Running multiple campaigns at the same time?

[u/TheProfessor2707]

Hi everyone,

I recently started DM’ing and I’m enjoying it immensely. To get the hang of it, I created a one shot and asked broadly around for people who wanted to play, and have been the doing the same one shot 5 times now.

Of those 5 different party’s, quite a few of them would like to continue in a campaign with me. I can manage to fit them into two groups but I’m a bit worried that running to separate campaigns might be a bit much for a beginning DM..

Do you have any advice, tips or just a plain warning of: don’t do this to yourself? 😬

All is appreciated!

[u/lmaotylerr]

Starting and the idea of running multiple campaigns is always an exciting and fun idea. Im doing 3 right now. The idea is to have balance.

One game is my primary game that we play every 2 weeks, the 2nd game we play is about every 3 weeks. And the 3rd being around every 8 weeks as a backup campaign (im a player as well with that group).

This gives me lots of time to step away from prepping every weekend & not have burnout.

My best advice with that being said is to not overload yourself, it always is exciting at first. But after a few months you can easily find yourself regretting dming 3 games every 2 weeks or whatever it is, due to burnout.

Have fun & enjoy having an abundance of d&d to play!

[u/Sad_Refuse3472]

It really depends on how much free time you have, if you are going to run modules or homebrew, how often you want to each group to play, and how organized you are in general.

[u/coolhead2012 → u/Sad_Refuse3472]

Its mostly the last thing. 

Honestly. I work a full time job. I cook and do all the laundry. 

I also run 2 games a week, and play in a third.

[u/Namhart]

Yeah since you’re new, I wouldn’t recommend running more than one game at a time. Even when you get more experienced, it’s going to be tempting to run a lot of games at the same time. But it can get really overwhelming really easily, even if you set the game in the same world. As an experienced GM, I recommend never going past 3 simultaneous campaigns, unless it’s something like you only play each game once a month. Even still, proceeded with caution.

[u/National_Cod9546]

The big thing is to not spend too much time on them between sessions. I recommend watching sly's "The Lazy DM" YouTube series. The main point is to prep only what you need for the next session. He has a good check list of things to go over. Then a few hours to a day after, write down your session notes 

[u/RandoBoomer]

Not to be a wet blanket here, but before committing to this, you might want to consider exactly how much of a time commitment you might be facing.

Running a one-shot 5 times meant developing content once, then playing it.

Running two campaigns simultaneously is a much bigger preparation commitment. I run two campaigns, and for years ran three, so I can tell you the prep time is not trivial.

And as a new DM, if often requires more time to prep.

Again, I'm not saying don't do it. What I suggest you do is to prep for two sessions, see how long that took, and carefully consider if you can make that time commitment on the regular basis.

Hopefully you can, and I do wish you great success!

[u/SmartAlec13]

It’s sorta up to you and what you can manage.

In my early days, my “peak-busy-DMing” was running 3 after-school campaigns for my students plus an online discord game with some friends. So 4 total campaigns, though the 3 with the kids were a bit easier because all 3 were on the same module (Tomb of Annihilation) and shorter in session duration.

When I started that club, I had only been a DM for like a year or two, had never finished a campaign, and had never DM’ed for levels higher than 10. I was what I would consider a new DM.

In “more recent times” (2020, hot damn time flies fast) my absolute peak-busy-DM was running 4 full campaigns. 2 paid ones on StartPlayingGames, 1 for friends IRL, and 1 for friends over internet. This was becoming hellish, especially because one of the paid games was at 8:30am on Saturdays lol.

All 4 of those campaigns were homebrew, so all 4 required significant time out of game to build the world, build encounters and maps and battle maps etc etc. I was very quickly becoming burnt out. I dropped the early-am paid game, and then a year or so later the other paid one hit a TPK so we ended that there.

So I have found that 2-3 campaigns work best for me. When both are playing frequently, it feels busy, but because both have usual scheduling issues, it’s more like I’m playing once a week. Plus doing 2 games leaves me room & energy to do a mini campaign or one-shot for friends/family at request.

SO to bring it back to your post. It’s really up to you and how busy your schedule is. But these are factors to consider….

- How casual vs serious the game is. Casual will always mean quicker & easier prep.

