Handling Large Games

[Quidam]

Our game has been growing player by player until now, we've two more who want to join- bringing the player count to eight. We've already had some issues with players cancelling for a session, players arriving late, cross-talk on the table while the DM's talking, etc. When the subject of two more players coming on board arose, there was a question of: should we split it into two games with four PC's each?

Right now, we're planning on keeping it one game- many players don't want to have to pick who they're going to play with and enjoy the social aspect of it. Since I'm going to be running this campaign, I thought I'd turn to you, the Wise Heads o' the d20 Boards, for suggestions on making it enjoyable.

I've already suggested xp penalties for lateness and disruptive crosstalk, and we're doing our best to implement the "How to Speed Up Combat" suggestions in the books- rolling hit & damage dice at once, etc. I'm also considering using some sort of time limit for the player to decide what to do- if they run out of time, the character goes into Total Defense mode.

Any of you have successful large games? Any suggestions on how to keep the session focussed? And any suggestions on how to scale the encounters so that they're of the appropriate challenge level for a larger party? Increase the number of creatures? Give them extra HD? Haste all the nasties?

Help me, Obi-wan d20, you're my only hope...

DMT

 

[Eternalknight]

G'day Quidam
The largest group I have DM'ed was 11 players, most of them under the age of 17. Some of them were immature and talked off topic constantly. Needless to say, I spent most of my time yelling at them to get their attention. The next session, I roped someone into DMing with me. One of us sat at one end of the table, the other at the other end. One of us controlled the story, the other controlled the rules, notekeeping and the players. We told them that whatever they said during the session was also said by the players, which led to them getting themselves into some comprimising situations. They quickly learned to shut up and play. After 3 or 4 sessions, we had them sorted out. If anyone showed up late, we waited for 10 minutes for them to get there; if they didn't show up but turned up later, they were excluded from that session.

 

[Adlon]

For a large game, you have no time for silliness.

Set up the ground rules next session.

Consistent lateless (usually 2-3 times) means you get to go back home.

No shows get dropped after two misses.

Table chatter: Pick your biggest offender, and tell him AT THE TABLE that you will have to ask him to leave if he continues.
Once you get tough on one person, in front of the group, the others will know you are not messing around: that you want to have a GOOD, smooth game.

Follow through on all policy. Give one break, and its back to chaos.

Run battles on a fast pace. Ask each player what their action will be, then count backwards audibly from 5. At 0, they are standing there scratching their head for that round. It will make them read their sheet more than gab, so they'll be ready next round.

 

[Eternalknight]

Run battles on a fast pace. Ask each player what their action will be, then count backwards audibly from 5. At 0, they are standing there scratching their head for that round. It will make them read their sheet more than gab, so they'll be ready next round.

Ooo, that's a good one. This works. Really, really well.

 

[Neo]

Any of you have successful large games? Any suggestions on how to keep the session focussed? And any suggestions on how to scale the encounters so that they're of the appropriate challenge level for a larger party? Increase the number of creatures? Give them extra HD? Haste all the nasties?

Help me, Obi-wan d20, you're my only hope...

DMT

I have run large Group games for years on and off, the knack (and trust me it is a knack and not one which always works) is to keep things moving, and change the focus of attention to a different player frequently.

If you can keep them active and keep them focused, then distractions don't become a problem.

Leave one lot pondering a question while moving on to the rest, but change the focus as i say every few minutes don;t give them a chane to get so relaxed their mind wanders off topic.

comabts aren;t really a problem, sure they slow down, but one or 2 combat encounters each session for a large group should be about max anyways.

Another good trick for combats with large groups is the use of miniatures, as usually while one person is doing their thing, the rest are working out where they will move too and what they'll be doing.

and final piece of advice ensure the Roleplay awards vary for those that kept focused and "on topic" compared to those who got distracted and in the process started distracting others, in this way after a session or two of getting a hundred or more LESS Xp than eveyrone else they'll soon catch on, and make a point of keeping focused.