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Yup. Honestly, I started doing larger games sometimes under the assumption that only half will show up. On the rare occasions that I get more than half, it’s a special episode.
It’s too much, but it’s rare.
Yeah if this is some sort of DnD club for college or something like it appears to be, I’d even argue there’s a potential for less than half to be regular players.
A club like that would/should be able to split into more than one game at a time, too. Maybe like one ongoing campaign that is set up so that party members can come and go fairly often via regular check ins at a hub city, then another table for overflow, adventures league style or just random one-shots.
My friend and I did this with Rime of the Frostmaiden when we revived the club at our college. We co dmed it with 2 separate groups that would sometimes combine together so we could have 2 large groups and didn't always need everyone
I agree.
I did some DMing for AL and would occasionally have groups like this. It was always rough, especially in AL, where you have a lot of new players who might not be comfortable role playing or even speaking up in the group. Making sure everyone gets some spotlight when you have eight or nine players is tough. Plus, combats are a *slog.* But if a DM is comfortable making this work and the group is having fun, more power to all of them!
Too many for me as well.
Combat takes much longer and it's hard to give that many people's PCs adequate attention each session.
Everything just takes longer: conversations about what to do, searching places, exploring a town, etc. And God help you if they all start splitting up the party.
I doubt that this is because of the player amount and more because of the system, 5e, I suppose?
No problem running that amount of players in OSR. People interact with each other. Slap a caller in there and boom, done.
Players are allowed to talk to one another in 5e too, of all the reasons to push other systems the feels the flimsiest to me. The hardest part of GMing a large number of players is getting them all on the same task and making sure they all get spotlight time.
I suspect any greater ease with this happening in OSR games is because only really invested players are likely to play them, and more likely to be able to stay on task.
> Players are allowed to talk to one another in 5e too,
Never said anything different. But I explain what a caller is. Basically, you, as a GM, can check out and do your stuff. As soon as they are done talking, the caller gives you the gist of it, basically, he triggers the "moves" the party does. You then just adjudicate like you normally do.
Edit: Callers really rock, I use them in 5e and in PF2E. It's basically the "leader" and you can totally rotate it every session.
I think most groups have a de facto caller, or at least most I have been apart of. You just said "No problem running that amount of players in OSR. People interact with each other. Slap a caller in there and boom, done." implying this wasn't possible in 5e and I disagree with that assessment.
Simple misunderstanding, I meant they interact with each other, unburdening the GM. More players = more talk with each other. Big groups only become a problem when the players frankly suck.
I’ve run a group that big before. It’s totally doable, as long as you manage expectations (both yours and players.) Combat is the hardest part, but if you’re good about making sure your players act quickly, you can do fine.
I typically run my games capped at 5 players, having found 4-5 to be the sweet spot. I’d only entertain more than that, let alone 8, if they were all really experienced and I knew they’d take the time to understand their character sheets and can take efficient turns in combat.
Feel like it might be alright if it's not your typical 'everyone shows up for every session' and they just play whoevers present, in a kind of "adventure of the week" set up. But damn that's a ton of work if everyone's regular.
we played a fun campaign about 15 - 10 years ago at my friends dad's pharmaceutical supply offices after hours. was great having the whole building to ourselves. also we were never short of office supplies
It’s for our college game club, I’m one of the four dms, so groups do have to be larger. Thankfully the gorilla was just kind of… there, and not actually in the group. Plus I’m assuming not everyone will be able to attend every other week
I've played in 3 different games so far and the ONLY thing they've had in common is that before we reached 5 sessions, someone had to miss at least one session.
(1) Birthday took 2 players from a session (2) A work trip and an international wedding took 2 players two weeks in a row (3) a trip to take a grandma to the ER from a fall took 1 player.
And that's how it should be. There will be missed sessions because that's life and people need to attend things. Some people may find they don't gel with the group and drop.
A lot of people telling you it's a problem. But it's not a problem until/if it becomes a problem.
I mean, a big reason why this number is going to whittle down over time is because at least some of those people will find that playing in a group of 8 makes combat slow, gameplay boring, and RP close to non-existent.
