How many players is just too much?
Its in my nature to help those that need it. I do this in my job daily as an EMT (and soon as a Registered Nurse) and try my best to grant requests from my comrades that are within my means to facilitate.
My online campaign, while still in its infancy, already has 5 players. The number itself isn’t a major factor, its the scheduling availability that the group currently has. No one (that I know of) will ever work when we play – Saturday nights 9pm eastern monthly or more. Thankfully, the only conflict we’ve had so far was one player having a broken computer preventing her from playing one session.
Recently, the wife of one of the players expressed interest in playing. Her schedule fits the requirements as she should have the weekend evenings available and I’ve DMed 6 players before. No trouble there at all. In fact, I’m exciting about bringing a new player in to the D&D world as she’s new to it all. Just throw some more baddies in to balance out the difficulty and XP.
But… I’ve had another person express interest in playing. Hasn’t played a while and wants to get back in to it. Here’s my issue. I -want- to help the comrade out and grant him a virtual seat in our online session. While my first thought is of “the more the merrier” my second is of “wow combat`ll take forever and a day”. I feel it already takes longer than desired but its gotten better over the last couple sessions now that folks are getting comfortable with the 4th edition flow of things.
I also have to think about my other players. They too give up their time to play and I doubt they want to sit around and wait for the never ending combat session to finish.
Do any of you have experience with DMing/managing large groups like this? .. Is it even considered a large group? (“C`mon Czar! I DM 14 people every night!”) or should I just kindly decline and stick him on the waiting list in case an opening surfaces?
I think seven is definitely entering the realm of possibly being too large, but I’ve done it before. I think the majority of groups run with about three to five plus a game master.
I find that, as a game master, five players is about the max I like to run for. I have two reasons for this. One, five is a very manageable number. You don’t have to cancel a game if one or two players don’t show up, but it isn’t too many to deal with. Two, five players plus one game master fit perfectly at the typical rectangular tables we play on. Game master on one end, two players on each side, and a player at the far end.
You’re running an online campaign, so things may be slightly different. I think you’re doing a good job with five players. Six would be pretty nice. Seven may be too much. But you never know until you try!
Samuel Van Der Wall´s last blog post..How 4th Edition Has Made Me a Better DM
Alot depends on your system of choice. Combat length is almost always the limiting factor for pure time considerations. Personally, regardless of system, I don’t go over 6 or under 3. More than 6 and I can’t keep up with what everyone wants to do – less than 3 and people get bored with my style of GM’ing.
I’m running a simplified homebrew ruleset and I regularly have 9 or 10 show up for once-a-month sessions. Given the current personality mix (easygoing) it works fine. However, I’ve also DM’d a 4e game for a similarly-sized group with a mix of new and experienced players. That didn’t work nearly as well. Guage your group demeanor and experience. Larger groups may work.
I’ve found I much prefer playing and GMing with smaller groups, with three players being my ideal number. I just feel I get to know the characters more in this environment and it’s harder for players to blend into the background.
Of course, I do most of my gaming on IRC, where conversation scenes with more than four characters can be like a waterfall of speech.
SuperSooga´s last blog post..Lessons Learned from 4e Part 1
I think that 7 really is stretching it with an online game. Even at the table, I’d have difficulty, and at least then you don’t have to worry about a player simply wandering away from their computer and wondering where they are. I’d avoid adding in any new players, and if a player drops out, don’t refill their seat, leaving your group at 6.
More people = more time.
Theoretically, one can DM for any number of players if you have enough time for all the prep, as well as combat.
In 4E I have found that the efficiency of action ina round makes enough room for 1-2 more people. My current group is 5 core, with 2 guests that sometime show up.
My table rule is no more than 6 players. For each additional, someone else needs to come along to co-DM and/or run monsters.
When I run my con games I do really prefer seven players. While three of the characters are involved in combat the others can be in two pairs sorting out the rest of the scenario.
Also with seven players you do not get any deadlocks over decisions of what they are doing or trying to solve the dilemmas that arise.
Darran Sims´s last blog post..Midweek Character – Lance Corporal Jack Jones
When I run my con games I do really prefer seven players. While three of the characters are involved in combat the others can be in two pairs sorting out the rest of the scenario.
Also with seven players you do not get any deadlocks over decisions of what they are doing or trying to solve the dilemmas that arise.