So, question for you /tg/, both DMs and players. What's the biggest group of players you've ever played with on the tabletop? Was it an absolute clusterfuck? How often did you get everyone to attend? For DMs, how did you manage to keep everyone in line?
>>46024101
I played in a group of ten players once. In a 4e game.
Game was a bit of a cluster fuck but we had fun in spite of everything.
I would only do that again with Swords and Wizardry or something lite.
>>46024101
I've DM'd nine twice and I have played in a group of nine.
Both Groups I DM'd for were normies first time so lot of dumb shit. Only a handful of them get in character. One was always on his phone. In another group there was a that girl who would always derail to talk about tumblr shit.
Group I play witth, two players constantly try to steal each others shit. Another two are players girlfriends, one is shy,usually has to leave early but when she does something it's usually helpful. The other one always looks like she doesn't want to be there, always makes a druid,only heals her be and sometimes one of us will mention backstory stuff and will mention/complain she doesn't have one.
In all these groups usually only half the players show up so it can go either very productively or constantly off tracked but I usually have fun regardless.
Fourteen players. It was a one-shot at a convention. The game was run by some White Wolf pros called the "Wrecking Crew", you should be able to google them.
The DM had an assistant DM and was very forceful - "You, what do you do? Okay! You over there, what are you doing? Okay! The rest of you, which one of them are you helping? Raise your hand for the first guy! Now raise your hand for the second guy! Okay! Second group, roll [dice]!"
It was like being in a game run by a Marine sergeant, only with far less profanity.
It worked, largely because the one-shot involved a series of episodic puzzles and any time someone got the right answer we moved forward to the next one.
>>46024101
We had 14 on the roster but only 11 or 12 showed at once one game. It was awful. Hour and a half rotation for turns. Since then my usual game is 6 players, and even that feels slow and boring- in 5e DnD no less, which is way faster than 4e.
>>46024101
20 players total, 12 characters made it for all four years. I've got seven 3" ring binders full of notes, maps, plot hooks, and NPCs in storage somewhere. Three GMs total, sometimes a fourth.
It was smooth up until the last arc, when the 12 surviving characters were working together. By this time each character was level 30 so turns took forever regardless of class.
Luckily I had them all make cards of their abilities and so on, so they would just throw down what they did, with bonuses, and roll dice. Plus I'd been using a 60 second hour glass and made my aides do the same. By that point I'd also made cut-out terrain too, so they all had a good feel of depth and rooms and so on.
Final fight lasted about sixteen sessions.
>>46024101
Four.
8 in a 5e game. Really don't recommend since it was like hearing cats. Beyond that big aoe's where the onlg thing that came close to treating the party. Plus took too long in between turns. Never again, prob going to stick to 4-5 from now on.
>>46024101
6-12 ish depending on the session. When everyone comes it can turn into a clusterfuck really quickly, especially during combat. In larger groups (8+), don't expect everyone to be actively participating (although I try and encourage it). Some people were content to just sit there and listen to the shenanigans happening.
Combat rules were largely skipped in favor of just describing and one dice resolutions. I don't think I really kept track of some of the enemies HP and they died when it seemed appropriate.
I try and limit intra-party conflict down to short conflicts because it takes away time from our limited sessions and, unless everyone is participating, it slows the game down for the rest of of the players.
When fewer people show up, I was able to focus far more on individual roleplay and proper combat.
Also, since attendance was rather spotty, with some people skipping sessions or not showing up to later ones, I started to treat the party as a single entity. Otherwise, for a bunch of (usually) first-timers and casual roleplayers, its pretty fun and lighthearted.
In the early days of D&D, large parties were a common thing. It helped that combat was "roll to hit, roll for damage, next!" without a lot of other choices, but one thing that old-school D&D rules had that really helps keep a large group of players together is having the players get together and elect a "caller."
The caller is a guy who's job it is to wrangle all the players, and tell the GM what the party is doing. If Dave's on his phone and doesn't know what's going on, the GM doesn't have to deal with it; the caller yells at Dave and tells the GM what Dave's character does. If Mike's in the bathroom, it's previously been agreed that the caller can run his PC so there's no delay or anything.
Anytime you have a large group of players you should definitely have them pick one of them to be the caller, it'll help.
Have got 2 experiences on that.
1. A Roll20 Campaign: 8 players, 1 GM. I purposefully made a character that wasnt a spotlight hogger and teamed her up with the bard. We had a nice duo coming along, some pretty interesting characters in the party. However it was a massive clusterfuck for the GM to handle it via online gaming. Left the game after 3 sessions since I didnt want to wait 45 minutes for a single turn.
2. IRL game by a PnP-club @ Uni: Joined an already running campaign with 7 players. Total number of players was I think 11-12 but we rotated a bit depending on how people had time. Things were horribly slow, people were distracted all the time, the GM was totally stressed out, the System was shit.
Overall, I think its a bad idea to have more than 5 players unless you have a very quick system (like ryuutama) and are a very good GM.
I had 9 people create characters, though 3 of them only showed up to 1-2 sessions.
