Some might say its just the flaky
ones that turn up, but then since Vin Diesel came out of the closet I havent felt so bad, but not good enough I would ever tell my work mates exactly what I do on Friday nights 
OMG Help I Have 9 Players!
- Thread starter Aplus
- Start date
Some might say its just the flaky
ones that turn up, but then since Vin Diesel came out of the closet I havent felt so bad, but not good enough I would ever tell my work mates exactly what I do on Friday nights 
Lord_Blacksteel
Adventurer
I DM'd for an 8-player party for most of 3rd edition, but when we took a break then decided to try 4th edition this year I ended up with 4 players and the difference is amazing, and has nothing to do with the edition.
- There's no room for side conversations -everyone is focused on the game because there aren't a couple of people "at the back" who aren't involved in the fight
- Roles are more important since there is only 1 of each type. Cleric A can't sit out this fight and let Cleric B handle it because there is no Cleric B and when someone needs to do some healing - that's YOU! Everyone has to pull their weight.
-I can actually tailor some of the content to each character in each session, rather than just trying to work it in where I can. 8 PC's is enough tailoring baggage to overwhelm whatever plotlines you may have going on around them.
Fewer people just leads to each of them getting more out of each session IMO. I won't ever run a sustained D&D campaign with that many players* again. One-offs, maybe, but not long campaigns. My advice in the end is just like most of the above posters - split them up. Run two different games yourself or work with someone else to coordinate campaigns. or just hand them off entirely with no ties, but it's going to work out the best in the long run. Clearly there's a demand for it - why not try to get a second game going?
- There's no room for side conversations -everyone is focused on the game because there aren't a couple of people "at the back" who aren't involved in the fight
- Roles are more important since there is only 1 of each type. Cleric A can't sit out this fight and let Cleric B handle it because there is no Cleric B and when someone needs to do some healing - that's YOU! Everyone has to pull their weight.
-I can actually tailor some of the content to each character in each session, rather than just trying to work it in where I can. 8 PC's is enough tailoring baggage to overwhelm whatever plotlines you may have going on around them.
Fewer people just leads to each of them getting more out of each session IMO. I won't ever run a sustained D&D campaign with that many players* again. One-offs, maybe, but not long campaigns. My advice in the end is just like most of the above posters - split them up. Run two different games yourself or work with someone else to coordinate campaigns. or just hand them off entirely with no ties, but it's going to work out the best in the long run. Clearly there's a demand for it - why not try to get a second game going?
