Two weeks ago was my first session, I got my character together, and had fun with him, and with the group (for the most part). Last week, a couple of the players didn't show up, and a new DM showed up, along with a couple of new players. Our DM from the previous week decided to play instead, so the new DM reset us back in town. The new party we ended up with was -well- balanced, except the old DM rolled a rogue, giving us three strikers. Since I was playing a Warlock MCd Wizard, new DM offered to let me reroll as a Wizard, and carry over my XP and EQ. So, today I show up with my character in tow, figuring everybody from last week would show up, and we'd be able to continue our adventure from last week, and start a storyline.
Only, half the group didn't show, and neither DM was there. So, they re-divided the groups, and our group was going to have THREE Wizards, counting mine (another player decided to drop his Paladin and play a Wizard, since there were two fighters already).
Basically, I'm getting the feeling that this is going to turn into a series of one-off games, where we pull out our characters, run through two-four encounters, do XP/treasure, and then rinse and repeat the next week, with the characters reorganized into different groups, and maybe even a different DM.
That doesn't fly with me. I enjoy D&D for the flavor, and I -really- enjoy developing a character with a consistent group and a consistent storyline. Constantly revolving DMs is one thing, we can round-robin DM and that doesn't necessarily hurt storyline, since a DM can come up with a two-four story arc and DM the whole thing, then rotate. But PLAYERS?! If I'm always playing with different characters, it feels like my character is getting rewritten into a bunch of different pilot episodes, and never gets to develop himself beyond, "Hey, I'm a Wizard." We're still getting and accumulating XP, but what's the point? We haven't even gotten to our first extended rest, yet.
So, what should I do? Should I try to just find a new gaming group? Should I try to recruit players/DMs from the group and start a different group, somewhere other than the gameshop, so we won't have to deal with the round-robin-ing? Or should I just endure, and hope that, in a few weeks, things will settle down?
I'd go every week for two months, see which players and DMs were there every time, and poach the ones with the most dynamic personalities and best attendance. Seriously, if you want to sit down with a group of strangers and play a game that starts and finishes before you go home for the night, play M:tG.
That's kind of how I feel. At the very least, if we're going to be constrained to a series of one-offs, let's just agree to do that for a couple of months, and let everybody level their character every week, so we can at least accomplish new things
The thing is, they're trying to preserve the groups. Up until this week, one group was most of the way through an arc. This week, though, when only that DM showed up, and another person agreed to DM a one-off, they ended up dividing everyone in half. It just didn't do it for me. If I'm going to do a random one-off with a spur-of-the-moment DM, I want a character higher than 1st level.
For starters, do not re-roll your character every week. If your party roles are unbalanced this presents a challenge, but it is not one that can not be overcome. Since Attendance is obviously sporadic you should run one offs. Run adventures that take 3-4 hours to complete (per RPGA style). Talk to the attendees and see if you can get some sort of consensus. Running RPGA modules each week is a valid option. But if the DMs would like more creative freedom make a rule that the adventure will be complete before the night is out.
Also see if the DMs would consider running a sort of constant evolving world. IE everyone is adventuring in the same region or town, or are part of the same guild and the DMs can make adventures based in the agreed upon setting then when something happens in game it affects the persistent setting and you have a living breathing world.
This will allow for you to continue evolving your character and will also improve the feel of the adventures. But so long as you continue to run dis-joined one-offs the characters and world will feel equally dis-joined.
If you guys can not agree to some sort of continuity go to one of the suggestions above and stealth away the good players and Dm
. Personally the idea of a 20 man rotating group sounds really fun if you can get some continuity in the mix. The group dynamic will be different every week, but you will all come to know each others character and it will be as a living breathing town. IE. this week you are adventuring with Lady Cecillia who last week destroyed a dragon and slapped the high priest. These things can be brought up in game and word can spread as though in a real town. Etc Etc.
I am not sure if what I had in my head translated accurately to this post. Please let me know if this made any kind of sense...
So, what should I do? Should I try to just find a new gaming group? Should I try to recruit players/DMs from the group and start a different group, somewhere other than the gameshop, so we won't have to deal with the round-robin-ing? Or should I just endure, and hope that, in a few weeks, things will settle down?
It sounds like a typical gaming store setup. Anybody and everybody that shows up plays. That sort of quick game can be a lot of fun, but your right it isn't well suited to a strong campaign or a tight script.
If it is an open pickup game, then don't let it bother you, take it as a chance to network. Half the point of that sort of pickup game is too meet other players and DMs. Take time to talk to the other people and the DMs and see if anybody is also running a regular game.
Jay
I would give it some time.
For starters, do not re-roll your character every week. If your party roles are unbalanced this presents a challenge, but it is not one that can not be overcome. Since Attendance is obviously sporadic you should run one offs. Run adventures that take 3-4 hours to complete (per RPGA style). Talk to the attendees and see if you can get some sort of consensus. Running RPGA modules each week is a valid option. But if the DMs would like more creative freedom make a rule that the adventure will be complete before the night is out.
Also see if the DMs would consider running a sort of constant evolving world. IE everyone is adventuring in the same region or town, or are part of the same guild and the DMs can make adventures based in the agreed upon setting then when something happens in game it affects the persistent setting and you have a living breathing world.
