Whats the biggest group you've DMed for?

[tx7321]

For me, around 30 +/- way back when 86?. Our school had a gaming club and I sat as DM a couple times. It wasn't so bad. OK only a dozen had any idea of what they were doing. The others kind of sat back and watched, and rolled when the dice came their way (and each of the more experianced players acted as junior DMs for me, so character creation was a snap.

That was the beauty of the game, you really didn't have to know anything to play, you just had to bring your imagination. Anyhow, If you did something stupid as a player, you found out fast enough. By the time the group reached the dungeon (within the first 5 hours of play) the group was down to about 6 (if memory serves me right). These guys weren't used to nuetral DMing and threw a cow (most died doing really stupid things). Thats when I discovered gaming clubs weren't for me (most were OK, but the babies were just too much). I still occasionally DM for about 8 but typically for just 2 (twice a month on average).

 

[Psion]

13. And I thought that was pretty impressive.

 

[brehobit]

12. At GenCon when I was around 17-19 (so a LONG time ago, 1st edition). I think it actually worked.

Mark

 

[der_kluge]

I think the most I did was 9 in High School. I vowed I'd never DM a group that large again.

 

[havoclad]

17, back in college.

Started with a group of 4 or so, people just kept showing up with friends.

17 was too many, so I and the original players engineered a split, where 8 characters got up and walked off in the middle of the night.

I DM'd the two different groups for a while, but the second group didn't have any dynamic players so it fell apart pretty quickly.

 

[Shadowslayer]

I did 9. Once. Never again.

 

[Aus_Snow]

I did 12. All at the same time.

It was a good experience, but gods, tiring too.

 

[grodog]

Probably about 14 players, running a total of about 19 PCs. This was back in college, of course.

I've played in larger groups, though not by much (and not counting giant convention scenarios like Grenadier's Visual Dungeon, from back in the day).

 

[BlackMoria]

18.

Never again.... those sessions were a 100% certainity of 2-3 strong painkillers later that night to deal with the resultant "brain fire" of trying to manage a group that size.

 

[+5 Keyboard!]

I think 9 was the most I ever had in one group. Never again, though. It was just too much work trying to keep everybody focused and keeping track of all their characters. Now, give me a solid group of 5-6 players and I'm good to go .

An observation: Larger groups tend to form sub groups within them that always end up working at odds with each other. Which, of course, turns the game into a bunch of PVP combats and players getting all surley and hostile with each other. Not my cup of tea.