ROLE playing with larg-ish groups

[Olive]

After a few sessions of a cut down group (three players) we returned to our full number last night.

The previous two sessions had been roleplay intensive (no combat at all), but a lot of fun. Last night was mostly more of the same, but when the attention was on one particular character everyone elses minds seemed to wander much more.

Has anyone got any advice on how to handle slightly large roleplay sessions? I sat down with one of the players after the game and we had a few ideas, but i'd be interesed in hearing other people's experiences.

 

[astralpwka]

When you focus on one person... keep the others eating. Lots of chips, oreos, m&ms, mountain dew runs, etc.. Works great in our five to eight member group.

 

[caudor]

Or, if you a cruel DM...you can make one or two players play MIMES! Everyone can go at it at the same time!

Or for better advice, see the above post

Cheers!

 

[Fenes 2]

I try to cut back and forth between different scenes whenever possible, if the attention of the others wanders. Ultimately, however, I found that only small groups (2 to 3 players) or an unsplit party prevent that problem.

As far as I am concerned, I am just fine with very small groups (1 DM and 2 or 3 players). It makes scheduling easier, gives the individual players and PCs more "spotlight" time, and makes for better roleplaying due to greater interaction with NPCs - the PCs cannot do everything alone and depend on NPCs. As a DM, I also love to play NPCs as party members, contacts or allies, not only as opponents or (shudder) cannon fodder.

 

[Alzrius]

Olive, the Dungeoncraft section of Dragon 301 and 302 is devoted to this concept. The articles are written by the great Monte Cook himself. I suggest picking up these magazines for pretty much everything you'll need to know for playing with a large group.

 

[Olive]

Olive, the Dungeoncraft section of Dragon 301 and 302 is devoted to this concept. The articles are written by the great Monte Cook himself. I suggest picking up these magazines for pretty much everything you'll need to know for playing with a large group.

read em, but those have a lot more to do with combat situations. i'm really asking about social interaction.

 

[WhimsyTheFae]

My family based game is not extremely large (7 players + me as the DM), but with my 13 and 8 year old daughters and my 7 year old nephew, order has been known to dissolve fast (not too mention the noise...the blasted noise - when will it stop?).

Anyway, during the last session, I instituted a hand-raising policy. The penalty for failure was that I would inflict one of the options from the Bestow Curse spell upon the character for an arbitrary amount of time (I had to do this twice - during a battle...the same battle, but did not have any problems after this).

I would tell them when they could talk freely amongst themselves, then when they reached a decision I would let them know that the hand-raising was back in effect.

This was by far the smoothest run game for 7 people that I have ever run and I will be using this from now on. It seems kind of cheesy at first, but I thought it was well worth it (the adults - my wife, 20 year old brother and 18 year old brother-in-law - even thought that the rule was worthwhile and complied fully).

 

[frankthedm]

In a large group try to get the players to role play within the group more than with NPCs. It is difficult at first but they might get the hang of it. It is how some Vampire tM Larps have 50+ players at one time.

 

[Victim]

In a large group try to get the players to role play within the group more than with NPCs. It is difficult at first but they might get the hang of it. It is how some Vampire tM Larps have 50+ players at one time.

You beat me to it.

 

[Vymair]

Another idea I just started using in my game is asking the PCs not in the scene to play ordinary NPCs around the action.

Obviously, they can't play any of the major NPCs, but they've had some fun playing the guards at the gate, the guys drinking next to the party and a minor priest interefering with a guard comes to get a PC from the temple.

We are still experimenting, but this does provide another alternative...