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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Agback" data-source="post: 2997620" data-attributes="member: 5328">That large a group is tough. Each person's share of your attention is going to be pretty small, so there will be a big danger of having people's attention wander in the long intervals between their having input. If this results in their missing  things, or need to have situations explained, your time, already short, will be wasted in repetitions, which could lead to runaway slowing down. This means that you have to do everything you can to keep things moving along, and to onvey information to players without have to tell it in words.Visual aids are your dearest friendUse a battlemat, use miniatures, counters, cardboard heroes. Whatever it takes to display the situation. You don't want to have players asking 'how far is?' 'where is?' etc. when it is there turn to act. Because asking takes time, answering takes time, making a decision takes time. Put it on teh mat, let people make their plans while they are waiting for their turn.Use a visual display of some sort for the turn sequence, the initiative order. I like to have the players sit around the table from left to right in the order they act in combat. This way each person is right next to the descriptio of what is happening just before his turn, which cuts down on the Q&A at teh beginning of everyone's turn. Unfortunately the D&D turn sequence is a bit too fluid for this to be convenient.Ask all the players to assist by being promptMake sure that there are enough copies of the rules around for this, and ask each person to check the rules for the thing they plan to do before their turn comes around. You will be lucky to finish the typical combat turn in ten minutes. They will often take twenty minutes each. That gives everyone lots of time to plan their actions and check any necessary rules. "You've had ten minutes, you character had six seconds. Do something, anything, right now" should become your catchcry.But unfortunately, ten minutes is also plenty of time for people to get bored, for their attention to wander.Sit around a tableIt helps players focus. And maintaining focus is going to be your major difficulty.Keep it simpleDon't use any optional rules that add complexity. Don't, for example, re-roll initiative every turn. Don't permit prestige classes. Don't use anything from outside the three core books. I know all the extra stuff is tempting, but you have to walk before you can crawl. Master teh basics before you try the optional extras.Start at first level, and give out half the experience and half the treasure you think is appropriate. It is always easier to give more later than to take anything away.In the same vein, set appropriate challenges by choosing a small number of comparatively tough foes. Combats will run quicker, and you'll have less record-keeping to do, and you won't have too much to deal with all at once. You will be less likely to overlook monsters' special abilities, or monsters' turns in combat, if you have fewer to worry about.Get helpConsider asking one player to be co-GM, running monsters and villains in combat while you concentrate on adjudicating. Try to find some way for the players to help you in the down time between their turns. For instance, each player could control the mook monsters fighting the player four places to his or her left. Or a player whose character is not involved in a particular fight could take over temporarily GMing one half of the mat. (but be careful to keep at lest roughly in synch.Don't panic if it is a bit of a shamblesMy first campaign was a total shambles, and I had only three players. It wasn't 'cause I'm hopeless, it was because I was new and inexperienced, I got better. You wil too.You're in the position of a novice juggler who comes to a bunch of very practiced jugglers and asks "I would like some advice on juggling nine balls at once." Most of them say "Start with three, practice every week, and add one more each Christmas". And they're right. You are going to end up spraying juggling balls all over the house, not once but several times. Don't let it get to you.Go out. Make mistakes. Get crazy. Have fun.A horseman would never put his horse over a wire fence. But you'll never be a horseman until you have fallen off nine times: three times in nettles, three times in water, and three times jumping a wire fence.</blockquote>

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