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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Yenrak" data-source="post: 7140634" data-attributes="member: 6888829">Thanks for your comments and questions.I'll do my best to describe the things I did to account for such a large and diverse group (two forty year olds, six teenagers, and an eight year old).Running a game with ten players was challenging. I understand that typical games are now usually run with four players and adventures are designed around that number. I hadn't done too much planning for how too convert LMoP to deal with the larger party because I figured I could wing it. If encounters seemed to be going too easily, I would just add more monsters or give them some advantages that they'd naturally have when fighting on their home turf. I meant that literally: as a back up, I figured that I could give monsters a second die roll to account for their knowing the environment better than the players.Back when I was running a 1st edition Greyhawk campaign, however, we often had games with six or seven PCs. So I was used to running larger groups. And I'm a pretty performative DM, which helps keep people involved and focused. I made some adjustments to LMoP. I decided to move the location up to Icewind Dale, mostly because I am planning on running Storm King's Thunder next. But, also, I thought the bleakness of IWD fit the story well and would make for fun atmospherics. It's the Badlands of Faerun and Phandalin is, let's face it, Deadwood. More specifically, Phandalin is a mining camp set into the woods south of Bryan Shander. To get there, you take the Eastway then turn off onto a trail into the woods. We begin our tale in Bryan Shander. The players are gathered at the Hooked Knucklehead. I had each player write their character name, class, race, armor class and passive perception on an index card. As each player hands in his or her card, the character is introduced to the rest. Who are they, what has brought them to Bryn  Shander and what is their relationship (if any) with the rest of the PCs. Everyone is encouraged to make this a first person narrative, to start talking in character.This went well. The bard decided he was a traveling musician and was playing the knucklehead. A cleric of Oghma was in town to build its first library and bring knowledge to IWD. The rogue was on the run from authorities in Neverwinter. A fighter type said he was looking to get work guarding scrimshaw shipments. I put the cards down behind my DM screen and roughly in front of the players. With this many players, I knew I wouldn't be able to easily remember names or classes. So now I just looked at the cards to get the relevant info. This did result in a comic moment later when I kept calling one character Jimsomes. He asked why I called him that when I called everyone else by their character names. It turned out he had misunderstood my instruction and written his real name--Jim Somes-- on the card.Into the Knucklehead comes an angry dwarf and a human fighter type. They scan the room before marching over to a table of the loudest drunks in the place. They're yelling at the drunks but also at each other. The drunks had been hired to escort a wagon of supplies to Phandalin but the human had agreed to pay the, in advance. Instead of showing up to pick up the wagon, they had gone and gotten plastered.Quickly enough, one of the PCs jumped up and offered to be the replacement crew. There was a bit of haggling over the price. The dwarf insisted that no one would get paid until delivery this time. And so our group of petty criminals, bouncers, musicians and a librarian set out on their first adventure.This is long enough for now. In my next post (spoilers!) I'll explain what happened to the party next and some techniques I employed to keep everyone involved and make combat move quickly.</blockquote>

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