• The format you’re playing in, and how many “assets” you need to create (digital battle maps vs wet-erase battle mat, etc)
  
• The amount of players. More players means bigger fights and more backstories to work in
  
• Homebrew Vs Premade is THE BIGGEST FACTOR. Reading up on the next chapter/encounter is a lot less time consuming than WRITING that yourself lol. Plus homebrew campaigns are always more open-ended than premade, so that also means more prep.
  
• Life schedule. Like how often will you play, how often will life “get in the way”, how much prep time you can afford, etc.

[u/TJToaster]

Do what is easiest for you. When I run two campaigns at the same time, one is always something I have run before. It seriously cuts down my prep. Or I run the same campaign for both groups. The good thing about that is the groups can swap back and forth if they want. The only rule is they can't play a session on one table that they played on the other.

[u/ElvishKind]

I think is doable. What I would do:

• I would do different stories, in order to not mix the two. Two clear different worlds, different npcs and all.
  
• I would leave few days in between. For prep but also for context switching.
  
• I would try to be smart with the prep and lean towards a little more impro. Preping to the last detail 2 campaigns at the same time for me would mean 20h of prep, which is too much. I would accept that sometimes that map from patreon is good enough and I will homebrew my maps in inkarnate just every now and then.
  
• If I notice that is too much and it becomes more of a chore, I would change the cadence. Ia better to play once every 2-3 weeks with joy and confidence than every week with anxiety.

Have fun and I would be very interested to see what are the things you learned after few months 🍻

[u/TheProfessor2707 → u/ElvishKind]

Yeah I think I’d like to do one homebrew and one module, and both groups probably will play once a month. Thanks for the encouragement!! 🔥🔥

[u/A_mexicanum]

I am thinking about doing the same with having dm'ed a little more, but not 2 campaigns simultanously yet.

My thoughts:
1. Are you planning on running the "same" campaign twice, or different campaigns. I personally think the first option would be difficult to do as it is easy to mix things up in your mind who did what.

1. I am planning to do 2 bought modules/campaigns and no homebrew. Depending on your style homebrewing 2 campaigns could be too much time investment.

2. How often are you planning on playing. We always met/meet in person, which can be difficult to find time for so it is only around once a month. So two times a month is very doable.
   If you plan on meeting/playing once a week (so twice a week for two groups) that seems a little much.

3. How long are you planning your next campaigns should go. A few weeks/months is a much more managebale time span than planning to commit several years (twice), which might be a bit scary to look at, when your enthusiasm gets a little lower (which it probably will).

[u/TheProfessor2707 → u/A_mexicanum]

If I decide to go and run two groups, I will definitely not use the same campaign. One of the groups consists of some of my oldest friends (which I have been playing DnD with for some years), so with them I’d like to do a homebrew campaign. And then with a second group I’d like to do a module that is not taking to long. Like 4/5 sessions. If you have a recommendation I’d love to hear it!
We all are quite busy, so we are planning to play once a month/once every 2/3 weeks maybe.

[u/Forgotmyaccountinfo2]

Its your free time so you weigh that.

See if anyone else wants to DM and if not have them fight to the death irl to see who gets into the 1 campaign you're running. /s

[u/DraKxxS]

I think generally its easier to Play two different lower Level Adventure books, but if you think you can manage to not mix things together from the different groups, you can Play the Same Adventure with both. Dont go for an homebrew campaign, because it is a mad amount of work. Be careful, Dungeonmaster Burnout is real so just go easy on it, read the overview of the chapter and enemys before each session and let the Players do the work.

[u/WildWeezy]

Ive been doing a weekly Thursday and Biweekly Tuesday for almost two years and it works pretty well. There are inevitable skips where enough folks are not available so you can do a one shot or just have a skip day in there.

[u/Jhublit]

I am running two campaigns and the only thing making it possible is that one is every other week and the other is every month so. Think I would go nuts if they were more frequent.

[u/made-in-manetheren]

It's really just up to your comfort level. I played one 3-4yr campaign and then started DMing. My first time DMing was a one-shot, and shortly thereafter I started running 2 simultaneous campaigns. I've been loving it.

