Author Topic: Gaming group dynamics  (Read 1598 times)

42

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Gaming group dynamics
« on: March 31, 2004, 10:37:30 PM »
This is for the court of public opinion.

So my gaming has what we think is a nice format. We are running essentially three campaigns. I run a D20 modern-ish campaign. Another group member runs a traditional high-powered D&D campaign. And then we have another game that we play only occassionally.

We've decided that we like have multiple campaigns running. Mostly because it takes lot of pressure off the GMs to not have to be ready every week. It also lets us try a lot of different stuf. And it keeps people from getting ticked at the GMs because if the don't like something they can just wait until it's their week to GM and do thing the way they want.

So the problem is that another one of the group members wants to start a campaign. So how do we juggle in the that campaign. Right now we meet on the weekends. I switch off with one of the other GMs every other week. About once a month we have the other campaign. Now at least one of these campaigns should be ending soon, we think.

I don't any of have the time to play more than once a week. But we are wondering if we should add a special holiday session or something like that. We don't want to be stretched to thin where we only get to run our campaigns once a month or less. So comments? Questions? Advice?
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Re: Gaming group dynamics
« Reply #1 on: March 31, 2004, 10:52:02 PM »
just make him wait till one of the campaigns ends. That seems like the easiest.

42

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Re: Gaming group dynamics
« Reply #2 on: April 01, 2004, 09:13:21 PM »
If one of the campaigns ends. I know it will probably be at least until mine ends. One is suppose to end in two months, then I think he is starting up another campaign right away. The off campaign was only suppose to be a one-shot adventure that has turned into a full campaign. Maybe there is just too much we all want to do.
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Re: Gaming group dynamics
« Reply #3 on: April 01, 2004, 10:54:26 PM »
Our group has a similar set-up.  We generally play our major game (LotR) for 2-3 hours, then we break, then we play another person's game and campaign for 2 hour or so.  This works well as long as we have a set time and number of players.  THe advantage is that if one or two players want to play in one campaign but not the other, they know what time to show up to play in their game of choice.  For example, we have seven players who show up at 4 PM to play LotR, we break about 7 for dinner, and at 8 we play two hours of Laura's cinematic, high-powered superhero game where two of our players choose not to play in due to time constraints.
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Re: Gaming group dynamics
« Reply #4 on: April 02, 2004, 03:11:41 AM »
Actually I wanted to try an Eberron campaign.  IIRC it doesn't come out until sometime in June or July, and I would need at least a month or two before learning the campaign world.  So I was thinking August would be the earliest, and that was before someone else wanted to try DMing.  I don't have any problem with waiting until someone else's game is over.  I had actually considered doing the Eberron game a low-magic version because we kind of needed one after the sorcerous might of the Coldfire campaign, but someone else wanting to DM a low-magic game is even better 1) because I can be a PC, and 2) the Eberron game can be high-fantasy like its supposed to be.

My brother really likes the superhero Modern campaign, and I think everyone else is liking it so I doubt we want to end that one anytime soon.  My camaign was built with a very specific story to it.  At this point I have laid in all the clues and hints to figure out what's really been going on.  All that's left is simply to put all the pieces together and find out what the surprise ending is.  It could easily be finished in one session just depending on what the PCs do.  With the evil game sort of on the backburner most of the time, its seemed to work pretty good.  More than three games at once and I think we could start running into problems.  Also if we ended my game sooner, we could probably fit in a few more sessions of the evil "Anniaserean" campaign which would be fine with me since there is so much I want to do with that character.

One thing I've liked most about having more than one campaign is I generally like campaigns that last longer, but there's also a lot of characters I've wanted to try out for a long time that I've never got a chance to.  So with having more than a single game I've been able to try out multiple characters without having each campaign only last a handful of sessions.
« Last Edit: April 02, 2004, 03:14:02 AM by Eagle_Prince »
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