D&D 5E Is 5e suitable for large groups?

[Sunseeker]

What about initiative? The DMG has a 2e-style initiative with weapon speed. Anyone have any experience with that in regards to combat speed/length of turns?

I assigned turns by location at the table and just went clockwise/counterclockwise. It helps in combat for simplicity as much as it helps out of combat with keeping people from simply shouting out all their ideas at once, while that's annoying with any number of players, it is significantly harder to handle with many and there are some people who no matter what do not keep things on their turn and this system makes it easier to keep them in line because you, and they, know they will get a turn to say/do something.

 

[S'mon]

I've run 3e ok with 8, and 5e seems simpler. Stick to low levels & encourage simpler character types. Maybe use group init or have PCs & monsters acting in DEX order, saves a bunch of time rolling init.

 

[the Jester]

I just ran a group of seven the other night. It was loud and abrasive, but that's how it's gonna be with seven people, and it went just fine.

 

[dd.stevenson]

The new Geek and Sundry twitch game had eight players, and as a viewer I never felt like there were too many.

 

[MerricB]

Initiative works much better as group initiative (one roll for PCs, one group for monsters, repeat each round) with large groups. All the players act together.

I've run 8 players in 5E and it was fine, but you move away from role-playing into more exploration/combat with so many players.

Cheers!

 

[Gnarl45]

In my experience, the problem is more out of combat than combat with groups that large. If you guys are ok with not participating at all during a whole session except in combat because someone else is always quicker to make a suggestion, you might be able to have a good time with 9 players.

 

[Cristian Andreu]

The game should work without problems for 10 people. I remember running a 9-player game during the beta (in a slightly simplified version of Tomb of Horrors), 3 of which had never actually roleplayed anything at all, and it worked just fine.

5e has a lot of mechanics that work in favour of large groups, namely the simpler rules for combat and the advantage mechanic, which will allow you to quickly hand out bonuses/penalties without much of a hassle.

Of course, all of this depends on the group dynamic working, rather than the system itself. But if you're already used to running large groups, 5e will make your life easier, at least when compared to 3e (I had a lot of fun with my 12-player 3.5 game, but after 2 years of that I was utterly spent. 6 players is what I roll with these days and it works wonders for me).

 

[Reynard]

In that big 13 player session at the end of TotalCon, I will say that the one thing that got a little hairy was buffing (Bless, etc...) What we ended up doing was having folks fold 3x5 card in half and write what buff they had on them and the name of the character that cast it. In turn, that character had a tent in front of them with "concentration" on it so that we remembered, and if his concentration went down, everyone else who benefited from the spell knew to remove the effects. It ended up working pretty well over all.

 

[SirAntoine]

The game should technically be fine. The difficulties to arise will be from making sure everyone can follow what is going on, and not trying to run too many PC's separately if they split up. Group initiative is really the best advice to handle combat fast. Try not to rush anyone ever.

 

[Stormonu]

Yeesh, 3-5 players? You guys (and gals) run small games. I've had a few sessions with 10 people at the table, no problems (once they decided what the heck they were going to do). Combat turns went fast (with the exception of my wife, who seemingly due to her learning disability, can take an annoyingly long time to do things).

I've also run 3E, 2E and 1E games of the same size and larger. The DM's got to be organized, but it's never been a problem for me, at least.