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Large Group, no choice, help.

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
The-Magic-Sword
Feb 22, 2010 10:59:21 alright, for a while now, i've been hosting an after school High school DND club, so far we've been dividing into two groups, playing a campaign in the same world. However, due to life concerns, we generally never have enough people, and oftentimes both groups have just the right amount of people lost to be crippled. In order to simplify this, we're combining the groups, this way we can always continue the story even if a few people are missing, also we expect a group of ten can take a hit of a few people missing better than two groups of five players. The issue, is running a game that, if everyone stays on, will be something like 10 players. I don't mind DMing such a group, and we all have laptops (it's one of the schools highlights), along with PDF books, and of course online dicerollers. We may be able to get our hands on a dry-erase battle mat, and plenty of miniatures.

I was thinking that the PC's would play as a company of mercenaries, being hired out. At first, each job would seem un-related, but they would be linked to an overarching plot, that will likely burst somewhere in the paragon tier. i could give them options as to which job they want to take after they're done with each job and etc.
#2
j_steele
Feb 22, 2010 15:02:08
Our group started out with six players, then one more and one more. Eventually, we had 9 players. The story came to a crawl. We've been in the same dungeon for a month of game play, and have explored all of four rooms. One player dropped out because he "didn't like how slow the game was moving." (There are some other factors that makes this challenging, like limited game time. We maybe get 3 solid hours a week if we're lucky.)

That is my only complaint about having such a large group when everyone is present. When more than half the group can't make it, the games run much more smoothly and we accomplish a lot more.

I like your idea about that large of a group being a company of mercenaries with jobs that have an overarching plot.

Let us know how it works out for you.

~ Syana
#3
jahatch28
Feb 25, 2010 21:40:26
I peronally think that 2 smaller groups that are on similar paths and might allow for mixing of the groups is going to run better than one 8 or 10 person group... unless you only have 1 DM, it seems like you can more easily get away with 3 and 4 PC groups than run with 8 and 9 PC groups.. 4-6 seems ideal, 3 and 7 aren't bad, but 2 or 8-9 doesn't seem to work very well...

If you are all very efficient and know your class well, it might work, or if the DM keeps the variety of enemies simple (not mixing too many monster types in any one encounter but keeping it to 2 or 3 types max).. but with 8 PCs, 8 monsters, you need a huge "room" just to even fight, much less if there is any sort of terrain or traps or anything like that...

sometimes your 2nd DM may miss a game and you have no choice, but I do think smaller groups are better than one huge group...

anyone having any success with large groups?

Josh
#4
ordrus
Mar 01, 2010 14:53:06 My friends and I did a massive fight against a dragon and a ton of minions and other monsters. There were 7 of us and we were all new. It was very painful.

As I was halfway through reading your post I thought of suggesting that you combine everyone into a 'Mercenary' guild. But you beat me to it.

The guild is a fantastic idea. There are a lot of roleplaying opportunities when you do something like that and players get to be creative. Players get to choose a name for the team and if any of them are artists then someone can even design a battle standard. Also, sending assassins against a guild of mercs is a lot easier to justify than a single character who may not be powerful enough to warrant that sort of attention.

Another good idea is giving them some sort of home base. A nice house or a manor (at higher levels) where they relax and recoop is a good idea. You get the opportunity to design a cool house but it's also a good way to just explain why certain characters aren't in the current session. You just have to say that they are taking care of something back at the headquarters. If you ever get a day where a lot of players show up you could do something interesting like a rival guild laying seige upon their home. No crazy amounts of travelling or story set up involved. Just drop a large amount of monsters and let the players go for it. Having the party setup as a reputable guild with a place of business also makes it easier to get involved in politics or intrigue or stuff like that once they hit higher levels.

Anyways those are just a few ideas. I hope this method works out for you.
#5
farenal
Mar 02, 2010 10:42:38 Your approach should be a little different depending on what style your players like to play. If they're a more battle oriented group then dropping a whole bunch of monsters with a little bit of fluff to explain their presence should be enough.

However a group that is more oriented towards role playing would probably want an explanation, and even a little adventure before they come to the inevitable battle.

Most likely your group is a mix. In six years of playing and two of DMing I haven't found one group that everybody is straight one side or the other. You can handle this by either splitting them into like groups [as long as you have two DMs who are available and willing to host a game of said type], keeping them as one group [they will likely end up balancing out at some point although at the beginning it will be a little tedious on your part], or splitting them into smaller mixed groups [providing for fast combat and room for story development].

Those are the ways I've worked it in the past. If they are in the same world then let them go on different missions and come back and join together to split up loot and tell what happens [this provides for smaller scale combat with groups that want to work together and faster development of the story]. Granted if you're using the experience system this could leader to faster/slower leveling unless your careful and really shouldn't be used unless you've got a lot of material floating around your head [since you want it all to be interconnected].

