Musical DMs - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Musical DMs

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
montuban
Jan 23, 2007 0:35:50 A number of weeks ago, my group of five devoted players, almost all of whom are or have been DMs of their own games, was stuck in a rut. No one was prepared or excited to run the next session of their personal game. Each of us just wanted to play as much as possible without worrying about planning a detailed story or adventure. We hatched a plan to construct a series of rules with which we could maintain a single campaign with one set of characters in which each of us might act as the DM.

Now, our game is set in a central isolated city exists from which a cabal of portal jumping adventurers operates. Each DM controls his or her portal(s) and each adventure starts with a summons to enter one and undertake a mission or simply get back out. So far we have seen adventures in a grim land filled with undead, political intrigue and murder mysteries; a green sea of forest punctuated by warring urban plateaus; a bizarre otherworldly underdark with light gravity unnerving significance; and a war-torn valley dotted with ruins and caves holding treasures of forgotten battles.

After a lengthy period of discussion, consideration, debate and very nearly abandonment, we decided that as far as rules were concerned, less was more. We threw out many of the regulations that would have applied to each DM and settled on a few guidelines to keep the game moving predictably.

Among the rules we kept were a system of downtime between adventures. We developed a pair of charts to determine the minimum downtime between each adventure. This was set up so that everyone would be guaranteed to heal up, have opportunities to shop for new gear and exercise profession and crafting skills to earn some small amount of supplemental cash.

We also established regulations for purchasing gear. Fundamentally, finding an item at market is a percentage chance based on the market price of the item. (At level 4 our characters have had no problem at all finding the best gear we can afford.) There then apply some minor discounts if a successful diplomacy check is made by the purchaser. The market control was our idea to keep the magic item power of the characters in check. A +5 weapon of a given type, for example, something many of our group might want, is available about 50% of the trips to town that a PC might take. While and especially costly, rare and potent item such as a +5 weapon with a +5 equivalent bonus in special properties, or a belt of magnificence +6 would be a lucky find of about 5%.

This concept and ground rules have made both player/DM seriously excited and eager to play the next session.

I doubt that this is the first time this sort of game has been attempted, and that is why I would like to invite anyone who has tried something like this, or finds this idea compelling, to offer any input on what has worked for your multi-DM games or what you think could make such a game even better.
#2
highbulp
Jan 23, 2007 18:29:23 I did multi-DM games a long time ago (when I first started out playing), it tended to not work out since the DMs would often give out gear that was best for their PC, or one person would end of DMing more since they were more willing to go for it.

I do like the world-setup of portals to different areas. This means that each DM can control a "world," so you don't have "you broke my town/killed my BBEG!" And that's really what bothers me most about multi-DM games.

I think the rules for finding available gear could probably be done away with. It sounds like a decent house-rule in general (for single OR multi-DM games), but I'm not sure that it would help the multi-DM game in particular. As long as you're all mature about giving out wealth, why not just make anything core available in the center world (assuming it's a big enough town). Then maybe non-core items could only be found through a certain DM's portal.

I would be excited to play in a world like this. Too bad almost no one else in my group is willing/able to DM.
#3
enderlaand
Jan 24, 2007 12:02:45 I really like your idea. My first RPG group in high school was always plagued with calls of "not it!" when we decided to get together. We played a new adventure with fresh characters and sometimes different systems almost every weekend. As a result, I'd been playing the game for years before I got my first character higher than 4th level. This system would have allowed us to take these same characters on many different adventures, and to many different settings. I wish we'd known about it. Maybe you could post your charts on item availability and downtime?
#4
zombiegleemax
Jan 24, 2007 16:16:52 Our group did this because of similar reasons to your own, and it went quite well (we got to level 8 I believe). One thing that you may want to consider are character trees, where each player has multiple characters but is only "playing" one at a given time.

The idea is that they can switch characters as required for the upcoming adventure, and it helps overcome the problem with the party Cleric DMing the session for example.

