ZEITGEIST Running Zeitgeist with 7 players?

[starcrawler]

Hey,

I'm about to start running my own Zeitgeist and we just got done with character creation this week (I wanted everyone to make characters together to improve cohesion and stuff). I was always adamant that I wanted five players, however since then I had a friend of two of my players in the campaign who said he wanted to join, I was tentative at first but ultimately I decided to let him join feeling six players wouldn't be too bad. However earlier today I had a friend of mine who actually plays in another campaign I run ask if he could join this one as well (Well he said "If a slot opens up").

I haven't given him my response yet but I have a strong feeling that a slot won't be opening up for quite some time (I have a good feeling about the group for the game) but I would still really like him in the game as he's a fantastic player and I feel he would really add something to the party.

So my question is, is Zeitgeist possible to be run with 7 players, and if so what adjustments would I need to do? I've never run a campaign with seven players before so I'm a little bit wary of doing so, It doesn't seem like too much a leap from five players, but still.

 

[RangerWickett]

Combat will both take longer and be easier. You might want to encourage players to have simpler classes so things will go smoothly.

Give the group a shared notebook. Each session, one person is responsible for making thorough notes on what they learn. That way you can play even if part of the group can't make it, and when the players come back the next week they can read the notebook to catch up.

I'd mostly worry about players getting bored if different parts of the group set out to do their own things. That can make sense, but it slows the game down even more.

Good luck.

 

[gideonpepys]

Go with seven: it's easier to do that than recruit them mid-campaign if someone drops out! You can also game with at least a couple of absentees, meaning few sessions get cancelled.

An addition to Ryan's advice, I would strongly urge you to impose a time limit on player rounds during combat, especially if you are playing 4E. Start with a minute, then drop it down to 30 seconds when everyone gets used to it. Make it part of the fun - reflecting quick decisions in the heat of battle - and reward players who keep to their limit consistently (in whatever way you deem convenient: additional action points, fortune cards, occasional bonuses). Players spending action points get double the time; when a player reaches their limit their turn ends. Put a reliable player in charge of the timer to save doing it yourself.

You need to beef up encounters too, but watch they don't turn into a hit point grind. Have foes behave intelligently and surrender or flee when they have clearly been bested, or simply handwave the final stages. Don't add soldiers, add minions, and make minions take two hits to kill. Make artillery monsters a greater threat by giving them area or two-target attacks, but don't increase their hit points.

Make sure you send out a bullet point synopsis of events from the previous session, or ask another group member to do so, and begin each session with a quick recap.

It sounds like you have a cohesive group. Do your best to foster the players' interest and appreciation of each others' characters, so that they don't lose interest when someone else is in the spotlight. By the same token, if one player has a tendency to demand the spotlight too much, give them their moment early in each session to stop them trying too hard to grab the mike (or have a quiet word).

Establish early which player is the best at a specific skill, to avoid them stepping on each others' toes all the time. (Second and third best roll to aid another.) Encourage them to differentiate their characters in a similar way: You don't want two 'strong but silent' types, or two 'jokers in the pack'. I had my players come up with a keyword for their character personalities, to ensure their visions didn't overlap, and rewarded them for appropriate roleplaying. (Some players might find this a bit heavy-handed but mine have all enjoyed having a focus.)

Above all, don't be daunted. I've run groups of 6/7 for a long time now, and it really is great fun.

Sorry if any of this is obvious.

 

[Morrus]

Yeah, go with the seven! Players can sometimes me a hard resource to come by, and a long-term campaign nearly always suffers casualties.

 

[starcrawler]

Thanks everyone for the advice, I decided to indeed go with seven players and we played our first actual gameplay session today. Things went superbly well, there was some darn good role-playing which was only increased by the amount of people as they fed off each other. The Find the Dockers challenge went smoothly as they avoided a conflict and located the dockers and Dafton early on in the third round. They've met the Duchess and other characters, and just boarded the ship (They even went so far as to find a room for the Duchess, how kind of them...)

We left off shortly after boarding the ship, so It'll be interesting to see how they handle the sabotage.

 

[RangerWickett]

With seven players, don't hesitate to have the saboteurs be further along in their plans when the party shows up. Maybe all the valves and such are rusted, and they're just waiting for their boss to show up with the fire charm before they seal the furnace. Or maybe add some extra monster, summoned by the duchess before she dives overboard, to give the party a challenging fight.

 

[skotothalamos]

I started with eight people saying they wanted to play. By the time the first session hit, we were down to six. Two weeks later, we were down to five. Now we're back up to six. The only adjustments I've made to encounters are to make most big-name NPCs at least Elites (double HP and an action point if they weren't already).