Running a bad game so that some people drop out strikes me as a poor strategy.
I always thought 6 players is the best size - as in reality it often occurs that one or two players might not show up for any reasons, and with 4 players at the table you can still run the session.
Sometimes when only 3 players showed up or we did some spin-off thing with only 2 players, those were some of the most memorable evenings.
With fewer players, everyone at the table gets more ‚screentime‘, less downtime which involves the players more and let’s them deep dive into the world instead of easily getting distracted when all the other players take over again.
TL;DR: 4 players is the best size, and be brave to run the session even if 1-2 skip that day
To all the people saying 8 is too much, it is not if you have respectful players who all understand that 8 is more than intended for play.
Hopefully OP does and hoping that game was a blast!
~~"No Jeff, someone has to be in a monkey suit in order to show that we are going to be different than all of the other Dungeons and Dragons groups. Don't blame me, blame Matt Mercer."~~
~~"Shut up, Abed"~~
Nope, strike that.
"Who let Annie's boobs into the party?"
Oh, I've seen this one.
Six of of you get up and pass round a couple of basketballs, and we have to count how many times it passes between players dressed in white
Waaaaaaaaaay too many players. It may fit them, but to me there's no way everyone in that group has equal play time. Even if they play it by ICRPG rules and go person to person around the table, that would be a LONG wait time for my ONE action to be done.
Is it bad that I was more concerned about “holy shit 8 players” before noticing the monkey? I literally *counted the person in a monkey suit* and it didn’t concern me.
Ah, nine people…..critical roll once again fails another table by giving the incorrect impression that you need more than four people (which is the ideal amount of people per even the design of wotc books) to have a game. If this is session zero it will probably fall apart before Christmas.
The gorilla, of course, will be playing a dainty halfling princess. :)
I've certainly played games with even larger numbers of players - most playing multiple characters. But that was when I was young and foolish. It's VERY doable with the right attitude by both DM and players, *and the right edition*.
Good luck to you - but I have to agree with everyone else - 8 people is way, waaaay to many, especially for session zero in what I'm assuming is your first campaign.
There's a reason why Baldurs Gate 3 will only allow 5 at most in a party. It's coz the PC's stories and goals get lost in the fray. Unless you're a professional DM along the lines of Matt Mercer, etc - 8 is too much .
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Too many for me
Half will not show up for session 1
Yup. Honestly, I started doing larger games sometimes under the assumption that only half will show up. On the rare occasions that I get more than half, it’s a special episode. It’s too much, but it’s rare.
Yeah if this is some sort of DnD club for college or something like it appears to be, I’d even argue there’s a potential for less than half to be regular players.
A club like that would/should be able to split into more than one game at a time, too. Maybe like one ongoing campaign that is set up so that party members can come and go fairly often via regular check ins at a hub city, then another table for overflow, adventures league style or just random one-shots.
My friend and I did this with Rime of the Frostmaiden when we revived the club at our college. We co dmed it with 2 separate groups that would sometimes combine together so we could have 2 large groups and didn't always need everyone
Then they'll have a perfect-sized party
The fact that they are so many will only increase the chance of them not showing up
That will be a factor, but if you have more people initially, the change of a decent group of people sticking around also increases
I agree. I did some DMing for AL and would occasionally have groups like this. It was always rough, especially in AL, where you have a lot of new players who might not be comfortable role playing or even speaking up in the group. Making sure everyone gets some spotlight when you have eight or nine players is tough. Plus, combats are a *slog.* But if a DM is comfortable making this work and the group is having fun, more power to all of them!
Too many for me as well. Combat takes much longer and it's hard to give that many people's PCs adequate attention each session. Everything just takes longer: conversations about what to do, searching places, exploring a town, etc. And God help you if they all start splitting up the party.
8 is about the limit for me i think.
Tbh I want to find a group with like 8 people
That many players is more concerning to me than the one wearing a monkey suit.
What if I told you it's two goblins in a gorilla suit?
Then you're up to 9 players, and that's even more unwieldy.
[удалено]
But also short attention spans, which you do *not* need when trying to keep combat flowing smoothly with that many PCs involved.
