Dungeons and Dragons

unify the group back together and use a talking stick on whose turn it is. run the session that is ahead on one-shots till they are back together or alternatively have two groups and have them diverge. no point in tracking two groups of different people down the exact same road especially when there is a scheduling issues.

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.

So if I understand the state of play the parties are in a land ruled by a king, there is a necromancer somewhere to the north of the kings location, and a dungeon. There’s a burnt out town with a now saved water source thanks to group 2.

A few questions.

• Will the two groups meet up in real life for the odd session where appropriate? Or are they now in essence playing in the same world but entirely separate games?
• If the former is the dungeon a separate experience for the two groups or will they meet in the dungeon?
• Did the necromancer kill the npc or did group 1 kill the npc?

Assuming the necromancer killed the npc, and the two groups will meet in the dungeon, for a session together, I’d probably do the following:

• have the necromancer be the ultimate boss of the dungeon. Too powerful for either group but powerful enough for both groups to tackle together.
• Have the parties enter the dungeon as enemies but ultimately have to work together to defeat the necromancer. This could be aided by having a few rooms that are separate but with puzzles requiring both to work together to progress. The idea is to keep them from fighting before confronting the necromancer.
• Have the king treat group 2 as expendables who are only given extremely dangerous jobs, for now. This should hopefully diminish the alliance initially allowing you to slowly build the npc relationship as the group is useful to the king.
• At the end of the session have the groups go their own way then treat them as entirely separate stories. The idea of trying to schedule two different groups sounds exhausting.

Bear in mind though the above only works if the players would have fun. That’s the aim of all of this.

Also have a look through this website for some good tips on streamlining DM prep - https://slyflourish.com/choosing_the_right_steps.html