I like an average group of 4 or 5 players. The most I let play now is 6. Ive DMed larger groups when I was younger(I think 11 was the biggest group). I always tell my players to ask me before they bring someone to play at a session, and still Ive had some drag someone along out of the blue. One common tend Ive noticed is guys bringing their girlfriend along who has no interest in dnd and becomes a distraction. Funny enough Ive never seen the oppisite whith the girl gamers. Anyways whats your favorite group size and whats the max amount of people will you DM for?
Exactly four players. I can deal with 3 or 5. Anything else is right out.
Four players plus a DM is the sweet spot for me. I find that the fifth player is the tipping point that makes everything less fun for me as a player or DM.
I usually like playing with five people, the group I played with the most had seven players and a DM, with some players showing up more frequently than others. We usually had four or five players available at a given session, and if there were fewer than three, we called it off. Writing adventures as a DM, I try to design them for four, so that it is easy to increase the number of monsters for larger groups. Subtracting monsters isn't always so easy.
5 players + DM
With the rule that if only 4 players can make the seaaion the sesion wil still go on.
In the past due to the way the rule systems work I've wanted to keep it to 4, at most 5. With 5th edition I'm looking for 6. That way we can deal with player attrition (don't currently have a gaming group) and people being busy or sick.
I prefer a group of exactly however many players I can physically fit at my table.
Currently that is me plus 7 players, but I think we could squeeze one more player in with a bit of strategic seat-assignments.
I like four or five as the ideal.
I have in the past dealt with as many as 8 or as few as 2. I think I'd be willing to give up to ten a shot, but certainly no more than that, and more than 6 does really start to have major problems.
I think 3 to 7 is the perfect number of players.
masterfat78 wrote:
3-4 players + DM. I like a small gathering. Plus that means I don't have to spend nearly as much on beer. 
Counting only players, not the DM:
3-5 if most of the players are new to D&D.
6-8 if the players are experienced folk.
I've played with an 8-men crew once in a campaign that lasted some 5 years, give or take. It was fun like hell playing with a large group, but everyone at the table was a seasoned D&D player and new enough of the rules to not pause the game all the time with questions, and resolved their actions each round fairly quickly. So the game flowed very smooth. We tried it again a few years later but with several of the players being new to D&D and it was a mess.
Anywhere from 1 to 8.
I can run solo adventures easily. Every character has their own motivations and agendas that they can pursue at any time.
Three or Four players and the DM, preferably three. That has as much to do with my shyness issues as it does with the difficulties of ensuring that each player feels like her character contributed during a relatively short gaming session. It's also a matter of spotlight time as I like to run urban/courtly intrigue campaigns.
Thalion94518 wrote:
3 is my sweetest spot. I can deal with more, I think i had 8 at one point, but I really, really like how the game pace and challenges change with 3 PCs.
Depends on the type of game I want to run. If I'm running an old school game (more exploration than roleplay), then a larger group is fine (I've done up to 13 PCs). If I want to run a more story/character focused game, then I want no more than 5 (3-4 is best).
Prefer one on one.
Back in college, I routinely did 3, but the incidental eye-contact eventually weirded me out.
A small group - as small as 3 players & a DM - actually works really well, if the players are 100% dependable. If you want to be able to run even if someone (and their SO) can't make it, then 5 is better.
That said, there are tricks to running much larger groups, too. The thing about smaller groups is everyone stays engaged out of combat, regardless of system. In combat, there's usually a turn-based, ranked or cyclical initiative, so everyone is sure to get their turn. Unless a system has some similar structure for the other pillars, they invariable devolve into just 1-3 involved players participating, so you have to rush through to the next fight or start lose'n them. One reason I hope to see 5e improve upon skill challenges in some way.
My favorite would be 4 players.
1-4 + the DM.
5 or more gets annoying, IMO. I've DMed 7 PCs and that got insane at times, even with a co-DM. DMing a solo PC is actually fun (If you really like the person, obviously), aside from all the extra work in encounter balancing. In 4e, minions made it work, though. As did nerfing solos.
We used to play with as many as six or seven, but that was a long time ago (mid- to late 1980s). More recently, I've settled on three to five as the most workable, primarily for the reasons folks have already laid out - lack of individual face time with larger groups, players needing to miss sessions, etc.
The most Ideal group size for me is 1-4 + DM. If there is a couple playing then 5 (the potential to lose two players at once requires a buff.)
masterfat78 wrote: