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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Manbearcat" data-source="post: 6313809" data-attributes="member: 6696971">I think there is probably one solid rule that I have personally followed over the years:The requirement of player calibration on thematic material and genre tropes to be explored is (roughly) in proportion to the number of players at the table. Having 8 players with no calibration can easily cause the game to get away from you (you meaning the table, not the GM).  Thematic premise and genre trope exploration that pushes (especially very hard) against each other will almost invariably lead to an incoherent, frustrating gaming experience.  Conversely, if you're working together on your aspects (Fate), your bonds (Dungeon World), your Beliefs/Instincts/Goals (Mouse Guard), and your themes/paragon paths/minor and major quests (4e), then you're assured that you're going to have a fair (at worst) measure of coherency as buy-in (from player to player) is built-in.  If you're playing a sandbox game, with 8 players, and no calibration on thematic and genre material that serves as the tie that binds, you're very likely to have a steady creep of incoherency of character buy-in and an equal proportion of ad hoc contrivance-as-glue to keep the game from coming to a screeching halt (because none of the characters have any idea what they're doing, why they're doing it, and, most importantly, why they're doing it for/with these 7 others).  As much as anything else, that is why I have liked to keep my group small for the last 10 years of play.  Its tremendously easy to calibrate expectant genre material (and achieve and maintain coherency) and to embed thematic material into each PC that is internally provocative (internally within the PC themselves and the group at large).  With tons of PCs, its very likely that a conflict that is thematically weighty for any 5 PCs is an utter waste of table time for the other 3.  If 35 - 40 percent of the PCs are uninvested in (or worse, annoyed by the mere engagement in) the emotional and physical fallout of the conflict at hand at any one time, then you're probably going to be well served by a wee bit more intraparty calibration or a little bit of an adjustment on table agenda (perhaps just towards a more straight forward, thematically neutral dungeon crawl/wilderness survival/murderhobo/pawn stance romp...which is a great deal of fun...but you don't need any calibration because its mostly an ethical free-for-all).</blockquote>

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