Would you find this rude?

[Odhanan]

What do others think? Should I wait? Would you as the current DM be offended? Thanks for your comments.

I'd wait too. It's simple courtesy, I think. The other DM might not mind, or he might. Tact is just about addressing potential issues of this kind.

 

[shaylon]

I'd wait. I wouldn't go so far as to say what you were doing is rude but it might offend the current DM. If you want to prep do what you can without dealing with the players directly.

Hope this helps.

-Shay

 

[CarlZog]

... how would you like to find out you're getting replaced when your replacement shows up and starts redecorating your office?

Heh. Yeah, that does actually sum it up pretty well. I agree; wait til it's all out in the open that the other guy's game is being yanked.

Carl

 

[lukelightning]

Another issue is that even if the DM is fine with it, once you start the players working on their characters, etc. there energy will switch entirely from "wrap up the game" to "make new characters."

 

[IronWolf]

If the current DM doesn't know he is being replaced then it is definitely rude. After it happens he will know that something was up and that more people knew about the plans to replace him.

If he does know about it I think its less rude, but still a possibly issue that as lukelightning mentioned, the energy will shift to the new game while the old game isn't quite wrapped up. It doesn't take too long to ramp up for a new game, so I don't think the overlap of games is worth the end result in my opinion.

 

[loki44]

When you say that you are "the next DM" it sounds like your group has some sort of system in place whereby the DM job has a set rotation. How has it worked in the past? Have other DM's started to prepare their campaigns before the current one has ended? I would say it is not rude if that's the case. Do you think the current DM will be upset because his campaign is going to be cut short? If so, and you do begin early preparations, he may blame you for the interuption. Doesn't really matter if it's rude or not at that point. You don't want to start your new campaign with a player pissed off from the get-go.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

I'd also say wait. If the game ends early on Saturday, find something else to do; Munchkin Risk, something else. Give a bit of separation between the end of the campaign that people have not been enjoying and the start of something new. It may make the transition a little smoother.

 

[Henry]

Another suggestion to wait a bit from me; if it keeps decorum and spares possibly bad feelings, the group could stand to play a card game or board game for a week while you prepare.

 

[Dr. Harry]

I also think that the best idea would definitely be to wait. This lets the last campaign end with whatever dignity it can, and it lets you start free if there is even the smallest break between the two campaigns.

 

[just__al]

The current DM does know that the group is thinking about stopping his game. But, I think after all the replies that I may wait. The olny reason I was going to get a jump on things was because it looks like we may stop this Saturday and I was hoping to get started. I think know that I will wait and see what happens this weekend. I can wait a week to start.

Beldar

You know, a week isn't going to buy you as much time as feelings you could spare. If you had more time to plan, then maybe, but at this point I'd announce that chargen will happen next session at the end of this weeks session and then you still will have the ability to plan because if you don't give any details about what the campaign is going to look like until chargen, you won't get much else done the next session and you'll still have that one week to plan and you won't look like a poacher.

My group we rotate DM's often (2-3 times a year) so this is somewhat different for our group. We usually know when the campaign is about to end although we (including the DM) don't know the final session until we've completed it (since we play about 3.5 hr sessions).

Usually we at least start getting our new characters prepared before hand. For my next campaign we are going to take a night off from the current campaign to do chargen. I am very happy about this because the group will all be making their characters together and will have some cohesion and a common background.