So I have two groups
- Group 1 (ranger, druid, sorcerer, and barbarian)
- Group 2 (bard, wizard, barbarian)
We started the first session as one big group instead of two and it was chaotic. Everyone was talking over eachother and wasn’t listening in general so I approached group one and asked if they wanted to split from group 2. They said yes. So in the world they kidnapped an npc from group 2 to try and sale and ditches group 2. 2 was surprised at first but was happy in the end. Group 1 ended up going north ditching group 2 thinking they were going to be tracked. 2 ended up making an alliance with the king (everyone’s level 1 so I’m also having pacing problems) and went on their way to hunt down 1. 1 ended up killing the npc apon nearly getting killed to a necromancer (I’ve improvised everything thus far) and ran. In the next session I made a dungeon for both 1 and 2 but 2 haven’t got to do it yet because of scheduling issues. (Last session was 3 months ago) and 1 is getting impatient but don’t want 2 rob 2 of an epic fight once they meet instead of making a new world. I ended up doing another session and a town got burnt down and a water supply poisoned. They ended up stopping the poison by freezing the river and escorting all of the poisoned ice out. In my sessions things go really fast. Any help or ideas?
This sounds like you bit off a lot more than you could chew. My advice is to just relax and take a breath. It sounds like you did a too much too fast. My advice is to just talk to each group separately and restart both campaigns with them being completely separate.
A fun choice is to have them both be in the same setting, and have the same starting adventure, but they are in different universes. That way you can see how different their stories go.This will solve a lot of the chaotic action that’s going on, and reduce your stress by a lot.
Just be honest with your groups and tell them, you are having a hard time handling both groups in the same game, especially if they are being adversaries. Remember, just because your the GM doesn’t mean you can’t have fun too. Campaigns die when GMing feels like a anxiety inducing obligation.
How experienced of a GM are you? I’ve been GMing since 3rd edition and even I would feel intimidated by the task you’re trying to complete. There’s nothing wrong with also telling your players to take a ten minute break, because you need to figure stuff out. If you’re struggling to come up with stuff on the fly, even just a couple minutes of a snack and bathroom break can help you think more clearly.
I agree. When I first got the books everyone was excited and I invited more players than I should of. New dm though I had some ideas in mind for it.