One campaign, many GMs, no bookkeeping

You might find yourself in the same fortunate situation I found myself in, perhaps without even realizing it, where more players want to explore your setting than you can comfortably fit around a single table. And where some of those players would actually make for great GMs themselves.

This post describes a way for multiple players and GMs to mix up who plays with whom for each session, without the need to syncronize notes. It follows my principles for a distributed campaign style.The GMs each control their own region within a shared setting, and information only travels between those regions through the player characters.

Once someone starts GMing, they are free to do their own thing without needing to worry about what’s happening in the other regions. But at its best, a distributed campaign makes the GMs eager to affect other regions through the player characters, and delighted by what the players bring into theirs, for better or worse. Perhaps another region has been plagued by a mind altering fungal parasite, and some players that now enter your region are contagious.

This post is not a complete guide yet; it lacks more detailed advice, steps, samples, playsheets etc. (see 'what's next' at the bottom). But the core principles should already serve you if you want to get started now.

Illustrated by Emiel Boven under CC BY 4.0

Create your shared setting

The setting of your campaign needs to have a few unchanging campaign truths. Six is typically a good number. These truths will be what makes the setting of your distributed campaign feel like a cohesive whole, despite the mixing of players and GMs. The truths should get you excited to run sessions in the setting, and they should fit a distributed campaign style (see the setting truth samples near the bottom of this post). Just remember that this campaign style across GMs is a level of complexity on top of what the GM is doing on their own, so keep it simple.

The truths should be finalized before a second person starts GMing. This can be done by the first GM on their own, but it can also be a fun collaborative effort to do so together with the second GM. Once the campaign truths have been passed on, they are intended to be fixed and unchanging. Because in principle, even if you would like to change them, over time there might be GMs running their own region that you're not even aware of. These truths are also the only truths that every region must adhere to, so choose them carefully.

Illustrated by Emiel Boven under CC BY 4.0

Create GM regions

When you think that a returning player would make for a good GM for the distributed campaign, you can invite them. If they want to join, give them the campaign truths.

Each GM controls their own GM region. Your inviter will help you set yours up (if you are the first GM, you are free to set it up as you wish). Each GM region is separated by some boundary with a treshold that can only be crossed by player characters in between sessions, along with whatever comes along with them. This way you don’t have to worry about what else is going on in the other regions. There should be at least one setting truth that explains why this is the case (see samples near the bottom of this post). The only exception is when two GMs get together between sessions to determine some other ways in which their regions bled into one another in between sessions.

• There are three options to choose from when creating your region together with your inviter.
1. Your inviter splits their existing region into two parts with a boundary between them, and gives one part to you as your own region.
2. You create a new region, with a way for the players to travel between your region and that of your inviter.
3. You were already running a region from a different setting, adapt it so that it matches the truths of this setting.
• Provide a treshold into your inviter's region.
• Once you have received the campaign truths and created your region, you are free to run sessions without ever needing to communicate with another GM again, but you are encouraged to do so whenever you feel the need.

Illustrated by Emiel Boven under CC BY 4.0

Create player frontiers

The player characters might probe into frontiers of uncharted lands, the mythical unknown or enemy territory.

• At the end of each session, the rising threat of frontiersmanship forces player characters to retreat to the nearest place of safety before the frontier, whether they achieved their goals or not. The GM decides what this location is at the end of each session. It could be where the players started their session. It could be that during their session, they pushed the frontier outward and created a new place of safety. Or the frontier claimed a place of safety and the players are forced to retreat further back.

• Give the possibility of a safe return the benefit of the doubt. Just let the players do it, or let them make one last roll to see how well it goes. If a player cannot return by the end of the session, their character goes missing and they make a new one. Their old character can no longer be used unless found in another session.

• The GM keeps track of any shifting frontiers within their region. Shifting frontiers cannot isolate players from the regions of other GMs.

• There is always enough downtime and sufficient means of transportation for player characters to travel between any two places of safety between sessions, as long as they're not separated by a frontier.

These principles allow players to always drop into any session, regardless of where they were before. If you want to change them, consider how this would impact the players’ mobility in between sessions and whether that would add to or detract from the enjoyment of the game.

Illustrated by Emiel Boven under CC BY 4.0

Create session goals

At the end of each session, the GM asks the players what goals they would each like to pursue in future sessions.

• Help the players think of specific ways to pursue these goals within your own region and write these goals down as regional goals (what’s the goal? Who wants to pursue it? Where do they want to do so?).
• Help the players think of open-ended ways they might be able to pursue the goal in other regions. Perhaps if they want to forge a forbidden key, there is a keymaker in another region foolish enough to do it. The players interested in pursuing these open-ended goals note them down as their own player goals list.

In between sessions, use your region goals to inspire the starting situation and goals for your next session. As the GM, you decide on the starting situation of your next session, but it is always good to try and find something the players are already excited to pursue.

At the start of each session, ask players about their player goals. Think of specific ways they might pursue them within your region, and drop appropriate adventure hooks during the session. If players pick up on them and want to pursue them at the end of the session, write them down on your regional goals list as normal.

Illustrated by Emiel Boven under CC BY 4.0

Sample campaign truths

Below is a list of sample of typical settings, along with a first setting thruth that helps you adapt the setting to a distributed campaign style. The truth tells you about the GM regions, its boundaries and why normally only the player characters cross them.

• Untamed wilds: the regions are settled areas separated by a wilderness too dangerous to traverse. The campaign is about the few foolish or brave enough to do so anyway. Variants: separated by a zombie outbreak or a cursed mist.
• Islands and ships: the regions are islands separated by a sea where sailing is outlawed. The campaign is about the outlaws who know secret smuggle routes and sail the seas in defiance. Variant: replace islands in the sea with skylands in the sky or planets in space. 
  
• Multiverse: the regions are each a variation of a universe, together forming a multiverse. The campaign is about the people who aqcquired a way to summon portals between them. Variant: Ikegai, where universes differ wildly from eachother instead of being variations of eachother.
• Anything goes: the regions are each a setting that may break the campaign truths no a fictional level. When you enter the treshold of one setting, you exit through the treshold of the next. For example, you enter through a multiverse portal end exit through the wilderness of the untamed wilds.

Illustrated by Emiel Boven under CC BY 4.0

What's next?

I intend for the above to remain the only core elements of this campaign style guide. I've already written some additional optional parts, as well as some more detailed advice. But I feel like the above is already quite a lot for one blogpost. I want to write more detailed procedures and playsheets to support the core elements of this post and the principles from the original post on distributed campaigns. For example; how to affect the player character sheet with items, conditions, companions etc in ways that will let your region bleed into others. I'll post about them on this blog when I have something to share. In the meantime, let me know if you have any questions or used something for yourself.

I hope this post may inspire your next game in some way. You can find my existing games on my itch.io page, hear about upcoming projects by subscribing to my mailing list,  or follow my thought proces by subscribing to this blog.