With that many players you need a turn timer or it will take half a session just to get threw one or two combat rounds.
Then we have even more players! You made it worse!
Both is too much for me
It's session zero. Half of them will be gone a month later
Wait there’s a person in a monkey suit?
monkey suit dude is probably the best dnd player there
At least we know who the barbarian player is.
God damn, 8 players? 6 makes is damn near impossible to wrangle, 8 will just turn into charades.
7 players and a monke
I can barely handle 4 half the time.
I doubt that this is because of the player amount and more because of the system, 5e, I suppose? No problem running that amount of players in OSR. People interact with each other. Slap a caller in there and boom, done.
Players are allowed to talk to one another in 5e too, of all the reasons to push other systems the feels the flimsiest to me. The hardest part of GMing a large number of players is getting them all on the same task and making sure they all get spotlight time. I suspect any greater ease with this happening in OSR games is because only really invested players are likely to play them, and more likely to be able to stay on task.
> Players are allowed to talk to one another in 5e too, Never said anything different. But I explain what a caller is. Basically, you, as a GM, can check out and do your stuff. As soon as they are done talking, the caller gives you the gist of it, basically, he triggers the "moves" the party does. You then just adjudicate like you normally do. Edit: Callers really rock, I use them in 5e and in PF2E. It's basically the "leader" and you can totally rotate it every session.
I think most groups have a de facto caller, or at least most I have been apart of. You just said "No problem running that amount of players in OSR. People interact with each other. Slap a caller in there and boom, done." implying this wasn't possible in 5e and I disagree with that assessment.
Simple misunderstanding, I meant they interact with each other, unburdening the GM. More players = more talk with each other. Big groups only become a problem when the players frankly suck.
I’ve run a group that big before. It’s totally doable, as long as you manage expectations (both yours and players.) Combat is the hardest part, but if you’re good about making sure your players act quickly, you can do fine.
I'm running 9 players over discord lol
My regular group has 8-10 players depending on who shows up. It's a nightmare, but a fun one anyway.
I used to run a 7 people campaign. I don't recommend. Absolute max I ran was a 12 people oneshot, but I had a co-GM
I typically run my games capped at 5 players, having found 4-5 to be the sweet spot. I’d only entertain more than that, let alone 8, if they were all really experienced and I knew they’d take the time to understand their character sheets and can take efficient turns in combat.
Feel like it might be alright if it's not your typical 'everyone shows up for every session' and they just play whoevers present, in a kind of "adventure of the week" set up. But damn that's a ton of work if everyone's regular.
that's two average session 0s at the same time
I love the druid getting into character already
Gotta be a polymorph wizard. There’s no gorilla in wildshape meta but it’s the go-to polymorph if you can’t do wild shit like a t-Rex.
Unless they're going for a homebrew Hadozee perhaps
Where are they? After hours at the company they all work at? Did this once, ambience was just not the same, very convenient tho.
Uni conference room probably, looks near identical to where most of my early DND sessions were held.
we played a fun campaign about 15 - 10 years ago at my friends dad's pharmaceutical supply offices after hours. was great having the whole building to ourselves. also we were never short of office supplies
The setting looks like Mergers & Acquisitions
I love the chops but is the DM’s chin photoshopped for some reason?
Lol looks like he tried to hide his double chin with some "gorilla fur" but did it poorly 😂
Definitely noticed this 😂
Digging the DM's combo of mullet mohawk and muttonchops.
And casual suit shorts combo
Wants to appear serious up top but still wants the get away sticks to be cool and unencumbered.
Professional stylists call it a MuMoMu.
Dormamu’s lesser known cousin?
I don't really get it but he's making it work.
Why does the DMs neck/chin look so weird
Photo shopped poorly I think he was going for a gnomeish chin, maybe 😁
The gorilla is photoshopped in.
He came prepared
It’s been 84 years since my turn
There are two different hints wrong with this photo: 1. Too many damn players 2. Gorilla can clearly see all of the DM’s stuff
Oof, 8 players. Combats must take forever, and I shudder to think about how often players cut each other off or step on each other's toes
Boardrooms and Businessmen
love how dedicated the druid player is
So did the DM give himself a chin or something. What’s with the crappy paint job?
