We’re liking the idea because there’s a few of us wanting to GM and we’ve enjoyed doing that in other game, sharing the creative load and showing off different flavours of the game.
We thought about GMing for a location, so one person can create all the missions in a bunch and keep track of any important NPCs there. And then when the Legion moves on, they become a player and someone else takes up the GM role for the next location.
For the campaign phase, we thought the new GM could just give their role to the returning player. That means the roles will rotate around a bit, but I don’t think that will break much.
We also wondered if it’d be worth giving each GM (or two) responsibility for one of the Broken. Maybe that will keep some of the surprise fresh about what they’re bringing to bear. Not sure if that’d work, or if it’s just better to play transparently with an open hand.
I have not, since my group is just a bunch of damn dirty players.
Depending on how many people you have, you could just give each player their own role in the command staff, and then sometimes the GM is the loremaster, and sometimes the GM is the commander. If you’re generating missions using the tables, you shouldn’t have to worry about spoiling the missions generated. Splitting the Broken up is somewhat complicated by the branching paths separated by the mountains. If the assumption is that the broken split up, you don’t see one of them for large stretches, leaving some GMs out for a bit.
I think what the OP meant was splitting up the upgrades/development paths they take. Not physically splitting them off onto other routes.
Re: The original idea, it sounds cool. GM burnout is a very real thing.
One other thing I’m trying to build into my game practice that might be beneficial to everyone but especially here is making sure to ask leading questions. Stuff like “How do you know where the temple is located?” "The knight broke a blood oath. What was it?’ etc.
Lets everyone get in on the worldbuilding but in a way that’s framed up to have some boundaries around it.
I assumed he meant running the broken as well as progressing them, AKA if you’re one of the GMs for render you have to run any mission where his forces are the antagonists. If multiple GMs share a broken then it’s no problem, but if it’s 1 person they may end up running 4-5 missions in a row as the two broken split up.
Thanks for your thoughts. I had been thinking about different GMs building and running only one of the Broken. In a group of four players, that’d mean each Broken would be shared by two GMs and only appear when those GM we’re running the game.
But I take your point about the mountain path removing a Broken from appearing for several missions. Maybe there’s little need or benefit to doing that and it’s just better if each GM has the full gauntlet of forces to throw at the Legion.
I like the idea of the GM duty not really mattering in the campaign phase. That seems right to me.
My group actually just started a game with two GMs where each runs a Broken, for now we are trading off missions (I do one, they do one). When I’m running the mission I’m not a player and when they and running a mission they are not a player but we do each have a legion role we play every game.
One particularly fun aspect is that when doing it this way the two Broken can have a bit more conflict and have their own secret clocks: Blighter trying to steal cinderblood from Render, Breaker trying to frame Blighter in Ogiyer’s eyes, Breaker trying to hex one of the Black Oak Knights. This also leaves room for the Legion to discover the Broken’s plans, aid or sabotage their internal conflict, etc.
It’s been working pretty well but I will mention that we have a lot of experience playing together and I could see less experienced folks running into the problems of stepping on each other’s toes.
Ha sweet! The conflict between Broken obviously benefits the Legion, but having two GMs duel this out is neat and unique to co-GMing.
How have you progressed this conflict? Is it mainly just filling secret clocks? I assume if your Broken has secretly infiltrated an area, you use that as fictional positioning against any opposing Broken forces that come nearby. Have you got any examples you could share?
Also, have you had any hiccups with switching back-and-forth between Broken? Have you dealt with a Broken’s main force pull away from the Legion for a time? I wondered about having elite squads following and harassing the Legion.
So, I’ll reiterate, we just started the game with two GMs playing different broken. All we’ve done so far is make clocks and start ticking them. We are kind of still figuring out how it will all work.
Switching between broken has gone fine so far, we are leaving a lot of the narrative open to allow flexibility for where certain forces might be. More general Broken goals, less specific troop locations. That being said, we have only played like 3 sessions. Plenty more time for hiccups to happen.