Help! I have too many players!

[Kaiyanwang]

I once ran a game for 6 players and ended up with 11! I was overwhelmed and under prepared for that many, it was online as most of my games are, and I did the best I could to keep it going, but wasn't able to. I tried doubling monsters but it didn't scale quite right. Best thing, IMO, is to set a number and stick with it.

Now, I limit my games to 6-7 at the VERY MOST, 5 is better for me even still.

Figure out the best number for you as a GM, and stick to it.

I tought I was the only one to be so insane. from 6 to 11 player is my story, too - and the best part? Up to level 40.

I was young and I had more time.

Now I have 6 and 8 in two games. But level 14 and 12.

A thing I like is that you can drop in several scary things and answer to the after-game rants with: "eh, well, you are so many people"..

 

[Rel]

If the number of players that you feel you're juggling is already hampering your ability to run the game and you don't think you can make a good job of it then you've got little choice but to speak out and come to some agreement as to who gets cut from the game.

However I think that this is a problem that may well solve itself.

First I think you need to openly say next session, "So I wasn't really imagining that the group was going to be quite this large. I'm going to try and roll with it as best I can but I need to be clear that I can't accommodate any more players, ok?" It's possible that somebody will feel like they overstepped themselves and volunteer to step aside. At very least your feelings on the matter will be known.

Scheduling that many people to do any activity on a regular basis is tricky at best. The likelihood of 1 or more people missing any given session is quite high. And it may turn out that one (or more) of the players flakes out on you entirely and stops showing up. It may be that by having an average of 5 or 6 players it means you get to game some sessions that you might otherwise need to cancel if 2 out of 4 or 5 players canceled.

If it turns out that they all show up every session and you still feel that you haven't adapted well then you can always step up at that point and say, "Sorry guys but this just isn't working. I'm going to have to either put this game on hold or we need to pare the group down to a smaller number of players. But I think it's likely to resolve itself without having to resort to that.