My Saturday night group recently decided to try out the Pathfinder system. As there are only three of us for the time being. I started it out in a "New World settlement" like the early colonization of America. No firearms to start and a definite fantasy twist. We use the same characters but rotate DMing. The adventure line gets interesting when there's two or three plots going at the same time. We are all carefull about playing favoritism. I know I've killed two PCs and even killed my own Druids animal companion.
   I'm wanting to know if any of you have done anything similar. I'd also like to know if you'd like to see more details of our adventures. This is my very first post here on the forums. If any of you are from Wichita Kansas I'd like to know and maybe game sometime.

Quote from: redd;640227My Saturday night group recently decided to try out the Pathfinder system. As there are only three of us for the time being. I started it out in a "New World settlement" like the early colonization of America. No firearms to start and a definite fantasy twist. We use the same characters but rotate DMing. The adventure line gets interesting when there's two or three plots going at the same time. We are all carefull about playing favoritism. I know I've killed two PCs and even killed my own Druids animal companion.
   I'm wanting to know if any of you have done anything similar. I'd also like to know if you'd like to see more details of our adventures. This is my very first post here on the forums. If any of you are from Wichita Kansas I'd like to know and maybe game sometime.

Hi welcome.

I have done a bunch of simialr things.

2 GMs in a game one running major NPCs one running the 'plot' .

2 GMs in the same game each with different plots and twists each with a player in the other half of the game with both games running simultaneously

mutliple GM/players in a battlesystem type games where each battle was proceeded by a roleplay session where the PCs took on the role of chanracters that woudl be involved in the battle. 4 players and who ras the session depended on who was in the next battle (eg The Human player DMs a game where 3 orc assasins try to get intto eh human camp and assasinate their general before the battle )

Our multiverse games where a bunch of our favourite characters from many systems got pushed through a series of linked adventures that involved crossing the multiverse changing systems each time. The party stays the same but he GM rotates as does the setting and the system, so you have to create 004 as a D&D character, a oWoD character a Cthulu investigator and a Toon..... The Gm character either gets sidelined or becomes an NPC for that session.

The people I game with use their D&D characters in each others' games.

It's worked out pretty well.

I don't think I'd enjoy doing this.

Welcome to the adult swim.

Yes, I've done this many times; our AD&D campaign in high school rotated through four referees by turns, and my last Traveller campaign involved splitting up the refereeing duties. In all cases we had our own player characters as well, and it was never a problem with playing favorites.

Now I'd be more likely to use something like the Mythic Game Master Emulator and go referee-less altogether.

Quote from: Black Vulmea;640477Welcome to the adult swim.

Yes, I've done this many times; our AD&D campaign in high school rotated through four referees by turns, and my last Traveller campaign involved splitting up the refereeing duties. In all cases we had our own player characters as well, and it was never a problem with playing favorites.

Now I'd be more likely to use something like the Mythic Game Master Emulator and go referee-less altogether.

Whoah! Now that's some wild thinking!

Quote from: Black Vulmea;640477Welcome to the adult swim.

Yes, I've done this many times; our AD&D campaign in high school rotated through four referees by turns, and my last Traveller campaign involved splitting up the refereeing duties. In all cases we had our own player characters as well, and it was never a problem with playing favorites.

We did the same thing. Worked well. The PCs of the DM just set out the adventures he was running. There was a bit of lag in PC progression when the DM back to his characters. But that's addressed pretty well by the built-in catch-up progression of the AD&D XP system. It helped with DM burnout, and I think the other players enjoyed the change of pace of the two DMs.

Quote from: redd;640227My Saturday night group recently decided to try out the Pathfinder system. As there are only three of us for the time being. I started it out in a "New World settlement" like the early colonization of America. No firearms to start and a definite fantasy twist. We use the same characters but rotate DMing. The adventure line gets interesting when there's two or three plots going at the same time. We are all carefull about playing favoritism. I know I've killed two PCs and even killed my own Druids animal companion.
   I'm wanting to know if any of you have done anything similar. I'd also like to know if you'd like to see more details of our adventures. This is my very first post here on the forums. If any of you are from Wichita Kansas I'd like to know and maybe game sometime.