This will allow for you to continue evolving your character and will also improve the feel of the adventures. But so long as you continue to run dis-joined one-offs the characters and world will feel equally dis-joined.
If you guys can not agree to some sort of continuity go to one of the suggestions above and stealth away the good players and Dm
Personally the idea of a 20 man rotating group sounds really fun if you can get some continuity in the mix. The group dynamic will be different every week, but you will all come to know each others character and it will be as a living breathing town. IE. this week you are adventuring with Lady Cecillia who last week destroyed a dragon and slapped the high priest. These things can be brought up in game and word can spread as though in a real town. Etc Etc.
I am not sure if what I had in my head translated accurately to this post. Please let me know if this made any kind of sense...
Well, we are all in the same "world." What DMs there have been, have all agreed on some basic facts, IE NPCs, town names, that sort of thing. The problem is that, for me at least, character development is as much about developing a group dynamic, as it is about a personal development. I can develop my character through fictional writing, I don't need game to do that. I can write stories and adventures for my character, all without the roll of a die, and that's actually more meaningful than RR-ing with him.
The thing that's driving me nuts is that we're trying to start a consistent group, but mostly the players are just being a little haphazard, which I guess is what happens when you have so many players, people will let any little thing distract them from actually playing (like how many players there are).
I think I'm going to suggest that, if we're going to continue having randomly cobbled-together groups, we start at a level higher than 1st. Frankly, if each game is going to be a separate series of encounters, with no valid link to anything else, I want to be able to explore the game, not the story, since, really, there is no story.
If that doesn't fly, I'm going to at least try to maintain some form of group cohesion. Barring that, I'm just going to stop playing, because it's just not enjoyable to me. I mean, I can do that in an MMO, and still have more lucky making a consistent group.
The worst part is, I think it's affecting the DMs, because who wants to come up with a nice, dramatic story arc, only to have it reset after less than one day in-game, you know?
Well I guess one of the things I was trying to get at but failed to get across is that there needs to be a fair amount of cooperation between the DMs to make the adventures not completely random but all part of a greater design. This would improve campaign cohesion. And the characters can develop as part of and adventuring community. Because you will adventure with different people every week, but you will adventure with the same people often enough to develop relationships with them.
Well, so far, even the players are in flux. New players are showing up each week, and some people are skipping. I get the skipping thing, that happens, and I'm cool with that, but it ruins continuity. Also, it's not like we're having it where there's a day's worth of adventure, then everybody goes back to town, and regroups the next day, and continues. One group was running KotS, and we'd started a story, but didn't get to go anywhere with it. That's the problem, I'm afraid this is going to boil down to at least one group being hodgepodge, because so far we only have two dedicated DMs.
18 months ago we started what we termed the 'big game'. We had 17 people signed up to play. What we did though was
1 overall story arc Dm. He had the job of making the 'actual/main' story arc. He also had the job of final rules guru.
Everyone else playing was asked to run at least one session(didn't happen
)We met 4 times a week
Each session was 1 week in game time.
No player could be in more than 2 sessions per week.
Have to sign up for each session
And it worked. It worked really well.
Now about the group, We have the gambit of playstyles. I think that is what makes it work. Granted there are some people that have issues with others, but they swallow their tongues and just play if they end up in the same session.
What I did find extremely insightful was the persons who had the biggest issues were also the persons who refused to Dm a single session. It was all about their character and they(as a person) didn't care about the actual game.
What it sounds like to me is there is no center 'authority' for any of your games. Someone needs to step up and start making decisions. Write up a manifesto or something. If you have that many people willing to play all you need is for someone to give it some structure and you'll have a really good group.
It definitely had its moments. As DM B once commented, "DM A is really good at screwing me over." He was joking, of course, but it was an interesting social experiment to see how each DM would react.
As always, your mileage may vary.
So, I guess the only option is to endure. I'm going to start going through the DMG, and see if I'm interested in DMing (though I'd really much rather play, I don't have the time, or resources, that I think a DM should invest). This week we only had four players, a fighter, a fighter/wizard, a wizard (me), and a rogue.
As for recruiting, one of the groups moved to a local Starbucks and, I think, is starting a Forgotten Realms group. I'm actually thinking about getting into that, but we'll have to see what happens.
Edit/Update!: The Forgotten Realms game is starting up next week, and I'm signed up! This is the DM that ran the game two weeks ago, and I rather enjoyed it, and he has the perfect mini for my character.
Very exciting. Yay me for a FR slot.
:bounce:
:pile: 
:invasion:
YOU DM.
Have those guys from the 20 show up, get people to commit. one or two at a time.
You are the DM, of your subgroup, so the story is consistent.
Since it is a consistent, ongoing story, people who like a consistent, long term campaign will play, and join.
Once the group gets bigger, your services as a DM will be in demand, since people will be on the sidelines watching your game, thinking, Damn, he's a good DM, I want to be in a cool game like that, too.
Since everyone is saying how 4e is so much easier to run, it shouldn't be all that hard to manage.
That's exactly How I'd go about it, and have done so repeatedly over the years at our local university gamer's guild which started with some 100 players, in 1994.
There's turnover every few years as people graduate. But I never lack for players, based on my long term rep as a DM.
There it is, let me know how it works out.