Advice for green DM facing nine players
- Thread starter ScottB
- Start date
Most all good advice has been said. I say bite the bullet and try to cope with the large group all at once, but definitely consider conscripting one of them as a DM aid.
There are only two things I didn't see already said:
1. Plot-related teams! Have groups of 2-4 characters in the game world that share a background, motives, family, clan, romance, or whatever. For example, I had three players playing a noble, his bodyguard, and his tutor. This way they will act together naturally if they're playing in-character. Combine this with some of the other advice about insisting people pair up or whatever you like.
2. Watch out for out-of-game conversations. I don't know about how focused your group is, but its hard to imagine any group of 10 gamers getting together and not wasting at least half the night talking about the latest video game, movie, or whatever. While this is fun, it defeats the purpose of the get-together: the game! State up-front that you'll have to interrupt such discussions if they get out of hand.
Good luck!
There are only two things I didn't see already said:
1. Plot-related teams! Have groups of 2-4 characters in the game world that share a background, motives, family, clan, romance, or whatever. For example, I had three players playing a noble, his bodyguard, and his tutor. This way they will act together naturally if they're playing in-character. Combine this with some of the other advice about insisting people pair up or whatever you like.
2. Watch out for out-of-game conversations. I don't know about how focused your group is, but its hard to imagine any group of 10 gamers getting together and not wasting at least half the night talking about the latest video game, movie, or whatever. While this is fun, it defeats the purpose of the get-together: the game! State up-front that you'll have to interrupt such discussions if they get out of hand.
Good luck!
Scribble
First Post
Oye... Others have had some good advice.
I ran a game that had 9 players in it. I don't ever want to do that again. Or if I do, I'll never take it above mid level at most again. Higher levels I found is where the fit hits the shan so to speak.
When one guy has mutiple attacks on his own, plus his followers, and all of their attacks, plus summoned creatures... The other players can't really help but break down into side coversations... after all it'll be about 10 minutes (or more) until their turn comes up again, who can blame them?
But that devolves into the DM asking others to keep it down because he can't hear what the one player is saying, which then turns into the next set of players having no idea what just happened, because they lost focus.
We gamed on average once a week for 4 hour sessions. At the higher levels it pretty much became 1 battle per session (MAYBE 2.) Story began to go by the wayside, as fights took up so much time.
BBEGs and bosses need to be tougher then usual. They generally, unless Pumped up, get one shot if they get a good inititiative count. After that they get 7 people making attacks against them... Not mucyh chance to survive.
Pumping them up means additional work for you, the DM.
Don't get me wrong. It was a great game.
I just didn't find it anywhere near as appealing as my current game that has only 5 players.
It started with 4, and really that IS optimal.
I ran a game that had 9 players in it. I don't ever want to do that again. Or if I do, I'll never take it above mid level at most again. Higher levels I found is where the fit hits the shan so to speak.
When one guy has mutiple attacks on his own, plus his followers, and all of their attacks, plus summoned creatures... The other players can't really help but break down into side coversations... after all it'll be about 10 minutes (or more) until their turn comes up again, who can blame them?
But that devolves into the DM asking others to keep it down because he can't hear what the one player is saying, which then turns into the next set of players having no idea what just happened, because they lost focus.
We gamed on average once a week for 4 hour sessions. At the higher levels it pretty much became 1 battle per session (MAYBE 2.) Story began to go by the wayside, as fights took up so much time.
BBEGs and bosses need to be tougher then usual. They generally, unless Pumped up, get one shot if they get a good inititiative count. After that they get 7 people making attacks against them... Not mucyh chance to survive.
Pumping them up means additional work for you, the DM.
Don't get me wrong. It was a great game.
I just didn't find it anywhere near as appealing as my current game that has only 5 players.
It started with 4, and really that IS optimal.
Mark CMG
Creative Mountain Games
ScottB said:
Split the group and run two games, either on your own using the same material (and asking people not to share information) or with the other DM taking half the group. It's tough enough for some players to share the spotlight with three or four other players let alone eight.
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