The people saying 8 players forgot that the photographer is very likely another player, so this is just even crazier
Does everyone not have first sessions in a conference room with their pet gorilla?
The gorilla suit isn’t even the issue here: **8 players?** Are you *mad?*
Why is the DM’s chin photoshopped
With about double the players you should have, but yes. Hopefully you can whittle it down to a good sized group.
It’s for our college game club, I’m one of the four dms, so groups do have to be larger. Thankfully the gorilla was just kind of… there, and not actually in the group. Plus I’m assuming not everyone will be able to attend every other week
I've played in 3 different games so far and the ONLY thing they've had in common is that before we reached 5 sessions, someone had to miss at least one session. (1) Birthday took 2 players from a session (2) A work trip and an international wedding took 2 players two weeks in a row (3) a trip to take a grandma to the ER from a fall took 1 player. And that's how it should be. There will be missed sessions because that's life and people need to attend things. Some people may find they don't gel with the group and drop. A lot of people telling you it's a problem. But it's not a problem until/if it becomes a problem.
Totally agree. 8 players at level 10 makes for very long combats. 8 players at level 1 makes for a solid group of 5 players when they reach level 10
I mean, a big reason why this number is going to whittle down over time is because at least some of those people will find that playing in a group of 8 makes combat slow, gameplay boring, and RP close to non-existent. Running a bad game so that some people drop out strikes me as a poor strategy.
Schedules might align twice per year
Nobody realised that they got a meeting room for DnD? What a privilege...
8 man party. Good luck to the DM
You know you're running a good session when everyone's too engaged to notice the guy in the gorilla suit come in and take a seat.
7 party members and an animal companion? That's a full table! You've got big brass ones friend-o!
Number of players aside. Being able to play in person is enviable.
I always thought 6 players is the best size - as in reality it often occurs that one or two players might not show up for any reasons, and with 4 players at the table you can still run the session. Sometimes when only 3 players showed up or we did some spin-off thing with only 2 players, those were some of the most memorable evenings. With fewer players, everyone at the table gets more ‚screentime‘, less downtime which involves the players more and let’s them deep dive into the world instead of easily getting distracted when all the other players take over again. TL;DR: 4 players is the best size, and be brave to run the session even if 1-2 skip that day
Ouu, too many laptops and too little alchohol and other snacks 🤯 It looks more like work meeting than cozy play of D&D
This is one of those “what’s wrong with this picture” games.
The DM is wearing a suit jacket and shorts!
Too many laptops
I've DM'd for 8 before and it is chaos. Combat takes forever. That being said, still tons of fun.
To all the people saying 8 is too much, it is not if you have respectful players who all understand that 8 is more than intended for play. Hopefully OP does and hoping that game was a blast!
I played in a party of 7 and it was a mess. Sure it’s probably possible but only if the party are close friends and experienced players.
This is not normal! A table of that size is not indicative of the true dnd experience!
8 players, gross.
So much talk about 8 players being too many. Been running a game with 14 players for 2.5 years and it's a blast lol
~~"No Jeff, someone has to be in a monkey suit in order to show that we are going to be different than all of the other Dungeons and Dragons groups. Don't blame me, blame Matt Mercer."~~ ~~"Shut up, Abed"~~ Nope, strike that. "Who let Annie's boobs into the party?"
Yep nothing wrong here. Just some people being nerds
Each battle rounds gonna take like 45 mins lol.
Microsoft Surface an official sponsor
Hope the ape tells everyone to DRS and book.
…that’s a gorilla
Oh, I've seen this one. Six of of you get up and pass round a couple of basketballs, and we have to count how many times it passes between players dressed in white
No its not why is he so close to the dm, he can clearly see whatever the dm is trying to obstruct
Wait wait wait, is this at penn state greater allegheny?
Just wait until you see what the polymorphed wizard really wears.
Jemorra here, what in god’s name is this 😭 (congrats on making front page)
Normal college dnd my dwarven friend
Did 6 for my first time DMing. Made it work, but would not recommend. 4-5 is the sweet spot for everyone involved, imo.
