An 8-character Adventure/Campaign?

[renau1g]

It's possible I s'pose, but there's so many synergies to gain by having so many PCs, I'm imaging a Taclord and a Bravlord...oh the AP fun

Yeah, my wife & I played something similar and we each had two PC's each (this was 3.5e) and had a blast. I also focused more on her PCs from a story perspective and there were some times where it got awkward (having to RP out the whole situation with my PC druid's father where our mother was stolen by a black dragon and ended up with half-dragon offspring that was my PC's brother...yeah...)

 

[bbjore]

I DM a campaign with 8 PCs give or take 1-2 each session, and one of the PCs is my own. It definitely makes the fights more complex, and we've had to institute house rules to help keep them from taking to long. But it definitely works, and we still have a blast.

On my end as a DM, I rarely include monsters with more than 3 powers because 8-12 monsters can really slow things down if they're complex. My PC is a really basic fighter, so I don't even have to think about what he's doing. The biggest problem is the length of time between each player's turn, makes it really hard to keep players 100% involved. But still,

Since it's just you and your friend, you wouldn't have that problem, but I still think you're making things a little too complex. Try starting out smaller, each of you with 2 PCs or you with 2 and your friend with 3. If you find you still want more PCs, than go ahead and ramp things up. Maybe the two of you are looking for a complicated skirmish experience. If that's the case, and you do go with 8 PCs, I say the judicious use of a good mix of solos, elites, and minions is your friend. 8 PCs vs. 1 slightly higher level solo, and two lower level solos is a good fight, as is a solo with a few elites. 8 PCs on 6 elites makes for a fast moving skirmish, and 8 PCs versus a ridiculous number of minions will always be a bloody, fast, and probably hilarious fight.

Really, what's the worse that can happen? You spend a night trying one thing and if it doesn't work, you change it. You're still spending time with a friend, playing a game you (hopefully) love. It's hard to go wrong with that.

 

[Rhanta]

Yeah, me and my friend wants to start complicated, so when we cut out things (if they're too hard for us), we'll know the length of the 'cut', so we wont' start at something 'too easy' and 'too difficult'.

I also thought about having lesser characters, but (I think) it will be kinda boring for us since we love playing tactical roleplaying games (on-console, not tabletop. XD) so we're kinda used with many number of characters (Disgaea 2 setting, D&D Tactics, FF Tactics, and many more). Especially he's more of the defensive type (Controller, Leader and Defender) and I'm more of the attacker and the strategist (Controller and Strikers).

Yep, we'll try and talk about having 2 characters each. XD But we'll try out the many-characters setting since I think its fun but complicated. XD

I think I'll go with an Avenger, Rogue, Ranger and a Warlock (or a Sorcerer) and he'll go with the Wizard, Shaman, Artificer and probably a Druid (or a Cleric). XD

 

[knightofround]

Honestly I would recommend against both DMing and running a substantial portion of the party. Especially if you are a new DM. You got a lot of stuff to keep track of, and the fewer the number of actual players in the campaign, the less time you have to think how the "bad guys" would react. And it's very tough to separate DM knowledge and player knowledge constantly. The more PCs and NPCs you add, the more you have to keep track of.

If you like large numbers of good guys/bad guys wargame style that's great. But again, I still think it's best for each of you to control one side so one person doesn't get stuck with the majority of the work. No doubt you could be the "good guys" the "bad guys" AND the referee all at the same time...but that means you're not going to be very good at any of them.

If your concern is a "new player thing", just have them designate a "main character" that you will never touch, but for the other characters in the party just let them know that you can/will co-opt them if need be for story/RP purposes.