Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 AuxKing Mar 03, 2015 10:40:30	so I'm running two groups in a homebrew world working at odds against each other, one groups good the other not so good. I have it set up so they wont meet up untill I want them to but their actions will effect the others game. just wondering if anyone has done this and might have any tips or pitfalls I should avoid. thanks for any help
#2 Barky Mar 03, 2015 16:51:56	Wow, that is massively impressive! I have no tips to give you, other than a) it sounds awesome and b) it sounds stressful. :-)
#3 cardkid Mar 03, 2015 22:21:48	Sounds awesome! Although I haven't done this myself, It does sound like fun for the players involved. I suggest that if you have the two parties meet and fight don't necessarily make the win condition to destroy the other party.
#4 Swede1985 Mar 03, 2015 23:22:02	Also consider, instead of good vs. evil, just have two sides of a conflict. Depending on each group's point of view, they are doing what they believe is right. Two warring countries might be a good setting for this.
#5 DigitalEccentric Mar 04, 2015 1:24:47	I assume you're not running both groups at the same time? You have to consider the fact that when one group does something, there would be a delay to see how the other group reacts to it, and whether or not they try to interfere.   You could also have a bit of a retcon problem. Say Good session goes first, and then in the Bad session they do a bunch of things that would have invalidated elements of the good session, you'd have to essentially retcon what happened in the Good session and bring the Good players up to speed as to what did and didn't stick.   Sounds like a great idea though - I wish you all the luck!
#6 akr71 Mar 04, 2015 5:04:08	Having one group in pursuit of the other would help eliminate retcon issues (maybe not entirely).
#7 AuxKing Mar 04, 2015 5:30:50	the groups are playing on alternating weeks with one group about a week ahead in game time which leads to a cat and mouse game between the two, but my biggest fear is the timeline if one group takes all the long rests and one doesn't. p.s. I have a big conflict planed as sort of an end game idea where both groups will meet same week and all have a big brawl.
#8 DigitalEccentric Mar 04, 2015 5:41:20	To be honest, I don't think an idea like this really lends itself to a 'plan'. You could try creating 'Conditions' under which the two sides will meet and have their brawl, but until those conditions are met you should keep it fairly free form.   If it's a cat and mouse game, maybe reveal some of those conditions to bother groups (but perhaps different data-points to each group) so that they can aim towards making the confrontation happen? (Or not making it happen).   That could help with the timeline problem - if one group knows they are being persued, do they want to take a rest? Do they want to try and keep one step ahead of their persuers? That would mean their resources would slowley diminish though, which would make it unbalanced perhaps.   Ultimately, you have have to Hard-Code an element of fairness into the mixture. If Group A rests of 8 hours, then Group B must also rest for 8 hours at some point. That's very basic, and probably wouldn't work, but you get the idea. TBH 5e seems geared towards these long rests as its the only way to replenish action resources, so both groups should be roughly on par like that.   But if one group wants to catch another, then of course they'd be incentivised to take less rests. If the other group knows this, then they should try and keep ahead, or set a trap of the other group on their terms etc...
(Reply to #8) AuxKing	I dont mind forcing situations on them to slow . group down I the other did not get to far on their own. I did talk to the players invinvolved and told them this campaign would be a bit more railroady than most I run to keep things in order
#10 Imaculata Mar 04, 2015 9:27:00	I have never attempted to run a game this way, but it sounds very interesting. I think I would probably try to keep the two parties seperated for as long as possible. I'd try and come up with various mini goals that both groups could pursue.   Group A could sway an important polititian to their side, which would work against plans of group B. Group A could secure a town, tower, fort, or resource, which would work against group B. The two groups could both pursuit the same quest, leading to interesting outcomes. Who completes it first?   To keep this campaign manageble, I'd focus on creating content that can be used for both groups. (recyclable quest and npc's)
#11 QwertyAzerty Mar 04, 2015 11:41:23	I DM such a game one.   Try to make sure to be fair to both group (if group A got a potential to find 10 magical item, then group B should have 10 magical item of equivalent power.)   Try to avoid the group meeting without the player meeting, to avoid retcon. Unless the player meet, try to make sure the character are going to miss each other, group A got in town and lef tthe town before group B got there, giving a change to group B to undo or redo in a better or worse way what group A did.   Make sure the 2 groups don't know about it, otherwise they could start talking to each other outside of game and metagame to try to synchronize there action to do stuff they shouldn't be doing.   When both group will meet, I don't know the dynamics of the player themselves, but they could think that you want to merge both group together, or they could metagame and do stuff out of character to avoid a fight because PvP is frown upon in DnD (even outside AL, PvP is usually discourage in most setting) If you can have them in separate room (like one group in front of you the other on Skype for example) then you simply transfer the information from one group to the other making them beleive the other group is just an other group of NPC.   If you cannot physically separate both group and they will meet in the real world, them make sure to explain to each group that the other group should be consider like being a regular NPC, if they want to join they'll have to convinve the other to join, if they want to fight they can fight them if they want to ignore them they can, just like if they were regular NPC.   With the few infor you gave us it's hard to give you precise tips, but when done properly it is very fun and interesting, to see both group clash and treating each other like NPC (without player bias metagaming to be nice with other player even if our character woul dhave killed them a long time ago)