There's way too many campaigns trying to start all at once, and all of them have so many different rules. One of the DMs is saying to only use standard array, another is saying no more than three rolled array categories, one campaign is banning all full-and-half casters, another is entirely full casters, I have five different adventures that members of the club can take on in any order, and half the club is either on their phones or flirting with everyone. There's about ten campaigns ready right now, four of which are trying to run, 30 or so people in the club, and plenty of people like myself who aren't in a campaign, but I don't have space to run a third game. The club meets twice a week, I can only make it one of the days, and there's two campaigns running on each day. Does anyone know how to help?
First, congrats on having an active D&D club in your High School!
A few questions:
What is your role in the club? What is the main (or top 3) problems you are trying to address?
From what you've said, there are a number of different campaigns with different rules/standards. That's not really a problem, unless people are bouncing between campaigns often and getting confused about the rules. If it is mostly character generation stuff (which it seems to be), that's not really an issue. You'll follow the rules of that campaign to generate your character, and then you'll have your character for that campaign.
If you want to better keep track of things like this going on, I would maybe suggest a simple Google Drive folder. Have the folder be "Campaign Rules". Then in the folder you can have a separate document for each campaign that explains the specific rules for character generation.
Alternatively, you can have a separate folder for each campaign. In each campaign folder, have a document that is the specific rules for that game (character generation, homebrew rules, allowed source material, 2014 vs 2024, etc). Then you could have a document in each folder that is a basic summary of the world/region that the campaign is taking place in. Then another document that is a "notes" page that is summaries of each session (very basic summaries, just so people can reference it to see what happened last time and what's going on in the story). Add any additional documents you feel would be useful (tips sheets for what players can do on their turn, a list of players for each campaign and their characters, etc).
If you have any more specific issues, please feel free to expand on what you are asking about. You can make the folders/documents viewable but not editable if you're worried about players messing with them, too.
How hard is the twice-a-week limit? Asking whoever's running the club if it can expand is the most obvious solution. (And also working the logistics to give everybody a chance to play also ought to be part of their job.)
I don't think the different campaigns putting different restrictions on character gen is a problem -- characters shouldn't be migrating from game to game anyway. (I admit I'm giving the "no casters" one some side-eye, just because it cuts out so many of the standard D&D options, but if the players are on board, there's no actual problem.)
We cannot expand the dnd club times, due to the teacher also running a different club Mon/Wed, with Friday not being an option. So far, the campaigns are stabilizing, and I have a character for each campaign I'm interested in, and the no casters one let me play a paladin as a really violent Christian. Think someone who knows what actually happened during the crusades, and wants to continue them. Things are seeming to get closer to normal, and I'll probably be able to run one of the shorter adventures I have near the end of this school year.
I'm a player who wants to start or play a campaign. I'm trying to find out who's playing in what campaign, and what campaigns are running. The main reason why I'm learning what rules are for what campaigns is because I'm trying to join one and I have characters for campaigns already. A human paladin played as a very religious fighter for the no casters campaign bc the DM allowed it, an orc barbarian for a helldivers/doom campaign that got scrapped, and a half elf ranger that I use wherever because "it's just a ranger, it doesn't matter if he can roll a 30 to hit and has an AC of 19, he still can't be that combat viable." Right now, I'm trying to join one of the campaigns, so I don't have anything to take notes on. And the "no rolled array" argument was with another student, all the DMs are fine if I keep it under 3 groups. If and when I do take notes, they'll probably be mine and mine alone.
I'm .... I'm not sure I'm able to penetrate the problem here. It's been a long time since I was part of something more than a single tabletop group, but when I was ... well, having everyone play essentially the same game would have been an unimaginable luxury. We had simultaneous games of D&D, Shadowrun, Earthdawn, Cyberpunk, Mage (was it called Mage?!), Warhammer 40k, some other miniatures game I didn't and still don't know. All on different time tables, in different rooms.
But then, it wasn't really anyone's job to keep track of any of it. If you were in a group, you showed up for that groups games, and that was all there was to it.
Chaos can be chaos and still be a self-organising system.
