Has anybody participated in a game with two GMs?

Perhaps one has more experience with the game system and handles most of the crunchy rule stuff, while the other is learning the game but handles most of the story writing stuff.

Personally, I'm new to the RPG world but I really want to build a foundation for a story and see where the players take it. I'm also way more excited about the Role Playing side than the Rule System side. I feel like I need another GM to mentor me until I get more comfortable with the game system.

I'm sure there are plenty of horror stories of epic failures regarding this. Much like anything else. But I'd like to know:

Has this been done successfully? What was the key to success?

I have done co-GMing once with a large group. I'd worked with the other GM running LARP for many years, and we knew the way each other thought. We planned out the adventure on the drive to the tabletop game and ran it that evening for a dozen players. Having two GMs kept things going much faster than just one. It was a bit of a special case, though, as we were doing a tabletop trial of a new LARP system we'd been developing.

However, more relevantly it isn't unusual to be a player in a game where I knew things the GM did not. As long as GM happy with it, being able to assist with mechanics can make things faster. Indeed I was recently invited to play a game partially so I could provide this advice.

Will the other players be new to RPGs, or this particular system, as well? I would suggest you pick up one of the Beginner Game boxed sets, and learn it together, as you play. You can gradually add crunch with a Core Rule Book, as best suits your table; or keep to a mostly narrative style, if that works with your group. A little homework (familiarizing yourself with the basic rules of the game) is part of the responsibilities of being a GM, but I wouldn't worry about trying to take it all in, before starting play. Have fun!

I've been in a campaign with rotating GM duties, but have only co-GM'ed the way you describe once. It was for a special event - many, many (many) moons ago, during a long-running DC Heroes RPG campaign (which also had rotating GM duties), I had the foolish notion to adapt Crisis on Infinite Earths as a side-adventure. One of the other members of the group came on as co-GM because of the scope of the adventure. We helped one another with running the group, but it also allowed us to split the group during appropriate parts of the story, replicating the plot of the comic as published, while keeping things moving for the entire group.

It can most certainly work, and be beneficial, though. It just takes good communication between the co-GM's.

16 hours ago, Nytwyng said:

I've been in a campaign with rotating GM duties, but have only co-GM'ed the way you describe once. It was for a special event - many, many (many) moons ago, during a long-running DC Heroes RPG campaign (which also had rotating GM duties), I had the foolish notion to adapt Crisis on Infinite Earths as a side-adventure.

Is this a foolish notion?

My plan is to loosely adapt the History Channel show Vikings to SWRPG taking place about 40 years before the events of Phantom Menace. Vikings = Mandalorians, Priests = force sensitive NPCs & Inquisitors.

I've already began adapting it for fan fiction but I think it might be a fun setting for players to role play in.

There will be extensive "re-skinning" to make the time period work. The Republic standing in for the Empire on most occasions.

5 minutes ago, Mychal'el said:

Is this a foolish notion?

My plan is to loosely adapt the History Channel show Vikings to SWRPG taking place about 40 years before the events of Phantom Menace. Vikings = Mandalorians, Priests = force sensitive NPCs & Inquisitors.

I've already began adapting it for fan fiction but I think it might be a fun setting for players to roll play in.

There will be extensive "re-skinning" to make the time period work. The Republic standing in for the Empire on most occasions.

Foolish notion in that we were condensing a 12-issue comic story, with literally multiverse-spanning repercussions, into a single gaming session, adding to the existing cast of thousands by adding to the "surviving" Earths the Marvel Earth* and the Earth that the PC's were retroactively said to hail from before the muliversal reboot combined to make a single Earth**, all being managed by a pair of doofus teenagers. It was an ambitious undertaking for what was essentially a one-off flashback story that the characters wouldn't remember, simultaneously having participated in and not participated in.

Without ever having watched an episode of Vikings, your idea sounds very cool.

*With a side motive of killing Wolverine as many times as possible.

**The campaign had been going on for a while, set in a post-Crisis universe that included Marvel...basically, the post-Crisis version of the universe of the DC/Marvel crossovers before those stories started explicitly factoring in them being two distinct and separate universes.

1 hour ago, Mychal'el said:

Is this a foolish notion?

