CO-DM'ing, how does it function?

[Dire Reverend]

I am considering recruiting Co DMs for my PbP game, because I essentially started three separate games at once, and after agreeing to DM this, I realized that it was not the greatest idea, due to me not having the time and/or energy to DM three games at once.

Could someone please explain in detail how Co-DMing works, or if Co-DMing is a very bad idea, let me know about it?

Also, could someone link me to a game (preferably one that is on this site) that they have been in where Co-DMing was involved, and your opinion on it?

[Keneth]

I've only Co-DMed once when the player group grew to 6 players and even then both of us had different roles. I basically prepared and led the story while the other DM was in charge of controlling the battlefield and events (keeping track of the stats, rolling dice, managing initiative order, etc). It's completely between you and the other DM how you want to divide the work load but it takes a lot of coordination and it doesn't necessarily free you up so much that you could juggle three campaigns at the same time.

[Person_Man]

Draw (or buy) a map together. Divide up the major nations, or cities/towns if it's a small map, or neighborhoods if it's a map of one city. When the party chooses to enter a particular area, that DM takes over. If you have a major antagonist that lives in one area that needs to pursue the party somewhere for plot reason, he uses a lieutenant/minion/partner/etc (who may have his own motivations) controlled by the appropriate DM instead. You make a gentleman's agreement not to screw with each other. If you want to rotate every game session or two, then put the party on a boat or caravan so that they travel a lot. I've actually found that this works best when an entire party just divvies up a game world and rotates DMing.

[Andorax]

The main reasons to CoDM simply don't exist in a PBP environment. The key reason(s) to CoDM are:

1) Logistical management...the ability to handle a larger than normal number of players at once, the ability to keep combat running smoothly, the ability to manage two legitimate party-sized split-off groups at once.

2) Inspiration...pulling on a second person's ideas, concepts, and points of view to enrich your own adventure.


Logistics are nowhere near as much of an immediate burden in a PBP setting. The pace is already vastly slower by the nature of the medium, and organization can come simply from lists. What's more, the effort involved in actually contacting and going over things with your CoDM would be as or more onerous than simply managing the group yourself.

Inspiration in a PBP setting is also much more managable. Have a separate thread with a clear "if you're in this PBP, GET OUT" notice at the top, and draw on the whole dang forum for CoDMing inspiration value. Again, because of the nature of PBP, consulting with a CoDM would be much more work than worth.


It sounds like what you need to do is recruit a REPLACEMENT DM for one of your three PBP campaigns, since you're overstretched and overcommitted. Then politely bow out, but offer to drop in from time to time and help if the replacement DM needs something in specific. That, or just fold it up completely. If you can't give it your full attention, you probably shouldn't try giving it half either.