D&D 5E What's the largest number of PCs you've had in a session?

[DND_Reborn]

The most ever? Oh, boy... it was something like 16 or 17 players each with a PC (as well as some companions, steeds, and henchmen) for one summer during high school.

The most for an extended time? 12 players/ 12 PCs. For two semesters in college, every Friday night for about 6 hours. Pretty crazy times, let me tell you.

 

[Mort]

I've run for 10-12 but but that was WAY too much.

Ideal is 4-6 with anything more than 6 getting exponentially harder and anything under 4 requiring extra work (so basically in the majority 4-6 seems to be the sweet-spot).

 

[Jack Hooligan]

I've run for 10-12 but but that was WAY too much.

Ideal is 4-6 with anything more than 6 getting exponentially harder and anything under 4 requiring extra work (so basically in the majority 4-6 seems to be the sweet-spot).

I'm curious how you find less than 4 equating to more work?

 

[CleverNickName]

The most I've ever done at once was 8, back when we were playing Pathfinder (ooof.) I try to keep it between 3 and 5 players nowadays.

 

[Mort]

I'm curious how you find less than 4 equating to more work?

1. It's a bit harder to balance encounters and the like for less than 4. Certainly not very difficult but more work;

2. With less than 4 you tend to have at least 1 role missing (be it tank, healer etc.). This changes the flow of the game a bit (more likely to avoid combat, less able to deal with traps - depends on the role missing) and as DM it's best to be aware of the impact.

 

[DND_Reborn]

1. It's a bit harder to balance encounters and the like for less than 4. Certainly not very difficult but more work;

2. With less than 4 you tend to have at least 1 role missing (be it tank, healer etc.). This changes the flow of the game a bit (more likely to avoid combat, less able to deal with traps - depends on the role missing) and as DM it's best to be aware of the impact.

Agree completely.

 

[Legatus Legionis]

.

 

[Shiroiken]

Not counting a special Encounters adventure*, the largest I did was 11 for a one shot adventure. Large groups do not do well, at least not with high schoolers. One PC was OP, defeating the entire first encounter by himself then bragging about how weak everyone else was. This lead to the other group attempting to "put him in his place," which became a massive fight. Yes the first PC was OP, since he killed everyone else before dying of his wounds... leading to a TPK without a single monster ever making an attack roll.

I had a DM who regularly did 9, but that was an odd group broken up into three overall cliques (3 Roleplayers, 3 Rollplayers, and 3 Watchers). My group (Roleplayers) engaged the story element of the game while the Rollplayers read, played on the gameboy, whatever. When combat began, the Rollplayers perked up and dominated the spotlight, while the Roleplayers just sighed and tried to get past it as quick as possible. The watchers just sat back, periodically interjecting into the story and combat.


* Up to 6 groups of 5 would enter the dungeon complex from different areas, each with their own DM. After 4 hours, each group that made it through their section would arrive for the final battle in the center of the complex run by a primary DM and up to 2 assitant DMs (I had one). In theory the final battle could include up to 30 PCs, but our story only had 19 players with 2 PC deaths, leaving 17 to DM.

 

[Larrin]

Not counting a special Encounters adventure*,


* Up to 6 groups of 5 would enter the dungeon complex from different areas, each with their own DM. After 4 hours, each group that made it through their section would arrive for the final battle in the center of the complex run by a primary DM and up to 2 assitant DMs (I had one). In theory the final battle could include up to 30 PCs, but our story only had 19 players with 2 PC deaths, leaving 17 to DM.

This (or else something very similar) was during the playtest of D&D Next (the 5e playtest) which not everyone had switched over to for our encounters group and I was running a table that was doing 4e still and two tables were doing Next. So when we combined we not only had twenty people, but 6-7 of them had 4e characters, the rest had proto 5e characters. I worked up a conversion between the two for dealing with things like AC and attack bonus so i knew which number to add depending on which edition character I was attacking or taking damage from and worked with one of the other DMs to keep things going (it was surprisingly simple, 4e numbers simply added their level to the 5e stats). It worked, but was very long and not what I would describe as the best idea for something people should intentionally do.

 

[delphonso]

I've DMed a group of newbies numbering 7 - it was fine as it gave everyone time to read their sheets and hide in the background when they wanted. Wouldn't do it with regular players though.

I played in a game with 8 or more players before - 3.5 only. Some were okay, others weren't. Mainly mattered if theatre of the mind was used or not and how seriously we played. At that point, waiting 20 minutes or more for a turn, having an actual map with minis was beneficial. The stories with that many players were notably weak.