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Message: <blockquote data-quote="iserith" data-source="post: 7090423" data-attributes="member: 97077">Larger parties will tend to slow things down quite a bit. Because I am always concerned about the pace of my games, I try to avoid larger parties. In my current setup, I have 10 players in a pool. For any given session, we need a minimum of 4 sign-ups and a maximum of five. Anyone has to sit out that week. Running for four is my preference, but I gave a little ground and will take up to 5 in this campaign. Four players seems to be the perfect amount of party capability versus pace in my view.I'm not a huge fan of running an NPC with the party, but I do it from time to time when it makes sense. NPCs with the party take spotlight time away from the players and since the DM already controls two-thirds of the basic conversation of the game, I really don't think the DM needs spotlight. If I do have an NPC accompany the party, I try to make that a tool I use to impart necessary exposition to help the party make informed decisions. I try not have them be participants in combat to the extent that makes sense. If I do include them in a combat, I like protecting the NPC to be part of the challenge of the combat scene.</blockquote>