DM Hotseat (4e Campaign for DMs & DM Wannabes)

I've been wanting to get back into a game of D&D 4th Ed. for a while now, but don't have time to drive out to my local game store. I've been looking through the forums and see a lot of people who say they DM/GM in real life and want to take a bit of a break from it, but can't find a group. I totally get this as I'm a fairly good DM, but love creating and playing characters significantly more than DMing. Here's my idea... We get a group set up comprised entirely of people who are experienced DMs looking for a break or experienced players looking to try DMing. Each session would be self-contained and run by one of the members of the group. For Example: We have a group composed of Becky, Emma, John, Daymond, Carlos, and myself. Becky and John have played 4e and want to learn to DM, while everyone else has DMd before. I start us off with session 1, Emma with session 2, followed by Daymond, Carlos, and then Becky & John. This way we've gone through 6 play sessions and each DMd some while still getting to play a lot. Does this make sense? I'd like to know what y'all think - would you be up for a little give and take? :P UPDATE 10/18: If you're interested in joining this group, please fill out this application (takes about five minutes). It'll help me pick people who'll work well together. :) UPDATE 10/19: I wanted to let y'all know what I'm thinking in terms of specs in case you want to be thinking about a character. 9,000 starting XP (level 6) and 5,500 starting gold, with mostly free reign in character creation. Magic items of any level can be purchased, but if anything is more than one level above yours (in this case level 7), it'll come with a random curse attached (as found in Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium). UPDATE: 10/20: I've attached some interesting statistics from the applications as they stand. Just a little fun for the data junkies out there like me. :D UPDATE: 10/20: After looking at the Alternative Rewards some more, I think too many of them can be over-powered, so for initial character creation I'm limiting each player to one Alternative Reward for their character. NOTE: This reward cannot exceed your current level. UPDATE: 10/21: Regarding character building: • Once the group is finalized I'll give everyone access to my D&D Insider subscription to build characters. Characters from the old downloaded version can be uploaded as .dnd4e files. This will also allow me double check everyone's builds for legality. • Any additional character options may be selected except for Inherent Bonuses. • If you select the Guttersnipe theme, you may use his store discount on your starting gear. • You may only purchase one (1) boon/alternative reward starting out. If it is a deity related boon/reward you must worship that deity. Regarding scheduling: You can now share your availability for review & discussion . Please be open and honest - we want to find a time for everyone, but it is possible someone's availability may exclude them from being a part of this group. UPDATE: 10/22: Latest application data attached. UPDATE: 10/29: We've had two more signups today, so I think we're ready to get down to business. If you're still in, please join this group and we'll start planning .

As a player who's never DM'd but seen all the threads from people "wanting to take a break" from it. I think this sounds like a great idea. The problem is how do you build a consistent story across games from different DMs. Not that it's impossible. Hell it could be a TON of fun. End every game on a cliffhanger (nothing world ending, just a little idea you've talked about with the upcoming DM to help hand off the game to them for the next time around).

This idea is brilliant! Literally genius. Each DM would bring something different to the table and would have weeks to prepare before they have to DM again. I agree with digital to the extent that it would be difficult to drive a consistent story headed in one direction, but I also like that one DM could alter the course of the adventure, while another could railroad you right back. I hope this works out for you!

Let me go ahead and post my desire to be involved :) No matter what game or ruleset we pick. I want to do this. I've always wanted to DM a game without committing to DMing on a weekly basis. This sounds great! Count me in!

