Dungeon Master Musings: Running Two Campaigns at Once

When I decided to start running my campaign, I first decided I wanted to do it with people that don't get to play D&D or RPGs that often.  My two friends Amanda and Jackie, neither of whom had ever played D&D, were my first choices.  Next up was my wife, of course, but she plays D&D all the time, so that was cool.  We started, and everyone was having fun.

After a while, my Wednesday Descent group, Mark, Nick, Wally, and Matt, started expressing jealousy about the women's D&D game.  They wanted to play, too.  So, with 4 guys wanting to play, I decided to run them through the same game.

After a while, Wally's wife Cheri wanted to join in, so she joined the women's group as well.

And thus, the two groups were formed.

The Two Groups

The men meet every Wednesday, more or less, and play for 4-5 hours.  The women meet every other Saturday and play for 6-8 hours.

The men's group is full of highly experienced D&D players, and they tend to blast right through the game.  At every turn, they fought their way through obstacles, developed quick repetitive techniques for optimally getting through encounters, and employed lots of tactics in their gameplay.

Meanwhile, the women's group was half experienced D&D players, and half newbies that had never played D&D before.  This group was more cautious and thorough.  Each encounter they took as an opportunity to have discussions and role play their characters.

For me, the women's gaming group was a bit more satisfying, though that may be enhanced by the fact that I'm the only female in the Wednesday group.  I like the fact that they spend more time revealing in the encounters, and I appreciate their thorough searching and stuff.

The men's group plays about 50% faster than the women's group, on a per hour basis.  In reality, over a 2 week period, both groups get about the same amount of time, but the women's group goes a bit slower and averages slightly less time than the men's group.

Two Parties, One Adventure

It's a little odd to run two groups through the same adventure.  While many coarse details are the same, there are also many slight differences between the two experiences.  My preparation time serves me well for both groups, in that I can re-use material from one group for the other most of the time, but characters and specific events might change.

For example, the men assaulted the goblins and killed every last one of them in a single, concentrated assault through their lines.  The women, on the other hand, continually attacked, then retreated and recuperated.  My wife Jessica expressed appreciation for the "living dungeon" that I was creating, so every time the players retreated, I thought carefully about what would happen.  When they finally got to the center of the goblin nest, they found them on the verge of a civil war, that broken out moments after they arrived.

The little differences are what really stand out to me as challenging me to be a better DM.  Learning how to adapt the same source material and preparation material for two very distinct groups is forcing me to really focus on discovering what it is that the players want.

It's a delightful challenge, one that I'm sure I'll write more about in the future.