3 DMs, 1 Group

[Bjarkmundur]

I'm possibly going to be starting my second group soon.
Unlike my first group, which has three first-timers, the second group has two other DMs and one player.

We're hopefully gonna be swapping storytellers every couple of months.

My question is, what opportunities does this provide? We have three people that all contribute to the world building process, so I'm guessing it'll feel very open very fast. What other things are possible where the entire group is contributing to the world and story?

To put in contrast, my current group leaves everything to me, and doesn't enjoy talking about the campaign outside of sessions much. They occasionally talk about their character goals and wishes, but nothing substantial to the world or story as a whole. No one comes up to me with a module and says "this would fit well for our next adventure" and hands me a module. And no one ever says "hey, I have written an entire town, full with NPCs, warring factions a murder mystery. Can you take us there?"

Isn't it a completely different experience having an entire group who's engaged so fully in the continued narrative of the game? Willing to make up locations, factions and conflict that are far beyond the current reach of the characters?

What kind of theme's and scenarios are possible with so many people that all have the same goal of making the game enjoyable for everyone else, and not go player vs. DM.

Should we distribute NPCs to roleplay, so the same DM always role plays the innkeeper or City guard, no matter who's the current storyteller?

Do we allow players to add to the story, if the current storyteller gets stumped? Does asking a player to help DM a scenario ruin the narrative for that player?

Do we talk about different strengths of each DMs styles, and switch between sessions based on whether it's a social encounter or a combat encounter etc?

What good ways can you think of to explain why one of the group is always left behind, while the rest goes adventuring? I'm thinking "someone has to stay behind and run the company"

As you can see, I'm really excited, and hope to make most of the unique skill set a DM-player brings to the table. :)

[Man_Over_Game]

I think for something like this that it'd be better to have one primary DM, and have the secondary DMs provide a lot of insight and micromanagement. The problem with having 1 DM at a time that rotates out is that the narrative rarely stays together. Often times, the plot points become scattered, the story feels half-assed, and it makes things feel chaotic rather than creative.

Having 1 SuperDM and 2 SubDMs ensures that one vision is used that everyone experiences. Now, the other DMs can still add a lot in this kind of setup. Combat, balance, and homebrew is my forte, so I'd definitely be comfortable running most combat scenarios, and I'm responsible enough not to metagame with my knowledge. The other secondary DM can piece together parts of the world, and how the players' backgrounds fit into it. The primary DM's job would be to write the plot, play the narrative of the NPCs, and learn how to incorporate the other two DMs into the plot.

I find it's generally better to have 3 specialists than it is to have 3 generalists. 3 generalists will have a hard time working together and contributing equally, but 3 specialists won't.

[Bjarkmundur]

I had an idea of having a meet-up where the setting and some locations are created.

Than maybe the characters run an Adventuring Agency, or Hero-For-Hire, in a major city. This would explain why one player is always left behind, and ensures that after each adventure there's a new adventure hook waiting for us.

We are all playing in very plot-driven campaigns, this would be our little sandbox universe.

I've done it the other way, and you've told my how I could not rotate DMs.

Now tell me how I could do it.


... Wait, three specialists.... That... That could work.
So, one general DM, and then two DMs that have more niche roles, such as being in charge of organising the factions of the world, or running social encounters. That could work.

[2D8HP]

One thing that may be done with multiple DM's is to have different locations in a shared world by created by different DM's, the "Witch Woods" is one DM's 'realm', the "Goblin Caves" another's,and "Lankhmar the City State of the Overlord" a third's, with the PC's (minus and plus one) travelling between the 'realms'.

I haven't seen this in action since the '80"s, but it worked with my gaming group.

[Bjarkmundur]

One thing that may be done with multiple DM's is to have different locations in a shared world by created by different DM's, the "Witch Woods" is one DM's 'realm', the "Goblin Caves" another's,and "Lankhmar the City State of the Overlord" a third's, with the PC's (minus and plus one) travelling between the 'realms'.

I haven't seen this in action since the '80"s, but it worked with my gaming group.

That's clever! It creates a clear separation between each DMs style, and Lessens the risk of one' ruining' something another DM created.

[Keravath]

The easiest way to implement this is to have a shared world and divide the adventures into modules or missions.

You can either have the DMs character come along as an NPC or have it be their turn to mind the store (as you suggested).

There are lots of storylines that could be worked this way. Have the adventurers operate as a company for hire. One character always stays at the base as their agent to field inquiries and keep the business going. Maybe run an inn and bar as your base of operations. It provides rumors, access to other adventurers, travelers, the local town folk and can even become a location for some adventures.

Each DM gets to run an adventure in turn. The party can be hired with a goal in mind or perhaps the company hears a rumor or other piece of information worth investigating and decides to follow it up. Share the world building between DMs. Create a rough outline of geography/cities/demographics then each DM can flesh out whichever piece they use to set their adventure. The notes can be shared after each adventure so that the other DMs can use the material.

Keep in mind that although you might chat about the overall world, the details will be up to each DM and all the DMs have to be ok with whatever each DM decides to do with the shared world. So if you think there could be conflicts, decide at the beginning if there are limits and how you want them applied. For example, if a DM introduces a demon invasion that trashes half the known world ... is everyone ok with that?

Also, keep in mind that the DMs won't be sharing details of what they are doing since it will make it difficult for them to play each other's content. You may discuss it afterwards but if you want to have fun it will be unknown when you first run into it so some shared design rules would be useful.