I'd say not at all. I've never done a co-GM thing, but I do have buy-in on the idea from a bunch of friends. Two of us are planning the "grand arc", but it will be loose-ended enough to allow for anybody to work within it. So for example if the party has to get from the City of Bells to the Swamps of Despair, how the GM-of-the-moment gets us there is up to him.

The only issue in our group is knowledge of the rules. When D&D 5 came out I pushed hard for it, because except for one friend, the rest cut their teeth on the original D&D and then AD&D, and haven't GM'd since. Plus they prefer fanta-historical stuff. However, now that Genesys is coming, and given that I don't think any of them will be ready for GMing anything for another 5 years (kids and whatnot), I might be able to swing them over to this system.

Some other issues (which might not affect your group if you're all respectful and easy-going) would be how to deal with PC death, TPK, and how the GM PC acts. You might want to make it clear the GM's PC character doesn't really have input while he's GMing. And avoiding PC vs PC action would seem essential, or else the rotating GMs will just end up waiting for their chance of revenge.

1 hour ago, whafrog said:

Some other issues (which might not affect your group if you're all respectful and easy-going) would be how to deal with PC death, TPK, and how the GM PC acts. You might want to make it clear the GM's PC character doesn't really have input while he's GMing. And avoiding PC vs PC action would seem essential, or else the rotating GMs will just end up waiting for their chance of revenge.

What's TPK?

I'm not interested in GM PCs or rotating GMs. Just two permanent GMs running a PbP, PMing each other regularly. The GMs controlling companion NPCs for the PCs to interact with of course.

PC vs PC action sounds fun for this campaign actually. Mandalorian dueling circles!

Also I see a lot of PbPs get really OOC heavy where as I'd like to keep it pretty balanced, or even IC heavy if possible.

4 hours ago, Mychal'el said:

What's TPK?

T otal P arty K ill

see: Rogue One

1 hour ago, Nytwyng said:

T otal P arty K ill

see: Rogue One

Yeah, I think the possibility of a TPK would have to be disclosed from the beginning. The players would have to unanimously be in favor of it IMO.

If the players are adamantly opposed to the idea of a TPK, we could just backtrack to the last safe point and call it a "Force Premonition" if it ends up happening.

Hopefully the threat level won't be so unbalanced that we run into that too often, but I don't want the players to feel invincible either

15 hours ago, Edgehawk said:

Will the other players be new to RPGs, or this particular system, as well? I would suggest you pick up one of the Beginner Game boxed sets, and learn it together, as you play. You can gradually add crunch with a Core Rule Book, as best suits your table; or keep to a mostly narrative style, if that works with your group. A little homework (familiarizing yourself with the basic rules of the game) is part of the responsibilities of being a GM, but I wouldn't worry about trying to take it all in, before starting play. Have fun!

This is the first time I've pitched the idea to anyone so I don't have a group yet. I need to run it in PbP. I'm hoping to have some experienced players join but some newbies would be welcomed too. But I'm definitely leaning towards a mostly narrative style.

I've learned a lot from playing a session of Force & Destiny but I think I'm just scratching the surface. I'm realizing that the real trick is getting a group that is respectful and easy-going like @whafrog mentioned.

Do you have any tips on how to find another GM willing to partner up? And how to pitch the game to players?

5 hours ago, Mychal'el said:

Do you have any tips on how to find another GM willing to partner up? And how to pitch the game to players?

I am not sure how easy it will be to find a co-GM... From my perspective, at least, it sounds like you want to do all the fun, creative scene and world-building; and leave all the mechanical aspects to another? This community is awesome in its capacity to mentor new players and GMs, but this particular scenario may not tempt too many veteran game-runners.

Something I have seen more than once in these forums, is newbie GMs, tentative in their understanding of the crunchier aspects, putting themselves out there. If you recruit for a pbp, the players will come. Be honest. Say you have some ideas, and want to start a mostly narrative campaign, delving into some of the more difficult mechanics as situations warrant. In your pitch, specify that you would appreciate at least some players who are familiar and comfortable with the rules-as-written, and would be willing to help you out with them in the OOC.

I'm already fully committed, at present, and can't volunteer to participate in any further adventures, but I wish you luck in however you decide to tackle this!

3 hours ago, Edgehawk said:

I am not sure how easy it will be to find a co-GM... From my perspective, at least, it sounds like you want to do all the fun, creative scene and world-building; and leave all the mechanical aspects to another? This community is awesome in its capacity to mentor new players and GMs, but this particular scenario may not tempt too many veteran game-runners.

