What's the best size of a gaming group?

[MerakSpielman]

actually, "me and my husband" is acceptable

so is:

"my husband and I"

but NOT

"I and my husband"

or

"my husband and me"

 

[MerakSpielman]

We just went from 6 to 7, though I expect we'll drop in size this summer when two of 'em have a baby arrive...

And if the rest of the group can't handle having a baby around, or if the parents want some no-baby time, they can just take turns coming to the game.

We have a 15 month old and a 2 year old at all our games. Sometimes there is an 8 year old and a teenager (but the teen plays with us).

 

[Barcode]

I like to involve each PC in a personal sub-plot and I find this hard to do with my current group of six. I usually have a rule of four players plus or minus one, with four being ideal. However, two players who I really like playing with both came to me at the last minute before the campaign started and asked to get in. I actually had to consider if it were possible to bump another player out in favor of another I preferred. In the end, I just went with the six. In retrospect, I kind of regret it, since I haven't been able to devote enough attention to the sub-plots.

I think six is easily doable if there are a couple of aggressive roleplayers who make their own story and can be counted upon to fill any lulls. If the group is more reactive, then it becomes a bit of a load for the DM to keep them all entertained.

 

[Joseph Elric Smith]

5 or 6 is a really good size, more then 7 and it starts to get a bit unwieldy
Ken

 

[Arnwyn]

Our group has a total of 7 people (6 players and 1 DM) - this is perfect for us. We will not go over 6 players, and I don't think we'd play D&D if we dropped to under 4 players.

(We used to play with 8 players and a DM, but that nearly killed me...)

 

[Terwox]

Am I the only person that prefers 2-4 players? Seems like it.

Two pcs can be a lot of fun...

 

[Silver Moon]

Right now we are running a group of 7 in our weekly group, which is working well. I usually like to have around 8, so if one of two can't make a game there are still enough players to make something interesting happen.

Now for the two extremes: I've been running a solo game with my wife since last summer that is one of the best games I've ever been associated with. At the other extreme, during our group's first year, back when I was in college and had alot more energy, we actually had a group of 14 active players. That was nuts!

 

[Wormwood]

Five players is the most I can handle, but then I'm not very bright.

 

[darklight]

In my experience, 3 players and 1 DM has always seemed to work best, ensuring everyone gets the spotlight and making the game flow quickly. This might be influenced by the fact that some of the players I have played with, have been rather casual, which has often meant that, when we have played in larger groups, someone always lose interest temporarily and talk about other things

I'd like to note that while studying to become a paedagogue, which included lots of group projects, a group of 3 also proved the most effective.

darklight

 

[Tewligan]

actually, "me and my husband" is acceptable

so is:

"my husband and I"

but NOT

"I and my husband"

or

"my husband and me"

Oh dear, you've gotten my English dander up. "Me and my husband still game" is not acceptable, because it doesn't make sense if you drop "...and my husband...", thus making it "me still game". Grammatically, although it doesn't sound right (and is, in fact, still wrong), "I and my husband" is, well, less wrong than "me and my husband" in that particular sentence. Of the four choices, only "my husband and I" is correct in that sentence. "I and my husband" is wrong because Ye Olde Rules of Yore say that you name yourself last when speaking of yourself in addition to other people.

Okay, I'm done now. Oh, and I hate excessive use of exclamation points. Not that anyone is guilty of that, mind you. I just figured I'd mention that while I'm doing my English-bitchin'.

I feel much better now.

EDIT: I should watch my punctuation in a grammar tirade...