Finally, a single over-arching plot line doesn't generally work in a multi-DM context since you want the story arc to be a surprise. So I would plan on three, possibly intersecting story arcs happening at the same time as opposed to a single narrative. This would happen naturally if each DM decides to link their adventures either to events in their own adventures or to events in other DMs adventures. Of course, if a DM links to a plot developed initially by another DM it may well go in an entirely different direction than the original DM was thinking of ... which can be lots of fun but only if the DMs don't get too attached to their plot line idea.

[Great Dragon]

2D8HP has a good idea.

Keravath makes a valid point.

If all three DMs agree to a specific Campaign World, they can have access to the World's overall History, but focus on a different area for their game.

For example: Take the Forgotten Realms.
One DM could take Cormyr, one DM the Dalelands, and one DM Chult.

Or, if all three DMs would like to be able to be interconnected, use the FR's Sword Coast.
One DM does Waterdeep, one DM does Neverwinter, and one DM does Balder's Gate.

Note: FR is just my go-to example.
Any established Campaign World will work.

A Homebrewed World might need for all the DMs to sit down and talk about the History and Cosmic Laws that apply.

In both cases: Meetings when switching to another DM; to adjust anything that was done in the World by the last DM would be advised.

[Arkhios]

Some years... wait, no. Nearly ten years ago (jayzus I'm old) I played in a campaign with multiple DM's rotating with episodic stories.

I think it was a bit easier because it was set in a premade world (Golarion), so each DM could affect the setting only so much, which both provided easier adventure hooks but also reduced the necessary micromanagement for all DM's (and players) involved.

[Lord Vukodlak]

In my group we have three active DMs and three separate campaigns. (along with two inactive DMs)
Today’s ill be my Paladin Jane in Underspace, last week it was my Wizard Nigel in Koshogez and next week it will be Alistair the Bard in The Crimson Moon.

In a couple months The Koshogez campaign will come to a close that DM will become just a player and my campaign will begin.

There is no shared world or unified story. There might be jokes or references. A party member suggests weregeckos responsible for the mysterious murders.(it was actually a weredrider) two years later in another campaign and in another edition of D&D one day we find yes weregeckos we’re responsible.

Instead of one week to prepare a DM has three. The different campaigns can have different tones giving a bit more variety.
It’s worked for my group for fifteen years.

[Urukubarr]

I think for something like this that it'd be better to have one primary DM, and have the secondary DMs provide a lot of insight and micromanagement.


this a million times, one person needs to be in charge of the big picture of the world and how it works. its fine if others want to run individual stories and adventures in that world AS LONG as they fit within the grand design and don't break core ideas of the setting. such as one player playing classic high fantasy and the next brings in a time traveling spaceship. . .but its easy enough to run little fable like adventures and swap DM's while not impacting the worldbuilding on a game breaking level, especially if the adventures are nice and tidy.

a decent example is actually Curse of Strahd. as the design itself is really classic (medieval gothic vampire and hordes of undead) and the land of borovia is interesting but rather a small area when you really look at it (consisting of really one major town and several points of interest) and the idea of the mist kind of cutting it off or preventing communication would explain why nobody else had really heard about it outside of rumors.

that would be really easy to transition into, play through, then transition out of, with effecting the WORLD on a grand scale.

[Bjarkmundur]

We've been bouncing ideas around, and you guys are really helping.

One guy suggested bringing some aspect of storytelling challenges. The kind you did in theatre class, where you take suggestions from the audience and then improve a scene from the suggestions. I'm not sure how he wants it to works, but it sounds exciting.

Maybe after each DM passes the mantle he gives the next DM a small challenge such as "In the next adventure, the Butler did it". Not sure how I feel about that one.

Another suggestion was to decide on one major aspect on the world before hand, something that gives it flavour, like the Hellmouth in Buffy or Neogenics in Amazing Spiderman. I think that's brilliant, for consistency.

We also decided on this:
Each level lasts for an equal number of sessions. For example, level 4 is four sessions, level 5 is five sessions.

The size of the adventure is based around being completed within a level. So big long stories are reserved for later levels, keeping the earlier levels fun and fast paced.

After each level, we rotate DMs.

Maybe we make an exception for levels 1 and 2, and have one DM set up the whole thing, then start rotating at the start of level 3.

Is there some way to make the challenge bigger? As in we create some sort of goal for all of us to reach together, so that each DM gets one piece of the puzzle? I don't know how that would work. But it sounds interesting that we are all rooting for each other to complete a series of tasks for some ultimate goal.

I'm also very excited of sharing Dungeon Master Tools :)

[Glorthindel]

From personal experience, I would give a few words of caution. Establish, right from day one, the boundaries on how you will each interact with each others material.

I played in a multi-DM campaign many many years ago, that ended catastrophically because individual DM's weren't respecting the work and ideas of the other DM's. People started changing people and events introduced by earlier DM's, in a couple of occasions fully retconning the events another DM had run, and (because at the time we were all young and stupid) led to passive-aggressiveness, and ultimately a spiteful and completely uncalled-for TPK (I can be harsh about that event, since it was stupid teenage me who did it!) that permanently fractured the roleplay group (but thankfully not the friendship, we are all still friends to this day, but only a couple of us have roleplayed together since).

Make sure you communicate, and be very clear what can and can't be tinkered-with by another DM

[Great Dragon]

Ninja'd by Glorthindel!!!