Jul
8th
2017
Life putters on · 7:42pm Jul 8th, 2017
So, running one online D&D game and still trying to get another group up and running. I really want to have more than one group of adventurers in the same campaign world. Overlapping but not necessarily interacting. Just having a living world where one group can stumble across signs of the other group would be so cool.
Here is what I've been tossing up over on the main blog.
Pony Stories 765 (today!) Very short
- For Everything There is a Season by Cynewulf
- Unto Greener Pastures by Sylvian
Pony Stories 764 (yesterday) Has complaining about the online D&D game I run.
- Becoming Aunty Celestia by Skywriter
- Suited For Terror by Estee
Pony Stories 763 (the distant past!)
- Inoculation by Tumbleweed
- Universal Termination Primer by Wodahseht
Pony Stories 762
Pony Stories 761
Pony Stories 760
and a half-dozen others, but I'm losing steam on this so here you go! Gotta get more stuff done before the hour strikes!
I ran a game on a similar concept once. I told the group they could run up to three parties concurrently, but they could only use one per session. The unrelated parties could pursue separate goals, but it would all be happening in the same world at the same time.
They decided to run two parties, and one party was focused on smaller goals, just running around and helping people in need, while the other group worked to save the world from a bigger threat. They were fighting different enemies for different reasons, but the things one group did frequently affected the other, so they started using them strategically to gather information for the other group, weaken the other group's enemies, etc. From a DM perspective, it was a nightmare to manage, The group loved it, though, and they still look back fondly on it.
Now, as for how that's relevant to you:
My experience was a difficult one, but it enriched the experience of my players by giving them something unique and fresh. However, when I ran another game, set in the same world as a previous game, the marks of the previous party were everywhere, but the two new players in the group couldn't appreciate any of it. They had to have every reference explained, and it wasn't nearly as much fun for them.
If you're going to have multiple parties active in the same world, the players need to be able to appreciate it. Having two groups involved, who aren't privy to the other's activities, will only be cool to you. To the players, it may feel like their characters are unimportant to the world in which they exist, and that's something you want to avoid at any cost.
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Oh, I get most of that already. The in the same world is just a bonus on top of things. The world is actually pretty changeable so there is no worries that the players will feel like their actions don't matter. The core group at the moment has, coming up on 2nd level, already cleared out a fort near a major city and have plans to turn it into a base and their next adventure is to see if they can reestablish the trade route the fort used to protect.
From the player's perspective there won't be a whole lot of cross-over, I plan to run each group as best as I can as independent groups so that they have a good time playing. Having them be in the same world is just going to be the icing on the cake for me and long-term players.
Granted, the overlap would be easier if I had a megadungeon to base the adventuring around so they could both run across each other's actions more often, but the basic concept remains even though the second group will be starting a good deal across the world map from the first one.
I think, as a off-the-cuff backseat analysis from like two steps removed, part of the struggle you had with those two players is that the references were inside jokes most got but they didn't. On the other hand, I'm just trying to build a living world where a PC stumbles across something and not know if it was something the DM put there, or if it is something a previous adventuring group did.
The advice is very much appreciated, however. Keeping my focus on the important things is a constant struggle sometimes. Part of the more long-term thing I'm trying to handle is that part of the foundation has to be less treasure and more just cool things to find. Because if a dungeon has treasure and it gets cleared out, it doesn't really leave much behind for the next group who may stumble across it. So for the last day or two I've been pondering how to handle the 'want to give treasure' with the opposite 'encourage the PCs leave something behind for others to find'.
Also, actually finding enough people for a second group that will all actually meet and be reliable has been difficult as heck. So far it's been theory because I can't put my ideas for multi-group campaign worlds into practice.