I've tried rotating GMs several times. The only time it really worked was when we played a Sliders-type game, allowing for the same characters in different settings and scenarios. Every time we tried to do it in a more traditional game, one GM usually outshone the others and one GM was usually horrible. This lack of referee continuity eventually led to some people skipping certain nights to avoid certain GMs.

I have done almost the exact same thing several times in the past.

It's actually pretty fun. We used to rotate each game session, even mid-adventure if it came to that. Since everyone has different viewpoints on what's happening, it makes it weird and exciting.

My buddy Arsenic Canary and I did this for an Exalted 2nd game. We had a LARGE group for a Solar Exalted game, something like 8ish players. Each Solar has the capability to affect the setting of the game in huge swaths so for a single ST to wrangle that much potential would be a tough deal. It wasn't rotating GMs (which we've tried and they result in abysmal failures), but Co-GMing.

We developed a few habits that made handling the game pretty easy, all things considered.

* We talked/emailed with each other about the game. A lot. We played weekly and we'd talk about the game and our ideas every day. Arsenic was a constant source of inspiration for me and I hope I was at least somewhat the same for him. This gave us the ability to lead players into each others ideas and kept the game much more unified between us.

* If Arsenic created an NPC, it was Arsenic's NPC and vice versa. We'd share, describe and give ideas for them to each other, of course, but if that NPC came in to play, it was (mostly)played by the the man who created him. A lot of our NPCs had pretty in-depth backgrounds. This kept them consistent as only one of us really gave a damn about it.

* If the party split, the game continued for both parties. 3-5 Solars/players is easy enough to manage for one person and was a benefit we absolutely took advantage of.

* We both ran combat. This may be because Exalted 2 has a very complicated weapon timing system and a very complicated character creation (design?) process and a very complicated interaction between powers and (OK, you get the idea). To run combats with that many players would be difficult. Since NPCs were already split (as above), you didn't have to think of appropriate actions for so many characters at once.

Good luck! For me, this was one of the funnest games I've ever run, and I will probably never run Exalted any other way. I hope your rotating GM game turns out well. If it does, I'd love to read how you made that happen.

This is the default/recommended mode of play in all editions of Ars Magica, where they call it "troupe-style play".  So it's definitely been out there and seems to work for a lot of people.

Personally, though, I don't know that I'd like it all that much, given that I enjoy GMing far more than being on the other side of the screen.

I've been playing and DMing off and on (mostly on) since 1979. I like to DM, but much prefer to be a PC. Folks say I'm a good DM but I do get burnt out easily. When I'm a DM for this game my PCs take on the NPC role. If there is a scenario within my game that my NPC must play a major role then another DM takes temporary comand. This is cool because it can send (and has sent) my part of the campaign in a total different direction. In a combat situation I try so hard not to play favorites, that I tend to be even tougher on my characters that usual, hence the death of my own animal companion.

I wouldn't have a problem, if it came up that way, to alternate turns with another person in running two totally different campaigns.

RPGPundit

I don't really like multiple gm's in the same campaign. I believe my issue with it is being 'forced' to accommodate the ideas of the other gm. Not saying they have bad ideas; but the fact I 'have' to use those ideas rubs me the wrong way.

Quote from: Bill;641148I don't really like multiple gm's in the same campaign. I believe my issue with it is being 'forced' to accommodate the ideas of the other gm. Not saying they have bad ideas; but the fact I 'have' to use those ideas rubs me the wrong way.

I ran into some of those issues in a group I was with for a few years, each DM would run their adventure, then pass the DM duties to the next person, but keeping the same chars. One of the player/DM's was wanting to toss in some rather crazy stuff.  He more or less stepped back out of the rotation, leaving them to deal with me, and with one of the best DM's at whose table I've had the pleasure to sit.