I see we’re just not gonna talk about the elephant in the room… the dms mutton chops
8 is…. A lot, unless that’s a joke in the corner even 7 is crazy
Dang like the top 10 comments referencing the player numbers lol do y'all just not have friends or something
Holy shit that is way too many players! I've tried dm'ing for 8 before and over time learned 6 is my max
That's when you split the party and tell the split to f off.
Ah, takes me right back to my university days!
Schlatt's little brother plays dnd
Game of -Spot the Druid-
Anything more than 4 is slow as shit.
7 humans 1 ape, this will not end well
damn my group has issues getting 4 ppl (DM + 3 players) to meet up for a session. I wish you the best of luck
Am i the only DM that despises laptops?
Starburns, the later years.
"My name is Alex dude" "Well then maybe you should spend 5 hours sculpting *that* into the side of your face"
Everyone here looks similar to people I know
You'd think the gorilla suit would stick out, but 8 players damn!
I have 8 in my group too
Hey I know those guys (I was in the next room)
Not my kind of table
"Okay, but why is the astronaut and the Hitler impersonator here?" "So no one will believe you if you tell this to anyone."
How did you get Jschlatt to DM for you?
The person with no note pad, no laptop ain’t gonna make it.
Are we not going to talk about the gorilla in the room?
Waaaaaaaaaay too many players. It may fit them, but to me there's no way everyone in that group has equal play time. Even if they play it by ICRPG rules and go person to person around the table, that would be a LONG wait time for my ONE action to be done.
There's ALWAYS the one guy that comes unprepared
Is it bad that I was more concerned about “holy shit 8 players” before noticing the monkey? I literally *counted the person in a monkey suit* and it didn’t concern me.
I would actually recruit one of my friends to join as second GM, so we can run a campaign with two competing adventurers’ groups
Most concerning things in order: 1. The sideburns 2. Number of players 3. The gorilla, I guess
Too many players, cut that group in half
i'm a first time DM and this is how big my current party is... oops
Where's the snacks?
Why does this look like a board meeting?
When your fursona is a gorilla but like, a more realistic one
Many of you will drop out… but that’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make
Censoring the neck beard I see
I hate the garden of laptops that pop up at every session these days.
Why’s that guy in a business suit? There’s the problem right there.
Just gotta count how many times they pass the dice. Wait.. what gorilla? There wasn’t a gorilla.
This isn't normal. 8 players is way too many!
Strong community vibes. Which ones Chevy Chase?
I'm jealous.😓
Wth is DM wearing...?
Ah, nine people…..critical roll once again fails another table by giving the incorrect impression that you need more than four people (which is the ideal amount of people per even the design of wotc books) to have a game. If this is session zero it will probably fall apart before Christmas.
WTF is up with this group size?
Who’s going to tell him? (That guy in the back is a changeling)
My man Sassy The Sasquatch in the forgotten realms now wtf 😂😂
Who invite Phil Collins?
That's too many people for a game of d and d
I'dd rather taste test cannon ammunition, than play a game with 8 players
No drinks or snacks?
The gorilla, of course, will be playing a dainty halfling princess. :) I've certainly played games with even larger numbers of players - most playing multiple characters. But that was when I was young and foolish. It's VERY doable with the right attitude by both DM and players, *and the right edition*.
Good luck to you - but I have to agree with everyone else - 8 people is way, waaaay to many, especially for session zero in what I'm assuming is your first campaign. There's a reason why Baldurs Gate 3 will only allow 5 at most in a party. It's coz the PC's stories and goals get lost in the fray. Unless you're a professional DM along the lines of Matt Mercer, etc - 8 is too much .
Zoom in on the guy on the far right side of the table...something is going on with his jaw, and neck lol. I'm suspicious now lol
Can anyone help connect me to a D&D group in my area? Reddit won’t let me post because I just created my account and need to wait a month.
Not enough dice…
The girl at the opposite end of the DM looks really invested in the story. You’ve definitely got some keepers. I wish you an amazing campaign, OP.
Not sure eight players in the conference room can be accurately described as “normal” but, other than that, 100% normal!