Today’s guest article was written by Gnome Stew reader Tony G., who has been GMing for 20 years. He’s got co-GMing on the brain, and we thought this was a great topic to revisit from a new perspective. Thanks, Tony! –Martin
I have asked many of my fellow GMs this question: Why do we run games by ourselves? Tradition? Why not share the responsibility and the work with a fellow GM? If you think about it, it kind of makes sense. Most entertainment is a group effort. Movies are a large collaboration. Television shows most certainly are. Even some books are written by two or more authors.
Yet we work on our RPGs alone. We are the writer, director, producer, special effects coordinator, actors, etc. It can be a daunting task sometimes. The players of course help make a game successful as well, but you can always use a little extra help. I am not saying that we need five GMs from now on. I do, however, think that having two separate GMs could be very beneficial and enjoyable. Here is a small list of pros and cons:
Some pros include:
- You can assign duties between the two of you. If your friend is a better actor and you a better writer, you can play to your strengths. For example, one GM can take care of NPCs (accents, attitudes, and overall impression), one GM could handle plot and environment descriptions and details.
- It allows for larger parties and the dreaded “split up” fear could be handled easily. I myself am comfortable with 5 or maybe 6 at the maximum. Having another GM to share the load would let me feel more comfortable about running maybe 8 or 9. Multiple conversations happening at the same time can add a level of realism and cut back on small amounts of metagaming. In real life you can’t usually have an engaging conversation while listening to another.
- It is great to have someone to help make rulings on problems that come up. It has more of a council appearance than a dictator vibe.
- Two heads are better than one, after all. Especially dealing with writer’s block or just being able to bounce something off someone else can be a great asset. Maybe that molten crystal giraffe that fires poison darts creature you came up with late last night sounded good at the time, but…
- You can both learn a great deal on how the other puts stories, characters, and plots together. Over the years I have learned so much from just simply listening to others run games. It really is an amazing craft, in that we have to create our own way of building an experience for the players.
- You can have conversations between two NPCs happen without having to adjust your voice or mannerisms twice. I have seen some great GM performances in the past, but it is more natural sounding for two characters talking to be two different people.
- Not having to draw ALL the maps yourself! Always a plus!
- You can meld two different genres that you were working on separately into a new game. If your friend is doing sci-fi and you are doing feudal Japan…meld them together for something engaging and unique that you may not have come up with by yourself.
Some cons include:
- Not having a reliable co-GM could be frustrating (being late, forgetting the plot or motivations you both came up with).
- Not agreeing on how hard and fast you use the rules set within the game.
- Not having the same general vision for what the players want out of the game you both are running.
Conclusion
You don’t necessarily need a Pacific Rim mind drift to make it easier, but someone you know that has a similar taste and style would be great. Find a like-minded friend and let them share the space behind the curtain — or in this case GM screen. It will probably take a few sessions to work out all the kinks, I imagine. At the very least, try it. You never know. Some people may have trouble letting some of the responsibility go and want to only do things “their way.” That is a tried and true method that has been the expected norm forever, maybe it’s time to change it up a bit?
Have any of you tried this and had enjoyable experiences with this type of gameplay? If so was it a relief or more difficult than it was worth?
(Here are two Stew articles that have discussed co-GMing: My First Attempt at Collaborative Game Mastering and Methods of Collaborative Game Mastering.)
Oh heck, we’ve been doing that for years. I’m the primary GM for our table, and had been playing a long running campaign that has gone to epic levels kind of globetrotting around the multiverse. Anyway, in a given year, I run games about half the time, but as burn-out starts to set in (usually after about 3 consecutive months) we switch out GMs. Two of the players at our table, take on full GM duties for their own 3 month stints. This doesn’t work for every campaign, but for a free-for-all jaunt across a variety of actual settings, it works just fine.
Myself and one other in our group each run seperate campaigns.that we swap between to prevent burnout. In regard to a co-GM experience, while I can see a lot of benefitz, our group is just not big enough to make it work. The game I play in only has 3 players and the games I GM have 4-6 players. I have been training my wife in the art of GMing. Perhaps when she feels ready we will try it for a special one-off.
My group has the same issue. Only Three or four players for any session with one GM. If we add another GM, then we will have as many GMs as players half the time. Not a terribly efficient use of “manpower”.
It’s a great idea; I wish you were reporting back after a successful run. I suspect that the main drawback is coordination–a solo GM preps in the crooks and crannies of time, too often at the last minute. If you were working with a second GM, the time prepping together would have to include some “suitable for company” time–at least a good coffee meeting to share progress, hand motivations to the actor GM, etc.
I’d love to see it tried over a long campaign or two–I bet that it has even more good points that you’ll discover in the doing.
When one of the other player/GM took over, it was treated as a side quest within the campaign, so as long as certains ties to the main story is maintained, whatever they introduce to the campaign did not impede on the overall story arc. As stated, this doesn’t work for every campaign, and certainly not in a typical linear published campaign/adventure path. The campaign we ran with multiple GMs were more freestyle and sandbox ride across the multiverse.
I will be trying it out in the future. As for right now I have had success with someone helping play other npcs, for a scene or two. It was very effective, especially when the other person is a good actor.
Having a conversation between two NPCs voiced by two GMs does have it’s appeal… but I’d imagine a drawback to having two (or more) co-GMs comes if you run heavily on improvising. If one GM is forced to improvise and the other GM doesn’t like it, there’s not much they can do. Or if one GM has a great idea for improvisation in the middle of play the other GM could inadvertently mess it up by taking the game in a different direction. This could be fun in and of itself, but could be seen as a drawback for some people.
If I know I’m going to be having an epic NPC conversation sometimes I’ll enlist an acting companion.
An alternative to a co-GM is a “bad guy player”. As a GM you still improv and give the characters information by yourself, but to whatever degree you feel comfortable with you relinquish the control of several opposing characters to another player. It’s fun to do when you’ve got an extra player or two at the table and want to cut back on that.
We’re fortunate to have a PHENOMENAL game master that loves what he does. That’s why we don’t have two. But I definitely think it could be a good exercise in the right setting to try, maybe with a larger group.
A friend and I are co-GMing the Curse of the Crimson Throne adventure path with 6 players. I run the odd numbered modules and he does the even ones.. We play identical twin healers who are never in the same room together because they don’t get along. Many good laughs. The main bonus for both of us is we both get to play and we are never quite sure where the other GM will be leaving us in the storyline.