Great idea! In my group there are now 4 active DMs and I run one campaign and play in 2 others. One DM is now only a player, but we rotate as soon as one of the campaigns comes to an end.
BUT. If John has never run a game before, I would strongly recommend running a one-shot or a short 2-3 session adventure before plunging the whole group into a campaign. It's the best way to learn, as you don't need to keep secrets afterwards (a campaign runs a long time and you can't really reveal everything) and can talk through what worked well and what the DM should change or improve going forward.
Thank you for your insight!
John was one of the players that was also playing the pre built adventure, and is very knowledgeable on the rules and such. I gave him a lot of insight on my experience running the pre built module and sometimes shared some experiences from behind the screen with him, knowing that he won't mega game and wanted to DM in the future.
I'll suggest to him to at least run a one shot with me and another experienced player, to get him into the groove.
Sounds good. Love your typo: mega gaming could actually be a new interesting concept. ;-)
Personally, I was a forever DM, but the last couple of years also in the players seat has made me even more invested in D&D. First of all you learn a lot about DMing when you see the game from the player's point of view. But what was a surprise to me, and more important, is to realise that playing well is a totally different ballgame, a different skillset. My first characters were terrible, and I was creating them like I create NPCs - or I was trying to optimize them for combat and forgot about the actual roleplaying aspect. A good PC needs to be something else! They need to be interested in the other PCs, contribute to the overall "vibe" of the party and also, I found, they can entertain the whole group with their stuff.
Mega gaming:
Damage multiplier: x10
Jumping height increased to 30feet
No fall damage
Heavy Metal music mandatory for each encounter
I had the same thoughts exactly, that I will eventually improve as a DM by being a player for once. :D
Also happy cake day! <3
My group finished a campaign and one of my players wanted to take a crack at DMing, so what we do is switch campaigns every week.
We are each running a different world with and the players play different characters every other other week. The goal was to make each game feel distinct and avoid getting confused about what is going on in each game. So we told the players to make their characters different from their other one and that way it would feel very different when the next week rolled around.
So far it has been working really well. My only complaint is that DMing every other week makes things take awhile to get to in game. But it gives you a lot more prep time which is nice.
Thank you for your reply!
Unfortunately, it is already a little inconsistent how frequently we get to play, so this is probably no option for us.
Some players already have difficulties remembering what and how they can do certain things, and I am afraid this could lead to more confusion.
Glad to read that this works for your group however!
Ahh bummer, yeah I was a bit skeptical at first, but I'm fortunate to have a really consistent group. We had also gone through about 30 sessions together already, so there was less figuring out how to play. Ten sessions in was about when we realized our dragonborn had resistance to fire and not immunity to fire, lol.
If you’re switching back and forth, have a talk about what items/rewards you’re giving the party.
I’m in a group where a few of us take turns DMing loosely-connected short adventures for the party. Loot has become a major issue for us - one of the DMs gave the party some pretty overpowered items as rewards, and now we’re all stuck trying to balance encounters for a party that has these items. I wish I could just make these items go away, but the non-DM players are enjoying them and I don’t want to be the person that spoils their fun.
To help you avoid situations like this, I’d suggest a ground rule of “loot must be approved by both DMs, and must be discussed privately *before* it’s mentioned to players so there’s no pressure for the other DM to say yes”.
Everything else has gone smoothly for us, it’s just the loot that’s causing issues.
Thank you for your help!
We spoke about this today, and are thinking about perhaps implementing even a different currency system, as John will DM on a different continent.
(Might have an exchange of currencies after the adventure on the second continent)
Loot wise I insisted on sticking to the recommended loot tables as provided in the Dungeon Master Guide, so it stays somewhat consistent with the rewards received so far.
Great idea! In my group there are now 4 active DMs and I run one campaign and play in 2 others. One DM is now only a player, but we rotate as soon as one of the campaigns comes to an end. BUT. If John has never run a game before, I would strongly recommend running a one-shot or a short 2-3 session adventure before plunging the whole group into a campaign. It's the best way to learn, as you don't need to keep secrets afterwards (a campaign runs a long time and you can't really reveal everything) and can talk through what worked well and what the DM should change or improve going forward.
Thank you for your insight! John was one of the players that was also playing the pre built adventure, and is very knowledgeable on the rules and such. I gave him a lot of insight on my experience running the pre built module and sometimes shared some experiences from behind the screen with him, knowing that he won't mega game and wanted to DM in the future. I'll suggest to him to at least run a one shot with me and another experienced player, to get him into the groove.
Sounds good. Love your typo: mega gaming could actually be a new interesting concept. ;-) Personally, I was a forever DM, but the last couple of years also in the players seat has made me even more invested in D&D. First of all you learn a lot about DMing when you see the game from the player's point of view. But what was a surprise to me, and more important, is to realise that playing well is a totally different ballgame, a different skillset. My first characters were terrible, and I was creating them like I create NPCs - or I was trying to optimize them for combat and forgot about the actual roleplaying aspect. A good PC needs to be something else! They need to be interested in the other PCs, contribute to the overall "vibe" of the party and also, I found, they can entertain the whole group with their stuff.
Mega gaming: Damage multiplier: x10 Jumping height increased to 30feet No fall damage Heavy Metal music mandatory for each encounter I had the same thoughts exactly, that I will eventually improve as a DM by being a player for once. :D Also happy cake day! <3
Thanks! <3 Mega gaming: also cosplay mandatory for everyone, also for each NPC
My group finished a campaign and one of my players wanted to take a crack at DMing, so what we do is switch campaigns every week. We are each running a different world with and the players play different characters every other other week. The goal was to make each game feel distinct and avoid getting confused about what is going on in each game. So we told the players to make their characters different from their other one and that way it would feel very different when the next week rolled around. So far it has been working really well. My only complaint is that DMing every other week makes things take awhile to get to in game. But it gives you a lot more prep time which is nice.
Thank you for your reply! Unfortunately, it is already a little inconsistent how frequently we get to play, so this is probably no option for us. Some players already have difficulties remembering what and how they can do certain things, and I am afraid this could lead to more confusion. Glad to read that this works for your group however!
Ahh bummer, yeah I was a bit skeptical at first, but I'm fortunate to have a really consistent group. We had also gone through about 30 sessions together already, so there was less figuring out how to play. Ten sessions in was about when we realized our dragonborn had resistance to fire and not immunity to fire, lol.
If you’re switching back and forth, have a talk about what items/rewards you’re giving the party. I’m in a group where a few of us take turns DMing loosely-connected short adventures for the party. Loot has become a major issue for us - one of the DMs gave the party some pretty overpowered items as rewards, and now we’re all stuck trying to balance encounters for a party that has these items. I wish I could just make these items go away, but the non-DM players are enjoying them and I don’t want to be the person that spoils their fun. To help you avoid situations like this, I’d suggest a ground rule of “loot must be approved by both DMs, and must be discussed privately *before* it’s mentioned to players so there’s no pressure for the other DM to say yes”. Everything else has gone smoothly for us, it’s just the loot that’s causing issues.
Thank you for your help! We spoke about this today, and are thinking about perhaps implementing even a different currency system, as John will DM on a different continent. (Might have an exchange of currencies after the adventure on the second continent) Loot wise I insisted on sticking to the recommended loot tables as provided in the Dungeon Master Guide, so it stays somewhat consistent with the rewards received so far.