D&D 4E The DM Game

[Dannyalcatraz]

Do you really think this can work? Yes, I absolutely do. Am I brimming with confidence? No, I am not.

I agree it can work. A group I was part of in Austin in the 1990s implemented a rotating DM system. It worked for at least 3 years. It was still in place when I moved back to Dallas.

How we made it work:

1) it wasn’t all in one campaign. Everyone was responsible for running a campaign, and had to have a PC for each campaign.

2) the campaigns were not all in one RPG, but rather, spanned dozens of systems.

3) each week, two people were charged with being ready to run a game every session- a primary and a backup in case the primary couldn’t run their game. This meant everyone also had to bring two characters (except the GMs, who each brought their PC for each others’ games).

4) if neither GM could run- rare, but it happened- we had a pre-selected board or card game that would be played.

That system was VERY effective. We tried DOZENS of different RPGs, including a couple of playtests. Some campaigns ran for years. Some GMs never ran a campaign to completion, and instead, kept wanting to try different games…often within a single genre.

 

[lightful]

it wasn’t all in one campaign. Everyone was responsible for running a campaign, and had to have a PC for each campaign.

See, that is fundamentally different than what i would like to achieve here. I would like to make it one game, with everyone playing just the one character so it feels more like one proper campaign.

I appreciate the thoughts though !

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

See, that is fundamentally different than what i would like to achieve here. I would like to make it one game, with everyone playing just the one character so it feels more like one proper campaign.

I appreciate the thoughts though !

I understand.

I meant to add (but got distracted & forgot) that there were 2 other rotating GM games in which I participated:

1) one was in D&D, lasted decades and crossed editions. In that one, there were only 3 DMs and a floating roster of other players, and each DM ran an entire adventure start to finish before handing over the reins to the next person.

2) the other was in RIFTS. There was only 1 campaign with 2 GMs. But there wasn’t enough communication between the GMs- especially regarding secret plot lines- and the campaign disintegrated within a year.

 

[Neonchameleon]

Weirdly I've never found this a problem with 4e. It's a game that gives so much to DMs that I've always had multiple DMs playing in any group where I'm running.

 

[lightful]

You (and the people you play with by extension) are very lucky. On the 4e discord channel there are currently multiple LFG threads begging and crying for any sort of DM.

 

[Tony Vargas]

So, it's been over a month, did you get any takers?

It's always hard to pull groups together and keep them together, and finding a DM for D&D is always the hardest part. 4e, at least, is easier to DM than other eds, so a round-robin arrangement like this is practical. (My campaign has been going over a decade, I have 7 players, and five of them are also DMs.)

How are you going to maintain a semblance of a balanced party with the party roster changing as DM’s and players rotate in and out?

One thing you can do for continuity/role-coverage is have a Companion Character version of each PC to use when that player is the DM.

 

[lightful]

Not from this site, but I had a few from other places, it got started then fell apart for reasons that are still not exactly clear. there was some vague talk about not "vibing" with the game and group. I may try to put something of the sort again at a later time when the harmony of the cosmos is giving of better vibrations.