Round Robin Gm'ing - an analysis

[Buttercup]

Perhaps it was because I was so exhausted by Saturday, but I certainly was not at my best. I took over in the middle of combat, and that took most of my turn. I think Round Robin GM ing is a cool concept, but if I ever do it again I'll want to be well rested and thus up to quick thinking.

The only thing I'd suggest is pregenerated characters so we can get down to playing faster.

 

[der_kluge]

How did I do? That was my frist round robin ever and I'm curious if I did okay.

For 3 in the morning, not bad. I was just impressed that Justinian was able to take the premise and run with it. I'm not sure I could have. I find myself getting quite good at it, and now I almost feel sorry for people when *I* start, since there ain't no telling what I might pull out of my butt.

I have a hard time remembering who added what to the game. Which, I think is a testament to the success, since all of them have flowed so well together.

 

[der_kluge]

Perhaps it was because I was so exhausted by Saturday, but I certainly was not at my best. I took over in the middle of combat, and that took most of my turn. I think Round Robin GM ing is a cool concept, but if I ever do it again I'll want to be well rested and thus up to quick thinking.

The only thing I'd suggest is pregenerated characters so we can get down to playing faster.

Maybe for next year I could have anyone that wants to participate make up random characters of say, 3rd through 7th level or so. It would take a bit of time, but we'd be able to start immediately that way.

 

[Graf]

I liked the writing enough that the lack of formatting didn't bother me. But then I produce masses of undifferentiated text in my posts all the time.

I haven't ever played Round Robin or been to GenCon.

On comment about speed vs. rushing. I think that as a DM I have an instinct to pause and check things. A hasty poor or contradictory decision can often have lasting negative impact on the games.

I would love to try this sometime though.

 

[Pielorinho]

Perhaps it was because I was so exhausted by Saturday, but I certainly was not at my best. I took over in the middle of combat, and that took most of my turn. I think Round Robin GM ing is a cool concept, but if I ever do it again I'll want to be well rested and thus up to quick thinking.

I thought you did fine, Buttercup, especially given where I left you: "Okay, the party is attacked by half a dozen creatures with a nonstandard attack form that you almost never see, and a creature that you've probably not run before that has a gamut of spell-like abilities, one of which it's already cast and which has an ongoing, complicated effect. Go!" Especially since it wasn't much of a plot-moving-forward combat, it put you in a difficult place. Sorry about that, and it definitely doesn't reflect on your DMing skills!

I did enjoy how Spider allowed the Hill Giant battle to be ended: the trick (which, incidentally, was entirely Buttercup's idea) was great fun, and gave it a fairy-tale-like feel. Instead of avoiding combats, I'd suggest:
1) Make it clear that combat is going to be very fast and loose, and that spot rulings are the name of the game.
2) Allow super-stunts in combat to do cool things that you might not allow in your home game, and let 'em work.
3) Allow alternate endings to combats (negotiations, trickery, etc.)
4) If it's a mass-combat, once it becomes clear that the PCs are going to win, wrap it up with a, "You guys mop up the remainder."

This game was hilarious fun, with a side order of oogy. Thanks so much for introducing me to it, der kluge!

Daniel

 

[Ethernaut]

I've mentioned this at GenCon and I'll say it again here: This strikes me as a game that would really profit from a good "Rogues Gallery" type book. You can just yoink a character out of there and be running in minutes instead of creating characters. I know that der kluge is getting good at smacking out a character in 30 minutes but I'm betting it takes a lot of others longer and you're only as fast as your slowest player.

Amen to that. Character creation took way too long.

That being said, it was fun to play the dumb-as-a-rock paladin with pretty amazing non-INT stats. And we did go around the table exactly once, which seemed kind of ideal somehow.

Regarding combat: I was aiming for a non-combat scene, but darn PCs always interfere with best laid plans. ;-)

If only I weren't rusty at running D&D. If it were Buffy, Gurps, or Risus I'd be golden.

Anyway, I'd definitely do the whole round robin thing in the future.

 

[Crothian]

Round Robin Buffy could be a lot of fun!!

 

[Ethernaut]

I did enjoy how Spider allowed the Hill Giant battle to be ended: the trick (which, incidentally, was entirely Buttercup's idea) was great fun, and gave it a fairy-tale-like feel. Instead of avoiding combats, I'd suggest:
1) Make it clear that combat is going to be very fast and loose, and that spot rulings are the name of the game.
2) Allow super-stunts in combat to do cool things that you might not allow in your home game, and let 'em work.
3) Allow alternate endings to combats (negotiations, trickery, etc.)
4) If it's a mass-combat, once it becomes clear that the PCs are going to win, wrap it up with a, "You guys mop up the remainder."

Good points all around!

Round Robin screams out for a rules light system. Alas, I don't know of any that are so universally known as D&D. Perhaps the initial GM can lay out a list of suggested simplifications (like no AoO)? Also, perhaps all combat should be off the battlemat to discourage getting bogged down in movement issues?

 

[Evilhalfling]

This was an intresting read -

I had a post GenCon wrap up from a friend last night, who played in the friday night elven baby game. He mentioned the Round robin game as one of the good gencon memories, but specifically sited a weak begining and to many minor "dungeon crawl" like combats as the major problems. He was the DM responsible for the mummy, which he said he guessed would be the right CR. He plays more D&D than he runs, prefering to run Buffy, Mage, Ars Magica; so he was just winging a good challenge.

Me and another guy bickered on symmetry versus asymmetry. It was funny.

I am almost certain this was him, I dont know what he was playing but he mentioned casting scorching rays. Care to confirm?

 

[Chaldfont]

I played the 1/2-orc monk in the Thursday "Ghost Cube" game. What a blast. I've told all my gaming buddies about it and we are going to try this out in our weekly game.

The thing I liked best was how someone would take a plot idea and tweak it slightly before handing it off to the next guy. I think those undead pirates went through three stat changes before they were defeated. I started them out as watered-down wraiths (only half-incorporeal, no strength damage, 10 less hp) but then they turned into uber-skeletons and then zombies I think.

Count me in for next year!