A few Questions for GM's

[sidkfjjteidlkkf]

1) How many players would you concider to be too many?

2) When in a group of people, do you like single game campaigns, or open ended when everyone runs something sooner or later?

3) Have you ever gotten intimidated by running a game with 9 players?

MY ANSWERS:

1) 4 or fewer is good for me.
2) Single game (preferred) Multi games if they run a good while.
3) Yes, I just bailed out of a group cause it was too large. It was a multi-game also.

 

[GamerDude]

1) How many players would you concider to be too many?

2) When in a group of people, do you like single game campaigns, or open ended when everyone runs something sooner or later?

3) Have you ever gotten intimidated by running a game with 9 players?

1) More than 8. I've run 10 players each with 2 characters for AD&D, but that was a TRUE exception.

2)Single game campaigns. If we want a second campaign we can do it another night or just take a break in the current campaign. I've tried the 'rotating every week between campaigns' and it just plain SUCKS.

3) See #1 above.

 

[thelevitator]

1) How many players would you concider to be too many?

2) When in a group of people, do you like single game campaigns, or open ended when everyone runs something sooner or later?

3) Have you ever gotten intimidated by running a game with 9 players?

1. I have 5 in my tabletop group, and 7 in my online group. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't go past 8, because it leaves people sitting around too long out of the action.

2. I've run very few single game campaigns, or one-shots. I prefer a continuing story where the players get a chance to really develop their characters.

3. I once co-ran a AD&D game with 13 players. We used 2 DM's and while it was a fun marathon session that lasted an entire weekend, I don't think I'd ever do it again. Now that I'm using Maptools as my VTT, I have toyed with the idea of running 2 online groups, one group plays the characters, and the other play the monsters and bad guys. I've done this on a small scale as a test and early results were a lot of fun and very encouraging. :twisted:

 

[Hoghose]

1) How many players would you concider to be too many?

2) When in a group of people, do you like single game campaigns, or open ended when everyone runs something sooner or later?

3) Have you ever gotten intimidated by running a game with 9 players?

1. I usually only have 4 or less players as well. It tends to get too cumbersome with too many, IMHO.

2. In the game I run now the players can pretty much do whatever they prefer. I feed off their ideas and develop the game from that. I usually have a few ideas on encounters though, but I rarely have any scenarios staked out. What a game we have had thus far! =)

3. I havent played with that many players but my guess is: no.

 

[sgstyrsky]

1) How many players would you concider to be too many?

2) When in a group of people, do you like single game campaigns, or open ended when everyone runs something sooner or later?

3) Have you ever gotten intimidated by running a game with 9 players?

1) Five or more is too many. I run with four and it can sometimes be a bit much.

2) My last campaign we ran PCs up until 12th level. It was a natural stopping point in the campaign, and seemed to fit with "reality", that after a long stretch of danger and violence the PCs would want to get some extended R&R, get married, build homes etc. But I could also tell the players were ready for new characters.

We generated new 1st level PCs and played again up until 14th level. Throughout this campaign I dropped references of the earlier group and their exploits to give the game a richer background. Through no fault of my own or my players we had a TPK with this group. However, this gave us the perfect opportunity to pick up the older PCs, who learned of the group's disappearance and decided to investigate.

Taking a break like that, but at the same time keeping the games related, seemed to really invigorate both.

3) I would never run a game with more than 5 players. GOOD LUCK!

 

[pasuuli]

1) How many players would you concider to be too many?

2) When in a group of people, do you like single game campaigns, or open ended when everyone runs something sooner or later?

3) Have you ever gotten intimidated by running a game with 9 players?

I see lots of similar answers to mine...

1. Even with continual action, 9 is too many. Even more than 6 would probably tend to feel slow to players.

2. I like campaigns with backstory and developing plots.

3. Oh yes.

 

[Halfbat]

I know this is a cross-post from the RQ forum, but...
1) I find 4-6 players plus a GM works best as 7+ frequently ends up with one or two people getting or seeing less of the game. I have run some Conan for a while with 7 regular players which went _reasonably_ well (now down to 6 with others asking to join, though!).

2) Difficult to answer the question. We run a number of campaigns, each GM'd by a different person across different systems (or several systems for me). We tend to keep them going, as we all prefer the character building, but sometimes they run out of steam for a while. From time to time I run one-offs or short campaigns of one or two gaming sessions for various systems (Ranks of Bronze homebrew, RQ, d20, MT) just for a change but we tend to play some board games if things go belly-up with organisation (a good standby, btw).

3) 9 players? I wouldn't find it intimidating but I'm pretty sure that several players would feel really left out, so I'd try and avoid it, even in Conan. it would have to be a special, built for that number, or a scenario that could easily be adapted to cope.

 

[Evil_Trevor]

1) How many players would you concider to be too many?

That depends on the experience of the G.M. and players, An experienced G.M. with experienced players has a much easier job than if some or all are inexperienced, it takes more effort to support a new or inexperienced player (setting up a character, rules advice etc..) When I first ran a game where everyone (three players) was a newbie and we had only one copy of the rule books (D&D beginner set circa 1982) that was harder than running Conan for 8 people who knew D20 systems after having D.M.ed and played for 20 or more years.

2) When in a group of people, do you like single game campaigns, or open ended when everyone runs something sooner or later?

What works best for that group ? I ran a four year long Dranglance saga with a few people that is still fondly remembered. Another close friend ran a single six hour one-off game at a 24-hour sponsered roleplaying event that we still ask him to go back to, his players were selected by the organiser in advance

3) Have you ever gotten intimidated by running a game with 9 players?

I've had moments, I am a member of a club and we run 8 week game 'sessions' each session those who are prepared to G.M. offer a game and a 'sign up' sheet goes round. Last time I ran I got four players signing up, Yeah thought I, easy session. Three days before I was due to start the games co-ordinator rang up and said 'we have some new members, I've put four of them into your game."

 

[Ichabod]

Not that I GM much, but:

1. 6 is definitely more than should see play, 5 should be okay. 3, otoh, is entirely reasonable.

2. I don't know.

3. Never came up, would never want it to unless there was something to keep people busy.

 

[bradius]

1) I prefer four. Three is fine though.

2) ?

3) I ran a Vampire: the Masquerade campaign with about 9 or so players. It worked because it turned into a sort of table-top LARP. I don't think this would work in Conan unless you were running a political campaign and had players who were internaly motivated and able to supervise themselves.

 

[Hervé]

1) How many players would you concider to be too many?
I guess four 's the best, five's OK, six being the upper limit.

2) When in a group of people, do you like single game campaigns, or open ended when everyone runs something sooner or later?
With my gaming group we play once a week for a 6 hour time. We tend to run many campaigns at one time, everyone being the GM of his favourite game. This can be confusing at times so I wouldn't advice to do the same!
I think the best way for us would be to run one campaign at a time, with the occasionnal breakoff of a stand alone adventure. Problem is there's so many good games and so little time to run them.

3) Have you ever gotten intimidated by running a game with 9 players?
I tried a couple of time but wasn't satisfied with the result. As GM, you can't afford to take too much time on a single player, so in the end it's always the 3 or 4 most involved or charismatic players who end playing the game when the 5 others roll occasionally some dices while chatting together. It takes discipline to run a 10 people RPG, something our team seem to lack...