You Don’t Have To Leave Wolfy Behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' Your Companions Level Up With You!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="aramis erak" data-source="post: 8387814" data-attributes="member: 6779310">I like groups of GM+4-6. Why? the creative synergy which I've usually found absent in GM+2p (or the one GMless I've run enough to have an opinion, 0GM+3p). Past 6, it gets harder and harder to run and too long between players in most games.3p is my flat minimum for home games.Most I've seen recommend 4-6, tho' a few are fewer... Freemarket is limited by deck availability; GM needs one, so the 5 decks mean GM+4pWarhammer FRP 3E is similarly limited by the base action cards; the core box is intended for 2-3 players plus GM; extra packs of character storage box and more base cards were available.Mouse Guard is intended for 3-4; it plays fine with minimal adjustment up to 7p. (adding extra encounters at 5+)I've seen a few which had 4-8, but not recently. One of those was pretty darned close to a boardgame.I know that the Victory Games James Bond RPG had provisions for GM+1 - play a double-oh.Mekton's Operation Rimfire includes 10 pregen PCs... but assumes not all will be used as PCs.Why so few GM+1 games? I suspect because it's hard to produce broadly competent characters who are also not übermenschen. And moreover, it requires the GM to work in a different way... You can't rely upon the synergy of players to come up with additional takes. It almost requires a fail-forward approach... almost.GM+2? I've seen a lot of adventures for 2-4 for non-D&D games. Including Tunnels and Trolls. (Interesting side note: most of the solos can be run with multiple characters; they tend to be marked by "total combat adds"...)Note that there are over a hundred solo (GM-less single player) modules for Legends of the Ancient World; it is highly compatible with its inspiration, The Fantasy Trip. TFT itself had about 10, and more are coming for the "Legacy Edition" (which has several substantial changes from the original, but is largely stat-compatible). Tunnels and Trolls has dozens as well. I'm aware of 5 for Car Wars, 3 of those supporting also Highway:2000 and Battlecars.These are halfway between gamebooks and standard adventures. Then there are the gamebook RPGs... Tunnels and Trolls, Fighting Fantasy, Lone Wolf, and others.Yeah, i know, T&T is in multiple categories. The Corgi editions included a quickstart version of the core rules in the solo adventures they reprinted... making them gamebook RPGs - everything needed to play except the dice. The Flying Buffalo versions usually do not.The success of the gamebook RPGs is that they said, "Here, try this... and if you want more, you can buy more, but here also are the tools for a player to «write the book» during play with a few friends..."Recommended number of players is so often 3-6 that listing it is generally redundant... except for component heavy games like WFRP3 and Freemarket, where the components are in fact a limit.For DL5A (DragonLance 5th Age), I found that 6p really benefitted from two decks instead of one... so I bought a spare. up to 4p on one deck was fine, but 6 resulted in just too many shuffles, and 5 was suboptimal. Similar issues for Castle Falkenstein.</blockquote>

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