It has its own inherent problems with sharing treasure, etc. but we found it very rewarding. I also recommend that the group establish themselves somehow. We set up a demon-slaying business called Devil May Cry :P
#5
ikeren
Jan 25, 2007 16:14:17 That sounds like a really neat and fundamentally awesome idea. I am definitely going to try a portal-type version of that in a game in the future. There was a T.V. Show that is similar, I thought it was called "Shifters" but Wikipedia tells me I am wrong. These teenagers used some sort of remote and found themselves time traveling/alternate planet/alternate world, and had to stay there for a random amount of time (1 hour episode) till the next "Shift".
#6
ramses_iii
Jan 25, 2007 18:07:40 Sigil, the City of Doors from the Planescape setting, is the perfect place to set up for a base like you're talking about. I wish we had done that when I was involved in a round-robin game; it would have made it a lot easier to have the DM's PC sit out of the adventure. My group didn't have the gear distribution problems as we usually rolled randomly for treasure, and 3 of the 4 PCs that formed the core of the group were casters with item creation feats. However there was something of a verisimilitude problem in that when I wasn't DMing, my character tended to take the role of party leader, and when I was DMing I had him just follow whatever the rest of the party wanted to do and cast the spells they asked him to cast. It kind of put a damper on fully roleplaying and characterizing my PC, who was a brash, headstrong, and somewhat arrogant wizard.

My suggestion for doing a round-robin would be to use a portal city like you're talking about, and have the current DM's PC sit out but gain equal exp and average wealth to the rest of the party so that one character doesn't lag behind the rest after each adventure.
#7
zombiegleemax
Jan 25, 2007 22:23:22 Awesome idea. I need to bring this up with my group when we finish the current campaign. I have never gotten to actually play, I always have to DM. Everybody else either refuses, or else they're someone I know better then to let DM.
#8
montuban
Jan 25, 2007 23:07:48 Our group hasn't run into a lot of the "Party cleric is the DM" situations mainly because we have a cleric and a druid. There is also a ranger who can use the wand of cure light wounds that our cleric totes around if we need help. The biggest problem that we developed in our group was a noticeable lack of arcane power (2 sorcerers neither of whom come to every session) and a ridiculous lack of knowledges and other skills. Our druid has Knowledge Nature and two other members just bought their first ranks in dungeoneering and planes mainly to identify monsters. Too often in the sessions we've had so far the DM has started to say "anyone can roll knowledge...... eh... forget it."
#9
sphyre
Jan 30, 2007 11:48:18 I'm not sure how you handled the portals, but I have a possible solution to the problem of DMs giving treasure that their PCs would like.

Each character has a minor artifact or lineage that allows them to open the portal, and they must channel it. Either channel it, or simply can open it, but only from the outside, so there's no way the party could have that character go in.

This means that character of the current DM must be left behind while the rest take care of the plot within the portal. The DM gives out treasure for the other players and the DMPC problem can never arise, with having a believable setting for everything.

