My group is TOO BIG

[Kylas]

I DM my Dnd group which started about a year ago. Its a great bunch of guys mostly video gamers and CRPG players. It started with 8 including me and a few have roleplayed before but most have never played 3.x. Over the months its been good and they've learned but it's been hard to manage that many PCs. Combat is especially bogged down.

A few months in we decided to add another guy (lets call him Big N) mostly because he also had DM expierience. I was actually grateful for the break, And the chance to RP

Over months the group grew and this last week our group grew to 10 PCs cause an incompetent player invited someone without asking the DMs.
HOW DO WE MANAGE A GROUP OF 10 PCs!!

I have no problem other than the gameplay slows and its hard to balance combat with this many people. Big N was pissed (not at the new guy in particular) but cause he had plot ideas involving individual PCs. It threw him off.

Ideally I want to keep everyone.

The new guy is a better rolepayer than half our group and that was apparent from one session so i don't wanna lose him. He also has DM experience another plus.

The 2nd DM is my only way to really enjoy the game so I really want to please him and if it comes to kicking someone out I will... but I'd rather not

PLEASE Suggestions anyone. Has anyone played with a group this big before.

 

[Ghostwind]

I've run groups that big before (and even larger). The key is to give everyone something to do to keep them occupied and involved. Combats will be long and drawn out and I suggest having everyone roll their attacks and damage at the same time to speed things up some.

 

[Michael Silverbane]

Would it be possible to split the game into two separate groups,meeting on different days? You might even be able to be a player in the second group, if that's something that you'd want to do.

Alternatively, you could kill some of the players, then their characters won't need nearly as much spotlight time.

Later
silver

 

[kenobi65]

That's hard. I have a big group, too (9 if everyone shows up, but we rarely have everyone, so it's usually more like 6 or 7). We're as big now as I'm comfortable running for; more, and it just gets too hard to manage. So, I've had to put a moratorium on inviting new players in.

 

[Imperialus]

I hate you with the intensity of a thousand suns. My group has 3 count em, 3 players and one of them can't be bothered to show up half the time.

One thing that seems to work quite well in large groups is actually a very old idea going back to 1st ed. See if you can't recruit a 'caller' for the group. The old DM would probably be perfect for the job actually. It's the callers responsibility to tell you, what the group is doing. They develop a consensus among themselves then the caller actually tells you what's going on. Makes play quite a bit more organized with big groups.

 

[SavageRobby]

Our group isn't quite that big (8 usually), but I have some suggestions based off our games:

Non combat periods
* Treat non-combat sequences like movies, and do "cuts" back and forth from players/groups during the scenes (especially when the group or individuals split up). Try to leave each cut at a critical moment (like a mini-cliffhanger) to promote interest between cuts.
* Try to have one cool "thing" for each player, each session - a clue only they can solve, a monster or NPC contact that has to do somehow with their backstory, or if nothing else, a special item they get.
* Treat important non-combat moments like you would combat, in that you ask each person in rapid succession what they want to do. This helps keep the pace up and forestalls the inevitable slow-down that can happen in dead moments. (With a group that big, its hard to pull out of those slow-downs, too.)

In combat
* Give each player 10 seconds (max, I try to give fewer) to let someone declare their action when its their turn. If they don't, they're automoatically on hold and immediately move to the next PC/NPC in sequence. Keep the pace flowing.
* Have players do as much of the administrivia that usually falls into the DM's province as possible, such as rolling to hit/damage/saves for NPCs, tracking wounds/HP, handling initiative, etc.
* Have players that aren't in the picture handle NPC actions as well (if/when appropriate). This works especially well with mooks.


Another suggestion is to assign someone (usually the most rules knowledgable) to be the group rules bitch. Their job isn't to be the munchkin/lawyer type, but rather be the DM's designated rules helper - quote rules, look them up, etc. This should free the DM from looking things up in the rulebook (another huge time waster).

 

[greatamericanfolkher]

My Spelljammer game topped out at nine, and I’ll never DM a group that large again.

 

[GoodKingJayIII]

I am currently playing with no one, so send a few of em my way and I'll run some games for ya

I know that's not very helpful, but let me say that this is definitely a good problem to have. You might want to consider what others have suggested; splitting up into two groups, or doing something like a duo-DMing, where two of you share duties and can assist players somewhat.

 

[PoeticJustice]

PLEASE Suggestions anyone. Has anyone played with a group this big before.

I have played with groups approaching this size (biggest was 9). It works if you adjust your perceptions of what makes a good D&D game.

Throw out investigations, traps, shopping, and pretty much anything that divides the group.

Run A LOT OF COMBAT. Run huge combats with like 50 kobolds and a big dragon. Spend time developing your terrain so that movement becomes tactical, as they'll have a lot of resources to create shield walls, flanking maneuvers, heck, they could even engineer an ambush.

As far as roleplaying goes, make their objectives simple and plots combat focused. There are simply too many PCs to do any amount of single PC development. You can encourage them to develop their own battlecries, give names to their weapons, and have a bard run around singing about how awesome they are, but that's about it.

Happy Gaming!

 

[Dragonblade]

I game with a large group that includes 10 active players/DMs. However, we don't all play in the same game.

We have 3 different campaigns going on right now. Two games that alternate every other Friday night and a Thursday game that we play every other week. Each campaign has a different DM and a different set of players pulled from the pool of 10. The biggest game is the AoW game which has 7 players. Its a big group but we manage alright. Our DM is very good. Usually he recruits one of the players to help him keep track of initiative, buffs, and monster HPs whenever we have a big fight. It makes things easier for him.

The downside is there tends to be a LOT of OOC chit-chat while people wait their turn. This just gets worse whenever anyone fails a save or lose roll and you basically can't do anything. We are hoping 4e will fix all that.

All three of the existing campaigns will run to their conclusion, and then once 4e comes out probably two or three new 4e games will take their place. One grognard player intends to drop out of our group completely because he hates the idea of 4e and refuses to play even though the group offered to pitch in and buy him a copy of the 4e books. He thinks its cool that Paizo is releasing Pathfinder, but has no interest in buying it. He is satisfied with his 3.5 books, says he is set for life, and doesn't intend to spend any more money on D&D or D&D clones.

Everyone else is eagerly looking forward to 4e at this point and we all have the books pre-ordered.

We also recruited a "new" player/DM (who used to be an oldschool 1e/2e DM, but despised 3e and quit D&D when 3e came out). He is very excited about 4e and based on the previews he says it reminds him of running 1e games but with better rules.

So we'll still be at 10 players even after 3e games stop.