A DM with 10 Players... How to Have This Work


Advice

Dark Archive

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Yes I admit it is my own fault for allow the number of players to grow this large, but I have this now and I would rather not cut players from the campaign because they have taken the time to make their character bios and fill out a character sheet.

Why question, how to have this work? I have already considered spitting the group into two parties of five characters. I have brought up a player being in charge of initiative rolls, party equipment and wealth, or party leaders that work more OOC help see everything runs smoothly.

I am open to whatever suggestion or advice you can offer, especially
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The characters are as follows:
Cleric
Dragonic Rageshaper
Druid
Wild Experimenter
Oathbound Paladin of Honesty

Spoiler:
Oath of Honesty: Paladins under the Oath of Honesty are sworn not to lie, and are often seen as the most trustworthy members of the community. Paladins who take this Oath must never lie, including bluffing, attempting to deceive, stating half truths, and so on. In exchange, the Paladin receives half her paladin level (rounded down, minimum 1) as a bonus to all Diplomacy and Sense Motive checks.

Velocity Master
Magus
Archaeologist
Gold-Robed Wizard
Spoiler:
Most who strive to protect the world and its peoples from the forces of evil turn to shining steel and the magic of the gods. There is another kind of holy champion, however, who harnesses the power of the arcane to defend the innocent. These mages in their golden robes become masters at smiting the wicked with eldritch force, conjuring holy beings to do battle against their foes, and banishing fiends back to their vile pits.
The gold-robed wizard is an archetype of the wizard class.
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Alignment and Code of Conduct
A gold-robed wizard must be of lawful good alignment and follows a code of conduct identical to the paladin's. A gold-robed wizard who ceases to be lawful good, who willfully commits an evil act, or who violates the code of conduct loses all wizard spells and class features (except weapon, armor, and shield proficiencies). She may not progress any further in levels as a wizard. She regains her abilities and advancement potential if she atones for her violations (see atonement), as appropriate.
Arcane Smite Evil (Su)
Once per day, a gold-robed wizard can call out to the powers of good to aid her in her struggle against evil. As a swift action, the wizard chooses one target within sight to smite. If this target is evil, the wizard adds her Charisma bonus (if any) to her caster level checks to overcome her target's spell resistance and adds her wizard level to all spell damage rolls made against the target of her smite. If the target of arcane smite evil is an outsider with the evil subtype, an evil-aligned dragon, or an undead creature, the bonus to damage on the first successful spell increases to 2 points of damage per level the wizard possesses. Regardless of the target, arcane smite evil spells automatically bypass any energy resistance (but not immunity) the creature might possess.
In addition, while arcane smite evil is in effect, the wizard gains a deflection bonus equal to her Charisma modifier (if any) to her AC against attacks made by the target of the smite. If the wizard targets a creature that is not evil, the smite is wasted with no effect.
The arcane smite evil effect remains until the target of the smite is dead or the next time the wizard rests and regains her uses of this ability. At 7th level, and at every six levels thereafter, the wizard may use arcane smite evil one additional time per day, to a maximum of four times per day at 19th level.
This ability replaces arcane school.
Empyreal Magic
All spells from the cleric spell list with the [good] descriptor are considered to be on the gold-robed wizard's spell list at one level higher than the level they appear on the cleric list. The gold-robed wizard may learn these spells as she advances in level and may write them into her spellbook as if they were wizard spells.
This ability replaces arcane bond.
Celestial Summons
At 5th level, whenever the gold-robed wizard uses a summon monster spell to summon one or more celestial animals or good-aligned outsiders, she may cast the spell as a standard action.
This ability replaces the bonus feat gained at 5th level.
Improved Banishment
At 10th level, whenever the gold-robed wizard casts the dismissal or banishment spell targeting an outsider with the evil subtype, the save DC increases by 2.
This ability replaces the bonus feat gained at 10th level.

The tenth player is a recent player who showed interest, I actually considered the two parties idea because of them asking if they could join since it would allow for a 5/5 split.

