Unstoppable Undead

[Dandu]

9 people, eh?

I recommend the Tomb of Horrors.

 

[SeamusRedfern]

9 people, eh?

I recommend the Tomb of Horrors.

I looked at it and I'm pretty sure if I ran Tomb of Horrors with this group some of them might not ever play again...oh Dandu, you are very clever!

 

[Sorrowdusk]

Sorry for my delayed response to your inquiries.

The session was cancelled by the DM who no longer wants to run his campaign. He asked me if I would run the group, which now includes him as a player, using the 4th edition ruleset. I have been somewhat busy with trying to get the campaign ready. The party refuses to split down the middle into 2 groups. Writing encounters for 9 people is not easy.
As for the Unstoppable Undead...I have a sneaking suspicion that we won't see them again.

Now is your chance for vengeance. See how he likes it.

 

[CuRoi]

Sorry for my delayed response to your inquiries.

The session was cancelled by the DM who no longer wants to run his campaign. He asked me if I would run the group, which now includes him as a player, using the 4th edition ruleset. I have been somewhat busy with trying to get the campaign ready. The party refuses to split down the middle into 2 groups. Writing encounters for 9 people is not easy.
As for the Unstoppable Undead...I have a sneaking suspicion that we won't see them again.

Sorry to hear that. Since the "us versus the DM" antagonism I mentioned was never addressed however, you need to be careful that it doesn't just transfer over to you. You'll have to provide a balanced but challenging game or people will just slip back into old habits.

This problem is as old as the hobby. Too many followers and too few leaders (DMs). The lack of people willing and able to run a good game creates some very annoying scenarios at times.

Don't be afraid to tell people what you need at the table from them for you to provide a good game. For instance, if you don't like writing scenarios for 9 people, it's going to show. Either figure out how to enjoy it or put your foot down and thin things out a bit. Doing it through some sort of "survival of the fittest" (seeing who comes back after you annihilate them with something like Tomb of Horrors - don't know how the 4e version stacks up but my bet is they made it sorta Horror-lite for 4e) may or may not work. You may find the people that stick around are not the ones you want to game with. Same goes for any sort of "revenge" on the DM for his mistakes. It could pretty easily back fire, espcially if this group is so tight knit and unwilling to split up.

At any rate, best of luck in the DM's seat and I hope things go well for you!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Here's an idea: run a Guildhall campaign. In a Guildhall campaign, all of the players have multiple PCs, - often of various levels- and choose which to use when the DM announces what the adventure is.

How does this help you?

With that kind of structure, you could use standard (possibly even published) adventures scripted for standard sized parties. And those players in excess of the number the module/AP calls for become your assistants, running the monsters and NPCs.

And if someone's PC gets killed, the player who landed the killing blow gets to choose one of HIS PCs to fill in the gap (at some point after the active encounter), while the other player gets to become your new assistant.

Thus, you're virtually assured that the foes will be run well, and you won't have as much juggling to do as DM. This will make it much easier for you to learn the DM's skillset.

And everyone gets to play without overwhelming you with barrages of questions.

 

[Eman Resu]

9 players = slow gameing and chaos, but can be fun it just needs a Hitlerezsk iron fist of a DMwherer the players live in fear for messing up the flow of the game. Heres 2 trick that will speed things up and help you keep track of which PC is doing what & where...

Have a large dry erase board quickly draw up rooms/encounters on board lay it on top of gaming table used as a encounter table top...
this helps with decriptions of rooms and the lay of the land, quick maps etc, erase and repeat

Have each player grap a different color 10 sided Di, you have everybody roll initiative, the highest initative goes first, so he gets #1, the second highest init gets #2 so on so forth...after all 9 have rolled init have them placed on your dry erase board for "party placement"....just with these two things you now have...

lay of the land
where everybody is
what init they are
where the baddies are,
whos going to be flanked,
who has line of sight to what,
whos in the radius of spell X
how far does this player have to move to do ?

this is simple, fast, excellent game control, and you dont have to be an artist..........In know its great I know....patting myself on back, "here here, good show, herumph herumph herumph........hey I didnt get a herumph outa that guy! (You old guys will get this movie quote Im sure!)

 

[lordxaviar]

get some help from carrion eaters. though I like the nuke them from orbit just to be sure..

 

[Sorrowdusk]

9 players = slow gameing and chaos, but can be fun it just needs a Hitlerezsk iron fist of a DMwherer the players live in fear for messing up the flow of the game.

@Eman Resu
[MENTION=90937]SeamusRedfern[/MENTION]

I set a personal cap on group size at 7 myself (its a good number, I like odd numbers). HOWEVER....I have been in a combat with 18 PCs. Eighteen.

You dont know what chaos is.

At least we were all on the same side...

 

[BENINHB]

My favorite group just went from 4 to 8 PC's and i am not a big fan of the change. Everything is so much slower now and the encounters are both too easy and very deadly at the same time. The enemies are much stronger and are often dropping characters with one solid blow but at the same time with 8 characters we are able to focus fire on them one at a time and rip through opposition.

also i feel like the group has a lot harder time getting in character now. With so many more people at the table there is a lot more side talk and OOC discussion going on.