as quickly as possible. Start a new campaign revolving around a single major event. Each group will play some part in this event, but from different places. That way, each group gets a different angle on what's going on. What one group does can affect other groups, but watch out for metagaming here. Keep them separated enough that they won't directly impact each other. Switch DMs every session. This way, each DM runs one session a month and plays three (approximately). Doing it this way makes it easier to remember what's going on, because they're all in the same world and focusing on the same general event (just different pieces of it). It also keeps your game more coherent, which is nice if you're changing groups every week. Double all experience and treasure gains.
dreamsofblue 12-18-06, 04:23 PM	Some interesting ideas that we didn't think of. Thanks. The consolidation idea is a good one but we all play in different campaign settings. Two are in Eberron (with different styles and house rules) and the third is in Forgotten Realms. The new DM will also be in Forgotten Realms. Though it might be possible to consolidate the games of the same campaign world together. I will present these new options to everyone and see what they think. If you have any more suggestions please tell me. The group I play with is "original" to say the least. We all are friends outside of gaming but we are held together by the mysteries of the arcane, the sheer will of the mind, and the miracle of the divine. Too many top dog personalities. But we do enjoy gaming together. Adding more players was a thought a while back and we have added one but one of the regulars quit to spend time with his girlfriend. She didn't want to game with us. :) Either way, lets see where these ideas get us. ~blue
Sadrx 12-18-06, 08:02 PM	It seems you face quite the conundrum to get everything you want. As you can see afterall, you're already running into problems as is. I'd suggest giving up the idea of getting to play in a bunch of long-running, epic-in-scope games. Long-runing wont actually get you very close to epic in scope if you only play one out of every four weekends in that one campaign. My suggestion is this: Take the member among you who enjoys DMing most, and assign him to DM the single long-running game. You will all get to make characters with long-term builds/goals in mind for his game. Have him DM every second weekend. Next, take turns among the rest of you who enjoy DMing running a game on the weekends your main DM is not. Each of these games should be short-term, single-arc campaigns. For these games, you'll get to make interesting, quirky characters you'd be to wary of comitting yourself to for a long-term game. This means you'll only have to really remember in-depth details for the single long-term campaign that you play in every second weekend, but you'll all still get a chance to DM (and create some crazy one-shot game scenarios at the same time) every other weekend on amatures-night, so to speak.
StoneStokes 12-18-06, 09:20 PM	Another option: Consolidate the two Eberron games and the two FR games, and alternate weekly. One DM for Eberron, one for FR. When these DMs need a break, then switch. Or force a switch every 6 months. It is not so bad trying to differentiate between two games (I can't imagine four, though). I would also try to make sure everyone is playing completely different character types in the two games. This will help a lot. You will probably need to compromise on house rules and style for these merged campaigns, but it sounds like your group is pretty amiable to such things. Moreover, allow everyone to submit ideas for campaign arcs to the DMs. If he likes your arc, you write it up and let him run it (or wait until the switch).
Onikani 12-18-06, 10:19 PM	Have each DM a 2-3 month story arch and switch off. The next Dm can run his own new game or continue where the other one left off. At 3 months each, with 4 dm's you get 1 turn a year each. Its kinda crappy, but it makes it easier ofr everyone i think.
DracoPhoenix 12-19-06, 03:50 AM	At 3 months each, with 4 dm's you get 1 turn a year each. Its kinda crappy, but it makes it easier ofr everyone i think. While I agree it is a fair method for the DMs, what about the players? Our group has a similar problem, but taking into account course work, exams and holiday periods, we don't play anywhere near as much as we'd like. While we each DM a campaign in a solid block, it's typically 3/4 of a semester worth of playing. I've only been playing a year and I'm DMing next. By the end of it we're each going to have 4 characters and 3 campaigns to track (1 to run) (There's 3 of us, 2 characters each). I'm enjoying the game a lot, and am kinda stuck. I want to try my hand at DMing - I have a good campaign planned (not the same as good planning on my campaign :)). But at the same time I want to see how my characters develop & the stories unfold (one campaign is a 1-20 book campaign, the other is custom, mine will be custom too - but using pretty much any idea I lay my hands on :)) The OPs group has how many characters each to track now? multiple story arcs etc. I would imagine it's difficult to develop any real attachment or depth to characters when your constantly trying to remember if it was the surley dwarf or the hippie elf. (ok, only happens if you have trouble reading the race box on the character sheet :D) And that's excluding the campaign 4 of them have to track & plan. What's the environment? Are you likely to drift apart in the next few years? Could you consider doing 6-12 month stints each and going for a more long term game plan? (I really need to work on writing short posts)
Falln 12-19-06, 08:54 AM	We had the same problem few years ago and we decided to change how the campaign was. We made one party and each player/DM had one character. We only played adventures, not a campaign world any more. Each adventure started with an event: you see ... (the body of a knight, a small town, a tower, ...). The DM played 1 adventure and his own character wasn't allowed to join. Then after that adventure an other DM took over and played a new adventure. The only problem with this view is the fact that it's hard to make a campaign world, since every DM will have an influence on his own character when they have an influence on the world the character is in. An other sollution (which we didn't use) would be to have one DM control the campaign world and the big adventure, while the other DM's are guest-DM's who play only the sidequests or small adventures who have nothing to do with the big adventure.
djbrink21 12-20-06, 12:14 PM	why not just come up with one storyline...have the first DM start a story and run it for X levels...then when getting to the end of the levels the first DM is running it for...have the two DMs (the current and next DM) sit down and figure out where they will switch this way the first DM will end his story at a place that the second DM can pick up...then repeat...you get the same storyline...that just keeps changing...it will probably never end where the first DM would have taken it...but it's still going to be fun and each DM adds their own bit to the story... if you do that though...make sure each DM had good notes about NPCs and things of that nature to pass on to the next DM to use...
FireHeart 12-21-06, 03:55 PM	One last suggestion. Our group is similar in the set up. We have 5 games going currently, 4 gms and typically only game one night a week (either Friday or Saturday.) We'll occasionally do a double weekend but that's gotten rarer. We set up a rotating schedule - one game per week. We typically do the schedule about 3 months out and post it. That way everyone can look and we can reschedule games for brithdays, conventions, vacations, etc. Example: Greyhawk GM 1 Eberron GM 2 Forgotten Realms GM 3 Homebrew GM 1 Homebrew GM 4 It means that there is roughly 1 game a month for each campaign. Usually at least one person takes notes so right before the game starts we do a quick..."when we last left our intrepid party..." kind of update. Additionally, we set up Live Journal Communities for a few of the campaigns - strickly to use as role-playing inbetween sessions. It helps keep the characters fresh in mind. Hope that helps. ~T