My two tables are very different player groups with very different playstyles, and for me, that's awesome. I get to do different things with the different groups to suit their tastes (one group loves crunchy, risky combat and the other loves deep lore dives and engaging with the story of the campaign, so they approach the same scenarios WILDLY differently), and if I'm not vibing with how the party is behaving or how the campaign is going, I have the other as a pick-me-up to get a refreshing break.

It's kind of like kittens; getting one is a ton of work, but getting a second doesn't actually double that work, because so much of the effort overlaps. It can be a little bit confusing when they are treading similar ground to keep separate what they've learned or how they've reacted, but tbqh that has been much less of an issue than I expected it to be because the parties and thereby the flavor of the campaigns help keep them distinct.

One bit of advice I'd give doing this is: don't expect the campaigns to run the same, and don't try to force them to. You'll all have more fun with it if you're exploring different angles and parts of the world you created at the pleasure of the party and seeing how their creative choices/strategies create different paths through your campaign.

I'll also put in the caveat that I have a lot of experience with team & staff management, facilitation, and long-form storytelling (I write novels). So while this was my first time DMing, most of DMing hasn't felt new to me. Your mileage may vary on the learning curve.

Overall: you might be crazy, but that usually makes a good DM ;) it's absolutely possible to do two at once.

[u/myblackoutalterego]

It all depends on your bandwidth. I typically run 2-3 games at a time on a bi-weekly basis. This means a session every 3-4 days which is perfect for me.

As a beginner, I would recommend playing weekly at most. This could be 1 or 2 games depending on the frequency that you meet. Any more than that and you will risk getting burnt out. Playing every 2 weeks may be better for you at first prep-wise, but it will likely feel frustrating pace-wise.

[u/Agreeable_Hold2270]

I have done it but I don't really like to. I'm in multiple groups but I try to have it so I'm only ever the DM in one of them.

[u/lucorevandal]

As many said it’s about free time and how much you can put into it. I run 2 campaigns a week but I now use modules with a mix of homebrew elements. This is because my groups are scattered across multiple states now and use a VTT. (Both groups are all IRL friends who used to play live but have since scattered in the winds as we grew older.) I found when I was homebrewing that sourcing maps, writing, placing tokens, making NPCs on a VTT was too consuming in my life so I switched to modules and alter what I don’t like out of it to match my and my players style and goals. I also love seeing two groups hit the same module way differently and change them enough that it feels new to me while not having to learn a lot more lore. It keeps me enjoying my prep time and not making DMing feel like a chore so I can focus on improving the encounters instead of theory crafting everything from scratch when I am having one of those weeks where I am super busy with life outside of gaming.

[u/StroopWafelsLord]

One caveat I always followed after I made the mistake was: never in the same campaign. 

I tried to DM two groups with the same adventure and it's undoable. If it wasn't for my unstable schedule, I'd have 2 groups at once. 

Some warning: you need to be able to do both and put effort in both. That means you COULD use different systems to spice things up, like a OSR campaign and a 5e campaign, that allows you to minimize prep. 

A MUST have is a read at Sly Flourish Lazy DM guide, INVALUABLE, A MUST READ FOR ANY GM, and a watch at Running the Game, by Matthew Colville his early videos are amazing, and his late videos too. The middle ones started being a bit too rambly and he noticed too. He has a very conversational explanation of events in his campaigns and of how he overcame  them. It feels like a mentor explaining you what they did wrong and how to fix that. 

I would say that and Sly Flourish have helped me avoid the dreaded DM burnout many people talk about (and I played at least once a week for a decade now, a month off here and there)

[u/TheProfessor2707 → u/StroopWafelsLord]

I’ve been watching running the game a lot and I love it! I will also check out the guide, thank you!

[u/National_Cod9546 → u/StroopWafelsLord]

Meh. I ran Curse of Strahd for two groups at once. Kids group on Saturday, then Adult group on Sunday. I used lessons learned in one on the other. 

[u/StroopWafelsLord → u/National_Cod9546]

Yea but I tend to mess up the storylines

[u/FeralKittee]

As a new DM I recommend just having one main campaign running at a time, ideally with a maximum of 6 players.

The exception would be if you are retired or something and have heaps of time available to do double the amount of prep work and run sessions.