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 The-Magic-Sword Feb 22, 2010 10:59:21	alright, for a while now, i've been hosting an after school High school DND club, so far we've been dividing into two groups, playing a campaign in the same world. However, due to life concerns, we generally never have enough people, and oftentimes both groups have just the right amount of people lost to be crippled. In order to simplify this, we're combining the groups, this way we can always continue the story even if a few people are missing, also we expect a group of ten can take a hit of a few people missing better than two groups of five players. The issue, is running a game that, if everyone stays on, will be something like 10 players. I don't mind DMing such a group, and we all have laptops (it's one of the schools highlights), along with PDF books, and of course online dicerollers. We may be able to get our hands on a dry-erase battle mat, and plenty of miniatures. I was thinking that the PC's would play as a company of mercenaries, being hired out. At first, each job would seem un-related, but they would be linked to an overarching plot, that will likely burst somewhere in the paragon tier. i could give them options as to which job they want to take after they're done with each job and etc.
#2 j_steele Feb 22, 2010 15:02:08	Our group started out with six players, then one more and one more. Eventually, we had 9 players. The story came to a crawl. We've been in the same dungeon for a month of game play, and have explored all of four rooms. One player dropped out because he "didn't like how slow the game was moving." (There are some other factors that makes this challenging, like limited game time. We maybe get 3 solid hours a week if we're lucky.) That is my only complaint about having such a large group when everyone is present. When more than half the group can't make it, the games run much more smoothly and we accomplish a lot more. I like your idea about that large of a group being a company of mercenaries with jobs that have an overarching plot. Let us know how it works out for you. ~ Syana
#3 jahatch28 Feb 25, 2010 21:40:26	I peronally think that 2 smaller groups that are on similar paths and might allow for mixing of the groups is going to run better than one 8 or 10 person group... unless you only have 1 DM, it seems like you can more easily get away with 3 and 4 PC groups than run with 8 and 9 PC groups.. 4-6 seems ideal, 3 and 7 aren't bad, but 2 or 8-9 doesn't seem to work very well... If you are all very efficient and know your class well, it might work, or if the DM keeps the variety of enemies simple (not mixing too many monster types in any one encounter but keeping it to 2 or 3 types max).. but with 8 PCs, 8 monsters, you need a huge "room" just to even fight, much less if there is any sort of terrain or traps or anything like that... sometimes your 2nd DM may miss a game and you have no choice, but I do think smaller groups are better than one huge group... anyone having any success with large groups? Josh
#4 ordrus Mar 01, 2010 14:53:06	My friends and I did a massive fight against a dragon and a ton of minions and other monsters. There were 7 of us and we were all new. It was very painful. As I was halfway through reading your post I thought of suggesting that you combine everyone into a 'Mercenary' guild. But you beat me to it. The guild is a fantastic idea. There are a lot of roleplaying opportunities when you do something like that and players get to be creative. Players get to choose a name for the team and if any of them are artists then someone can even design a battle standard. Also, sending assassins against a guild of mercs is a lot easier to justify than a single character who may not be powerful enough to warrant that sort of attention. Another good idea is giving them some sort of home base. A nice house or a manor (at higher levels) where they relax and recoop is a good idea. You get the opportunity to design a cool house but it's also a good way to just explain why certain characters aren't in the current session. You just have to say that they are taking care of something back at the headquarters. If you ever get a day where a lot of players show up you could do something interesting like a rival guild laying seige upon their home. No crazy amounts of travelling or story set up involved. Just drop a large amount of monsters and let the players go for it. Having the party setup as a reputable guild with a place of business also makes it easier to get involved in politics or intrigue or stuff like that once they hit higher levels. Anyways those are just a few ideas. I hope this method works out for you.
#5 farenal Mar 02, 2010 10:42:38	Your approach should be a little different depending on what style your players like to play. If they're a more battle oriented group then dropping a whole bunch of monsters with a little bit of fluff to explain their presence should be enough. However a group that is more oriented towards role playing would probably want an explanation, and even a little adventure before they come to the inevitable battle. Most likely your group is a mix. In six years of playing and two of DMing I haven't found one group that everybody is straight one side or the other. You can handle this by either splitting them into like groups [as long as you have two DMs who are available and willing to host a game of said type], keeping them as one group [they will likely end up balancing out at some point although at the beginning it will be a little tedious on your part], or splitting them into smaller mixed groups [providing for fast combat and room for story development]. Those are the ways I've worked it in the past. If they are in the same world then let them go on different missions and come back and join together to split up loot and tell what happens [this provides for smaller scale combat with groups that want to work together and faster development of the story]. Granted if you're using the experience system this could leader to faster/slower leveling unless your careful and really shouldn't be used unless you've got a lot of material floating around your head [since you want it all to be interconnected].