Glad to have you aboard digital. :D My home group frequently has two to three alternating DMs, so I know it can work really well with some collaboration. It'll probably start with some FATE-style collaborative world creation, and then move into individual story sessions... kind of like that group game we'd play as kids where everyone told a piece of the story. I think it'll work quite well. The person who goes first has the least time to prepare (for which I'll happily volunteer), but get's to set the stage of the story (my favorite part). Meanwhile the people going thereafter have more and more time to prepare and more and more impact on the ending! To ensure we don't get overwhelmed I'm thinking of maintaining at least a two to one GM/noob ratio. This way we can sandwich the new DMs sessions between two experienced ones nicely. :)

I played with altering DM' s. As the DM Guide says there are advantages and disadvantages. When all players (DM's) have an agreement of rule interpretations, that can work out well. We had the problem, that some players dragged along their anger about a decision of another DM in the season they led and let out their frustration on the char of the former DM. Are you thinking about a chain of one-shots ? Sometimes the time frame to finish a scene isn't enough either. Still I want to play a character after long time of mastering D&D 4e and support new DM's so I would like to participate if the time fits. It should help if we distribute regular EXP, so the following DM's can prepare a proper adventure.

Jochen, I've thought about this, so I've created a short application to help put together a group of fun, like-minded people. If any problems arise, I want of group of people who can handle things like adults. :) I was thinking of doing a series of one-off adventures that can be connected by a location or a over-arching storyline. If a DM doesn't finish his/her campaign in the given session, we can probably just let him/her run over into the next session. That's more play time for everyone else after all. :) We'll figure out the timeframe when we narrow down who'll be playing. In the meantime, just fill out the application above so we can start figuring out who's interested. I like your idea about regular XP. It's true that if it's all monster based then DMs who plan encounters around specific levels won't be able to fully prepare ahead of time. What we'll probably do is give a base XP allotment every week, and distribute loot, gold, and alternate rewards in game for killing monsters/completing tasks/etc.

Thanks =) I run a group for almost a year now. Always giving them regular exp. So they can enjoy the game as they like, without the pressure of succeeding in encounters of any kind. If they fight or do other encounters, I reward them based on loot, connections or something else. I hope we can handle arising problems like adults, sometimes its hard for someone to step back from his position, but we all should give and take to run things smoothly.

Application done. :) Very interesting set of questions.

It provides a very interesting set of results. :)

Yea. I'm done to. Not really happy about the limited answering options, but fine for some rudiment information.

It's one of those personality tests honestly, you have to pick the closest right answer, and that should at least help Jedd know what kind of player/DM you are. If you feel strongly about it though, feel free to message Jedd and explain better. I think it's meant to just make it easier to weed out people who don't fit with the overall group. If you got 5 people who like to role play and 1 person who just likes to smash stuff... there's going to be conflict.

Correct. I'm not expecting this to be a complete testament to your personality or character. It's more about assessing the interests and styles of a larger data pool rather than any individual - which is why I needed to limit the data to specific variables.

If I have the time I would consider participating, I have some experience as a DM/GM having run a Game continuously for 36 years, and rarely get to play. Oh I just looked at the Sign Up sheet and noticed it was oriented toward 4E which I will never play again, sorry.

Just threw in an application. Have you given any thought to the party? Would it be a rotating cast pending on who's playing/DMing, or would we try to keep it as static as possible?

Just signed up. I used to DM/GM years ago, and started last month and looking to hone my skills again. I am good on the fly, but always looking to be better!

@ Ajax: Stopped playing while it was the best experience ? Nah, just kidding. But to bad, you had such a horrible experience with 4e. For that system to work, I guess it needs a group, that can handle the freedom of the system ;) There are so much opportunities to exploit, that it can be hard to figure out how to use them for the own benefits.

Yea, I guess I'm too stupid.

@Ajax : hey guy there's no reason to be insulting here. Jochen was just kidding. Let's try to have an open mind about rulesets. You don't like 4e and that's perfectly fine man. I haven't played it yet myself so I'm open to trying it. Sorry if he bothered you bud.

Yea, it may be hard to see my winking and my comment, that I was just kidding. To be clear now, it wasn't my intention to suggest, that you are stupid.

I just noticed it was 4e, oh well Good luck. Looking for something similar with 3.5 or pathfinder.

