Rotating GM's?

[Umbran]

How unusual is this? Is it common for RPG lovers to be so eclectic, or do most of us choose one kind of game and stick with it? Does your group have different GM's for different games?
Do your DM's ever team up?

Well, let's see - the bunch of folks I work with have played D&D, Mage, Shadowrun, Marvel Superheroes, Deadlands, Paranoia, one homebrew system, a bit of Tales from the Floating Vagabond, and probably some others I'm forgetting, with a few of us taking the GM role.

Mind you, these are usually done in series. We don't usually have more than one or two games running at a given time.

 

[Varianor Abroad]

Friends of mine and I did this back in college. We dubbed it Rotationverse. In addition to two weekly D&D games on Sunday, and a regular weekly Champions game, we added a third game night that was called Rotationverse. Each DM signed up, and ran one game of a system they wanted to for a night. Then someone else took a turn. We got to do Paranoia, Call of Cthulhu, Justice Inc., umm maybe Chivalry and Sorcery, Psi World, and a couple homebrews. It's cool if you can do it! Good luck.

(Teaming up is a separate post almost, but that too can be done. Ultimately we preferred "guest GMs" who would run an adventure set in someone else's game, but we've matured a lot since then.)

 

[jmucchiello]

Isn't there the risk that if they prepare a campaign together and then one is also a player, that he can have, as a DM, NPCs hide treasures and then he can seek those out with his PC?

If you trust your DMs this isn't an issue. We have 3 DMs for 6 people. Each DM runs for 4 weeks (or so) before switching to the next DM. After each DM's round of games, the party levels. This gives the next DM ample time to prepare for his sessions (8 weeks) and he isn't surprised by the party's level since he knows what it will be ahead of time. The DMs basically know the destination of the campaign but what each DM does to get the party there is entirely up to him. There are some agreed upon goal points that each DM is responsible for but the other DMPCs don't know how it will happen. Over the course of 20+ levels doing this I think I've only had to play "dumb" twice. And that is really no different than normal player 'separating player knowledge from character knowledge'.

 

[Zendragon]

In current game, me and a buddy take turns running the campaign. I run a couple of adventures, then he runs a couple. We each have a character. I notice that when I am DM'ing my character takes a back seat. His character does the same. Works well we develop the campaign overview together.

 

[Dragonbait]

Its a testament to how well everyone in the group works together.

Seconded.

My current group has rotating GMs, where each one GMs a different system. I DM D&D, one does Star Wars, and one will be doing Mutants and Masterminds.

I once was in a small group where we rotated GMs for the same game. We were a very eclectic group and could take oddball characters into very different situations without complaint. Each GM would prepare an adventure, then run it. Once the adventure was done, the next one would take over. Same characters, but we were once on a space ship inhabited by humanoid animals solving a murder mystery, then we went to the Himalayan mountains in the 40's and thwarted Nazi scientists, then we went to a fantasy world to stop a sorceress from doing evil, and so on. It was really fun to have such a huge variety, but it did not last long because of drama between all the players (myself included).

 

[BlackMoria]

Our group have been doing this for over 20 years.

Even had a weird Original Traveller / 1e D&D crossover going at one point. I DMed the D&D game one night and one of the other players DMed Traveller. Since original Traveller used 3d6 for stats as well, the next thing that happened was the campaigns started to merge and D&D characters showing up somehow in the Traveller universe and Traveller characters showing up in my D&D campaign with each of us rotating DM positions. (It was fun having a Traveller character in battle armor and a gauss rifle with the party going through Keep on the Borderlands...)

 

[FATDRAGONGAMES]

With eight players in our group we used to do this a lot over the last 20-25 years. We've gotten away from it in the last few years with just me running D&D, but we never had any problems when we did do it.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I started doing stuff like that in 1991 or so- everyone was responsible for running at least one game or one shots at some point. Not only was it fun, it exposed us to a lot of games we wouldn't normally try, improving our gamer-fu immensely...on both sides of the screen.

I ran D&D, RIFTS and a HERO campaign set in 1900 in a Vernian/Wellsian world cribbed from Space:1889, the Kung Fu & Wild, Wild West TV series, James Bond movies, and other sources.

One guy ran a HERO campaign that was part supers part Traveller sci-fi.

Another guy ran a few different "Big Robot Anime" themed campaigns in Mekton, MechWarrior, and other systems.

One guy ran D&D and had us playtest A.C.E., an as-yet unpublished RPG.

Several guys ran GURPS campaigns, including a playtest of GURPS: Vampire.

Even in the systems I didn't like (like GURPS), I had a good time and learned a lot about the hobby I'd been a part of for more than a decade at that point.

Currently, though, I can't get anyone to play anything other than Core + Splats 3.0.

Enjoy the opportunity!

 

[Bagpuss]

Sounds like pretty much every group I've ever played in, the current group I'm in everyone has taken a turn at GMing, and we're currently playing two Adventure Paths, recently play Legend of the Five Rings, and a homebrew Cyberpunk, last time I was GM I ran Feng Shui, now I'm running the Savage Tide AP, in between I've run two one shots of Cybergeneration and ALL FLESH MUST BE EATEN. Usually we rotate games every few months.

My current group D&D is the most popular game, but in others Shadowrun or Cyberpunk was, and Call of Cthulhu has always been a favourite. I've never been in a group where less than half the players also GMed, and rarely played two campaigns in the same system one after the other.

I've co-GMed Star Trek (I think for 8 to 10 players) before now where I dealt with the ship and the other GM dealt with the away team or visa versa.

The idea of one DM and/or always D&D is just weird to me, never come across a group like that.

 

[Arkham]

You need to rotate GMs at least twice around 6 minutes apart to ensure uniform browning...

Oh, wait.
Sorry, wrong topic.

We've tried this, but every time someone else takes a turn at GMing for a few months, their game crashes, then I end up running something. I've successfully had a co-GM for one game only. Usually instead of switching off, someone chooses a different night to start a new game, and we share most of the pool or players.