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Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
Sorry for being away for a while, I've started my campaign anyway, and this is how it's going:
We have a tabaxi rogue that's Meowth from Team Rocket, and goliath barbarian that's essentially Kronk but with a burnt down village (person burned down the village bc all the adults were having affairs with the doors open in front of kids ig?), a dwarf barbarian with brass knuckles, another dwarf, this one a bard, and a goliath blood hunter that's entire personality is the wolf he tamed in the first combat session.
Next up, I have a combat session planned for them. Three goblins, two archers and one melee, are accompanied by a bugbear. The bugbear doesn't attack until attacked, or until the party hits him. After that, they gain a level, I have it work like a long rest, and then they advance forward. Four goblins, two archers and two melee, greet them alongside two hobgoblin warriors. The hobgoblins attack straight on, while the goblins divide and attempt to flank. Once they're gone, two bugbears and a hobgoblin warrior, captain if it's too easy, rush at them with no strategy. Upon defeat, the hobgoblin whispers, "for the conquering flame," and activates a glyph of warding fireball. Later on, maybe next session, I'll have them find a kobold cave system, used to train various creatures for combat and traps.
I know it sounds like a double or triple deadly encounter, but I tried spreading it out so that pack tactics and aura of authority don't skew the fight too much. How did I do?
I forgot to mention that each player gets 4 coppers, 16 silvers, 12-112 gold, depending on if they sell the resources(kinda like lost mines in phandalin), all the enemy gear, and 3 health pots for the community loot.
While I am running my own campaign, my friend invited me to his Dead Cells inspired campaign where you can level up past lvl 20 in one class, and multiclass multiple times past lvl 20. This guy's had to DM for 50 people all in one campaign at once, yes I believe he's got this, and yes combat took a literal 8 hours to get through. Anyway, one of the club advisors also has a thing running where he's teaching some of us how to play MtG, and that's constantly going if you were worried about variety.
Sorry for being really late to this comment, been busy with life and dnd kinda got pushed back until now
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There's way too many campaigns trying to start all at once, and all of them have so many different rules. One of the DMs is saying to only use standard array, another is saying no more than three rolled array categories, one campaign is banning all full-and-half casters, another is entirely full casters, I have five different adventures that members of the club can take on in any order, and half the club is either on their phones or flirting with everyone. There's about ten campaigns ready right now, four of which are trying to run, 30 or so people in the club, and plenty of people like myself who aren't in a campaign, but I don't have space to run a third game. The club meets twice a week, I can only make it one of the days, and there's two campaigns running on each day. Does anyone know how to help?
First, congrats on having an active D&D club in your High School!
A few questions:
What is your role in the club?
What is the main (or top 3) problems you are trying to address?
From what you've said, there are a number of different campaigns with different rules/standards. That's not really a problem, unless people are bouncing between campaigns often and getting confused about the rules. If it is mostly character generation stuff (which it seems to be), that's not really an issue. You'll follow the rules of that campaign to generate your character, and then you'll have your character for that campaign.
If you want to better keep track of things like this going on, I would maybe suggest a simple Google Drive folder. Have the folder be "Campaign Rules". Then in the folder you can have a separate document for each campaign that explains the specific rules for character generation.
Alternatively, you can have a separate folder for each campaign. In each campaign folder, have a document that is the specific rules for that game (character generation, homebrew rules, allowed source material, 2014 vs 2024, etc). Then you could have a document in each folder that is a basic summary of the world/region that the campaign is taking place in. Then another document that is a "notes" page that is summaries of each session (very basic summaries, just so people can reference it to see what happened last time and what's going on in the story). Add any additional documents you feel would be useful (tips sheets for what players can do on their turn, a list of players for each campaign and their characters, etc).
If you have any more specific issues, please feel free to expand on what you are asking about. You can make the folders/documents viewable but not editable if you're worried about players messing with them, too.
How hard is the twice-a-week limit? Asking whoever's running the club if it can expand is the most obvious solution. (And also working the logistics to give everybody a chance to play also ought to be part of their job.)
I don't think the different campaigns putting different restrictions on character gen is a problem -- characters shouldn't be migrating from game to game anyway. (I admit I'm giving the "no casters" one some side-eye, just because it cuts out so many of the standard D&D options, but if the players are on board, there's no actual problem.)
