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Dumpshock Forums _ Shadowrun _ Sharing the load

Posted by: MrMiracle Jan 17 2006, 11:16 PM

I was thinking about this the other night, and wanted to throw the proposal out there to see if anyone was interested.

I'm looking to put together a group of 5 or 6 players for a campaign. Instead of a single GM being in charge of the development of all of the character's storyline, I'm looking to make each player in charge of another character's development. Player A makes storyline ideas for player B's character. Player B for C's character and so on.

The players will rotate mission duty, each one creating a mission for everyone, perhaps on a monthly basis.

Would anyone be interested in trying something like this?

Posted by: stevebugge Jan 17 2006, 11:22 PM

Our group does something similar, not with the character backgrounds, but with campaigns

Posted by: Azralon Jan 18 2006, 04:24 PM

If each player is level-headed and skilled enough to GM in a situation like that, then more power to you. That sounds great.

The serial nature of "stock" Shadowrun (going on missions that may or may not be directly interconnected) lends to this setup pretty well, especially since you can always excuse any given 'runner from a mission because he/she is busy doing downtime stuff. That is to say, the current GM's character can go offcamera easily enough and return once the arc is complete.

My group's current setup is that we have 7 warm bodies, 2 of which alternate GM duties every other mission. I'd love it if the other 5 players felt confident enough to run story arcs as well, but at least this way I (as one of the GMs) get some time on the other side of the curtain.

Our particular setup puts some mild restrictions on the characters of the two GMs, though. Basically we need to play "supporting" characters so as not to outshine the full-time players. It'd be bad form to design and GM a mission that only the particular talents of your part-time PC could successfully overcome (or even solo), or to offer mission rewards geared to your specific character. So that part is tricky to handle.

Another wrinkle in our setup is the distribution of karma and cash. The cashflow situation was elegantly solved by the full-time players; basically everyone is part of a persistent team, and as such gets an equal share of the profits. This means that when the GMs' PCs are in NPC mode, they still get a cut of the money as a retainer. They also get karma equal to the group rewards, and only get individual rewards when they're in PC mode.

So far it's working well, aside from the initial speedbumps as we feel out our peculiar dynamic.

Posted by: MrMiracle Jan 19 2006, 12:36 AM

Good suggestions and advice, Azralon.

My sole other concern is Karma and awards for the individualized portions that each player makes just for eachother. I suppose I'll have to come up with, or be advised by the players on an equtable system to keep things moving for all of the characters. Also, lax participation on one player's part could kill things for another one's character.

Posted by: Mr.Platinum Jan 19 2006, 12:38 AM

I've always wanted to try this but no one has the experience in my group of Newbies.

Posted by: MrMiracle Jan 19 2006, 04:06 AM

I'm wanting to do this with an online group. I'm not the most experienced gm, but I can come up with some genericism for a medium-sized team. If you're interested we can get started with maybe 2 more players.

Posted by: fistandantilus3.0 Jan 19 2006, 06:37 AM

To me it sounds like you would have too much chance of GM's stepping on each others toes with story line. just because the character is directed by one doesn't mean they'l go that way at all.

In our group, we rotate GM's, with my self as the primary, and the others doing varying amounts of running games. We like it because it keeps from having one feel/angle on the world, keeps things fresh, gives everyone a chance to play with differnet NPC's and characters, and adds a lot of different plot lines to work with. We also keep a stable of characters for each player usually about 3 that the GM can ask them to play, or let them play which ever. So it's a good mix, and keeps the balance pretty well.

Let usknow how yours goes though, best of luck with it.

Posted by: Mr.Platinum Jan 19 2006, 02:16 PM

QUOTE (fistandantilus3.0)

To me it sounds like you would have too much chance of GM's stepping on each others toes with story line.

A solution could be to divide the city into territories for GM's, i mentioned this for one group but i do not know if it was succesful.

Posted by: Cray74 Jan 19 2006, 02:42 PM

QUOTE (fistandantilus3.0)

In our group, we rotate GM's, with my self as the primary, and the others doing varying amounts of running games. We like it because it keeps from having one feel/angle on the world, keeps things fresh, gives everyone a chance to play with differnet NPC's and characters, and adds a lot of different plot lines to work with. We also keep a stable of characters for each player usually about 3 that the GM can ask them to play, or let them play which ever. So it's a good mix, and keeps the balance pretty well.

That's about what my group used to do.

These days, gaming is less frequent (this whole "career" and "marriage" crap really gets in the way of gaming

), so we try to keep things down to two regular GMs to minimize the number of campaigns going on. Each player has a stable of characters for each campaign, so the GMs can ask for different PCs as suits the plot at the moment (or the player can pick the PC that suits them that night). The GMs specialize to some degree. Both run Mutants & Masterminds, but only one handles DnD and one handles SR4.

When I GM - which'll be a while if both SR4 and DnD campaigns pick up - I'm inclined to run SR4 or Vampire.

Posted by: Mr.Platinum Jan 19 2006, 02:53 PM

QUOTE (Cray74)

QUOTE (fistandantilus3.0)

That's about what my group used to do.

These days, gaming is less frequent (this whole "career" and "marriage" crap really gets in the way of gaming

Dude, I share your Pain!

But game on when you can!