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BRC
2007-07-05, 09:36 PM
Heres somthing I wonder if it could work. Have 2 teams engage in a head to head gaming sessions
Step 1: Get say, 6 or 8 Friends together, plus another DM. Start with the cookie cutter plot hook of "[nobleman] hires party to get [Valuable Item] from [Dungeon(old castle, cave, abandoned temple, whatever)]". However, as they are leaving the noblemans keep, he says somthing along the lines of
"Oh you better hurry, my enemy [another nobleman] is rumored to have hired a group of adventurers to seize [Valuable Item] for himself.]\
It is assumed that the two groups reach the start of the dungeon at the same time, and then must try to get to the valuble item at the end. It should be arranged that there be a point where each DM says "As you enter the room, you see the [Valuable Object] glittering on a pedestal, however, you see another group of figures standing in the opposite doorway."
Then the DM's have all the players sit at the same table, and fight it out for the item.

Quietus
2007-07-05, 09:51 PM
It could work, but then you have the problem of splitting eight of your friends into two groups and pitting them head to head, with the express intention of beating each other down in an effort to get the treasure before the others do. If you have a mature group of gamers, it could be okay, but in a lot of groups it'll just end up in fighting.

Fax Celestis
2007-07-05, 09:55 PM
Good concept, hard to implement. You're also running under the assumption that both groups will take roughly the same amount of time to get to Location X, which--what with in-game and metagame humor, desire to RP, and generally getting sidetracked--probably isn't going to happen.

SensFan
2007-07-05, 09:56 PM
get ready to have everyone powerplaying.

BRC
2007-07-05, 09:58 PM
It could work, but then you have the problem of splitting eight of your friends into two groups and pitting them head to head, with the express intention of beating each other down in an effort to get the treasure before the others do. If you have a mature group of gamers, it could be okay, but in a lot of groups it'll just end up in fighting.
If you know your players, and know that you have a group who won't take it personally when another player reduces them to ashes. it would proably be a good idea to have somthing for deceased players to do while their comrades are attempting to shuffle each other off the mortal coil. I could only see it being done as a one-time thingh, not canon in terms of the campaign so-to-say.

Sornjss Lichdom
2007-07-05, 10:00 PM
well it sounds good, ya you'd need good friends to play against each other, or it will fall into disary.

it would be nice also to get them playing opposite allighnments, so you'd have that crazy pladin just wanting a piece of that black guard even if they already have said valube item.

BRC
2007-07-05, 10:00 PM
Good concept, hard to implement. You're also running under the assumption that both groups will take roughly the same amount of time to get to Location X, which--what with in-game and metagame humor, desire to RP, and generally getting sidetracked--probably isn't going to happen.

One way it could be done is to do each group as a seperate session, then have them come together for the battle, and confer bonus's depending on how well they did in their individual sessions. Like the group that takes the least in-game time to get there has the opprotunity to take up whatever positions they want in the room because the valuable object is protected by a magical sheild that takes a few hours to fully power down or somthing.

nooblade
2007-07-05, 10:03 PM
It might be more interesting if you have about eight players, without assigning them teams or letting them know what classes the other players are going to pick, and then allow them to team up selectively and possibly compete among each other. It might generate unfair teams, but you'd also have to admit that smaller parties might have some distinct advantages in stealth. This would be a unique opportunity for a player or two to display their cunning.

If character development is rewarded with experience like some DMs do, then it might be a worthwhile strategy to make a less powerful class or a uniquely disadvantaged character that can steam ahead of the others.

This sounds like fun. It would just require some really good players--skilled and not too snotty that is.

BRC
2007-07-05, 10:06 PM
Another way it could work, two groups of players, once group plays the adventurers, off dungeon crawling. However, everytime they run into a group of monsters, the DM goes and plays solitare while the second group controls the monsters. Sure the second group dies abunch, but they put no effort into creating the characters, so they proably wouldn't mind.

Damionte
2007-07-05, 10:26 PM
one great summer back in hmm like 65 I think I did a Champions super hero campagn on this model.

I had three indivudal player groups of 4-6 players which met on different nights of the week. Two groups were playign heroes, and one was playing villains. One of my villain players was also a guest GM and did substitute GM sessions for the heroes to better give character to the villains plans.

It both worked and didn't work at the same time. The problem with the concept was that in the end, not everyone got to "win". One of my villain players had a big problem with not being abel to "win." Granted had he coem up with a better super villain plot he would have.

The other villains had some pretty cool plans. His plan was simply to drive through town throwing hand grenades into school yards. Then he got upset when the heroes swooped in and kicked his butt. The other villains wouldn't help him because his plan was stupid.

Anyway it was interesting. The last 6 weeks of the campagn were the toughest as that's how long it took us to play out the final battle. Try to do a super hero fight with 15+ players. Takes a while.

ClericofPhwarrr
2007-07-06, 01:21 AM
You might be interested in reading this (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23779): lankeybugger's brilliant simultaneous DMing of two groups over IRC.

BRC
2007-07-06, 01:59 AM
You might be interested in reading this (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23779): lankeybugger's brilliant simultaneous DMing of two groups over IRC.

That was pure genius, he pulled off by accident what I could only imagine doing.

Kurald Galain
2007-07-06, 03:51 AM
It's tricky. I've done it once but one group could meet more often and therefore quickly outleveled us.