game politics

[Gundark]

heya
recently a couple of the players have decided to try their hand at being the DM. So every two weeks we "rotate" campaigns. This worked fine at the start, but now it's gotten political. What I mean is there is this competition between the DMs on "whose campaign is better" and "whose the better DM" it's gotten crazy. it like a popularity contest, and the players are being drug in (do you like mine better?) and there is negativity entering. I am one of the 3 DMs I've been trying to stop this, because I don't want there to be hard feelings. I've tried talking to the other guys, one agrees that it happening but the other (who basically started this popularity contest) doesn't think it's going on. I'm looking for two things. Has this entered into other groups? and how should I deal with this? I think that if I ever have a new group, regardless of whether I'm the DM or not, I would lobby for there to be only one DM, just so I wouldn't have to go through this again.

anyhow thanks

 

[Skade]

Yes, I have seen it. In my situation this led the dismatling of my group, originally by splitting the group in two, with some players staying neutral, and thus in both games. Eventually it led to complete alienation and personal dislike. Admittedly, some of the personal issue were years in the making, but this sort of competition can only end in flames.

How to deal with it? Can't help you there. My rational approach failed miserably. Hopefully your friends eventually see reason.

 

[Larry Fitz]

I suggest you kill the other two DM's now, don't give them a chance to get you first....

um... skip that, bad idea, unless you want to start a gaming group in the penitentiary....

Myself and my good friend Joe co-GMed a campaign of Villains & Vigilantes, we each had a character and freely used minor NPC's each other created, Major NPC's (particularly villains) were proprietary. It worked great. The players loved the different perspectives and having two people run some of the NPC's seemed to give them a life of their own. We had differing styles and that just added to the experiencefor the players. V&V is a great game for this because of its episodic nature, I don't think a D&D campaign could have been as successful running this way.

It sounds like what you have is literally three different campaigns however, rotating on a semi-weekly schedule? How often do you play? Are the flavors similar or are they three entirely different campaigns? Are the two new DM's experienced or is this their first go at it?

When people are GMing for the first time they rely on feedback to assure them that people are enjoying the game, it's largely a reassurance issue. If you have two people doing this it can turn into what seems like a popularity contest, particularly when you spend 2/3 of your gaming time not in their campaigns. (two weeks on, four weeks off). The best way to handle it in my opinion is a steel cage death match. Wait, no, scratch that, how about talk it out as a group, the whole group, all together. Do not get together in fractions of the group and discuss it as this will only serve to exacerbate the problem. Ask the players if they've noticed an underlining conmpatition amongst the GM's and if it hinders their enjoyment of the gaming. Express why it bothers you and be open to people having a differing opinion. If nothing gets resolved, well, there's always the steel cage death match.

 

[MerakSpielman]

Stop being one of the DMs in an sort of official, stated protest. State that you will have nothing to do with DMing until the pointless competition ends. Refuse to have anything to do with the "whose campaign is better" discussions and firmly state, "I came here to play D&D, not to watch you people argue. Let's get back to the game."


Maybe that will get their attention.

 

[alsih2o]

someones game IS better

someone IS the better dm

this is gonna be a fact, and if everyone handles it well it should not be a problem.

the fact that everyone chooses to play all of the games says a good deal about their prefeences tho. they obviously find somehting in each that keeps 'em coming.

perhaps you could institute a "blind feedback" from the players for each dm and this will keep the one whoo feels competitive from needing to make it public that he needs this feedback.

barring that, see if he cannot be given the feedback during his game, perchance some ingame encouragement can leave him wiht the fix he needs.

either way it is probably best to non-aggresively point out that you are comfortable with your game and his, but uncomfortable with any sense of comparison, and ask for his respect of that

good luck!

 

[Murrdox]

Some campaigns are better, and some DMs are better. Players might like one campaign more than another one simply because they like playing that character more.

There's lots of reasons. If your DMs are arguing about who is better, that's pretty immature. I consider myself a pretty good DM. We also run simultaneous campaigns, and we usually pass the DM torch around. Sometimes someone new wants to try it out, and if I notice a way they're doing things... I'll just tell them and try to give them tips.

But man, I don't go asking all my friends if they like my campaign better than another DM's campaign... I just kinda make sure they LIKE it period.

 

[MarauderX]

Meow meow, King Friday, meow!

Sounds like a certain DM is a control freak. Nuthin' wrong with that, but it can get outta hand when your house rules are different from one another. I had a player try his hardest to be a good DM and needed constant feedback about the campaign being good and I told him what I thought was good and bad, and some it was less than flattering, such as the game was moving too slow. It was my opinion as a player, but he immediately felt like like he had to please me all the time or just the opposite that I was pushing him around since I have been a DM before he started to play and thought he had to do what I said, like some weird fraternity thing. We all got sick of the inconsistancy of the campaign anyway, as it was rather boring while he droned on and we waited to interact or create action.

If the other DMs are good keep them; I think they are hard to find, but just make the campaigns so vastly different that there is no real comparison. If you all were in a 4th level low magic campaign I would start a new one at 15th with tons of magic and a world ruled half by the undead, or some other changes(new system? Shadowrun-ish?). Having two similiar campaigns with the same group of people is just asking for a little emotional trouble with an insecure DM or 2...or 3.