Ten players. One DM.

[Eye Tyrant]

Uh, might be lousy advice, but Kill 'em all!

Really, it will likely weed out those that may be on the fence... also lets them know you mean business

Like I said though, it might be lousy advice :\

 

[Tinner]

When I was in college and SR1 came out I ran a Shadowrun game with 20 players.
That's 20 players at once.
It can be a nightmare if you let things get away from you.
Here's a few things that worked for me.

Welcome to the Justice League! Others have already mentioned this, but with a group this size, you need to make the game more about the team than the individual. You're never going to be able to give each player the personal attention you'd normally give them, so don't even try. For Eberron you could make the group an established adventuring party, or former military company. Give them all a reason to work together, or natural group entropy will devolve your game into bickering and infighting in no time.

The Friend of My Friend is also my Friend. Make this group of PC's as connected as possible. You might think about forcing them all to be from one nation, or even one race. (Forcing that rule will probably help weed out the whiners too.) Cohesion is the name of the game. Now's your chance to offer PC's extra starting perks if they have connected backgrounds. In a ten player game there's always the temptation to have the players working at corss purposes. That can be reduced by giving all the players a connected background. Player A is Player B's brother. C was trained by the same master as D, etc.

Keep it moving. Don't try to run a slow mystery story or political drama with this group. With ten players focus on slam-bang action. Have a 10 second rule when declaring actions. If a player hasn't declared his actions in 10 seconds, he takes full defense that round. Combat with 10 PC's will be a slow tedious affair. Do anything you can to speed it up. I reccomend Fiery Dragon's Battlebox, or other assorted player memory aids.

You are the law. Do NOT allow yourself to be hindered by the rules. In a big game, there are that many more chances for stupid rules arguments and confusion. Establish from day one that you are playing fast and loose with the rules. Make calls quickly and get back into the action. If there's a real problem, you can hash it out after the game.

Put on a good show and fate will smile upon you. To encourage players to stay involved in the game and discourage idle table chat, consider some sort of instant reward for good gaming. In my massive SR game, I called this the "Put on a good show ..." rule. If players were doing a great job of keeping this moving, I'd throw them a bone. Maybe some bonus XP, maybe an action point for a really great maneuver. It could even be a bag of candy to throw at the players when they do a good job. Anything that helps keep their attention focussed on the game is ideal.

Punish the morons. You are going to have ZERO time to deal with munchkins, morons and other half-wits. If someone isn't taking things seriously and is being a disruption. Punish them. My old DM in high school had a special "Bogey Chart" that he'd roll on whenever a player was disruptive. It was full of horrible things no one wanted to have happen to their character. Pixie curses, limb loss, etc. If you can find it, there's an old Dragon article with a "Wandering Damage Table" that should discourage stupidity. If a player is consistently disruptive and can't be brought back in line with in-game punishment - boot him. This game is too big to let one jackass run amok.

As always, YMMV.
Hope thjis helps!

 

[VirgilCaine]

1) Have the group appoint a party leader (he should often consult the group, but once he's made the decision it's final - kind of like Picard. oh man am I a nerd.) Seriously, it helps.

2) In combat, only the person whose turn it is speaks, unless they specifically ask another person a question. Works wonders.

3) Boot anyone who doesn't want to abide by table rules.

This is the thread for me...
I've got seven players...the second sounds great, but is the first REALLY necessary in a slightly smaller group?

The Friend of My Friend is also my Friend. Make this group of PC's as connected as possible. You might think about forcing them all to be from one nation, or even one race. (Forcing that rule will probably help weed out the whiners too.) Cohesion is the name of the game. Now's your chance to offer PC's extra starting perks if they have connected backgrounds. In a ten player game there's always the temptation to have the players working at corss purposes. That can be reduced by giving all the players a connected background. Player A is Player B's brother. C was trained by the same master as D, etc.

This would help a lot, if I can work it. (I have 7 2nd level PCs here)

I am already giving 300 XP for brief details about the PC...and I only have one background that won't fit with the others easily, and two others that can be fleshed out...I am looking to equalize XP in the group (staggered jumping in of players)...but I've given out increased XP to the those who gave me a background...
...and no one jumps out as an obvious party leader...I guess I could just let them decide when an NPC asks their leaders name and group name...

 

[Ed Cha]

If you don't have much experience DMing, I would not recommend trying to handle 10 people at a time. Break it up into two groups. Maybe the first group will be like a practice group for you and the next group is where you can really shine as a DM.

I've seen big groups mismanaged before and let me tell you, they look nothing like an RPG. There are players listening to music, talking to each other and almost running their own games, doing homework, sleeping, etc.

 

[TheGM]

Others are right, break them into two groups, run two different games.

I run five, the largest with eight players (too many), the smallest with three (too few). Honestly, you'll be less stressed keeping materials ready for two different groups than you will be trying to corral ten people at the same time with little experience.

 

[Mishihari Lord]

I've run groups this size before and it wasn't bad. Here's what I did:

Keep things moving. The less time people have to wait for their turn to act the better.

Insist that players know what they're going to do on their action. If they don't then their character just sits there for a round. Seriously, they had plenty of time to figure out what to do. I gave them about 15 sec before moving on.

Don't wait while rules are looked up. If a player casts a spell, his book should be open to that page. Have one of the players waiting to act look up a rule for you if you must see it.

Characters don't go off by themselves, because then you have 9 people sitting and waiting. I never made a decree on this one, I just killed characters that did. They were likely to run into challenges intended for the whole party.

Be prepared. You don't want to slow things down by looking up stuff either. Put bookmarks in your Monster Manual for everything you're going to use. Plan tactics ahead of time so you don't have to think them up in-game.

Give everyone a chance to shine. If someone is not doing much, put in a challenge where he's the best person to take it on.

Encourage side conversations (quietly) If two players are discussing strategy, a puzzle, or a trade while you're dealing with someone else, then they;re engaged and having fun.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I recently ran a campaign for 9 people that folded due to out of game reasons. The only problem I had was when too many people wanted to plot, plan or shop while others wanted to get on with the adventure.

While it can be intimidating, one thing about a large group is that it allows the players to exercise their creativity. Instead of feeling that "someone's got to be the cleric, and we need one more front-line fighter" the players can distribute those duties and powers over a wider range of PCs. They can SPECIALIZE their roles.

Of course, it WILL demand that the DM does his homework, and design adventures and encounters in such a way that nobody gets too bored.

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

Methinks that your game needs to quickly emulate Survivor.

On a serious option, one thing that you could do is see if they are all really interested. If they are, then find a co-GM and pick different nights where you could have two storylines going on at once in different parts of the world. You and the other GM could take this as an opportunity to create a very wild and exciting story where the two groups merge from time to time or miz characters from time to time.

 

[diaglo]

20 is optimal.

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

Played in a great campaign like that. Up to 10 players, although rarely more than 8. Some stuff I remember:

The GM appointed a co-GM - in this case a guy who was really good at playing out NPCs. Used that if he needed time to get things straight/read/cook up an NPC or whatever.

Low level. Start at 1st. Each extra level is going to really complicate things. Consider slowing down leveling until things even out a little.

Focus on the story instead of the characters. Like others have said.

Beware of people not paying attention. Bad stuff used to happen to them in this game... worked nicely to focus people.

Lots of interesting combat... strange terrain or other conditions can be as good as adding 50% more monsters?