Something I have seen more than once in these forums, is newbie GMs, tentative in their understanding of the crunchier aspects, putting themselves out there. If you recruit for a pbp, the players will come. Be honest. Say you have some ideas, and want to start a mostly narrative campaign, delving into some of the more difficult mechanics as situations warrant. In your pitch, specify that you would appreciate at least some players who are familiar and comfortable with the rules-as-written, and would be willing to help you out with them in the OOC.

I'm already fully committed, at present, and can't volunteer to participate in any further adventures, but I wish you luck in however you decide to tackle this!

This is exactly what I needed to hear. Thank you!

I've never co-GM'ed myself, but there was an episode specifically about co-GM'ing on the Geek & Sundry GM Tips series. Their premise is that one built one part of the world and the other person built the other part, so when the party goes to the different locations they can share their stories, and if the party splits up it makes it easier to keep the story progressing. The rest of their series, both with GM Matt Mercer and the new one with GM Satine Pheonix are pretty good and relevant beyond just D&D. Give it a watch!

On 8/1/2017 at 11:36 AM, Ender07 said:

Give it a watch!

This was very interesting and helpful. Thank you!

On ‎29‎/‎07‎/‎2017 at 5:49 PM, Mychal'el said:

PC vs PC action sounds fun for this campaign actually. Mandalorian dueling circles!

It's not a bad idea. As long as you make it clear that you shouldn't be aiming to kill your opponent (although lightly maimed is fine), PvP fights give you a good way to get people used to the combat mechanics.

Fights in Star Wars RPG are....not difficult, but different. The dice mechanics like threat/advantage and the various manoeuvres offer lots of ways to make a fight narratively interesting, but players have a tendency to default to "I aim for my manoeuvre and attack for my action", turn after turn.

Making them fight in an interesting arena (Mandalore's duelling arena in Knights Of The Old Republic that's essentially a network of foot-thick chains suspended between pillars is a nicely interesting 3d arena, with plenty of environmental effects to exploit with threat and advantage, and force the players to move and use things like guarded stance) against an opponent with the same range of abilities as them, gives you a good crash course in the combat mechanics.

Plus, it gives you a nice way to establish 'command hierarchy' amongst the players, and the odd 'duelling scar' (read: cybernetic replacement extremity!) helps flesh out a character (possibly a poor choice of words there).

Deathwatch was the same - with space marines spending most of the fights firing semi-automatic at medium range. Playing Only War, with much 'squishier' characters, made them actually learn stuff like suppressing fire, covered advance, and so on. Which, when they then switched back to playing marines, made them all the more scarily effective.

I've done 'shared GM-ing' before; in Deathwatch, we had a rotating GM, such that different players would run a given mission, then hand over to the next for a subsequent mission.

6 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

Mandalore's duelling arena in Knights Of The Old Republic

Deathwatch

Only War

I assume you are talking about specific Roll Playing Campaigns or Sessions that I'm not familiar with. Can you incorporate links in your post?

Mandalore's arena was in the comic series Knights Of The Old Republic - specifically the Duel on Kuar

Deathwatch and Only War were two of FFG's Warhammer 40,000 RPGs - the 'Space Marine' and 'Imperial Guardsmen' ones specifically.

On 8/3/2017 at 7:24 AM, Magnus Grendel said:

Mandalore's arena was in the comic series Knights Of The Old Republic - specifically the Duel on Kuar

Deathwatch and Only War were two of FFG's Warhammer 40,000 RPGs - the 'Space Marine' and 'Imperial Guardsmen' ones specifically.

The Duel on Kuar is pretty fantastic, but I'm going to take more of a 'Christopher Nolan's Batman' approach to Star Wars. I don't think that will make it any less epic.

I was actually referring to the Mandalorian Battle Circle specifically. I think this could serve well as PvP.

But I plan on also featuring the similar Taung blood duel for PC vs NPC. Because I don't want PCs killing each other.

These Mandalorian customs coincide with the real life Scandinavian Holmgang

SPOILER ALERT!

This thread was supposed to be more about co-GMing in general. And I feel like we are getting too far off topic.

I made a new topic specifically about my ideas for this campaign here: