Multiple Campaigns, One World – Here’s How To Do It

Can you run multiple RPG campaigns with different parties within the same world space? Absolutely! In today’s video, I am talking about running multiple campaigns with many different role-players in a single world setting. This can be a somewhat difficult task, particularly when trying to keep track of where the different parties are within your world space. To make this easier for you as the Game Master, we’ll talk about the 3 important aspects to take into consideration when running parallel campaigns. So next time you’re building your DnD, Pathfinder or Call of Cthulhu based world, try to run different campaigns within that same world and just let the magic happen!

Can you run multiple games/campaigns for multiple different parties within the same world
space?
Absolutely! And this is how you do it:

• Organization
o How you track your world
o By organization, we mean timelines.
o Track WHEN – keep a calendar so you can mark significant impact events to
ensure when the parties overlap, they are in the same time.
o Synchronise your game – it will shift, as one party takes a 3 week journey,
and the other has a 10 minute bar fight. Make sure to track it.
o Your PCs may want to find out what happened and go and investigate, let
them – it is their choice.
o Players track THEIR events. You still need to track GM events and their
outcomes.
o NPCs can know both – use your NPCs to make the world feel linked by talking
about ‘the other party’ (both the other party and NPC heroes)
o Make sure your group is happy to play in the same world – not everyone likes
an MMO.

• Interaction
o PC versus PC – use with caution and have an idea of how to resolve it in
mind.
o The PCs can leave a mark.
o NPCs should talk – ‘did you hear about X, over in the next kingdom?’

• Impact
o There must be awareness.
o Consequences – it must happen across all games and be consistent.
o Keeping notes is vital – without solid note keeping, you will forget.
o Look to the effects – one group might trigger an event that the other group
has to deal with from a different perspective.
• Common mistakes made when doing this:
o Forcing the parties together

What are your thoughts on running multiple games within the same world?