Table of 10

[MrFilthyIke]

And finally: Just remember that you're there to have fun. It doesn't matter how far the plot advances. If you're having fun, you've succeeded. (In all honesty, if you figure out how to ignore the slow progress and never stress over it, tell me how. I never figured it out. Sorry.)

I would like to add that if (as an example) your party only explored 3 rooms in 6 hours due to size, but everyone had fun, what's the problem?

We have had games like that and I remember them just as fondly as plot-heavy ones.

 

[TerraDave]

How about somewhere in between the co-DM idea and splitting the group idea? Find another co-DM and for most of the sessions, split into two groups. each having a DM and 4-5 players.

I was thinking something like this.

If you had the right space, you would have a co-dm, have places for two groups to run at the same time, but then allow some movement accross the groups or the occasional recombination. Basically there would be an understanding, when everyone enters the dungeon (or equivelent), 4 go one way and 5 go the other...but they may have some ways to meet up again.

The various table rules and player assignments other posters have menioned are good. Though I use some of these just to keep my campaing with 3 players moving forward.

 

[QuaziquestGM]

I routinely run a table of 13 with a total partly size of 19. (now 14 and 20 since last week)

And I'm Running Against the Giants!

Dwarf clr 4/Ftr 3/ Paragon 3
His familiar (quest reward Outsider form 2ed mysteria book)
His Lizardman Cohort (gains xp as a full party member) (Story reward, he was supposed to evict/kill him, not recruit him) ...Fighter3/ knight1

Level 12 Elf Sor (player survived a 1 on 1 with an orkwort tree)
His Auravorax Familiar (story reward upgraded weasel)

Werebear (afflicted) goliath fighter something/war shaper (how did I get talked into this?)
Elc 9??? (with monkey grip no less)

Human ranger/scout/shaman (9)
His hawk animal companion

Elf Sorc 9
His raven (and the creatures he keeps summoning into combat)

Steam Mefling sorc/warlock (9)
His Petal ranger cohort (leadership/not counted as a party member for xp division)

Dwarf fighter 9

1/2 elf Bard/Barberian (9)

Human rouge/swash/duelist (9)

elf ranger/fighter (9 archer)

hafling/psudowereterrier-quazitroll warlock 9 (alien experimentation)

Arvorial Warmage/fighter (ecl 9)

Human Cleric 2/Cloistered cleric 2/shaman 2/ archivist 2/ shaman 2/ Divine mind 2/ (12)
(NPC/GMPC healer/info source)


and
New addition since last week
Elf Druid 8 (alt class feature that exchanges spont SNA for bursts of Fast Healing)
Her Direbadger.

Vrs.

50 odd giants, orks, ogers on the first night of Steading of the Hill Giant Chief.

And this is nothing new for me.

I run "all comers welcome" games for my university Sci-fi club.
Some days 3 or more people may be absent due to work/study/transport issues, one always arrives 2 hours into game ("fresh" from his shift as a paramedic), and another 2 usually have to leave early. I usually say that they are lagging behind watching the rear or something.

How do I manage? Well a few things

1) I must often tell them to shut the hell up.

2) I must often tell them to pay attention and to decide their action BEFORE I get to them.

3) NO, Talking more than 6 words is not a free action, And if you want to wait for a reply before acting it counts as a ready action that resolves on the replyer's turn

4) If they insist on "follow the leader ('s instructions)" then a lot of characters end up going on the same init. (this forms a melee line around the party's dwarf leader. This is a good thing from a GM Management perspective as it cuts down on player decisions on move actions)

5) Rolling init on d100's and multiplying int mods by 5. This spreads out the pcs and monsters along a 140 to 0 scale (petal with improved int) instead of bunching them all up between 35 and 0. Then, if the fight is dwarn out a bit the melee guys end up (see above) forming a line with the same int and the archers, flyers (one ring of flying & dijinn summoning, 2 sets of wings of flying, The mephing, the arvorial, the petal, the raven, the hawk) and casters have their own inti spots above or behind the line.

6)Some times I use combat zones. If the pcs are attacking a large building from multiple directions then I divide the ground around the building into zones. Then I roll int's for the zones. These fit in on the int line with the pc ints. The monsters in the zone resolve their actions in order of their int mods. If their movement puts them in another zone then they move on that zone's int the next round.

7) encourage them to scout. It lets you go ahead and put some of the monsters on the board.

8) have multiple battlemats and if possible a whiteboard. this is really helpful for multilevel buildings so you can draw out each floor without erasing. Esp if you have flyers. i once had a fight going on on 4 floors indoors, multiple outdoors layers, on interior and exterior walls AND Ceilings, on roof tops and in the sky all at the same time. we were in combat rounds for 6 hours. buff spells wore off.

