I am one of two GMs for our fairly large group, and love the system Fantasy Flight has put together. We go back and forth with it (between other systems) as we swap out GMs.

With the movie coming out, and my birthday right around then, I decided that I would try and have a 'round robin' style marathon (like we used to have when we were kids).

In the case of this gaming marathon, each of the players would have to volunteer to run something (I have almost all the printed and downloadable modules available), and we would rotate GM duties through the group.

We would start early New Year's Eve (because many of us have the day off), and play though until late New Year's Day (or as long as some of us 'old fogeys' can make it).

Right now, most of my players have run few to no games, and are planning on running premade modules. I would have the 'greenhorn' GMs run something like the basic boxes near the beginning of the marathon, and some of the more experienced GMs running longer adventures/sessions/modules as the night wears on. This way, the greenhorns would be handling characters with lower XP pools, and the more experienced GMs will be handling the larger, beefier characters.

I am planning on having characters made early (or having folks select premades from the large amount currently available), and having these characters play through the marathon. By the end of the game, they would be pretty far along the XP path.

I am also planning on setting up a schedule for folks, so they know when they are running, and I plan on stringing the modules/adventures together so they feel less disjointed.

What are your thoughts? If you were to do something like this, how would you go about it?

Back in February, I ran a five day game of Pathfinder. We took breaks only to sleep and level up our characters. It was awesome, and probably the single most mentally exhausting thing I've ever done.

Make sure you have plenty of soda and pizza.

This is the order of the modules that I am looking at for the marathon there are SPOILERS in the descriptions of the modules, so please keep that in mind : )

The red text is how I plan to attach the modules together. These are still pretty basic.

Escape from Mos Shuuta (Beginner Game):

**The Players escape with a blue skinned Twi’lek who parts ways with many thanks as they get their ship. As the players make their way off of Tatooine, a message from the holonet connects, alerting them to the kidnapping of Terrast Voon, who had assisted in their escape from Teemo. He was taken to the Outer Rim planet of Splintir, and is in dire need of their help. Their ship is on its last legs, and nearly crash lands on the planet’s surface**

((GM Note: Twi’lek Reom is the main POC for ‘Beyond the Rim’ and will be a good NPC POC for the players throughout the Campaign))

((I plan on taking Terrast Voon, from the FaD Box adventure, and using him in place of Hethan Romund, the NPC from the Fad Box adventure and follow-on adventure))

Mountaintop Rescue (Beginner Game):

**Now that the Base has been achieved, the players must attempt to fix its capabilities and track down the missing holocrons**

Lure of the Lost (Downloadable adventure PDF):

**The base has been completed, and the ship mostly repaired, when the PCs get a call from the Twil’ek Reom, who had escaped with them from Teemo’s clutches. He has a job for them on Ryloth, assisting the miners there from a takeover by Teemo’s interests**

The Long Arm of the Hutt (Downloadable PDF):

**Teemo’s Imperial allies have been struck a heavy blow, and this has drawn the attention of the Rebellion on our PCs, they are offered a job, one that could pay them handsomely, especially with some much needed modifications for their ship.**

Operation: Shell Game (Beta playtest):

**As partial payment for their actions for the Rebellion, the Rebellion gives the PCs a lead on some goings on the planet Phemis, where some special mining could mean a pretty big pay day**

Hidden Depths (Game Master's Kit):

These modules are taken from the complete list of available modules, and as we will be trading out GMs (each player in the marathon will be taking the role of GM for a module), each GM got to choose from that list a module he finds interesting.

Please let me know what you think, any adjustments or ideas to help tie these modules together, or anything I should consider when running these modules together. I am trying to make them feel like a continuing adventure, so that they don't feel disjointed. Additional links to other modules would be awesome, as I am going to try and extend this past the marathon into a weekly campaign, and would love to have certain NPCs, of actions have weight in future sessions.

((Like having Reom start with them from the beginning and having him appear a couple of times before I use him in 'Beyond the Rim'.))

Thanks guys!

This sounds like a great time. I miss the marathon sessions from when I was younger. There is nothing like starting in the afternoon and still be playing when the sun comes up the next day.

Working the modules together is a great way to handle things and letting newer GMs run first means their player pool should also consist of experianced GMs, to help them along. You may have some of those new GMs learn they really love running.

I would be curious to know how this goes and how easily the system is received by new GMs. I have a couple of players who have always said they wouldn't want to GM and I am thinking of tossing them the AoR or F&D begginers boxes and seeing how it goes.

I think that Edge of the Empire works better than many games for this type of event. After all, adjudicating advantage and despair allow the players to influence the course of events in a scenario, even if there's only one GM. I recommend emphasizing the fact that everyone is there to have fun--which doesn't sound like a problem for your group--and then letting the new GMs handle things with input from more experienced players. It's okay for the GM to tell players, "Here's the situation, and I'm not sure how to handle it." The group's collective knowledge and dramatic flair should prevail.

-Nate

thanks for the suggestions! I will make sure to report back how this ends up going.

Nate, that is a valid point on making sure the newer GMs (who always said they wouldn't GM) feel comfortable enough to ask for inputs too.