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Made in us
Battlefield Tourist




MN (Currently in WY)

Greetings All,

I am curious how your table handles GM duties and how you determine who GMs a game/campaign next? My group has a rotation, of GMs that we switch out as a campaign ends and a new one begins. That means most of our "campaigns" have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Once complete, the next GM takes over. My current group seems to exclusively like to play D&D.

So, here are my questions for the group.....

1. How does your group choose GMs or Campaigns to play next?
2. What are some "best practices" for your game pitches?
3. How do you pitch a game in a different system?

Let me know your thoughts!

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Made in us
Decrepit Dakkanaut





The Battle Barge Buffet Line

Usually it comes down to the one person willing to. In my case, I like GMing but only when I both like the game mechanics of the edition AND the background/fluff/world we'll be playing in. If both those aren't jiving with me then I've found from personal experience that I don't enjoy the experience and therefore don't offer to run sessions.

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Made in us
Willing Inquisitorial Excruciator





Philadelphia

It’s the same for us. Whoever is willing to run a game. We also exclusively play DnD, as we have players who are most familiar with it, and its easier for them to ‘build’ around.

We had one guy offer to run Tyranny of Dragons, which also dovetailed into Storm Giants Thunder (or whatever its called), and that’s been going on for about a year remotely (using Fantasy Grounds and Discord). It’s a typical high fantasy, all books available, etc. That game runs every other week. It’s also basically 2 hours of tabletop combat every week. And, naturally, we’ve butchered the adventure arcs and done things that went way off script, which has been hard on the DM.

During that, I was developing my own home brew 5e game set in the Moonshaes, and approached the players (and the current DM), and said I was interested in running, either at the end of the current game, or on the off weeks. I laid out the type of game I was looking to run (more gritty, dark ages-ish, focused more on RP, limited options from the rule books, etc.), and they agreed to play, and the DM even said he wanted to play. So we have two concurrent games running every other week in different ‘settings’.

Then we had one player say he wanted to run something when TOD ends, so thats on the horizon, but likely some ways out. Fantasy Grounds and Discord make it simultaneously easier for us to play, and harder with the prep involved if you’re running non-standard adventures that are not preprogrammed (and hard when the party deviates from the set adventure). I feel like I’m much better at going with the flow when at the table with people.

So, ultimately, we’ll pitch ideas back and forth and if something seems interesting, we’ll run with it. If its not interesting, then it goes away, and I think we’re becoming more selective about what we play, as we want to enjoy the 2 hours every week, and not have it be a chore or be boring. The ToD DM is working up Deadlands as his next game, I was looking into the Aliens RPG as a possibility, we’re always bouncing ideas.

But we definitely also have players who have no interest in running at all (due to the amount of work involved).

(And, as context, the group we have has been playing DnD since around 1982/1983, with one or two new players added in the last year, so we’re all very familiar with our own foibles/eccentricities as it pertains to RPGing. )

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2021/04/30 13:27:57


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Made in us
Hellacious Havoc





I use Discord and Surveymonkey for this. Incidentally, I use Discord for the "Session 0" stuff and a lot of this will apply to your other post. Discord and other online tools are invaluable for keeping things on track and planning new things, IME.

Once upon a time, my groups would have that problem you often hear about where the players end up sitting around the table spending the bulk of the session deciding what to do. Now as adults, we have responsibilities and that session time is a lot more precious. So, even in a "sandbox" type of game, I'll try to set it up so that big decisions come up at the end of a session, and the players can hash out what they want to do in the discord. And after a few days, that decision is final as that is what I'll be preparing for. Similarly, using the surveys will inform what people liked about the current/last game, what new games they might want to try, how to adjust the mix of rp/combat/exploration, and so forth.

I'll always have a few ideas of things I'd like to try next, and a lot of times those surveys and discord feedback guide what I'll pitch for the next game. Liked the D&D setting but dissapointed in the lack of special moves for the combat characters? The new Pathfinder is full of special moves, we can try that. Less combat and a lot more RP and exploration? We can try a Cthulhu or Delta Green. Like that wierd DCC adventure I converted? We can try a DCC "funnel" adventure next. Want to try something completely outside my wheelhouse, like a story game? You be the DM and I'll play in it. I've also done this mid campaign with the published adventures, giving a choice of the next adventure while spoiling as little as possible.

I am pretty much the "Forever DM", but the game belongs to everyone playing it so I think asking for and acting upon that feedback is the best way forward when planning a new game.
   
 
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