@Ajax: sorry you had a bad experience with 4e. I understand completely as I had a bad experience with Pathfinder and am not eager to play it again. Best of luck in finding a group on here! @Ethan.robot: I don't intend to make anyone switch up characters for a better party fit. Any party needs at least 1 guy who can take a beating on the front lines and at least 1 healer, so as long as we have enough people who can fill those roles we'll be fine. If someone wants to keep the same character throughout the campaign, that'll be fine. I also have a plan based on an idea Jochen gave me to easily allow people to reroll their characters in case their first build doesn't work out the way they thought it would (and how often does it really?). @Tommy R.: Sorry you're not interested in a 4e campaign. I totally understand the preference. :) I wanted to let y'all know what I'm thinking in terms of specs in case you want to be thinking about a character. Please give me your feedback on this. Option 1: 9,000 starting XP (level 6) and 5,400 starting gold, with mostly free reign in character creation. Magic items of any level can be purchased, but if anything is higher than level 7, it'll come with a random curse attached (as found in Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium). Option 2: 26,000 starting XP (level 11) and 27,000 starting gold. This is for those who really want to make Paragon Path specific builds. If we do this one though, I'm going to limit class selection to Essentials characters (from any "Heroes of..." source) to keep things from getting too complicated. Same deal with the magic items, except curses are attached for levels over 12. I'll go over my other ideas further down the road, but wanted to get some input at this stage.

Interesting; not starting at level 1; that's a surprise. The 6th level would be my choice then. Maybe we shouldn't let new DM's start with pantheon chars and campaigns.

@Jochen: 6th level is my preference too. I'd recommend the Essentials classes to anyone looking as they greatly simplify a build without sacrificing power. What do you mean a "pantheon chars and campaigns"? I'm unsure to what you're referring.

Think he meant Paragon. It would be rather overwhelming for any potential new DMs, since that's when the game starts to get realllly crazy. My vote would also be for level 6.

Yea, Paragon :D

@Ethan: Agreed. That's 3 for 6. I only even offered it because some of the people in my homegroup are always clamoring to play in Paragon. While I get not wanting to start at level 1, the problem I find with starting at 11 is people create builds that would have been awful had they actually gone through the heroic tier - it just gets crazy. With a campaign starting at 6 characters actually have time to grow into their greater potential.

@Jedd: Thanks for replying to my LFG thread. I just filled out the application. This sounds like fun. I've DM'd a few sessions and ran my own campaign a couple times. Level 6 sounds like an excellent starting point as well. I feel its just enough to solidify a character while still leaving some parts open to grow with a group dynamic.

I actually prefer to let them start as level 1 chars. I think it benefits the story and the character development. The system is supporting that very good, so I don't have hard feelings about them starting from scratch. I gave them some more exp from level 1-5 and reduced the exp after they hit level 6/7 a bit. But I can manage level 6, fine by me. I guess the DM's characters will get the same exp as the players ? What about the DM's characters. I don't feel really well if they stay active in the group, while the owner of the character is DM.

Applied! I have only played in one 4th edition campaign but I have played and DMed several others. I did NOT have a good time with the 4th edition campaign but that can be laid at the feet of poor DM running and clashing player philosophy (Player, not character). I think I'd have a lot of fun doing this so count me in if I can play.

When should we be expecting to know who will playing? I assume after that its finding out when we'll be playing.

@Trent: Thanks for joining us! I think the thing I'm most excited about is enjoying the different DM styles for each adventure. @Jochen-K.: Once the final group is decided, I'll look at how often people want to level (right now it's up between bi-weekly and every 3 weeks) and that'll determine our weekly XP ramp. Since a person won't get any gold, alternative rewards, or loot while DMing, I figured a cool way to say thanks would be they get double XP that week. E.g. If this week everyone will get 1,000 XP, the DM's character would get 2,000 XP. @Karlen-K.: Thanks for applying! I appreciate you being willing to give us a chance. :) @Ethan.robot: When we get a few more responses (I want at least 6 people interested in playing) we'll starting talking about schedule. Most of the applications so far seem to be player compatible, so it'll like come down to schedule and availability. We'll see! :) UPDATE: I've attached some interesting statistics from the applications. If you're a data junkie like me you might appreciate these. :)

I think Jochen's idea at starting at level 1 at an increased rate of experience is a great idea. I would not be opposed to this as I agree it would help the story/character development. I'm sure this is something we can all discuss once all the players get together. @Jedd : Thanks for posting the graphs. Keep them coming!

