Advice on DMing a huge party

[Gonzo the Mofo]

To me 6-8 is perfect party size. The bigger the battle the better. We play with minis ,hills ,trees houses ,castles , the whole ball of wax. So the best battle to me is when you can set up everything and use all your toys. (We used to play alot of Warhammer so we have tons of terrain).

 

[Zander]

Ask S'mon. At UK GenCon he successfully DMed 14 players, 13 of whom he hadn't DMed before.

 

[Magic Rub]

I disagree with Magic Rub; I have 8 regular players, and I DM up to 12 people on a fairly regular basis. The trick is in organization, speed, and a lack of table talk. Here's what I find works

I DM'd a 7-10 player game for 2 months, & the game ran O.K. & Everyone had a blast. However it wasn't very fun for me, so much work for so little reward IMO. Lots of pre-planning. It was nonstop fast thinking for 5-8hrs, at the end of a session I was bagged. That's why I didn't like it. Once in a blue moon I find it's cool, but I don't like it everytime I play/DM. But if that's your bag, sweet go for it.

 

[Darklone]

Right now DMing 8 players and considering to including two more.

My experience: Try. It depends on the players and group interaction. You can't tell before you tried. If you encounter specific problems or problem players (boot them), ask, someone here is probably able to give a good advice.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

I was in the GenConUK game. To a certain extent it was a nightmare, but all credit to S'mon to getting through it. We managed to have the more irritating players sidelined and concentrated on the ones that actually wanted to play...

By this I mean all the players that said "I'm 400 feet away? OK, I take a move action forward" probably didn't have so much fun as the ones who said "I'm 400 feet away? I run up the hill, dodging arrows as I go." So far as I remember, so members of the party were still coming up the hill doing nothing by the time the initial combat had finished...

I would also go with the idea of upping monsters defence without changing their offence. Make them survivable, but also make sure they aren't going to kill a PC every round.

And may Our Lord Gygax (tm) have mercy on you when they reach high levels...

 

[Churchill]

Balancing Combat

The group I currently GM for has between 8 and 12 players - typically 9 show up on any given week, though which 9 varies.

I understand your pain.

You need to fudge about with your critters a bit. There aren't too terribly many things balanced for the party's level that will work straight out of the book. You already mentioned the fact that monsters that can stand up to the damage the party can dish out can really lay the smack down on the PC...

The secret to handling this (or, at least, what's worked for me) is to modify the opposition: Give your creatures token DR. If each PC attack is doing 2 to 3 (just as an example) fewer points of damage per hit, the creatures stick around long enough to be a problem, but don't become overwhelming.

Adding fast healing or regeneration might help, but if your PCs use tactics and gang up on things, the bad guys probably won't last long enough for that to be an issue.

You really want to make sure you don't do something that nullifies the abilities of the characters (high SR, or DR that makes damaging something nearly impossible), because that will just frustrate them. (I have one PC who has a 50% chance of making a Will save of 10 - and the party is 10th level - and exploiting this weakness causes major havoc; he's the toughest combatant, but he's easily taken out of the fight, which irks him and puts the party in danger.)

Adding "utility" class-levels does some wonderful things as well. Bless and Doom give the baddies an edge that isn't insurmountable. There are a host of other lower level spells that fill the same role, too.

Hope that helps.

 

[smetzger]

I ran a game with 8 players about a year ago.

I ran them through my converted A series and didn't have very many problems. The older modules were designed for larger parties. So you may wan to have a look at some of them.

*:> Scott

 

[Sarellion]

@Churchill

Perhaps your player should do something agianst his bad save. There are feats and spells against it. he could take appropriate items to increase it. If he is a fighter type it is quite possible the enemy knows of the weak will saves of fighter types and react acordingly. If it irks him he should do something against it and not you. Ok if you single him bout because of that I would understand.

 

[Laslo Tremaine]

I have been in a game with 9 players, 4 of whom have been taking round-robin DMing duites. We meet every other week for a 4-5 hour session. The game has been going for almost two years and the characters are at the 11th-12th level range.

I agree with what most people have said above. We have asome similar (yet fairly draconian) rules for keeping things focused and organized.

1) If you say it, your character says it (this serves to keep down alot of the table chatter).

2) If, in combat, it is your turn to go, you should have your action planned out, you should be familiar with any spells you are about to cast, and preferably you should have your PHB open to the pertinant combat rule or spell description.

2) If, in combat, it is your turn to go, and you do not have your actioins planned out and your response to the DM's question of "what do you do?" is "Um, what's going on?", "Where am I?" or "Oh, is it my turn?", then your character is assumed to be delaying his or her action until the player has their act together...

Like I said it sounds draconian, but we are pretty easy going about it, and it still helps to keep things running fairly smoothly...

As far as the original poster's question goes, we had been getting along with bumping CRs up by 2 (so an average encounter as per the DMG for our group would be in the EL 13-14 range). This seems to be working for the most part, but now that the charcters are beginning to wield some real power, we have found that combats are slowing down to a crawl. Since I will be DMing next, rather than double the number of creatures that the groups fights (the best tactic that the DMs have found to use so far). I plan to use single creatures with a CR equal to the average group level and then bump the AC up a point or two and double the number of hit points. Hopefully this will reduce the number of things that I have to keep track of, and not make the encounters too deadly or too short...

 

[AdamDray]

I run a game that regularly has 9-10 players at the table, each with a single character. The characters range from 6th to 11th level (worked up from 1st over the last two years). Some advice for running combat.

If you can, avoid it! D&D is a lot of fun as a combat-oriented game, but there's more to it than that. Work a little combat into every game for the fighter types and the tactical people, but focus on puzzle-solving, mystery, exploration, and role-playing.

Prepare for combats before the game starts. Not only work up the stats before the game, but also make notes about the tactics of individuals and parties. Work up attack bonuses by weapon and armor class. Don't just note the final numbers, but also the bonuses that went into it, in case you need to subtract a shield, or the fighter drops his prized +2 sword. You can recompute easily.

Appoint a player the Keeper of the Initiative. As you and players roll initiative, have the Keeper note them in descending order (with the rolled number). As DM, you just ask "who is next?" and the Keeper will tell you. He or she will also note what the character did each turn, to track when spell effects start and end and so on. This removes much burden from the DM.

Don't give players too long to figure out what they want to do. This is combat, not a chess game. If they don't know what they want to do within about 10 seconds, they're holding their action until after the next character; they can chime in when they're ready to act, or let their entire turn go by. Keep things fast and furious -- especially with spellcasters.

Don't get bogged down with special rules. Make a snap decision if you can't find the rule immediately and move on. If the player disagrees with you, he or she can look it up while you take care of the next person. You can always reverse your decision based on new information. (Sometimes, the ruling can impact several characters or the outcome of the battle, in which case a quick look-up is probably in order, even if it temporarily stops the game.)

Acquire a laptop PC and a copy of "DM's Familiar" or "Role Playing Master." Applications like these manage game information for you, and some have advanced abilities to be Keeper of Initiative and Combat. Check them out. Using these, large combats should be a breeze.

I hope this advice helps! Let us know if you learn anything that can help us!

Adam Dray / adam@legendary.org