With 6, it's fairly manageable, but learn to cut your losses with attendance. I've run sessions if 2 people showed up (as they supplied the room and they're room mates), and you just have to accept that not everyone can come.
I did have a time the party split up into groups, and that worked a bit better/worse as that meant I had to run 2 sessions in one week.
But one crucial thing I've learned is to make combat fast and have less, because trying to balance against 6 people results in either a few strong creatures or many weak, and neither are fun, so I go with a few moderate enemies.
That means I'll fudge dice so that my players go quicker, and then get to the RP'ing parts where they have more fun, I'll go along with it.
>>46024101
>What's the biggest group of players you've ever played with on the tabletop?
8
Was it an absolute clusterfuck?
No
How often did you get everyone to attend?
Had at least 7 every time.
For DMs, how did you manage to keep everyone in line?
I invited people who weren't idiots, I kicked the one who turned out to be one (and then there were 8), and I chose a rules light system, because the average D&D tier brick of combat rules is going to cut play time in half, at least, compared to just using something rules light. Also having a player or two who can "Mini GM" whenever players go off on their own and stuff like that is an immense help.
>>46025470
Best coment of all time
>>46024101
14 players
3 DMs
It was a one-shot for an initiation to RPG
>>46024101
12 players, one of the best games I've ever run.
14, although thank god only 9 showed up at any given session.
Damn right it was a clusterfuck but people were mature enough to have some semblance of order and quiet down when I said to.
Attendence was sporadic, it was 2 groups so say 7 each. Lows of 3 to all 7 attending. Usually about 4 or 5 would show on average. For the final one 9 showed.
Initiative set a clear order. I had all enemies on a single turn. Pets were on the same turn as their players. Made damn sure people had macros set on roll20. Also had a mega huge map in a setting where it was practically impossible to leave, so everyone could focus on their own map section and anyone that wanted to be a smart ass would just leave the area entirely (3 guys actually did that and just watched the rest of the carnage).
3/10 wouldnt do again despite it being an interesting excercise in self torture. This was only possible thanks to self restraint on "That Guy"ness from my players, and it did show me who was worth keeping around for future games.
I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed this thread wasn't about large celebrations in games.
The largest group I was ever a part of was 7 players and 1 DM. It clearly wasn't nearly as big as some groups people are discussing here, but it was a hot fucking mess.
Part of the problem was that there were too many people in the group that always wanted to be the center of attention/have something to say during every response of every encounter. One dude would constantly talk about what a douche-y loner his character was and how he just wanted to fight stuff, and how strong he was. The worst. Another dude would always play assholes and was always borderline meta about everything, and he struggled to keep IC and OOC conflicts and arguments separate. Like once ingame two characters said he was an asshole, and he got pissed and just left the table.
The other problem is that nearly everyone didn't fully know the rules. The DM knew everything, like autism-levels of knowing everything, so everyone relied on him to tell them what to roll or how do to their own spells, etc., so when 6 of the seven players had their turn in combat they'd be constantly asking questions and not knowing their shit. This meant combat took FUCKING FOREVER. FOREVER. ONE PERSONS TURN WOULD LAST LIKE 5+ MINUTES. SEVEN PEOPLE. PLUS THE MONSTERS. IT WAS ABSOLUTE HELL. There were too many people and there wasn't nearly enough strategizing/teamwork going on, so everyone would go fight their own dudes instead of teaming up to do stuff.
Thankfully two people (including loner-douche) left abruptly and the asshole guy got addicted to league of legends so he never comes to sessions anymore.
>>46024490
>The other one always looks like she doesn't want to be there, always makes a druid,only heals her be and sometimes one of us will mention backstory stuff and will mention/complain she doesn't have one.
Oh god I know that kind of player gf. Does she claim to like animals but really only means she thinks horses are cute? Is she often confused and useless but with good intentions so you can't get mad at her?
Why is it so hard to kick friends of friends out of a tabletop group?
I'm currently in a party with 7 players. 1 dm.
This is the first tabletop experience for any of us (including the dm) so we picked up 5e books since it's supposed to be easier to break into. DM is running Rise of Tiamat.
All in all we are enjoying it, though combat drags sometimes.
>>46024101
>What's the biggest group of players you've ever played with on the tabletop?
9
> Was it an absolute clusterfuck?
Yes
>How often did you get everyone to attend?
3 sessions, thank god it wasn't a big massive long thing.
>For DMs, how did you manage to keep everyone in line?
In line wasn't a problem. It was sheer boredom. Apparently we don't have ADHD or something. But people were certainly bored before the point their turn came back around. It was D&D 3.0. NEVER AGAIN will I play with a group that large. Not where individual descisions have to be made in order.
Something where everyone can choose an action at the same time and lay it down or something. But typical table-top RPG? aww hell no. 4 players is good. 3 is fine. Maaaaaybe 5.
I was in a 5e game a couple of months ago that got up to 16 players. We got 2 rounds of combat done in 4 hours of play, and 8 people left.
