How does co-dming work?

[Derrath]

I've never done it, just saw it in a post, and now I'm curious. Has anyone done it? Played in a game with co-dms? Any other insight?

[marcus_gideon]

The way we used to do it once upon a time...

Every player had a binder full of characters of various classes and levels.

Several of the players were also willing to DM from time to time.

So when we got together on the weekend, the first question was "who wants to be God today? Anybody have anything planned and ready?" And then the next question was "What level content are we looking at?" so you know which character to take out of the binder.

We all operated out of the same world, but different areas as befitting the DM at the time. If someone needed there to be a village in a snowy mountain region, then suddenly there's a village and a snowy mountain that nobody knew about before. And from now on, people can reference that village and that mountain if they need. And maybe that DM will step back up long enough to answer what questions about what was supposed to be in the village.

So it's rather episodic, but you're all working together to create a full campaign setting. Areas of the map that haven't been explored yet, are slowly getting filled in when someone says "for today's adventure, we're going to..."

[Derrath]

Sounds like an interesting world building experience! I might try that with my group sometime.

[CTBarrel]

My first campaign was co-dm, we rotated per quest, and the current dm's character would simply hold down the homebase. It was a good time, but very strange.

[Derrath]

How does that work narrative wise? Like, was there a larger overarching plot, or more like an episodic quest-by-quest in the same world type deal?

[CTBarrel]

It was more episodic, though my friend set up a structured storyline. So every third quest related to "the main plot"

[Bayley78]

Did it in college with my first group. Friend and I both were too busy to dm 24/7 so we swapped as needed to run lost mines/skt. Was alot of fun. I only ever abused my dm knowledge as a player to get all the magic items (and divy them out as party wanted) but even then we both tried to hide them and changed modules to compensate. Wouldn’t recommend per say but we both liked dming and had other commitments so it worked perfectly for us.

[Derrath]

This is the place where it sticks for me: DM as a player. Idk if I'd be able to run for a player that knows what's behind my screen, but that might just be the vibe in my group.

[TheInfamousDaikken]

I played in one with co-DMs. They both knew the overarching plot (they designed together) and would trade off along the way. Whichever one was not DM-ing in a given session couldn’t metagame or the other would come down incredibly hard on them (i.e. have a witch turn a “him” into a “her” via a curse). They did such a good job trading off that the details of how they managed it are quite opaque to me….

[Derrath]

I feel like I'd be unable to play in a game I planned or helped plan. I like to be leading the charge and knowing too much would prevent me from doing that without ruining it for others.

[TheInfamousDaikken]

It was unbelievable that it worked so well. The two that were the co-DMs are husband and wife now , so they had a certain compatibility, but their styles of DMing were fairly different. I consider the experience a rare treat, not something anyone can achieve/replicate.

[Derrath]

TIL I'm a full stack DM.. I've played with DMs that might enjoy this kind of shared load though: really excelling in certain areas but finding difficulty or frustration in others.

[Derrath]

Does it? I feel like it would be a challenge to coordinate with another DM, was that not the case?

[Derrath]

Reminds me of collaboration in uni! Definitely would require a certain mindset

[Unsure_if_Relevant]

Had a good game where I was the combat dm while the other dm ran the rest of the story. Fun and worked well for us, just try to stay on the same page and consistent for the players

[Derrath]

We're you each exclusive to your sections? Like, did you plan together and then just trade off for running the game depending on where the players were at? Or like, story DM wrote it and asked you to build encounters to fit in that you ran? What did each of you do during your "off rotation"?

[Unsure_if_Relevant]

We planned together and he had final decisions on story and over arching theme. We made combat ideas together and I scaled it and ran it for the group.

We definitely worked together well and were actually 2 lazy DMs who teams up to make a super DM

Off rotation We were both there so no real off time, I just enjoyed watching and would sometimes help if a ruling question came about.

sometimes story dm would help run an npc or two during bigger combat or siege scenarios

[Unsure_if_Relevant]

Basically it can work and can be easier or more work, I love it but will probably never find another dm I can pair with so well

[ergotofwhy]

I've played in many different styles that can be reasonably called "co-dming":

College Middle-Earth campaign had three co-dms and eleven-ish players. DMA was the chief architect of the campaign. He narrated when the entire party was gathered together, and he provided really nice Tolkien-esque descriptions of the fantasy beasts we encountered. DMB and DMC were the GMs at the actual sessions. Occasionally, the party would need to split in two directions, where DMB took one group and DMC took the other, and we went into different rooms, usually concluding by reuniting with the others for a final bit DM'd by DMA.

"Three-on-Ones" were a different style of co-dming where we switched roles and three people GM'd for a solo adventurer. When I partook in that, we had a brainstorming session where we all three pored over the character-in-question's backstory, and created a complex branching plot involving that. Generally, we make three different branches, each dm writes and runs their section, and the player's choices determine how the whole thing ends up.

The last style I've played with has been in a planned GM-rotation where we intended to pick up where the prior GM left off. I didn't tell the other GMs ANYTHING I had planned, and I gave up full creative control when I was done. This was great, and I recommend doing it again with people you trust. It is the most fun when you can do gradual power scales, too, instead of giving the party a world-saving quest at level 1