Failures of a new DM, and how to correct it?

[marli]

the problem you have is synagy curve. (the ability of character to do stuff niether can do by combining powers)
1 char = 1 unique personal options 0 synagy
2 char= 2 unique personal options and 1 set of synagy
3 char = 3 unique personal options and 3 sets of synagys
4 chars = 4 unique personal options and 6 sets of synagys
5....15 sets of synagy
....
10 10 unique personal options an 55 set of synagy.
66 sets of option compare to a 5 man group and its 20, at its most powerful its 6.6 times more powerful. and that only including duel synagys. add(admittly weaker) triple and quad synagys and these guys have HUNDREDS OF OPTIONS MORE then two groups of 5.

its not suprising they can solve what ever you put before them they just have 3+ times a many options PER XP VALUE then you would expect.

 

[Jhaelen]

For me 9-10 players would be too many. Makes the job as a DM more stressfull and less focused.

Our group also features 10 players, however, it's a rare thing if more than seven have time to take part in a session.

In my 3e campaign I actually DMed a couple of session with nine players. It's doable but slow. Combat could take forever.

In 4e I'd expect it to work better, but it's clearly more fun with a lower number of players.

It might be worthwhile to ask one of the players if they're interested in DMing. Make a test session and see if people are having fun. If so, you're halfway there to achieve a split and keep everyone happy.

 

[ahayford]

the problem you have is synagy curve.

I hate to be that guy, but I think you mean synergy.

 

[Smoke Jaguar]

Another option for some variety is to split the party for some fights/setups. Put in traps that mix the party up and make them face two different encounters (or for evil, the same encounter, with half the party against an illlusion-modified other half of the party -- but that's a trick to play -once- -maybe-). Or put two separate goals on the table that have to be handled simultaneously on a night the whole group shows up -- to succeed, they have to split the party into two separate groups and coordinate their actions only through trust (and ritual magic).

This is a double edge sword on a slippery slope. I have seen this work beautifully and horribly. You have to be really careful.

 

[mneme]

[MENTION=91252]Smoke Jaguar[/MENTION] I wouldn't go that far, but yes, splitting the party is an advanced technique. It's also a necessary one to learn, particularly with large groups, but there are a lot of mistakes you can make.

Looking at my entire packed set of ideas:

Tricking the party into fighting itself: Is a very dangerous idea. Cool if you can pull it off, but also really easy to make it backfire and have everyone hate you. This idea is very much a double edged sword with extra poison edges just to be sure, and should be treated with caution -- but is still amusing and -might- be cool. The problem is that it's combat wrapped around an old school puzzle, and can very easily result in a half TPK if the players aren't clever and you don't build in a fallback method of resolving the problem than figuring it out.

Split the party and send them off in different directions: Very useful, not hugely dangerous. The usual mistake here is to either switch back and forth too often (making everyone confused about what's going on) or to infrequently (nobody should be waiting more than 10 minutes or half an hour at most to get a turn; you should switch whenever the situation changes in any noticable way, and should try to set things up such that you're running two combats simultaneously or a combat and a skill challenge, so can go around the table for one group, than the other). This one is well worth the effort, as pacing variations really benefit from split party techniques, but you might very well have some tripfalls while you're learning it (and deciding which sub-techniques work for you).

In both cases, I don't think isolating groups/players is a good idea. It might -seem- a good idea as it enforces lines of communication, but the result is nigh universally less fun than just letting players keep character knowledge and player knowledge separate. Also, in the VDI (Very Dangerous Idea), the meta-knowledge players get from seeing both sides is a key technique for helping them figure it out before pain and suffering results.