How Many GMs Run Multiple Games?

[Lanefan]

Sessions per week: one. Has been two (different parties within the same campaign) for long stretches in the past but has been one for maybe 5 years now.

Active parties within the campaign: pre-covid usually varied between two and four*; one would get played for an adventure or two then it'd go on hold and another would get run for a while, etc. Then parties would meet, characters and info would get swapped, etc.

* - or, sometimes, more like one great big amorphous group of characters sharing a common home-base area; subsets of which (a.k.a. adventuring parties) would go into the field and do some adventuring, then return to home base and be re-absorbed into the mass...

 

[Shiroiken]

I only ever run one game at a time, mostly because I only play with one group. Even so, I'd want to focus on a single story, plus I wouldn't want to do that much work. However, my group has several DMs, and most of them run games with different groups. Occasionally they'll be running a game for our group and another at the same time.

 

[Scott Christian]

Boo... Covid. And a recent move has left me running zero games.

I can say this, it is very nice as a consistent GM for twenty years to sit back and let others GM. It's a great learning tool, and even though it is difficult to let go of the reins sometimes, it is a completely enjoyable experience.

But when I do run, it is only one game, generally weekly. Players range from 4-10. I actually prefer the smaller groups, but up to eight can still be a lot of fun. Nine and ten get too cumbersome.

Also, I stick to one system for at least six months.

 

[pemerton]

For the past decade or so I've been playing with the same group of friends. These days we play about every three weeks, sometimes once a fortnight. But we have multiple active campaigns - when we get together (in reality or, more recently, virtually) we play whichever one we feel like. (As the group's GM I have the biggest say in that, but not the only say.)

Our currently active games - as in, all played this year - are:

• Classic Traveller;
• Prince Valiant;
• Cortex+ Heroic Fantasy being used for MERP/LotR.

Other games still active in principle but not played for a while now:

• MHRP;
• Another Cortex+ Fantasy game, with a VIkings theme;
• 4e core;
• 4e Dark Sun.

One of the group and I also do one-on-one Burning Wheel from time to time, alternating as GMs.

If my time was unconstrainted I'd be happy to do more frequent play, but that's not a realistic prospect.

 

[Nytmare]

In college I frequently found myself running at least one, if not two games a night. I ran week long games of Assassin, organized tournaments for MtG and other games, and was the primary string puller in the University gaming club, which involved organizing games, and space for 12 hours of open gaming every Saturday.

I'm currently running a west marches style campaign, and my allotment of free time SHOULD allow me to run two or three groups. Unfortunately we have the players, but their work schedules are not as flexible as mine, and we only manage to play about once every two weeks.

 

[pogre]

Currently running 2 games per week - WFRP on Thursdays and 5e on Sundays.

 

[THEMNGMNT]

Currently running three 5E games. That's the most D&D I've ever run. All are online; I live in Southern California and we've been a hotzone since COVID hit the U.S. this spring. The first game listed below runs almost every Friday. The other two games are on alternating Tuesdays.

• 5 players. 17th level. 100+ sessions. Basically a heavily homebrewed mashup of Storm King's Thunder and Tyranny of Dragons/Scales of War. We're about six months away from the end of this campaign but have been playing for over 3 years. Sessions are 3-5 hours long.
• 5 players. 5th level. 15+ sessions. A modified version of Dragon of Icespire Peak that integrates character backstories into the main questline. We're about six sessions away from the end of this campaign. Sessions are about 2 hours long.
• 3 players. 4th level. 10+ sessions. A heavily modified version of Dragon Heist that borrows from The Alexandrian Remix and features the Deck of Many Things. This campaign will likely be 40 or 50 sessions. Sessions are about 2 hours long.

 

[John Desmarais]

It can vary pretty wildly. I'm running one regular game right now. Two months ago I had three going at once.

 

[MatthewJHanson]

I was running on game regular game for a while. When Covid hit I started running a second group that I used to game with, but some of whom moved away.

For my sanity it's the same basic campaign, but it's a lot of fun to see how the different players approach it.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Been running two games with two entirely separate groups for a couple years now, a home group and a game at the locale gaming cafe, though both are perforce online now. I had not intended to run a second group, but I was playing at the gaming cafe and the DM had said that the table had grown too large for him to manage, so when no one else volunteered, I stepped up to run a second table and have done so ever since.

Prior, I had only ever had a single gaming group, though sometimes that same group would have different games running at once.