Any DMs here ever have an assistant DM?

I've always thought it would be cool to have an assistant DM. Someone that could help me with the time consuming parts of being a DM (rifling through notes or books, tracking initiative, keeping count on PC wand charges, etc.).

Has anyone here ever had this luxury and if so how did it work out for you? Was it worth it or just create more work for you? Were there any power struggles between you and your assistant?

Thanks in advance, everyone.

we called them Callers.

+5 Keyboard! said:

I've always thought it would be cool to have an assistant DM. Someone that could help me with the time consuming parts of being a DM (rifling through notes or books, tracking initiative, keeping count on PC wand charges, etc.).

Has anyone here ever had this luxury and if so how did it work out for you? Was it worth it or just create more work for you? Were there any power struggles between you and your assistant?

Thanks in advance, everyone.

Click to expand...

There are times when I've had an actual honest-to-god assistant DM; usually when the game is large and there are multiple events taking place at the same time or seperate articles that need to be addressed. It really helps to avoid those situations where one half of the group is sitting on their thumbs for 45 minutes while the scouts go and ninja around, the decker hacks into the database, the two teams approach from different sides of the castle, or one group is at the masquerade ball while the other is chatting up the soldiers in the barracks.

But when it comes to other, minor things like you've mentioned, I'll just hand that off to other players. Bob's performing an action that needs a rule looked up, I'll tell Bob to look up the rule himself and get back to me. When initiative's being rolled and I'm going around the table counting totals, I'll have another player be the recorder - just write 'em down on the margin of the hexmap. For keeping track of charged items, I'll just say 'mark off a charge' and trust the player to take care of it.

As a DM there are some things you need to keep close to your vest. Helps to maintain the mystery of the unknown that fuels the discovery and adventure that is what makes gaming fun. For the other, public stuff - delegate. Part of being a DM is managing resources, and your players are one of those resources. And 99% of the time they're more than happy to help, because it frees up you to focus more on being a good DM.

nope

I had a guy who was the session coordinator -- he scheduled the game sessions, secured the locations, coordinated all the players. This was something like 10 guys spread out over 3 states for over 11 years. And a few of these dudes were . . . to put it charitably . . . rather resistant to wrangling.

Without his efforts, my campaign would have died after just six months. All I had to worry about was the game. I hate the scheduling crap.

The closest I've had is somebody who would sometimes come in to play important NPCs

I've always thought DM apprenticing was under-practiced. Back in college a DM used a player one session to help roleplay myriad NPCs, but that was one session. It was fun.

I co-DM'd in a game for a while (not exactly what you ask). Advantage was being able to roleplay two NPC's at once in a conversation (two soldiers buddies, husband & wife, two arguing heads on an ettin, etc.), that piece of business could be hilarious. Disadvantage was we'd have disagreements about rule adjudications and that was a real drag. Prep time was probably neutral, we could both pitch in but there was conference emails that were needed.

Yes, it's my preferred method of DMing actually. I've seen it called Logic DM too, especially if the 2nd DM is tasked with answering and researching the harder rules questions.

I ran a 5 year long campaign this way with my Co-DM and I working on plots and NPCs together. He tended to story-tell better but I had a great view of the ongoing plot. We are a great team. Pity he had to move away.

Delta said:

I co-DM'd in a game for a while (not exactly what you ask). Advantage was being able to roleplay two NPC's at once in a conversation (two soldiers buddies, husband & wife, two arguing heads on an ettin, etc.), that piece of business could be hilarious.

Click to expand...

That sounds like it could be a ton of fun. I've had help for years with the minor details of running my games by players, but to have somone on my side of the DM's screen actually helping to role-play and keep the game on course would be awesome.