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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 9762730" data-attributes="member: 4937">Eight players is tough to manage, even for an experienced GM.So the main thing to remember is the sort of game you can run as a GM depends very heavily on the number of (and particulars of) the players you have.  If you have 1 to 3 players, you can run a game that depends very heavily on player goals and motivations, that heavily explores the player characters internal feelings, and really is about those player characters.  Once you get up to 4-6 players, you have to think about running a game that depends heavily on the group having a single overriding goal and the characters are contributing toward that goal.  That doesn't mean that you can't have interesting group dynamics, but the story can no longer be about the individual player goals.   If you get up over 6 players, then you really need to start to have to thinking about story structures that are more episodic, like a TV series, than like a grand elaborate novel and you really start to have to have a combat focus, because otherwise it real be really hard to keep spotlight on every single player, you'll have introverts that aren't participating often enough, you'll start to have extroverts dominate play and so you really want to focus on trying to have scenes and challenges that are team efforts and combat is the definitive team effort thing.  So now your game starts to look like this team of mercenaries travels from place to place solving problems (or causing problems) that are interesting to the group as a whole, whatever dynamic they have - "we're all pirates!" or "we want to be the big heroes!" or "we're in it for the money, honey!"  Maybe a little blend of that for everyone if you have a really diverse crowd.Yes it is.  Don't let anyone ever tell you that GMing is easy or that there secret tricks that you can use to make it all easy, especially not if you are running eight players.  Hopefully you have some really emotionally supportive players that bring you the snacks and tell you how awesome you are, or you won't make it in the long run.  You have to be able to feed of people's laughter and smiles and you have to be the sort of person who writes because you have to and not because you want to.I don't say that to dishearten you but to make you understand that if you are finding it hard you are probably doing it right, because I've been doing it for 40 years or more and I still find it hard.Don't we all.  I always make big plans and rarely do I get to the end of them.  And yes, it's the curse of writers that you always hate your own work (most of the time).Be the GM you'd want to have as a player.  If you'd have fun in your game, it's probably a good game.  But I would caution to try to break the story down into episodes and think of shorter story arcs and shorter term problems or even flex into a more West Marches style/Gygaxian game.  The later is particularly good once you get up over eight players because it tends to handle "I can't show up this week" particularly well.  I am more than willing to help you create content.  The boards are sort of barren of content lately and I'd far prefer creative exercises and brainstorming to the usual arguments over theory and semantics.</blockquote>

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