Groups with more than 4 PCs - I'm New

[Mark]

Here's a few for you...

Combat:

Let your players utilize those spellbooks you have in the Plexus - SRD revised.

Make use of a chalkboard or dry erase board to have the initiative rolls plainly in everyone's view so that they are aware of the turn order.

(Don't mix up your dry erase and wet erase markers! )

Pass out extra wet erase markers and have the players jot down, in one inch high characters, their primary weapon(s)'s attack bonus and damage on their edge of the battle mat.

Don't bother with random encounters, there will be enough game time spent on the important ones, but don't let the players know you will be discarding the random ones.

Roleplaying:

Be sure your NPCs have logical reasons for it, but try to divvy up which ones they will address when interacting, I.E. weapon smiths address the PCs with the best looking visible weapons, religious types address the PC clerics, etc. I know this sounds obvious but be sure to consciously plan for this so that you don't fall into the trap of "playing" toward the most talkative player all the time.

When planning your encounters, take into account the off-beat skill sets that the players have chosen so that their decisions become more important than just by random chance. You'll get more bang for your buck satisfying the players who have put care into their skill selections.

Make a pact with the players that no matter what language a particular PC is using, when he is realting to an NPC in a given language, he will relate conversations to the other characters AND make sure to use languages as a tool to keep them focused. This allows them to realize when they shouldn't all be interupting (as verbal free-for-alls can sometimes break out in large groups), while keeping them from becoming paranoid as individuals (since you can avoid having to pass notes or take players aside).

Just a few thoughts to add to the others that have been given here...

 

[Chauzu]

8? pfft...

Try 12 PCs and only 2 DMs. Now that was tough, even with help.

I am never going to do 12 again. Maybe 10, but never 12.

 

[Monte At Home]

I've written columns on my website about this topic here:

http://www.montecook.com/arch_dmonly27.html

and here:

http://www.montecook.com/dmonly.html

My first couple of columns in Dungeoncraft also dealt with the topic. It's challenging, but not as scary as some people would have you believe.

 

[frankthedm]

Make sure you want all those players, many time people get invited to games when the should not have been. Culling the heard may be a good idea if a player or two does not fit the playstyle you want. not nice to tell somebody go away, but the integrity of the game has to come first.

High # of players... try to encourage group interaction and within the party roleplaying. If a few players are only intrested in killing then they should be treated as dangerous sychopaths unable to function in civilized areas by the other teammates.

For combats, decentralize your monsters, instead of having only one or two tough monsters, use 3 to four slightly weaker monsters you are very familiar with stat wise. This way everyone gets to do something in combat.

Design more open dungeons so the players can get to the action swiftly rather than waiting behind 2 characters taking up the whole hallway.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I have six players. One of the things that I find best is to choose a CR challenge appropriate to a 4 PC party but up its hit points, anywhere between 75%-100% of max (instead of the 50% max normally given).

This gives creatures a little extra staying power in the face of a big party without introducing more powerful creatures which have capabilities that the party just can't handle (which is likely if you just bump up the CR).

Cheers

 

[GoodKingJayIII]

What are a few of the pitfalls I should be aware of? Suggestions? Rules I should be wary of? Questions I haven't asked?

I played in a game of 3.x that had anywhere from 6 to 11 PCs at a time, though mainly we consistantly had 7. I also run a game with 5 PCs. I'll tell you what I can.

Combat is incredibly slow once you go past 6 in number. Things go pretty quickly with our 5-PC group; any slowness there can usually be attributed to me, as I'm still getting a handle for tracking NPC information. In the group where I PCed combat was a massive exercise in patience. Our games were massive events, usually lasting 8-10 hours, and I think once we had one combat take about 2 of those hours... it was gruelling, and broke the realism a tad. But it still had good moments, and I don't blame the DM for those combats. The interaction with all the other players was very fun in its own right.

NPC interaction can get bogged down as well. As the mouth piece of our group, I usually got to say what I wanted, but oftentimes the DM would really have to reign us in because there would be ludicrous amounts of talking all happening at once. It's definitely something important to be conscious of. It really speeds things up.

Big groups tend to split up a lot when interacting outside of combat. Our group would often wander around towns and cities in groups of 2-3, because we all had separate things to take care of, despite many common goals. This can slow a session down quite a bit, but I think it's important to give the attention to the individual PCs. It helped us build our characters' personalities and backgrounds, as well as gave us an individual identity within the party.

That's all I can offer for now. I hope it helps.

 

[kigmatzomat]

I tend to veer more towards roleplaying than combat (altho there is no lack of it) and PC/NPC interactions. What are a few of the pitfalls I should be aware of? Suggestions? Rules I should be wary of? Questions I haven't asked?

My first campaign (as compared to random one-shot modules) started with 17 players of all alignments. By the end of the first session, I was down to 11, and only 8 alignments.

That was lesson 1: team players only. Evil doesn't have to be disruptive or stupid.

Lesson 2 was consequences. When the blackguard and lizardman assasin tried to shake down the barkeep for protection money, he agreed and told them he'd have the money in an hour. When they showed to collect the city guard took them to gaol. The other evil players realized that the only villians that get away with anything are the ones in charge and you rarely get to be in charge if no one trusts you and you are easily beaten up. Amazing how well the evil types will latch on to the fact life is easier when a cleric of good will vouch for your general lack of random violence. (Now targeted violence is something different....)

Then I learned the (sarcasm) joys of splitting up. (/sarcasm) There are tricks to deal with that. When the players hit town and want to scatter to the winds, ask them all to tell you where they're going and why. Odds are you can justify putting them into groups of 2 or 3. If you point out that different party members might be able to pull strings (clerics) or use relevant skills (bards make great negotiaters) you might be able to get them to travel as one large band of shoppers.

Combat is slow by quantity. Because it takes so long for a round to cycle there is zero excuse for someone to not have a plan as soon as you get to them. If they dither for more than a 10-count, skip them.

Tactics get...weird. I've found mobs work better than expected because there's too much chaos for the players to really focus clearly. Once they get involved in the furball, AE spells have too much chance of catching allies. Big things tend to die really, really fast. If you're going to use a single target, have it be freakin' meaty with lots of HD. Really, lots of con is better since it provides lots of HP without adding too much combat ability. Nothing like watching a gargantuan centipede rip a PC into pieces.

Oh, and trolls kill characters. Often.

 

[MerricB]

Why do combats take longer to resolve?

Do the various actions take longer to handle than in smaller groups?
Or do players take longer to decide what to do?

Cheers!

 

[Buttercup]

This is a trick question, right Merric? The more people who have to act in a round, the more time it takes to complete that round.

Someone upthread suggested that players decide what they're going to do and even roll before their turn in the round comes up. However, the more players you have, the more likely that monster you were aiming at will be dead by the time your turn comes around again, so I'm not sure how much help that idea is.

 

[thalmin]

From the Dungeons & Dragons Men & Magic Volume 1 of Three Booklets (ODD)

Number of players: At least one referee and from four to fifty can be handled in any single campaign, but the referee to player ratio should be about 1:20 or thereabouts.

I'm really glad times have changed. [/HIJACK]

Anyone in our game who has multiple attacks usually rolls all the dice at one time, using different colors for each attack. We also use Mark's idea of the dry erase board so everyone knows when his turn is coming up.
I second (or third) the idea of upping the number of creatures in the encounter to increase the challenge, along with boosting the HPs a bit.