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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Isida Kep'Tukari" data-source="post: 1476743" data-attributes="member: 4441">I regularly DM a group of 6, and have run games with 9, or four PCs and three NPCs.  There are a couple of tips I've found that helps with evening out the time for interaction, making good encounters, and making encounters go smoothly.For combat, (if you trust your players to do this) have everyone roll up their attacks, damage, or whatever else before it is their turn.  If you want to have them roll in front of you, make sure they roll all their attacks and damage at the same time to speed up stuff.  At higher levels have a calculator handy (as waiting for the 15th level wizard to count out his fireball damage for the fifth time that night is a pain in the neck).  To challenge large groups, do not go for a single, more powerful foe.  It has a greater chance of killing several of your players.  For your group I'd recommend a large group of CR 1 or 2, maybe with a small hoard of lower CRs to boot.  With a group that large they'll just gang up on a single foe and your monster may not get a single hit in, which is frustrating for the DM.  When running hoards, have them all on the same initiative, it saves time. For rules questions, have one person who is very familiar with both the rules and the layout of the book be the designated "rules gopher."  Take just a minute for the gopher to find the rule if there is a question, and if it can't be found, make a spot ruling and go on.  You can change the rule next time if it is found.  For non-combat, allowing enough time for everyone to roleplay is a challenge.  I enjoy employing the TV technique of rapid cuts.  Usually you get people that, in town, go off in groups of two or three.  Spend a few minutes with one group, and before completing their scene, put them on "pause" and go to the next group.  You group should understand your reasons for doing this. For those that want to go do individual things, you can do the same technique.  The trick is to not let any one person hog the spotlight, something that I find is more of a risk in larger groups.  Those who are more quiet or timid by nature often can get left behind if a more demanding player steps to the front.  So check with everyone every couple of minutes to see what their character is up to.  A quick little random happening on the streets (a person with a trained dog doing tricks, a runaway carriage with a baby caught in its path, a cute little urchin that picks the player's pocket) or something like that can add a little fun to a player's experience, even if they aren't too sure what to do.One of the hardest things to do, I've found, is do something interesting for the player of a scholarly character.  Often what I end up with is the fighter going to talk to people at the inn, the rogue getting something with a five-finger discount, the cleric going to talk to his senior in the temple while the wizardly fellow says, "I'm going to go to the library."  It's kinda hard to think up something for people who are doing nothing but reading.  It is something I'm still struggling with, but I've had a couple ideas.I was thinking I could print out some interesting little tidbits of information, even things gleaned off the internet, about magic, astrology, or other kinds of things, and give them to that player as "the notes you made."  Or you could use this to further develop your campaign world, advance the adventure, or give the players a much needed clue or direction.  Or you could try to think up some hijinks in the library.  A student thinks a younger wizard is cute and tries to flirt, the character comes across some kind of ghost that's living in the stacks (a la Ghostbusters), or an imp gets loose in the library.  So that's my two copper.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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