Devon Mannix
First Post
Anyone tried this? Running an adventure with two or more DM's? I'd like to hear how this has went for others.
For myself, my one and only experience with running a game in this manner was somewhat bittersweet.
It was around mid August, I guess. I had a 3.0 game going in a homebrew setting. One of my coworkers, Robbie, was a player in the game. He also had a 3.0 game running his own homebrew setting in which I was a player. In my game, he played a half-orc barbarian named Grok and in his, I played a dwarven cleric named Merrek. Both games were going well.
We started talking about Halloween and our plans for this most awesome of holidays. We came to the conclusion that we should both write Halloween adventures for our respective groups. Then, we had the idea to just write one big adventure and run it for both groups, at different times. Then, we had yet another idea. We'd write one big adventure, pull both parties into the same universe, and run them through the adventure together. Brilliant.
Or so I thought.
You see, at the time, I failed to realize that Robbie and I had very different DM'ing styles. He preferred his adventures to be ran sort of off-the-cuff. He put very little on paper before his games began. He'd have a basic idea written down and a few sketched maps when he went to the table, but the majority of his adventures were improvised.
I, on the other hand, have adopted a more structured style. In the period of time between my games, I'm practically working on my next adventure all the freakin' time. If not at the computer, then in my head. When I come to the gaming table, I don't bring notes and sketches; I bring bound booklets and detailed maps.
The troubles didn't start appearing at first. We began working on the adventure in earnest around the end of August. We had practically two full months to finish preparation. We began with a series of brainstorming sessions. We quickly settled on a good old-fashioned haunted house adventure.
In order to bring the two parties together, we had an easy solution. We'd simply stick the house in Ravenloft and prior to the Halloween adventure, we'd have the Mists drag our respective groups there.
We decided that we'd map the layout of the mansion, then populate them. Robbie drew the layout (he digs that). We ended up with a large, two-story house with a good-sized (obligatory) basement. Since our schedules conflicted a bit and we weren't able to get together regularly to flesh out the house, we then decided that Robbie would populate the upstairs, while I took the ground floor and basement. I wasn't really worried that the upstairs would seem out of place compared to the rest of the house because Robbie and I were on the same page as far as what theme and "feel" we wanted for the place.
So we went to work. We'd meet periodically to compare our work and discuss ideas and such. I quickly began to notice something that worried me. I seemed to be accomplishing much more than my friend. I'd come to our meetings with detailed descriptions of my rooms and encounters all typed up nice and neat. I even took the time to redo his hand-drawn maps on my PC and print them out on nice graph paper, rooms all labeled and everything. Robbie, however, would have little more than his usual vague notes.
I began to worry that he'd be done with his end in time. Though, I never mentioned my fears to him. I didn't want him to think that I doubted his integrity as a DM. I knew him well enough to trust him to come through with his obligation.
We ran into a bit of a snag when we finally realized that we had an overlapping player. Robbie's wife, Christina, had a character in each of our campaigns at the time. In Robbie's game, she played a human barbarian, while in my game, she played (if I remember correctly) a human druid. We didn't really want her to have to play two characters at once. Robbie's idea was to "merge" the two characters together when they both entered the same universe to make one hybrid character. I thought this idea was stupid, so we didn't do it. Honestly, I don't remember what we finally decided on. We either had her play both characters, or we simply wrote out one of her characters for that adventure.
About a week or so before the date of the Halloween adventure, we gathered all our work and stuck it together. My bit was noticably larger than Robbie's. Still, I kept my mouth shut and held on to my faith.
When game day came, I think I was more nervous than I have ever been about a game. I was worried that when the group made their way upstairs, that the game would stall and falter.
We both put our strengths to good use in all the rooms and the group had a wonderful time. For all my worrying, it still ended up being one of the best games I've ever had and I felt kinda silly for letting my trust in my friend be shaken.
For myself, my one and only experience with running a game in this manner was somewhat bittersweet.
It was around mid August, I guess. I had a 3.0 game going in a homebrew setting. One of my coworkers, Robbie, was a player in the game. He also had a 3.0 game running his own homebrew setting in which I was a player. In my game, he played a half-orc barbarian named Grok and in his, I played a dwarven cleric named Merrek. Both games were going well.
We started talking about Halloween and our plans for this most awesome of holidays. We came to the conclusion that we should both write Halloween adventures for our respective groups. Then, we had the idea to just write one big adventure and run it for both groups, at different times. Then, we had yet another idea. We'd write one big adventure, pull both parties into the same universe, and run them through the adventure together. Brilliant.
Or so I thought.
You see, at the time, I failed to realize that Robbie and I had very different DM'ing styles. He preferred his adventures to be ran sort of off-the-cuff. He put very little on paper before his games began. He'd have a basic idea written down and a few sketched maps when he went to the table, but the majority of his adventures were improvised.
I, on the other hand, have adopted a more structured style. In the period of time between my games, I'm practically working on my next adventure all the freakin' time. If not at the computer, then in my head. When I come to the gaming table, I don't bring notes and sketches; I bring bound booklets and detailed maps.
The troubles didn't start appearing at first. We began working on the adventure in earnest around the end of August. We had practically two full months to finish preparation. We began with a series of brainstorming sessions. We quickly settled on a good old-fashioned haunted house adventure.
In order to bring the two parties together, we had an easy solution. We'd simply stick the house in Ravenloft and prior to the Halloween adventure, we'd have the Mists drag our respective groups there.
We decided that we'd map the layout of the mansion, then populate them. Robbie drew the layout (he digs that). We ended up with a large, two-story house with a good-sized (obligatory) basement. Since our schedules conflicted a bit and we weren't able to get together regularly to flesh out the house, we then decided that Robbie would populate the upstairs, while I took the ground floor and basement. I wasn't really worried that the upstairs would seem out of place compared to the rest of the house because Robbie and I were on the same page as far as what theme and "feel" we wanted for the place.
So we went to work. We'd meet periodically to compare our work and discuss ideas and such. I quickly began to notice something that worried me. I seemed to be accomplishing much more than my friend. I'd come to our meetings with detailed descriptions of my rooms and encounters all typed up nice and neat. I even took the time to redo his hand-drawn maps on my PC and print them out on nice graph paper, rooms all labeled and everything. Robbie, however, would have little more than his usual vague notes.
I began to worry that he'd be done with his end in time. Though, I never mentioned my fears to him. I didn't want him to think that I doubted his integrity as a DM. I knew him well enough to trust him to come through with his obligation.
We ran into a bit of a snag when we finally realized that we had an overlapping player. Robbie's wife, Christina, had a character in each of our campaigns at the time. In Robbie's game, she played a human barbarian, while in my game, she played (if I remember correctly) a human druid. We didn't really want her to have to play two characters at once. Robbie's idea was to "merge" the two characters together when they both entered the same universe to make one hybrid character. I thought this idea was stupid, so we didn't do it. Honestly, I don't remember what we finally decided on. We either had her play both characters, or we simply wrote out one of her characters for that adventure.
About a week or so before the date of the Halloween adventure, we gathered all our work and stuck it together. My bit was noticably larger than Robbie's. Still, I kept my mouth shut and held on to my faith.
When game day came, I think I was more nervous than I have ever been about a game. I was worried that when the group made their way upstairs, that the game would stall and falter.
We both put our strengths to good use in all the rooms and the group had a wonderful time. For all my worrying, it still ended up being one of the best games I've ever had and I felt kinda silly for letting my trust in my friend be shaken.
