Largest Party Size you have ever Participated in/DM'd?

generic · Dec 14, 2018

My largest group ever was 11 players.

However, a fellow DM once ran a 15-player one-shot game when I was away.

He deserves a medal for his efforts.

toucanbuzz · Dec 15, 2018

12 in high school, 6 a few times as an adult. Never again with either.

There's no way to have meaningful social interaction with 12 people. I thought 6 might work later in life, but negative, and that includes GenCon where they squeeze you in. There's too many times people are doing nothing, waiting for others to do their thing, even with 6, and that sucks. Makes you wonder why I'm here because I'm not actually "playing," instead I'm sitting around playing on my phone waiting for the others to decide what they're going to do or pursuing their plots.

Alternatively, an outgoing person might dominate a large group, meaning a handful are roleplaying and the others are again, sitting around, waiting for the outgoing people to do their thing. When my group in an older edition hit 6 reliable players, we had to split. Just too many to get meaningful social roleplay in during a relatively limited time period.

Doc_Klueless · Dec 15, 2018

Aiden_Keller_ said:
Greetings,

I am attempting to run a campaign that involves 10 players.

In order to help facilitate this I have a few rules in place...

I am mainly wondering what the biggest party anyone has ever participated in?

While I've had big groups of rotating players, I've never run a game with more than 7 players at the table. I didn't like it. Not enough "screen time" for individual PCs. Some players got visibly bored/distracted.

I've played in a group of 11 at one table. I hated it! Might as well have stayed home as the turns took forever once we hit combat.

Wangalade · Dec 18, 2018

Have played in game with 14 players, and DMed 11.

I don't find it extremely difficult, just pay attention to what's going on at the table. Having said that though, my desired table size would be 5 players, enough to have a variety of ideas and goals, but not too many where people are doing nothing or overshadowed by other players.

MechaPilot · Dec 18, 2018

Well, it's starting to look like my group's issues might be solved. . . because there may not be much of a group anymore.

As I mentioned, this past Saturday was the first game session after the hiatus my game took (because the place we usually play closed down). I spent about $400 on a table and chairs so the group could play at my place from now on, and only one of the 8 players showed up; I ordered pizza for the game, and the two of us were stuck with a 24" pizza, which I've been stuck eating instead of my regular meals just to reduce the amount of money I've wasted. None of the rest of them even called or e-mailed to say they couldn't make it, and they had a little over a week's worth of warning that the game was back on.

So yeah, that's a thing that happened.

Lanefan · Dec 18, 2018

MechaPilot said:
Well, it's starting to look like my group's issues might be solved. . . because there may not be much of a group anymore.

As I mentioned, this past Saturday was the first game session after the hiatus my game took (because the place we usually play closed down). I spent about $400 on a table and chairs so the group could play at my place from now on, and only one of the 8 players showed up; I ordered pizza for the game, and the two of us were stuck with a 24" pizza, which I've been stuck eating instead of my regular meals just to reduce the amount of money I've wasted. None of the rest of them even called or e-mailed to say they couldn't make it, and they had a little over a week's worth of warning that the game was back on.

So yeah, that's a thing that happened.

That sucks.

But the upside - such as it is - is that you only have to buy the table and chairs once and you have them for-nearly-ever; so when you find or form another group you already have the set-up.

TarionzCousin · Dec 20, 2018

Gavin O. said:
I've been in a party of 14. We were a party of 10, which was already pretty slow, and then one of the players decided to invite 4 of his friends without telling the DM beforehand.

It ended up being the last session of that game.

Coincidence???

I ran for 15 or 16 players way back in 1E when we didn't know better. Now I wouldn't want to go above 7 for D&D. Other systems can handle more or fewer, depending.

Gavin O. · Dec 20, 2018

TarionzCousin said:
Coincidence???

I ran for 15 or 16 players way back in 1E when we didn't know better. Now I wouldn't want to go above 7 for D&D. Other systems can handle more or fewer, depending.

There's a big difference I think between the maximum number of people who know the game and the maximum number of new people. If you're constantly having to remind everyone what to add to their initiative (the same thing as every other time you rolled it) and what their spells do (why do new players always want to play Wizards?), then the maximum party size that can work without problems decreases significantly.

Schmoe · Dec 20, 2018

I think the most players I've had at a table was 8 or 9. My current regular game has 7 players. That's one more than I'm comfortable with, but it's also somewhat of a father-son game, and the 7th was a late addition of someone's son, so I want to make it work. I spend a lot of my time trying to make sure no one goes too long without having some amount of spotlight on them.
[MENTION=82779]MechaPilot[/MENTION] - That sucks. I hope you can get another game going.

Grogg of the North · Dec 22, 2018

8 is the largest I've DM'd for. It was awful. I felt like I had a hard time making sure everyone had something to do and had time in the spot light.

6, for me, is the tipping point. I can be great or it can be awful.

I prefer smaller groups. Give me 3 or 4 players. 2 is doable but can be tricky.