What size groups are you most comfortable DMing for?

[Robert Ranting]

Oh @#$% Eleven!

I voted 4-8.

I'm hesitant to run a game with less than four players, since I'm not terribly comfortable with reducing CRs to compensate for the lack of party resources. In my experience as both a DM and a player, 5 seems to be the ideal number, allowing for a good mix of personalities and class abilities. Much as I am loathe to admit it, the Sentai formula of 3-4 guys, 1-2 girls, generally is what I try for in my games. My current campaign has 5 players, and I'm looking to maintain that number for future campaigns I might run.

The largest party I ever DMed for was an eleventh level, eight person party that also contained two cohorts and three animal companions, plus four similar-level NPCS and a Woodwrack Dragon, who were all attempting to hold off a Yuan-Ti army assaulting their base of operations. It was a lot of fun, but also incredibly slow, taking something like 12 hours over the course of three weeks to run the entire battle. I've also run a one-shot where we had 11 PCs (no animal companions, cohorts, or friendlies though), and that was just plain crazy. Never again.

Robert "Green Ranger Needs Food Badly" Ranting

 

[Drowbane]

3-5

Much more than that just gets too chaotic. IME.

 

[Nifft]

My comfort range is 3-5, but we've had 2 or 6 on occasion.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Gold Roger]

The magic number is 3. Makes it easy to keep the focus.

I've run everything between 2 and 8 players.

4 and 5 are the most common numbers still managable and still within "ideal RPG circumstances" as long as people can keep their concentration (ruling out my usual players for iRc).

 

[The Thayan Menace]

Pray to the Four Winds ... of Death!

1-6, but I prefer 4.

-Samir​

 

[Roadkill101]

I'm good for 3-6 with an optimal four or five players. Any more than six and the game starts to bog down. I also like running one on one campaigns, which tend to be primarily story driven.

 

[Uder]

Depends on the system. Games without a lot of number juggling for the DM? The more the merrier, especially with a co-DM. D&D 3.5? More than 4's a chore.

 

[Jhaelen]

I've had groups with 1 to 11 players in the past. For D&D 3.X I think 5 is ideal. Currently I have 8 players, but that's because I wanted some safety for planning for a session. It's almost impossible to find a date when all players are available. Typically it's 4 to 6.

 

[lonesoldier]

I'm fine with anything from 4 to 6. I also selected 1, as I don't mind running the odd solo campaign.

 

[kaomera]

I prefer 6, but I'm coming to realize that the less the players want what I want from the game, the better off I am with fewer players. However I have real problems running for less than three...