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

[TarionzCousin]

So, for anyone who's run a large party...what are the secrets? How does each character get a fair amount of screen time?

Fifteen. Secret: Run 1E back in the day. #timetravel

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

My one-time record was 14 players, which is about 7 players too much for me.

 

[Ath'kethin]

Biggest group I ever ran was 7 or 8 PCs, back in high school playing 2e. I split it into two groups after a couple of sessions and I've never had more than 4 PCs in a group since. My preference is 2-3 PCs.

 

[Coroc]

6 PCs (in a roster of 8 but never all of the 8 present) and that is quite doable, the biggest problem is if you got more than one or two players who are very dedicated to roleplaying, each requiring more than average DM time for themselves. Also solo boss mobs need to be pimped even further for 6 vs 1 as opposed to 4 vs 1

 

[jasper]

12 pcs and 9 players or 7 players and 10 pcs. That was a lot of beer and beef ago.

 

[akr71]

7

 

[jgsugden]

I ran 15 players once. I used a co-dm and asked that we abbreviate a lot of the action. It did not work well.

I think optimal is 5 PCs, although I prefer to have a 6 PC party so that we still have 5 when someone misses. I cancel if we drop below 4.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

In 5E? Eight. And that's too many. You have to play in a very organised and disciplined way, and nobody gets much time. 5E isn't well-designed for it (few modern RPGs are). I'd say my preference is four or five PCs in 5E, six is okay. Above that I'd want a different game, one with simpler mechanics and less complex PCs. Below that I think either more RP-heavy/narrative games, or crunchy ones (depending on your tastes) tend to be more engaging than 5E.

 

[Nytmare]

Running a game? We had a time travel AD&D game split simultaneously between 3 tables and 5 DMs, and probably had 8-12 people at a table at a time?

I ran a Paranoia game in high school that probably had 15 people in it, but most of them weren't playing, they were just quietly biding their time till a fight broke out so that they could race to be the first one to tactical nuke the party.

In college I played in a couple of AD&D and 3.5 campaigns that frequently pushed beyond the 20 person benchmark. Things would tend to grow and grow till a bunch of people would die and decided to split off and run their own game. Wash, rinse, and repeat every 3 or 4 months.

How does each character get a fair amount of screen time?

They don't. Every time I've seen it, it's a free for all with one or two big personalities pushing all the action.

 

[Campbell]

DCC funnel crawl. 15 characters/villagers. 5 players. 2 characters survived.

7 players is the most at one table.