9) Something I'm going to try as soon as the situation allows.
Group swinging.
If i can get the party into a melee line, and this is a definite possibility given the melee brute monster heavy mod that I am running (the first group of giants have no casters)...(hypothetically)
Have all pcs "on the line" choose their targets independently of each other at the same time.
have each tell me their target
Have everyone roll to hit at the same time.
Determine who hit.
have everyone roll for damage at the same time.
Resolve the archer's to hit roll (while the melee guys, add damage)
Have the archer roll damage
Determine who the Line killed
"Cleavers, did you hit?"
"Cleavers, did your target fall?"
"Cleavers, do you have a cleave target?"
"Cleavers, choose target"
"cleavers, roll to hit"
Determine who hit
roll damage
"Archer, damage?"
"Spell casters, who are you killing?"
Roll reflex saves for monsters as fireballers and cleavers roll damage
Determine who died
Great Cleavers, got targets?...
...
...
determine if line can AS A WHOLE 5ft step

If not, resolve secondary attacks

If yes, then line moves.

resolve and improved cleaves and left over secondary attacks.

Move on down monster int.
wash, rinse, repeat. allowing the line to move up to 20 ft as it's move action when possible (dwarfs in platemail)

Believe it or not, this would speed up my game. as lot of the wasted time is people waffling on their actions, waiting for others to roll (and add) damage before choosing a target. For some reason they add slowly...and with variable power attacks....

While large battles take a lot of time, wilderness skirmishes don't take very long as the archers and warlocks usually kill them off at range. Melee combatants usually don't last too long either against a goliath werebear with monkey grip, 3 attacks from a dwarf, 2 from another dwarf, the tumble-into-flakingaholic-duelist, the 8 legged badger with lockjaw, or the ac 30 lizardman knight in platemail.

I've also decided to replace the NPC healer. I designed him to be helpful without overshadowing the party, but keeping up with his 5 spell lists and 6 sets of special abilites just isn't working while I am also keeping track of 30-70 monsters. I'll be replacing him with a Divine Mind 5/ Shaman 5 then next time they are in town.

In any advent, the party size will be increasing soon anyway, as part of the reward in Steading is an elf cohort, with an optional dwarf cohort as well.

 

[Clueless]

Pick up a co-DM to help manage the crew? Also opens up plots for you where the coDM takes half the party to "Go cut em off at the pass". Gives you the split you were looking for...

 

[Lanefan]

Having said that, here's what I'd do if I absolutely had to run a game for more than 6 players at a time:

*If* you're looking only for speed of in-game progress, the following list makes sense. If people are having fun even if you're only getting through a room or two per session, don't change a thing! If attention is flagging, however, then crack the whip...

• Disallow any animal companions/special mounts/familiars (replace them with bonus feats if needed)
• Ban all summoning spells
• Ban any other complex spells/effects that require a lot of adjudication (especially of the polymorph subschool)
• The above three point to basically banning druids; oh well

Again, if you and most of the players are happy with a slower pace of play, let it go...

• Limit the amount of time per player per turn in combat
• Limit the trivial roleplaying encounters (shopping, traveling, etc) to a minimum, and try to get all housekeeping between sessions
• Use as much benign railroading as you can get away with (because the time it takes 10 people to agree on ANYTHING - like which inn to go to - is measured in HOURS); still, try not to take away the important choices (i.e. don't force them to go on a quest if they don't want to)

Keep in mind, though, that what is "trivial" to you as DM might not be trivial to the players...particularly if they're heavy on the in-character role-play aspect of things. You'll get a feel for this soon enough.

• Force them to be of compatible alignment and behavior (to avoid party in-fighting...)

I could not disagree more with this...but then, I don't mind in-party arguments. Let people play what they want, and you'll probably find there'll be some sessions where you as DM won't have to do a thing except give rulings, as the party will run the game for you by fighting each other. Never mind that often the sessions that players remember fondly for years after are those where the party fights itself...

• Use minis or tokens for combat
• Try not to use too many opponents at the same time (better to focus on 2-3 more powerful creatures), so as not to take away game time from players (they are taking too much game time from each other anyway)
• Enforce the "no two players may speak at one time" rule

These last few are excellent advice regardless of the situation.

And, above all else, look for any possible chance to split the party in half, to become two separate parties run on separate nights. (says he, who has twice in his DMing career had to do just this...)

Lanefan

 

[the Jester]

I run three or more campaigns at a time over two or more groups of six to ten players each. It is certainly viable, and can be a ton of fun. A few pointers:

1. Try to channel the chatter so that it is in-character. This right here is the best way to keep the game going with this many players, imho... because there will be chatter.

2. Don't get distracted yourself.

3. Have and use a rules lawyer- not a bad one, but someone who knows the rules intimately well. Even if you know them intimately well yourself, it never hurts to have a backup. I mean, after all, off the top of your head, what's the size of an insect swarm? The damage on a huge creature's heavy pick? Etc. You might know many or even most of the answers, but a rules lawyer you can trust is a great resource.

4. Recruit players to help with notetaking and other tasks. It keeps them involved when it isn't their turn, and it gives you more attention for actually running the game.