More players than you care to DM?

[Ibram]

The core of my gaming group is around 7 players, but it has gone higher (up to 11 once). I have had to turn people away, which I hate dooing (because I know how hard it is to find a regular game in southern Virginia), but if the group gets to large then its harder for both the players and the DM to have fun.

 

[JDJarvis]

I've never truned away players because of the number that might show up but i have rearranged my furniture severly to accomidate them.
I've DM'd for as many as 14 and frequently for 6+.

 

[eris404]

It really depends on the DM in our group. We have about 8 people total, though some players can only play once a month or so due to work schedules or family life. At one time (this is about 5-6 years ago, mind you), we had as many as 12 people who were at least semi-regular and the most we had around a table was sixteen players + the DM. The DM in question loves large groups, the larger the better.

Because of the problem associated with a large group, the second DM in our group pretty much put a cap on the number of players. As people moved away or lost interest, the core group for his game ended up around 4-6 players, depending on who's available, and that seems to suit him just fine. I don't think he would care to add any more players.

I'm not sure about the third DM. He has a fairly large group right now (6-7 players), but I think he would be wary of adding more. I think it would depend on the player really, if it someone he knew well and would be a good, interested player.

When I run a game, the ideal group for me is 4 players. That number allows me to give each player a good deal of attention without spending too much time on any one player and it keeps the game moving along smoothly. However, because I am sincerely flattered that anyone would want to play in game I was running in the first place, I don't think I could turn anyone away if more people wanted to join.

 

[jgbrowning]

I just had to turn one away yesterday. I've already got 6-7 and 8 just seems too many to me. I prefer 5.

joe b.

 

[Bards R Us]

Inspired by this thread, I got to wondering (always dangerous): How many DMs out there have had to turn players away?

I've actually had to do so, which amazes me. In most cases, it has been a situation where I invite one person, and they want to bring their wife or roomate(s) along too. It has always been the case that I did not have room for 2-4 additional others, so I had to deny them.

I think I could easilly round up a dozen people to play if we could all agree on a place/time.

So, who else has had this issue? (Admittedly, a good problem to have.)

My first DM had this issue having more players than he could comfortably accomodate (which was 6 max at the time).

 

[Zen]

After years spent DMing groups of three or even two players, any one which could cancel at any time due to conflicts of family or career, sending our game into month-long periods of inactivity, all these stories of an embarrassment of players is making me light-headed...

I must go lay down, now.

 

[Raven Crowking]

If you're a good GM, and there are enough players in your area, you'll always end up with either a full table, and/or people you need to turn away. I've lived in a lot of places, and I've always found myself in that situation. I hate turning people away, but I have to regularly. Sometimes it's because the player is a problem ("I can't stand the way the dice sound when they land, so could you roll on something soft?" really happened), but most often it's because the game has seven or more PCs already.

Raven Crowking

 

[tetsujin28]

Not me; the more, the merrier. My old Runequest game had up to 14 players.

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

I don't like groups of more than 5. I've only had to turn away players on very rare occasions, when the table was full (ie 5 players) and I didn't really care for the player in question.

AR

 

[ThoughtBubble]

Previously, not really. The first game was a well kept secret from anyone who wasn't one of the four involved in it. After that my game was pretty well instantly filled to capacity and a waiting list wasn't a problem simply because there was no need for one. This time around though, I've had to turn down two players. The first is because what he wants from a game is far removed from the type of game I'm running. The second one is because a couple of the players from this game (and myself) have had bad expierences with said player.


However, my games are usually well kept secrets. There isn't a ton of advertising going around.