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<blockquote data-quote="innerdude" data-source="post: 8597292" data-attributes="member: 85870">No, nothing specific in any rules I've seen (re: number of players). But from both my Dungeon World and Ironsworn active play experiences, 1 GM + 4 players was better than 5 players. Several Ironsworn sessions only had 3 players, and the experience didn't suffer, and in many ways was more engaging, as individual character focus could have more depth.5 players was particularly distracting in Dungeon World combat, with the way it handles initiative (free form reactive to player declarations). Fewer players also helps with one of the elements brought up, which is managing the mental overhead of the &quot;escalation cycle&quot; of partial success / success with cost elements.&nbsp; Fewer players keeps the contextual areas of fiction necessarily smaller and easier to manage from frame to frame.As I said before, 3 players is probably ideal, 4 players is do-able but you'll have to be on your toes, 5 is stretching the limits of GM ingenuity, and 6+ would be a flat out &quot;No, that's too many.&quot; Specifically for Masks, since you brought it up --- I've read the rules but haven't played it. It was my impression that there might be 4-7 members of the &quot;Teen Titans&quot; in the fiction, but some of them are likely going to be NPCs.Sort of like in Buffy --- Buffy, Willow, Xander, and Giles are your PCs.&nbsp; Cordelia, Angel, Faith, Oz, and Spike, though often present and central to much of the series, are NPCs. The first X-Men movie is really about 3 of the characters --- Wolverine, Professor X, and Rogue. (You could kind-of, sort-of argue that Jean Gray might qualify as a PC-level protagonist as well.)Sure, Cyclops, Firestarter, and Storm are major characters with significant screen time, but the story isn't really about them. They're around and doing &quot;stuff&quot; with the protagonists, but it would be pretty easy to cast them as NPCs in an RPG. They're there when they matter to the protagonists, but not so consequential as to focus the story on them.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="innerdude, post: 8597292, member: 85870"] No, nothing specific in any rules I've seen (re: number of players). But from both my Dungeon World and Ironsworn active play experiences, 1 GM + 4 players was better than 5 players. Several Ironsworn sessions only had 3 players, and the experience didn't suffer, and in many ways was more engaging, as individual character focus could have more depth. 5 players was particularly distracting in Dungeon World combat, with the way it handles initiative (free form reactive to player declarations). Fewer players also helps with one of the elements brought up, which is managing the mental overhead of the "escalation cycle" of partial success / success with cost elements. Fewer players keeps the contextual areas of fiction necessarily smaller and easier to manage from frame to frame. As I said before, 3 players is probably ideal, 4 players is do-able but you'll have to be on your toes, 5 is stretching the limits of GM ingenuity, and 6+ would be a flat out "No, that's too many." Specifically for Masks, since you brought it up --- I've read the rules but haven't played it. It was my impression that there might be 4-7 members of the "Teen Titans" in the fiction, but some of them are likely going to be NPCs. Sort of like in Buffy --- Buffy, Willow, Xander, and Giles are your PCs. Cordelia, Angel, Faith, Oz, and Spike, though often present and central to much of the series, are NPCs. The first X-Men movie is really about 3 of the characters --- Wolverine, Professor X, and Rogue. (You could kind-of, sort-of argue that Jean Gray might qualify as a PC-level protagonist as well.) Sure, Cyclops, Firestarter, and Storm are major characters with significant screen time, but the story isn't really about them. They're around and doing "stuff" with the protagonists, but it would be pretty easy to cast them as NPCs in an RPG. They're there when they matter to the protagonists, but not so consequential as to focus the story on them. [/QUOTE]

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