Hi all

first post on this site and poss a stupid question to a few rpg vets here but...

I was wondering if this rpg suits GM rotation amongst a group of say three players?

I've only dabbled in a few rpgs and have always really enjoyed them but have always wanted to have a character and play as a GM.

In my group of wargmers and such, we are only a few and so do you think the game could work if say i was playing session as the GM and have a mate sort of auto pilot my character. Then when the next night comes along i will take my turn as a character and someone else takes charge as the GM.

I sort of looked on the internet to see how other people might do this but would like to see what you guys might have in mind for your games.

I was really excited about the DH rpg but never got a chance to try the free preview, but after flicking through the RT preview i think this quick mission style of play would fit in with well with my groups lifestyle.

looking forward to release as my bday is this month hehe

Cheers

Changing the GM each session would cause problems with the new gm not knowing where the endeavour is going (especially if he wants to take it in a different direction). I suggest that you rotate the gm after each endeavour. It also makes it easier to explain the absence of his character.

So it should work.

sorry when i meant session and night i meant endeavor

do you think you could have your character in the group whilst you GM, but leave all your pc's actions up to the player group?

ta

mallymoocow said:

It could work, but it just seems like it would be too tempting for the GM to favour his character in some way (like having the enemies shoot someone else) or other characters getting the GMs character killed through the actions they give it (even if it is only by accident). Much easier to just say that the character is unavailable.

The idea always put my in mind of Ars Magica's troupe style play. Simply put, the idea is that each player as a primary character and a host of communally shared red-shirts. When one player is GMing an adventure, his primary character remains back at "home base" while the other other players use their primary characters, along with a bunch of red-shirts to go off on the adventure. For the next adventure, a different player might GM, and different primary characters get played.

While I haven't seen RT, it strikes me as a game that could be run in a similar fashion. While you are GMing, your character stays on the ship and the other characters do the active adventuring. When someone else is GMing, their character stays behind.

It requires a different group dynamic than many RPG groups seem to have, but with the right people it can be a lot of fun.

yeah i agree with LuciusT. we had something similar in our WFRP campaign and it worked fine. it shouldn't be a problem to work it out in RT .

i'm playing with an idea to make future players make at least 2 characters - one from the RT that will ba part of the ship's officers core and one from DH that will be from ship's other staff...depending of mission a player could switch between characters.

Bilateralrope said:

That's why when the GM has his or her PC included in the scenario he always rolls dice to determine which of the PC's gets attacked in a pitched battle where everyone is a viable target. If there's four PC's in the scene, assign a number to each and roll a d4 the exact number of times the PC's get attacked.

We've always done that in my group and it has never gotten unfair at any point, and no one of us have "favoured" our own PC in any way. The only downside to GM rotation and the GM including his or her own PC is the fact that you'll have to take a step back in actually playing it, since you know everything that will happen in the scenario from the start. Meaning that for the particular sessions you GM you'll have to settle for being the "helping hand" PC and take more orders or suggestions from the other player PC's. But other than the GM having a bit of a dull time "playerwise" there's nothing wrong with it. Then there's the fact that you can't assign extra xp to your PC for "good roleplaying" (seem a bit inappropriate to judge your own roleplaying preformance) so some of the time you'll have to settle for a bit less xp than the others.

Then again our group is a heavy roleplay-focused group and we care primarily about the story of the campaign and characters involved rather than competing over which character gets the most loot, most xp or who survives the longest.

If you're the loot collecting, xp-grinding survivor type who want's to best everyone else at game mechanics, then you might not be suited for playiong as a GM and including your own PC as well...

cheers guys

lots of help

mallymoocow said:

Preview games tend to be quick missions. Like Con-games. I'm expecting, and am hoping for, big sweeping adventures that take many sessions to play.

When I roll my own adventures, a two session adventure is about as short as I like, since I like a mix of role playing and combat.

When we ran DH, we set it up this way: Each GM was an =I= and when it was time to run that GM's adventure, his =I= picked acolytes from a pool of agents currently being used by the local =I= concalve. This could be anyone, so the GM's character didn't play, but it was assumed that he was doing something somewhere for another =I=, so he still got XP for running the adventure This also made it easy when replacing characters. The new one had slightly less XP, but was still experienced and it was assumed that he was already running errands for the Conlave previous to his 'appearance' at the game table.

Having each player/GM as a different =I= also meant that the adventures in the campaign didn't have to be completely consistent. In fact, due to our individual =I='s belief systems and take on the war against the enemies of mankind, you had the situation where one =I= could send the acolytes on a mission and then, in a subsequent adventure, another =I= could send them back to undo what they had done! It really captured the fractured nature of the average Conclave.

As for RT, I would do the same thing in the same way, except each GM has a Rogue Trader character with his own ship and a Crew character on one of the other player/GM's ship. Then you could have them competing with each other over claims, even engaging in battle when they cross paths with each other and can't spilt the profits amiably. You could even have them sending 'raiding teams' and play out those missions with 40kRT (my preference) or modern 40k outside of the RPG sessions. Of course, it depends on all the player GMs working well together to create an exciting campaign, but it sounds like a metric tonne of fun on the bun to me...

cheers for thoughts guys

what do you think of this...

1. three members of the rpg group
2. all three members create two characters (if poss no one choose same class)(1 primary 1 secondary for each member)
3. during current rpg session the players (2 of) choice their primary and secondary PCs (primarys are role played, secondaries only take direct orders[2nd PCs cannot collect xp if they are not directly in the "boarding group", e.g they remain on board](players can only play their created primary PC, but all players can select any secondary PC to assist)
4. GM leads the session
5. when endevour is completed GM rotates

???

i like the idea of a group of PCs being picked by various =][='s(current GMs) within a conclave (think this could apply to a RT dynasty?)

cheers for your help

mallymoocow said:

I definately think this could be applied to a Rogue Trader Dynasty. In fact, that last word makes for an even more interesting campaign.The patriarch of a prominent Dynasty has died. The different Primary PCs are all members of the Dynasty competing to be head of the family by pulling off the most glorious exploits and bringing back the most precious cargo

Again, I'd go with the Primary Character having his own ship and the Secondary character being a crew-member aboard one of the other player's ships (perhaps a cousin or some other distant relation with enough of a blood tie to have a position of influence on a ship, but not enough to actually own a ship or contend for the position of head of the family).

The Primary Character focus rotates with each Endevour and the player of the Primary PC from the previous Endevour GMs the next one. The GM gains XP for his Primary and secondary characters when GMing.

One thing to note as well is that on a ship crewed by 20,000 people, it would be easy for a character to "disappear to other duties" when the GM switches from player character and back to GM. The game is scalable enough that u don't need X amount of players to complete something like in some other roleplaying games. Who ever is GMing, there character is off doing someother ship duties and then when the play as a character again, the character is once again part of the current endeavour.