Anyone ever played a game with two linked groups?

[Umbran]

This is a challenge, but there's all kinds of tricks a DM can use to speed one group up and-or slow the other one down.

YEs. But that is extra work, and we should call that out.

It's easier if the same players have characters in both groups, as it becomes in their interest to keep them contemporary.

Then they aren't independent, and we could expect that one will reduce to being an arm of the other, which I don't believe is the intended point here.

That said, sometimes one group is simply faster than the other, in which case interaction largely comes off the table and the slower group has to accept that they might now and then have to clean up messes left behind by the faster.

I am more concerned with simple continuity.

Group A raids a dungeon, forcing a tribe of goblins out.
Goblins walk a day, and raid town for supplies.
Group B deals with goblin raid. Sends forces to deal with source of goblins. This takes only two days of in-game-time, but takes a month of real time for various reasons.

Group A should see forces from town show up at the dungeon, but have to not play for a month or have a continuity error.

 

[Lackofname]

Your son's games sound really cool, @Richards.

 

[Lackofname]

Then they aren't independent, and we could expect that one will reduce to being an arm of the other, which I don't believe is the intended point here.

I'm not concerned about independence. Having player(s) in both would be incredibly convenient even, if the same player is reliable and a good player. (The more players you have, the more likely there are RL complications to playing. ) All I meant was that events in one would carry over/potentially impact the other. One being an arm of the other is fine.

But yes the 'we can't play this week/next x weeks' would throw everything out of wack.

 

[Richards]

Your son's games sound really cool, @Richards.

Well, if you're ever bored, you can read the Story Hour write-ups: the first campaign is The Durnhill Conscripts and the follow-up campaign is Raiders of the Overreach.

Johnathan

 

[ccs]

2) Okay seriously, how do you kill a WWI tank in PF?

Well, its got a high AC, a lot of HP, & a string of immunities/resistances.
So brute force &/or creativity, same as how you kill anything else in PF. This group was more into the creativity than the brute force (though they could do that as well....).

Stats for the tank appear in "Rasputin Must Die", book 5 of the Reign of Winter AP.

 

[the Jester]

Has anyone tried this before, running two consecutive groups and having events of one game impact the other?

(An alternative would be to set one group later in time than the other, but the above seems more interesting atm).

I am currently running seven groups who are set in the same world, at roughly the same time, and whose actions can affect each other. It's definitely complicated. Because there's significant player overlap between groups, on the rare occasions when I have to make one group wait on another to catch up, it's not too annoying.

 

[John Dallman]

I'm playing in such a game at present: the same world has two parties doing separate weekly sessions, one under AD&D1e and one under D&D 5e. There is no overlap in the player groups, and the two parties have only met once, on the road.

 

[Alexander Moonbeam]

I once ran a face-to-face campaign and a Roll20 campaign at the same time. They were set in neighboring countries on the same continent. Players from the face-to-face campaign occasionally showed up in the Roll20 campaign.

The main issue was that, as it turns out, prepping and running two sandbox games at the same time is very time-consuming! I was not able to maintain both for more than a few months.

 

[Lanefan]

YEs. But that is extra work, and we should call that out.

Agreed.

Then they aren't independent, and we could expect that one will reduce to being an arm of the other, which I don't believe is the intended point here.

IME it's rare-to-never that one group 'reduce(s) to being an arm of the other'. Sometimes what they're doing is related, other times not.

Right now in the game I play in we've got three active parties (same players in each) running side-along in game time. We run one for a while, then stop and run another, etc.

One's on hold, trying to come back from rescuing people in the Far Realm but needs to wait for other groups to catch up in time.

Another's also on hold having just finished clearing out the place where the Far Realm group left from (we went in together then split into two parties once we found their jumping-off point, this was meta-intended all along)

A third group, currently in play, is looking for (and in process of clearing out, we think) a new home base for all of us and is farthest behind in time; the other groups can't move until we're caught up because our adventure will be determining whether the other groups arrive back at our old base or the new one (we have means of instant long-range transport to wherever we're based).

I am more concerned with simple continuity.

Group A raids a dungeon, forcing a tribe of goblins out.
Goblins walk a day, and raid town for supplies.
Group B deals with goblin raid. Sends forces to deal with source of goblins. This takes only two days of in-game-time, but takes a month of real time for various reasons.

Group A should see forces from town show up at the dungeon, but have to not play for a month or have a continuity error.

Agreed.

Solutions:

Be adamant about sailing the sessions even if not everyone can make it. (also make sure you-as-DM are available for your own sessions!)

Bog Group A down with wandering monsters or other distractions that take them away from the dungeon entrance. (not a long-term solution by any means but it can buy you a session if you need to fill one)

Your example does admittedly get messier if Group A decides to follow the Goblins to town rather than continue with the dungeon...

 

[Lanefan]

I'm playing in such a game at present: the same world has two parties doing separate weekly sessions, one under AD&D1e and one under D&D 5e. There is no overlap in the player groups, and the two parties have only met once, on the road.

That'll be fun if they ever end up either fighting each other or working together in the same battle against something else: which rule-set do you use?