I could use some help, /tg/.
I'm struggling with a group of 5 players, and 8 others have told me that they're interested. We're all from the same school, and they're reluctant to play with strangers.
What's the ideal group size? How do you run a big group? What should I do about the rest?
>>43912603
No more than 5, cap at 6.
Split into multiple groups if necessary or just tell them you have enough peeps already. If they wanna play that badly someone else can learn to GM
>4 is ideal
>5 is really pushing it
>I don't play in games with 6+
>I don't believe you when you tell me that your personal DM can manage 20 players with ease. You just have low expectations. Stop sucking a shit DMs cock.
I'd say 4 players is ideal, 6 as a maximum for comfortable play, and 8 as extremely uncomfortable but tolerable. In any system with initiative, the more people you have doing things one at a time on that list the shittier and slower things get.
>>43912603
It depends on the system but I think 6 is the highest you usually want to go.
Also, don't play D&D.
>>43912603
Splitting them into groups will be necessary.
4 players in a group if you focus on roleplay
5-6 if you balance RP and action
7-8 if it's just rolling dice with a small description
Suggestion: http://arsludi.lamemage.com/index.php/78/grand-experiments-west-marches/
Basically it's a framework for running RPGs for large groups with irregular schedules. The base idea is fairly adaptable to any sort of setting, all you need is a large, unexplored area
>>43912741
sorry: tl;dr:
Players are members of an adventuring company or similar based out of a particular town on the edge of a frontier. Each session has whatever players can make it and starts and ends in the town. The focus is more on exploration than overarching plots, but you can still do a lot of environmental or "archaeological" storytelling
>>43912603
pick the best, cull the rest
>>43912603
>>43912820
Run a game of Basic or a similar simple retroclone with everyone who wants to play. Use one of the meat-grinder modules like Tomb of Horrors or whatever, the last four standing are your group
I once played in a game with 16 people, that was fun.
Perhaps cleverly, the DM encouraged us to form sort of little mini-factions or teams, within the large group. So when gameplay happened, he was able to rather than just go through 16 people's actions and choices, instead get the actions and choices of the few smaller teams. Like for example, I was in a team with three other people of like-minded and agreeable nature, so we could all always quickly figure out what our few characters wanted and would do. Each of the other groups were more or less the same, and were generally partitioned by either race, alignment, or just player personality/mindset.
>>43912603
Ideal for me is two or three and I usually cap at four or five but I mostly run roleplay heavy horror games where less people is better.
Count on most of those people to either drop the game after a few sessions or show up inconsistently enough that it'll feel like they aren't there at all most of the time. What I'd do in your situation is structure the game in a way that allows different PCs to jump in and out of the story at any time like a few anons have mentioned, have a player cap at a number you're comfortable with and have people RSVP on a first come first serve basis.
>>43912681
What should I play instead and why? Bonus points for not mentioning caster supremacy
>>43913466
Not that guy but if you're really gonna end up GMing for 13 people? Everyone is John.
>>43913671
Oh I thought he meant just in general, not specifically for 13 people
>>43913466
D&D is a boring video game-like generic fantasy system.
Play WoD, GURPS, or any number of other systems instead.
>>43914040
I agree with you on the grounds that D&D is a bad system for newcomers and I would never recommend it for anything but class based, combat focused fantasy gaming but if "It's videogames play GURPS instead" is all you're gonna bring to the table just quit jerking us around and say you're only here to spout memes.