When were you born ? To answer the questions with "I'm mastering since before you where born" ;) For the other graphs; I guess 0 was something like "no thanks" and 1 was something like "If I have to" 2 was "I don't care" Then we have 1 "I don't care" tank And 2 "I don't care" striker ... In my experience it's not that important, that all roles are taken. For a while I had a pure leader-group; sometimes with a striker or a controller added to them (2 melee, 1 range). And they did a good job, even with hard combat-encounters. I guess the only thing that seems to be important is, that it helps to have 2-3 people for melee. So it is ok to get a boon or something like that ? One more thing: I guess it would be time to narrow the time-frame down in the next days. Coming from Europe it would be nice if we don't play longer than 23:00(02:00am max) CET on Monday-Thursday. Next Sunday our clock is changed 1 hour closer to american time. On Friday I can play 14:00-22:00 CET and Sunday only bi-weekly before 19:00 CET. My complete Saturday is free to play.

@Jochen: I just thought the symmetry/polarity of those two roles was interesting. For the tank people were leaning toward "Meh" and for the rogue people were either "absolutely" or "no way." Personally, I almost always create a Thief type character (at-will DPS for the win), but this time I wanted to try something different so I'm leaning towards a Paladin/Warlord hybrid. I've always conceptually loved warlords, but have always ignored their direct attack abilities in favor of their party manipulation abilities. This time I went a completely different route and actually embraced the warlord's melee capabilities and combined him with a Paladin to make him the toughest battlefront leader I could. I agree about the roles. The only disaster of a party I've seen was when the entire group elected to be ranged strikers and controllers. We spent most of our time avoiding enclosed spaces and running away with no melee and no heals. It was funny, but not fun. But if I go the leader/melee route, then there's no chance of that happening. :P Regarding boons & alternative rewards - I'm going to allow you to purchase one, but I'm going to limit you to just one boon/alternative reward starting out. Having multiple boons and alternative rewards out of the gate seems cheesy to me. Also, if it's a deity related boon/reward, I'd ask that you actually worship that deity. Another character building note: You can chose any additional character options you want so long as you can provide a story/reasoning for it, with the exception of Inherent Bonuses (so you can click Dark Sun, Spellscarred, Harper, House Vadalis, and/or Circle of Smoke and Whispers). Thirdly, the Guttersnipe theme provides "store discounts" allowing you to buy items at 90% of their cost. If you chose this theme, I'll allow you to get your starting gear using this benefit. The best times for me generally would be every other Saturday (anytime) or Sunday afternoons. I want at least five people doing this (for a 4 person rotating party) and we have seven applications (at least one and maybe two have dropped), so we could start moving forward, but I was expecting someone would have to drop out if their schedule didn't align with anyone else... If you want to go ahead and let us know your availability, just do so here . This isn't for commitments, just discussion.

What time zone are those times for ? And when would the first Sunday be ? We will still start with level 6 ? Trent also thought that starting first level with a faster leveling rate would be a "great idea". I can't understand, why a DM should get double exp, when everybody should be mastering anyway; but with or without the additional exp, it shouldn't make a difference. But he could get some gold for the time to keep track with the group. And for the character, I would like to play my good aligned Githyanki-Artificer with a Dwarfen-Thrower enchanted Executioners Axe ;) Background story already written and char ready to play from level 1 to 6. This char is waiting like 2-3 months now to be played more than once ...

