Co-DM for a pbp; can it work?

[ken-do-nim]

Has anyone ever successfully run a D&D pbp game with a co-DM? How did you do it?

[Chookster]

Sure have, and it sure can, you need to be flexible as **** though.

Plan the session together, have a similar sense of style, and overall, be flexible.
Occasionally your partner is gonna throw a curveball that you weren;t planning but don;t pause, don't stop and contradict them, roll with it.

Usually we'd just take turns speaking and describing, or one of us would do the voices and the other would set the scene, its a lotta fun as long as you don;t ever stop, always have someone addressing the players, or listening to them, don't pause the action to confer it really kills a session

[The Glyphstone]

He said PbP, as in play-by-post. That's good advice for a tabletop session though.


And yeah, it can be done. I'm playing in one now offsite. One way to do it is split duties - one DM focuses on plot and story arc, the other stats up encounters and enemies.

[Psionic Dog]

It ought to work. I remember seeing it work. But, alas, I have no personal success story: only a few pointers learned the hard way.

In short:
I'd recommend finding the Co-DM in advance. Preferably someone you already are at least aquantences with, and jointly develop the setting before finding the players.

In Long:
I've tried thrice to recruit a CoDm along side players: an thrice ended up struggling along as a solo DM.

One never was for lack of work. (Over 50% of the players who showed interest in the first three days withdrew or disappeared before recruitment ended)

The other two fizzled out with a month, I think, for one reason or another.

At a guess I'd say my failures were as follows:

1) Lack of investment. I was hoping for someone how could help out as if they were running a pre-made module. However, while some people love to DM and RP but hate world building, personally sharing in the game vision seems essential to sticking to the long-slow style of PbP games.

2) Flawed recruitment. A thread titled: "Found players, looking for Co-DM" tends to pull in someone who happens to have free time and is willing to help out. However, handing them the campaign note stack generally doesn't induce initiative and requires active delegation on your part. Worse, as casual add-ons when their free time becomes scarce so do they.

3) Dysfunctional Coordination: As The Glyphston said, duties should be split up. I'll add this: Do so in advance. By mutual agreement. Ideally, with someone you already know or vouched for by someone you know. The last point provides a starting level of trust and confidence on which to build.

Make campaign. Find Players. Find Co-DM. This didn't work for me.

If I ever tried this again the order would be: Find CoDM, Jointly develop story, Find players.