Dueling DMs!

[Nathal]

My games are suffering because nearly every player in my regular gaming group is a Game Master, and all of them want to run their particular game. At first we tried switching between game masters every two weeks, but lost a sense of immersion in our characters. So we switched to one month per GM to run his game, and I was finally starting to get into my Monk character when...
we had to switch again. Nobody remembered much of what had happened in the previous campaign a month before and the GM failed to write any kind of journal to remind us of the details. Ugh! So far we have THREE rotating games.

So my wife told me yesterday she is loosing interest in gaming altogether due to the "dueling DMs" syndrome, the fact that there is little to no "immersion" factor when switching between systems and campaigns all the time, and continuity is also threatened. Sharing of the hobby has been a big part of our social lives, so her words struck me hard. I need to do something about it, but a bunch of the GMs would feel hurt if I axed their campaigns.

What would you do?

 

[Davelozzi]

Would people be happy if you each ran for a longer period of time (6 months or a year)? This would allow each GM to run a campaign given time but everyone would have to learn some patience.

In the meantime, you set aside one session every four or five for one of the inactive GMS to run a one shot of something that they just couldn't wait on.

 

[astralpwka]

We have similar situations. One DM runs until his story is told, however long it takes (usually two months).

The other thing we did was split. Those who have the time now play twice a week, and run a second campaign.

 

[pogre]

PLay three times a week for two or three hours at a time.

Yeah right, like any of us have time to do this...

I would discuss the situation with the other GMs. Is there a way you could keep your campaigns related? If you could all keep your adventures in the same game world, with familiar landmarks and NPCs, it might help folks stay immersed. If you followed a common time line, each group could stay mostly even and all have a chance to affect the world.

 

[Taelorn76]

We are currently running a campaign with "Dueling DMs". They both have characters, and the campaigns are related set in the same world and with the same NPCs. What we do is that when a certain DM is running the campaign his character is training or on a personal quest.

 

[Ruined]

I had this problem in a group a few years back. In the group we had some accomplished GMs who wanted to run their respective games. We rotated occasionally, and then it started to go to everyone's turn. We lost that immersion factor, just like you said. I finally brought it up to everyone and found out that some of them didn't actually want to run, but they were because they felt a sense of obligation, like they had to contribute to the mass.

In the end I pulled a coup and announced I would run perpetually until burnout. Everyone enjoyed the Planescape game at the time, and there were no arguments. Frankly I think they were happy to see me enthused about running.

Best of luck!

 

[reapersaurus]

We have a similar situation, with no resolvement in sight, since we are all too busy in our lives to have much consistency.

 

[Nathal]

If you could all keep your adventures in the same game world, with familiar landmarks and NPCs, it might help folks stay immersed. If you followed a common time line, each group could stay mostly even and all have a chance to affect the world.

This is an excellent idea. Unfortunately, the GMs like to run totally different game systems as well! One likes White Wolf, one is running Conan D20, one wants to run in a home-brewed system using yet another game world setting...

I think I am going to have to put my foot down. I'll just say, "pick one and run until burnout". Better that than dissolve the game entirely.

 

[Nathal]

We are currently running a campaign with "Dueling DMs". They both have characters, and the campaigns are related set in the same world and with the same NPCs. What we do is that when a certain DM is running the campaign his character is training or on a personal quest.

By the way, do those campaigns also use the same characters?

 

[peteyfrogboy]

Back when we had more people with conflicting schedules in our group, we would keep different campaigns going based on who showed up. It gave us some variety and made it so that one missing person wouldn't kill the entire night, gaming-wise.