Scarab Sages

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Run it as two tables at different days/times. It is simply not fun for either the players the DM to have a table that big. Gimmicks aren't going to change that.

Dark Archive

The problem is that the roleplay is online, the plan being that it will be forum based play by post.


The other thing is how much have you played? No sessions together yet? Because in my experience I've had lots of people show up day one to make characters, a few less for the first day of play, and like half after a few sessions. So if you're not sure that they will all be solid you might split and then end up with 2 small parties.

Dark Archive

I have been working on starting this for a couple of weeks or so, helping players put together their character sheets on Skype. They all do what to play, with maybe one or two not able to start right away because of real life issues though the plan is for them to join later.

Scarab Sages

JonathonWilder wrote:
The problem is that the roleplay is online, the plan being that it will be forum based play by post.

That makes it even more important to split. That many people? It'll take a week for a single round of combat. And with that many, it's practically just an open forum in that there will be little sense of who anyone else is, and little sense of there being a cohesive party, just a mob of people that post in the same place.

Dark Archive

We will be having play order for posting, though initiative rolls will change up who goes first during combat.

Dark Archive

Also, the campaign will not be focused on combat, but exploration and completing missions or challenges by non-violent ways. So battles wont be happening as often as it might in other campaigns.


The larger the group the harder it is to achieve consensus.
The larger the group the longer the potential delay between turns.
The larger the group the greater the action economy of the party as a whole.
The larger the party the greater the likelihood of posts being missed, or delayed and the harder it is to have a speedy event.
The larger the group the harder it is for every player to track relations with every other player, and the harder it is for each player to set up combos with other players (initiatives and delayed actions can become quite complicated).

Sovereign Court

That's going to be a lot of work...frankly I would recommend to take advantage of having such a huge number of players to make multiple objectives and goals that can be done at the same time.

Like they are fighting a dungeon, there are two paths both leading to a guardian where 5 players in each room must activate switch or levers etc...

then have them meet up for the final obstacle /boss of the dungeon.

While it is very cool, the only problem of doing two different stuffs at the time, it's twice the work.

Dark Archive

Which is why I decided to divide the players into two parties, as this would at least make things easier for them. That way players only need to keep track of the interactions between their character and four others.

The one with the most work is me, I will be the one needing to keep track of the most and as long as I keep the two parties apart and have them each being going on their own adventures I think this might work... though the campaign with both be within the same setting.

Grand Lodge

Tell them you bite off more then you could chew, would any of them be willing to Co DM (this also sets them up to later split the over large group into 2 smaller, easier to manage groups).

Additionally, if the group does shrink to where 2 GMs are not needed, it gives you a chance to play as well.

Dark Archive

@Eltacolibre
That is an interesting idea that I could use, which could allow for me to have the two parties interact and share an adventure at times.

Dark Archive

@Dafydd
Actually I was considering asking if the 'party leader' players decided on would be willing to be Co-DMs of sorts.

Grand Lodge

Learn to tell people your full. Any group over 6 makes it too easy and hard to accomplish much because so many people want turns. Many will feel left out.

Play 2 groups of 5 and combine them once you have 6 total. Many online players do not honor thier commitments and leave for a large number of reasons.


In my experience, you're bound to have a few people drop out and/or rarely show up right from the start, so maybe the problem will solve itself.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Split it into two parties, and then when half the people inevitably drop out, combine the remaining people into a single group.

Dark Archive

One of my players has offered to DM the second party, though it would leave a small imbalance. One team would have 4 character while the other team has 5.

One team will have both the druid and the wizard, as both players want me as their DM.


I currently co-DM a game with 8 players. We just finished our second year and currently on break (picking the campaign up again in a couple months). It's been very enjoyable.

The biggest thing is not bearing the creative burden alone. Having another person who is supposed to know all the things you know to bounce ideas off of and share things with is very nice.

We tend to not really split the party, but the few times we have it's been handy. Also when in cities and the party goes a dozen different directions we get things done twice as fast, which is nice.

Dark Archive

The player who has taken on having half the players, the second party, was already my co-DM for all intents and purposes.

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