It's quite an interesting idea, and I hope I could do it someday.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 montuban Jan 23, 2007 0:35:50	A number of weeks ago, my group of five devoted players, almost all of whom are or have been DMs of their own games, was stuck in a rut. No one was prepared or excited to run the next session of their personal game. Each of us just wanted to play as much as possible without worrying about planning a detailed story or adventure. We hatched a plan to construct a series of rules with which we could maintain a single campaign with one set of characters in which each of us might act as the DM. Now, our game is set in a central isolated city exists from which a cabal of portal jumping adventurers operates. Each DM controls his or her portal(s) and each adventure starts with a summons to enter one and undertake a mission or simply get back out. So far we have seen adventures in a grim land filled with undead, political intrigue and murder mysteries; a green sea of forest punctuated by warring urban plateaus; a bizarre otherworldly underdark with light gravity unnerving significance; and a war-torn valley dotted with ruins and caves holding treasures of forgotten battles. After a lengthy period of discussion, consideration, debate and very nearly abandonment, we decided that as far as rules were concerned, less was more. We threw out many of the regulations that would have applied to each DM and settled on a few guidelines to keep the game moving predictably. Among the rules we kept were a system of downtime between adventures. We developed a pair of charts to determine the minimum downtime between each adventure. This was set up so that everyone would be guaranteed to heal up, have opportunities to shop for new gear and exercise profession and crafting skills to earn some small amount of supplemental cash. We also established regulations for purchasing gear. Fundamentally, finding an item at market is a percentage chance based on the market price of the item. (At level 4 our characters have had no problem at all finding the best gear we can afford.) There then apply some minor discounts if a successful diplomacy check is made by the purchaser. The market control was our idea to keep the magic item power of the characters in check. A +5 weapon of a given type, for example, something many of our group might want, is available about 50% of the trips to town that a PC might take. While and especially costly, rare and potent item such as a +5 weapon with a +5 equivalent bonus in special properties, or a belt of magnificence +6 would be a lucky find of about 5%. This concept and ground rules have made both player/DM seriously excited and eager to play the next session. I doubt that this is the first time this sort of game has been attempted, and that is why I would like to invite anyone who has tried something like this, or finds this idea compelling, to offer any input on what has worked for your multi-DM games or what you think could make such a game even better.
#2 highbulp Jan 23, 2007 18:29:23	I did multi-DM games a long time ago (when I first started out playing), it tended to not work out since the DMs would often give out gear that was best for their PC, or one person would end of DMing more since they were more willing to go for it. I do like the world-setup of portals to different areas. This means that each DM can control a "world," so you don't have "you broke my town/killed my BBEG!" And that's really what bothers me most about multi-DM games. I think the rules for finding available gear could probably be done away with. It sounds like a decent house-rule in general (for single OR multi-DM games), but I'm not sure that it would help the multi-DM game in particular. As long as you're all mature about giving out wealth, why not just make anything core available in the center world (assuming it's a big enough town). Then maybe non-core items could only be found through a certain DM's portal. I would be excited to play in a world like this. Too bad almost no one else in my group is willing/able to DM.
#3 enderlaand Jan 24, 2007 12:02:45	I really like your idea. My first RPG group in high school was always plagued with calls of "not it!" when we decided to get together. We played a new adventure with fresh characters and sometimes different systems almost every weekend. As a result, I'd been playing the game for years before I got my first character higher than 4th level. This system would have allowed us to take these same characters on many different adventures, and to many different settings. I wish we'd known about it. Maybe you could post your charts on item availability and downtime?
#4 zombiegleemax Jan 24, 2007 16:16:52	Our group did this because of similar reasons to your own, and it went quite well (we got to level 8 I believe). One thing that you may want to consider are character trees, where each player has multiple characters but is only "playing" one at a given time. The idea is that they can switch characters as required for the upcoming adventure, and it helps overcome the problem with the party Cleric DMing the session for example. It has its own inherent problems with sharing treasure, etc. but we found it very rewarding. I also recommend that the group establish themselves somehow. We set up a demon-slaying business called Devil May Cry :P
#5 ikeren Jan 25, 2007 16:14:17	That sounds like a really neat and fundamentally awesome idea. I am definitely going to try a portal-type version of that in a game in the future. There was a T.V. Show that is similar, I thought it was called "Shifters" but Wikipedia tells me I am wrong. These teenagers used some sort of remote and found themselves time traveling/alternate planet/alternate world, and had to stay there for a random amount of time (1 hour episode) till the next "Shift".
#6 ramses_iii Jan 25, 2007 18:07:40	Sigil, the City of Doors from the Planescape setting, is the perfect place to set up for a base like you're talking about. I wish we had done that when I was involved in a round-robin game; it would have made it a lot easier to have the DM's PC sit out of the adventure. My group didn't have the gear distribution problems as we usually rolled randomly for treasure, and 3 of the 4 PCs that formed the core of the group were casters with item creation feats. However there was something of a verisimilitude problem in that when I wasn't DMing, my character tended to take the role of party leader, and when I was DMing I had him just follow whatever the rest of the party wanted to do and cast the spells they asked him to cast. It kind of put a damper on fully roleplaying and characterizing my PC, who was a brash, headstrong, and somewhat arrogant wizard. My suggestion for doing a round-robin would be to use a portal city like you're talking about, and have the current DM's PC sit out but gain equal exp and average wealth to the rest of the party so that one character doesn't lag behind the rest after each adventure.
#7 zombiegleemax Jan 25, 2007 22:23:22	Awesome idea. I need to bring this up with my group when we finish the current campaign. I have never gotten to actually play, I always have to DM. Everybody else either refuses, or else they're someone I know better then to let DM.
#8 montuban Jan 25, 2007 23:07:48	Our group hasn't run into a lot of the "Party cleric is the DM" situations mainly because we have a cleric and a druid. There is also a ranger who can use the wand of cure light wounds that our cleric totes around if we need help. The biggest problem that we developed in our group was a noticeable lack of arcane power (2 sorcerers neither of whom come to every session) and a ridiculous lack of knowledges and other skills. Our druid has Knowledge Nature and two other members just bought their first ranks in dungeoneering and planes mainly to identify monsters. Too often in the sessions we've had so far the DM has started to say "anyone can roll knowledge...... eh... forget it."
#9 sphyre Jan 30, 2007 11:48:18	I'm not sure how you handled the portals, but I have a possible solution to the problem of DMs giving treasure that their PCs would like. Each character has a minor artifact or lineage that allows them to open the portal, and they must channel it. Either channel it, or simply can open it, but only from the outside, so there's no way the party could have that character go in. This means that character of the current DM must be left behind while the rest take care of the plot within the portal. The DM gives out treasure for the other players and the DMPC problem can never arise, with having a believable setting for everything. It's quite an interesting idea, and I hope I could do it someday.