Muddyboots
Apprentice Douchebag
Posts: 83
Preferred Game Systems: Callofsavagetoon 5ERPS
Currently Playing: Pla-Ying, wazzat?!?
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Post by Muddyboots on Nov 20, 2014 14:51:11 GMT -8
Subject: Co-GMing.
Practices, techniques, benefits and pitfalls...
Discuss...
Muddyboots
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Post by Bill Roper on Nov 24, 2014 22:40:07 GMT -8
Having done a couple of con games this way (Champions with Stu and Savage Worlds with Kimi) there's some great benefits and a couple of pitfalls.
Benefits include having the ability to readily and easily split the party should they decide to do so. This was also VERY handy with a strict 4 hour limit on the session. In the game that Kimi and I ran two groups of three each took completely different routes and methods to solving the same challenge (how to get into a disused portion of the London Underground during the WWII bombings). While on group used guile and feminine whiles, the other used brute force and explosives. When the detonation patrol came in through a wall, we brought the two groups back together and it was actually pretty seamless.
Another benefit in this same game was having two people to play NPCs that could interact with both the party and each other. Kimi was brilliant as the wife to my baker who were part of a spy network (as I recall). We were able to give out the required information while keeping the spirit of the world alive and giving some depth to the NPCs that I don't think would have been there without another GM.
When Stu and I ran Champions it was very helpful to have someone else who was very familiar with a complex game system to help players with rules and whatnot. It was also great to have another GM to move combat along and take control of one villain hill I ran another. It made all the bookkeeping much easier.
Pitfall: You have to either be very in sync naturally (Bruce and Casey have this one nailed) or both be able to VERY quickly "Yes, And" not just with your players but with any decision the other GM throws out there. While you can have a lot of things laid out already, invariably something will come up that calls for on-the-spot improv. You definitely have to check your GMing ego at the door to make room for wherever the other GM might take things.
I'd love to know what other think or have experienced here. I've enjoyed the few times I've done this.
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Muddyboots
Apprentice Douchebag
Posts: 83
Preferred Game Systems: Callofsavagetoon 5ERPS
Currently Playing: Pla-Ying, wazzat?!?
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Post by Muddyboots on Dec 2, 2014 13:53:16 GMT -8
Great response, Bill! Yeah, you really have to be in synch, even if there is a clear lead.
For clarity, we are talking about two GMs working at the same time and sharing responsibilities to varying degrees, as opposed to what I call shared world GMing where you run separately but in the same world, even with the same characters.
I just recently got pulled into a Delta Green (GURPS) game as a major NPC handler. My buddy contacted me originally about doing some props for the game. You know, the usual, documents, location pictures, graven idols... He also wanted to up his realism level in trade-craft. We spawned an idea and I joined the game. I'm not sitting down at the table with them, ever. They are in the Rockies and I'm back east. The way this works is that I am available by E-mail during the time they usually play, so I'm playing an anonymous leak in a secret government task-force who is feeding them info and otherwise effecting things off stage. I set up a hushmail type account with an all number address which they will find in the first sensitive site exploitation of the game. They are investigating a dead agent... They will have some of the contact protocol and we will do the exchanges live. The GM and I are already sending pdfs and documents back and forth to get several things nailed down. we also discussed the boundaries of my "lane" in his plot. I'm also going to help RP the "opposition" leadership by doing the tasking orders for the not-bad-guys-but-in the-way other .gov agency.
We have some fun stuff lined up. In one scene they will actually physically go collect a dead dropped code sheet. We are even talking about doing a birthday dinner for one of the players at a local pub and having a fat envelope of documents and a small stone artifact delivered to their table. I know people in their town that they don't know and would be willing to "run an errand" for me. It would be mind blowing for this crew to have a cold delivery done by some one and the GM can honestly say, "I have no idea who that was, I have never seen them before in my life!"
One of the things that makes this fun for us is that he can handle the basic running and I'm handling a major component of NPCs and dressings. I like doing those parts, and he doesn't have to worry so much. It also makes the sandbox bigger but makes it easier to deliver plot scenes since two of us are thinking about it. this is just an extreme end of having on GM do most of the NPC RP. In this one, we don't have to worry too much about combat, since they are AVOIDING it at all costs (GURPS! You want to get shot at in GURPS?) In other systems, like D&D, I used to regularly double team with a different GM, especially if the table was 8 or more players.
Once when we had a split party in a huge game, half the players were researching something and plotting while the other half went to question a couple thugs. It resulted in combat so, even though my character was playing in the plotting crew, the GM pulled me in and had me run the combat v. the thugs as brevet GM while he put the spotlight on the other (my) group. That was a serious chalange to avoid the pit fall of GM Character AND meta knowledge. The GM figured he knew how I'd play my character in the RP and how I'd field the thugs. It worked out well, even though I had to play catchup a little. It could easily have been a disaster.
Rambling...
Muddyboots
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