D&D 5E Running a 7-player group

[Li Shenron]

By the gods do not do this.

Random initiative each round? Seven more rolls that just suck up time?

And pre-planning? Players already over analize the seven hells out every option when they KNOW what is going on.
Now imagine if they had to think about 2 or 3 possible actions depending in what COULD be situation few players actions in advance...I predict 4-5 round fight to last 2-3 hrs...

Rolling doesn't take more time, but everyone declaring their actions in advance does, and possibly a lot. The matter is to think if this can help with the possible problem of some player becoming alienated by waiting the 6 turns of the others.

With normal initiative, when it's someone's turn the current player will do everything (evaluate the situation, go through his options, choose the actions, and then roll and see the resolution), while the other players will do nothing. You can try and tell them to think in advance what they're going to do, but their attention is drawn to the current player's actions and resolutions, you can't ask them to not watch the game and do their homeworks instead, just to make combat shorter. Depending on the player and the group, a player's turn can take anything from a minute to 5 minutes. With 7 players, it takes twice to wait for your own turn, so with some groups it might get pretty long (the DM might also use more monsters). If the group is fast then there is no problem, but waiting 30 minutes between your turns could be too much.

I am not a fan of pre-declaring actions and rolling initiative each round. All I'm saying is, if the DM sees the situation above, one possibility is to try out pre-declarations, because (even if it takes time) in the pre-declaration phase everybody participates to the game and discuss how to coordinate together. Then each player's turn actually takes less than normal, because everyone is partially bound by their declarations. There is still need to choose which targets or which spells to cast, but the range of options is more limited. You won't have to wait that long between turns.

Total length of combat is less important. What is more important is that there aren't times when some players starts to think she would rather be somewhere else than the gaming table. If it doesn't happen with the normal rules, then no need to change them.

 

[Horwath]

Rolling doesn't take more time, but everyone declaring their actions in advance does, and possibly a lot. The matter is to think if this can help with the possible problem of some player becoming alienated by waiting the 6 turns of the others.

With normal initiative, when it's someone's turn the current player will do everything (evaluate the situation, go through his options, choose the actions, and then roll and see the resolution), while the other players will do nothing. You can try and tell them to think in advance what they're going to do, but their attention is drawn to the current player's actions and resolutions, you can't ask them to not watch the game and do their homeworks instead, just to make combat shorter. Depending on the player and the group, a player's turn can take anything from a minute to 5 minutes. With 7 players, it takes twice to wait for your own turn, so with some groups it might get pretty long (the DM might also use more monsters). If the group is fast then there is no problem, but waiting 30 minutes between your turns could be too much.

I am not a fan of pre-declaring actions and rolling initiative each round. All I'm saying is, if the DM sees the situation above, one possibility is to try out pre-declarations, because (even if it takes time) in the pre-declaration phase everybody participates to the game and discuss how to coordinate together. Then each player's turn actually takes less than normal, because everyone is partially bound by their declarations. There is still need to choose which targets or which spells to cast, but the range of options is more limited. You won't have to wait that long between turns.

Total length of combat is less important. What is more important is that there aren't times when some players starts to think she would rather be somewhere else than the gaming table. If it doesn't happen with the normal rules, then no need to change them.

Then maybe sand hourglass is the best solution.

30sec for your turn. that is 3,5min for players to rotate. maybe add one more minute for adding rolls or some reroll mechanics. All you need is add DMs time to this.

IF it boils down to 7min per round for 7 players, that is great.