Adventures for the big parties

[Zarthon]

Here's a link to an article on keeping large groups busy.

That was a good article, here is a link to Sean K Reynolds site: Encounters For Large Adventuring Parties

Sean K Reynolds article on Encounters for Large Adventuring Parties has been invaluable to me.

I have 7 players in my campaign (8 when my brother is in town)and most of the time they all show up for the game.

Some things that I have found while DMing a large group:

1. Dont put them up against 1 opponent
2. Dont let the payers take too long in deciding what their characters do. (eg: 7 players @ +-2mins per decision= 14 real life minutes per combat round)

I tryied getting my players to make their decisions in 6 secs but that is really difficult so now I just "play it by ear" if the player is haveing a hard time I either get one of the other players to help them (by giving them stratigic combat actions) or I just tell them that they have to make up theur mind NOW or they lose their turn

I have managed to get each players turn in combat down to about +-30 secs which is ok for me.

3. Always have something prepared (I have been DMing for about 8 years and I thought that I was quite good a "throwing something together on the spur of the moment" until I tried to do it for 8 characters)


Thats all I can think of right now, Hope it helps some.

 

[bret]

OK, we've been running in a large group so I'll add a few things here.

1. Recruit a few players to handle some of the details during combat. Our speed really improved when we made two changes:
1a. Only roll for initiative once a round
1b. Have a player determine and call out who is next up in initiative order.

2. Watch out for the 'unkillable' monster. The article by Sean K. Reynolds touched on this, but it merits repeating. The group is going to not be able to penetrate some defenses that a smaller and higher level group could. Even raw grunts can cause problems because they do enough damage per round to take out all of the fighter cover where in a smaller and higher level group the fighter would have had better defenses.

3. Don't let your big boss wear a target. It is much better to have a couple of leaders than just one big, bad, evil guy. Give the BBEG a couple of lieutenants
and make sure no one wears officer insignia. The players should be able to figure out who is directing the show by who is giving the orders, but don't make it as easy as 'target the guys with the gold chains' to immediately recognize the leaders.

4. It helps to have everyone be from the same organization. This could be a Thieve's guild, a band of brigands, a troupe of entertainers, a corpse in the military, or just part of the same secret society. The thing is, it gives the group an in character reason to work together with the same basic goals as others in the group.

5. Allow for situations wherethe PCs are roleplaying with each other. There are many situations where you could have multiple PCs all interacting with each other, not even needing to add in an NPC.

6. Disallow the cohort from the Leadership feat travelling with the character. You can still take the feat, but the group is just too big to add an NPC to.


Those are some of the things we have found work well.

 

[Silver Moon]

We game over the house of the people with 3 kids. Both the parents play, but the kids are a distraction....I will be using a map when possible, by the 2 year old really likes to grab things so it limits its use sometimes.

However, your other suyggestions are good, so thanks.

It is really necessary to set down some ground rules when mixing gaming and young kids. We used to alternate gaming locations for our group but once my wife and our began having kids our house has been home base for the Silver Moon Adventurers. I would suggest that you play in a separate room from the TV, and let the kids watch a video until bed time. Bed time should then be strickly enforced.

As for big groups, I once had fourteen active players. The key there was to use miniatures so that everyone could get a good idea of what was going on and where each character was physically located in relation to the action. If 25mm metal miniatures won't work due to small children underfoot then raid the kids' toy box and use plastic children's toys. While 2" to 4" high Disney, Fisher Price, McDonalds Happy Meal and Warner Bros. characters may not be exact representations of the D&D characters the added level of humor will add to the fun.

 

[Joshua Randall]

4. It helps to have everyone be from the same organization. [...] it gives the group an in character reason to work together with the same basic goals as others in the group.

Man, you've hit the nail on the head there. I so agree with you.

For me, it's not fun to play in or DM for a group in which the players or characters are constantly squabbling over what to do, who's in charge, and what their goals should be. I want a group that works together, that at least attempts unit tactics, and that doesn't break down into arguments every five minutes.

With a big group the above is even more important. So what can we as DMs do to promote party unity?

 

[Katerek]

One thing I have noticed, and this only comes at higher levels, but the priests and wizards start to take alot of thunder away from the more physically oriented guys.

All the tips I have read here are great, but I cannot stress enough the Hordes Pud-knockers rule. It takes alot of little guys to keep the whole party busy.

My players are all like 20th level.

An encounter from this weekend looked soemthing like this:

4 @ CR 18
2 @ CR 16
1 @ CR 20
1 @ CR 24

With a potential of 8 more @ CR 16 to enter on round 3. That is another thing I do is have new bad guys show up during combat.

Also, mor ethan one combat a day is essential. If you do overland travel there will be times when there is only one major encounter of note each week. The players will fall into a habit of just dumping all resources on that one encounter because they have little to worry about later on.

Stagger the encounters across the same day so that the casters have less time to memorize etc between encounters. I have found this to be very effective.

Running a group that big is hard, and requires three tiems the prep time but it is a blast. My group has been meeting three times a month now for two years and we look to be doing so until the characters hit 50th level or so, no kidding.

Good luck.