We cannot expand the dnd club times, due to the teacher also running a different club Mon/Wed, with Friday not being an option. So far, the campaigns are stabilizing, and I have a character for each campaign I'm interested in, and the no casters one let me play a paladin as a really violent Christian. Think someone who knows what actually happened during the crusades, and wants to continue them. Things are seeming to get closer to normal, and I'll probably be able to run one of the shorter adventures I have near the end of this school year.
I'm a player who wants to start or play a campaign. I'm trying to find out who's playing in what campaign, and what campaigns are running. The main reason why I'm learning what rules are for what campaigns is because I'm trying to join one and I have characters for campaigns already. A human paladin played as a very religious fighter for the no casters campaign bc the DM allowed it, an orc barbarian for a helldivers/doom campaign that got scrapped, and a half elf ranger that I use wherever because "it's just a ranger, it doesn't matter if he can roll a 30 to hit and has an AC of 19, he still can't be that combat viable." Right now, I'm trying to join one of the campaigns, so I don't have anything to take notes on. And the "no rolled array" argument was with another student, all the DMs are fine if I keep it under 3 groups. If and when I do take notes, they'll probably be mine and mine alone.
Each campaign should have a "Standards" sheet printed out that details the house rules and such.
I'm not sure what you mean by "nothing to take notes on". I have always used notebooks for each character/campaign to keep things straight.
Anyway, good luck with it!
I'm .... I'm not sure I'm able to penetrate the problem here. It's been a long time since I was part of something more than a single tabletop group, but when I was ... well, having everyone play essentially the same game would have been an unimaginable luxury. We had simultaneous games of D&D, Shadowrun, Earthdawn, Cyberpunk, Mage (was it called Mage?!), Warhammer 40k, some other miniatures game I didn't and still don't know. All on different time tables, in different rooms.
But then, it wasn't really anyone's job to keep track of any of it. If you were in a group, you showed up for that groups games, and that was all there was to it.
Chaos can be chaos and still be a self-organising system.
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
Join a campaign, use that campaigns rules, go and have fun. Once you pick one it doesn't matter what is going on in the other games.
In a way the variety is a good thing. It lets people know there is more than one way to D&D.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
Sounds like your typical HS club. There's no much we can do for you. Best bet is if you try to gather a few folks to do something away from the club.
Sorry for being away for a while, I've started my campaign anyway, and this is how it's going:
We have a tabaxi rogue that's Meowth from Team Rocket, and goliath barbarian that's essentially Kronk but with a burnt down village (person burned down the village bc all the adults were having affairs with the doors open in front of kids ig?), a dwarf barbarian with brass knuckles, another dwarf, this one a bard, and a goliath blood hunter that's entire personality is the wolf he tamed in the first combat session.
Next up, I have a combat session planned for them. Three goblins, two archers and one melee, are accompanied by a bugbear. The bugbear doesn't attack until attacked, or until the party hits him. After that, they gain a level, I have it work like a long rest, and then they advance forward. Four goblins, two archers and two melee, greet them alongside two hobgoblin warriors. The hobgoblins attack straight on, while the goblins divide and attempt to flank. Once they're gone, two bugbears and a hobgoblin warrior, captain if it's too easy, rush at them with no strategy. Upon defeat, the hobgoblin whispers, "for the conquering flame," and activates a glyph of warding fireball. Later on, maybe next session, I'll have them find a kobold cave system, used to train various creatures for combat and traps.
I know it sounds like a double or triple deadly encounter, but I tried spreading it out so that pack tactics and aura of authority don't skew the fight too much. How did I do?
I forgot to mention that each player gets 4 coppers, 16 silvers, 12-112 gold, depending on if they sell the resources(kinda like lost mines in phandalin), all the enemy gear, and 3 health pots for the community loot.
While I am running my own campaign, my friend invited me to his Dead Cells inspired campaign where you can level up past lvl 20 in one class, and multiclass multiple times past lvl 20. This guy's had to DM for 50 people all in one campaign at once, yes I believe he's got this, and yes combat took a literal 8 hours to get through. Anyway, one of the club advisors also has a thing running where he's teaching some of us how to play MtG, and that's constantly going if you were worried about variety.
Sorry for being really late to this comment, been busy with life and dnd kinda got pushed back until now