Multi DMs

[AxeMental]

Has anyone ever sat with more than one DM running a game? It seems I remember hearing about this sort of thing during ternaments during Cons; but is it also done regularly in large games? The one time I played in a really big game (30 or 40 players with 1 DM) was somewhat of a mess, and I think a side DM would have worked well (for side adventures, group discussions etc.) but is this commonly done?

I assume the side DM would need to be familiar with everything thats going on in the adventure, correct?

[CJL]

With that many players how much actually got done that session?

With two DM's how did that work? Let the co-DM take care of people that seperated from the adventure group in the dungeon? How did they keep the time line straight doing that at the cons?

[AxeMental]

Q: "With that many players how much actually got done that session?"

In my case it was an AD&D club at my school; just tons of people showed up. The DM was a good sport, and tried to get everyones input in making decisisons at least once. About half the group got wiped out in the first 2 hours. That left some of the more experianced players. Eventually it was down to just 6 of us which worked out well. Due to the high number of ultra geeks joining the club I stopped after school playing, but I understand it wasn't unusual for there to be 2 games running at a time with 30 or so players each with multiple DMs switching between tables. I got the impression these games became 2Eish in feel.

[geneweigel]

Yes, from my experience, a supplementary DM works great especially when you have too many NPCs. I knew that the concept was done before from Gary mentioning Rob and himself as co-DMs in WG5 MORDENKAINEN'S FANTASTIC ADVENTURE. So I had implemented it based on seeing this note in passing.

I don't tolerate hostile players though, so...

[Casey777]

Yes. I was in a Traveller online game with three GMs and roughly 10 or so players (the number wasn't constant) once. From that and experience with some two GM games (including being subordinate GM in one, again online) I recomend that one GM be made the main GM with the final deciding vote on any decision. Also delegate GM tasks before session when possible and have as much two way communication among the GMs and with the players. Otherwise things can easily wind up as bad as either Trimumvirate in Roman history (i.e. arguing and conflict).

The game with three GMs had GM conflict spilling over into the game and out of game with the players. Not fun for anyone.

I do think though that multiple GMs are viable and can be very helpful in certain games. Online they're very good for keeping the pace and picking up any slack.

[AxeMental]

Casey777, the purpose of my post was considering a multi-DM online post game. I was wondering how a game with say 100 players posting once a day or so would work (broken up into groups of 8 (2 groups per DM) occasionally running into each other, say on an island or huge underground dungeon, purhaps killing each other off when meeting, might work.

Kind of like a head DM who has little DMs running their games individually (say Mistere running his B2 game) then BPoM is running a seperate game with a bunch of other guys on the same playing field. The Head DM tells BP and M that the two groups are about to meet up and lets them know how they would effect each other (trail of dead monsters, set traps etc.

It would require some really devoted people however, that would have fun doing this sort of thing. Kind of a everquest with posts and DMs splitting the tasks.

It was just an idea I had in my head, not something I really ever thought would work. But, its interesting you had multi DMs for such a small group (10).

[AxeMental]

Did you ever consider how cool it would have been if we had e-mail and the internet back in 1979 for that kind of gaming experiance. Though, it would have had its drawbacks as well (as foster mentioned someplace about how distractions get in the way of tabletop gaming).

[Jerry Mapes]

Every con i was at back in the early days always had duel DMs, more specifically a DM and a Judge. The Judge was more to track points in the tourney mod, but they also did a bit of DMing.

In college we ran a group of about 20 people and me and my buddy brian Co-DMed the group. bascially one of us would runthe adventure and the other would handle the the dice rolls. If you have a compatable partner it can wrk very well.

What you are thinking of doing would almost require to have a lot of DMs. Something that large you would have groups going in all over the place in a Crawl. with 40 or 50 people it would take at least 4 DMs and a an overlord DM to trak it all. Its workable but as you siad everyone on the DM staff would have to be dedicated.