co-GMing

A thread of 2 messages, 14 March 1990 to 15 March 1990, in the order they were sent.

#1120 co-GMing

[unnamed sender] · 14 March 1990

    Recently, Bob Mahoney asked if anyone had any experience at co-GMing
Traveller or other games.  I've never coGMed a Traveller game, but I have
coGMed Warhammer FRP, and I expect the basic principles would apply to any
gaming system.
    Basically, it worked very well.  You need to be more prepared for a
co-GMed game than when you're doing it alone, because it is very confusing
if one GM starts to "wing it" to any significant extent, as there will not
be time for him to inform the other GM as to what is going on.  So I would
say it's only a good idea if the two GMs can get together before the game
and spend at least one evening going over plans.
    The benefits are that some of the work gets split up, and in a number
of situations the role-playing is better.  When the party splits  up, or
even just when different players are doing different things in the same area,
it helps to have two different GMs to deal with them (not so much time spent
waiting on the GM to get done talking to another player, before you can do
something).  This is especially valuable if you have players who like to
each do their own thing, or one player who is enthusiastic (ie loud) enough
to drown out the others when things get heated.
    The biggest advantage, tho', is that it is easier to role-play several
people at once.  I can remember several instances from my own experience
when I was playing an important NPC who was talking to the party, while the
other GM was playing NPC's of less importance who were distracting the party
but added a lot of color to the game.  The halfling shoe salesman who tried
to sell his wares to party members while they were interviewing someone in
a bar, for instance.  (yes, I said halfing shoe salesman)  Even in more
serious situations (such as when the players are listening in on a situation,
or any other time when more than one NPC is "on-stage" at once), it was very
handy to not have to run everyone in the world.
    For Traveller, where there is probably more background for the GM to
fill in than in any other RP game in existence, the advantage of dividing
up work seems like it would be especially useful.  Hope some of this helped;
I say go ahead, it's a good idea.

#1124 Co-GMing

Jim Cheetham · 15 March 1990 · reply to #1120

>
>  Does anyone have any experience with a co-refereed campaign?  By this I mean
>
	Well, not exactly, but I'll tell you anyway.
	I play RuneQuest every couple of weeks in a group whose GM pays
	just as much attention to the details of the published RQ as all
	you guys pay to Traveller et. al. - which means that if you want
	a second opinion, just go the rule book, and if it's reasonable
	(ie not a blatant excuse) everythings AOK.
	*However* we have one player who knows the rules backwards, sideways,
	upside down and on his head ... (you get the drift)
	This might not be too bad - it's great outside the actual game,
	when it comes to generating characters, checking on details, etc,
	especially if the GM is doing something else (like helping someone
	else generate characters etc) but it can get a little bad in play.
	Example :-
	The said playing rule-book had an elf character who acted a little
	too sassy with a group of trolls. Splat. End of elf. Oh, says he,
	according to your calender, it's my god's holy week at the moment,
	can I roll for a Divine Intervention (A handy device used by fantasy
	role-players to make up for suicidal mistakes!) ... unfortunately
	for all concerned, he made the roll (witnessed!) ... so back pops
	the elf, with the POW attribute (luck, etc) dropped from 16 to 2.
	In between sessions he scrapes through the rules, and comes back
	next time, and *by the rule book* manages to raise POW from 2 to
	10. This makes all the other players (understandably) a little
	p*ssed off ...
	Now I can already hear a lot of you saying that that's the GM's
	fault for not interpreting the rules his own way and making sure
	that players can't take advantage like that ... fair enough, but
	it's really just him being consistent to his stated manner of play.
	Not to worry, plans are afoot by the rest of the party to make sure
	the elf meets a bitter doom (in the *nicest* possible way, of course!)

	And what's the moral of all this ?
	(aside)		(Not co-GMing, that's for sure!)
	If you've got two or more people capable of making rulings on the
	course of the game for *whatever reason* (both GMing, or some as
	players) someone, somewhere, has got to be very careful to keep
	it all under control ... and that is *not easy* at all.

	So, watch it ! Let's be careful out there !
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