Well chaps, I'm going to have to back out. Make sure to have fun!

@Jochen: I thought it would update it based upon people's local times, but it looks like it doesn't... Everything was listed in GMT - 4:00 (Eastern Time) I find levels 1 - 3 to be a bit of a headache, but if that the majority decision I'll abide by it. When the group is finalized we'll vote on it. If you're messing around w/ character creation, change the starting gold to 1180 for a level 1 build. We can discuss alternative DM rewards such as gold once we get started. I thought XP was a good way to do it, but whether it's that or gold doesn't really matter to me.

Ok, thanks. Somehow I can't chose earlier then 09:00am. Yea, if all players cycle, it should even out anyway. Do we have a rough time frame when we are going to start ? 1,2,3,4 weeks ?

Did we determine a day to play? I have fridays completely free, saturday afternoons, and bi-sundays. EDIT: Nevermind, I see it's going to be sundays.

@Jochen: Hopefully we'll be starting earlier in November. I've been working on the first adventure, but have stopped until the group is finalized and we settle on a starting level. @Karlen: Preliminary data suggests we'll be meeting either bi-Saturdays or bi-Sundays, but I want a few more responses before deciding. We still need a schedule from @digitalcassette which would bring us up to 5 people currently interested. I still want 1 - 3 more responses after that.

Guys : I'm sorry but my weekends just got swallowed up in the past week. In this economy you've gotta take what you can get :) and I'm going to be doing some freelance work on the side. So I'll have to bow out of this idea for now. Please move forward and if my schedule opens back up I'll contact you @jebb about getting back in!

I have a group on bi-Sundays between 08:00am [GMT-4] and 12:00 [GMT-4] and another one weekly after 14:00 [GMT-4] (Its bed time after the weekly game). I could do the time before 14:00 [GMT-4] on the other weekends but Saturday would fit way better. Something else. Next Sunday our clock is changed 1 hour back. So I think I get closer 1 hour to your time I guess. Having that in mind, I would like to do my final scheduling after the clock was changed.

hello all, i am somewhat new to the 4.0 DnD games. I have been trying to find a group to join, but so far have not had any success. I do have experience playing a healer. she is actually level 7. but not sure if u looking for dm's or also players. please let me know. i would very much like to join your campaign.

@digitalcassette: Thanks for the heads up! Good luck on the freelance work! @Jochen: Final scheduling won't happen until we have a more solid idea of whom the group will consist of, so you're fine there. @Maximilian: Thanks for the application! If you could go ahead and give us a rough idea of your availability , that'll help speed up the process. Our group is being composed of experienced DMs and players willing to learn. As long as you're willing to DM at least one session (we'll happily help you prepare), you're eligible to join! :)

hey jedd i went ahead and filled out the availibility. to be honest I am available for any hours. sometimes Sunday can be an issue because of me working that day. I have CST as my time. I am from Houston, Tx. So hopefully there isn;t much of an issue. as for DMing, I am very much willing to learn. I did one group once, using the red box. it wasn't too bad. just not sure how well i will do. thanks!

I'm kinda excited about playing again. I played a halfing monk (Don't laugh, that Second Chance skill with monks squirreliness is hilarious) and kinda looking to play Psionic or Artificer this time. EDIT: @Maximilian G. I'm from Austin so I am on the same time. :D

I didn't realize these times on the meetup site were in EST. I have adjusted my availability for this (Only affects weekdays and i'm wide open on the weekends). Also just to throw this out, I've got a backstory and character made for a duelist rogue i'd like to try out. If we have too many strikers I also have a controller wizard fleshed out and ready to go as well.

I might have to duck out of this one. It looks like I might be DMing a D20 Modern game and a Shadowrun game in the near future. But I'll keep you updated.

How many people are still on ?

Not counting those who've backed out, I think we've got 4 total now? I wouldn't want to start without 5 (1 DM + 4 players), so I'll try to recruit another member.