I am interested in how big most peoples gaming groups are, I have been a GM and have been running the same campaign since about 1980. Group size has fuctuated but there is a waiting list to play as my gamers years ago decided on 7 or less; interestingly, I have 7 seats in my gaming room other than mine but I find I cannot keep track of more gamers than about 7 and still keep everyones plots; subplots; counterplots active and I dislike having one or more of my gamers sit for a long period waiting for someone to finish a private moments. My gamers are constantly trying to get side roll play sessions to follow their plots away from other players, but I discourage that sort of thing as it makes controlling game time difficult. In larger games of like 10 I find in most groups that people break into 3's or 4s and sometimes play side games (cards and such) waiting to play. I find small groups of like 3 to be a lot of fun but the lack of skills and abilities hinders a bit. What do you guys think?
I'm more or less in the same situation as you. I have 6 other players and a number of people that would like to game with me if a chair comes open. My rule is that 6 is desirable and 8 is the absolute cap - after 6 though you can only bring in new people if they are really important like your Fiance is keen to game or some such - in other words I don't want you adding more players but if you really need to bring this person in I'll allow that up to 8 people - but then I hope attrition eventually brings me back down to 6.
The core of our group has been gaming together for over 15 years...four of us. Three others have been with the group for over 5 years. Never gamed with more than 8 players or less than four players.
As ever,
ACE
Director of Game Development
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4-6 seems to have been the usual number over all these years. We had gotten up to 8 at one time and then the usual things happened and we were back down to the average. Often we will have 3 person sessions after the main game or on Monday nights. These sessions are more playtesting and experimentation rather than a full-on role-playing campaign.
I think our largest game had 7 players once, however that did not work *AT* all due to a lack of room in our home and problems withen the groups (i.e. so and so was the DM's friend, but hated so-so, and therefore they fought in charater because of out of charater things).
The longest running game that currently runs online due the the DM moving out of state is five players, that seems to run pretty well.
However my personal favorite was running a two player game, WhiteToyMaker as the DM, Thanis' charater as my charaters dad and me.
My current group is 3 players plus the DM. I think the group is wanting one more player, however there are *so* many of our friends that want to join us, and so many different schedules... Eh. Long answer for a short question.
I have gamed with groups of all sizes over the years from solo games up to groups of 13. I ran a Live Vampire game that at one point had over 30 active players, for that i needed three or four assitant GM's. For D&D I have found that 5-7 is the best size of group that I can handle as GM and would want to play in as a player. For other games the size various, Vampire for example works best with four or less players.
At the moment the group I play with is 5 plus GM but one player only physically attends every other week, on the off weeks he phones in (we would love to set up a web cam but on internet in the game room).
My group is made up of a total of 5, sometimes 6. That includes the DM. We currently have 6 different parties in 5 different settings. Each person has there own world that they DM. One is a homebrew world, www.tacey.xohost.com. That one has two different parties running in it. We take turns as DM in that one. There is also a DarkSun campaign, another homebrew world, a D20 modern campaign, and a D20 future campaign. And to complicate things even more, we each have 2 or 3 characters in each setting.
There are currently 3 players in my D&D campaign; they are able to cover their bases due to my NPC rogue. 4-6 is optimal though I have played with as many as eight, but only for single nights in order snag new players. My bare minimum is 2 other players; generally in this case I have each of them run 2 characters each. I have a good friend who ran a 'D&D' game with his 1 childhood friend that enjoyed doing so before I met him. Though neither had ever set eyes upon so much as a PHB (homebrew rules), it amazes me to this day how they were able to manage the game with only the two of them.
TS
When I first started playing, it was in a group of five players, and as far as mechanics went, the number of players was fine. We had other difficulties, but that stemmed from the type of players involved, rather than the quantity. I've DMed with anywhere from two to five, though the typical number has been two, due to scheduling issues.
Five outside me. I have found out I can't really handle more.. Now already there are players that are more silent if only they weren't in such a big group. I don't mind some side roleplay.. but it's hard to follow everything going on if I play with more then five pc's.. With fewer players characters tend to deepen out more. With some of my players at least..
I guess it depends on the players and characters they play.
My current group is 7 players plus me as DM. This has fluctuated over the course of the campaign to be as few as 4 players and as many as 9. The size of the group is a good one for role playing as it allows the quiet players to sit back and let the more boistorous (sp?) players interact.
I have played in, and run games with as few as two players and that can be fun as well. (Note: Never run Dragon Mountain with fewer than four PC's -Shudder-)
-Rath
I game in two groups my local group has 4 seats other than mine while my away group has 5 other than mine i find this number to comfortable and fun but any more than 6 seems to be overpowered and diffcult for me to keep in line
We have three players and a DM. We are trying to find a fourth player so that we can still play when one cant make it. I played in a game with twelve players once at a game store, right when third edition rules came out, and it was terrible.
I agree that the ideal number is five or six total.
Tsulis
A few years ago, we had about eight people consistently in the game. That was before the "diaspora" of the gaming group. Anyway. Now we are lucky to have three players.
rooster
My gaming group fluctuates from 5-6 players. My SCAP group started with five players and is now down to two. I think any more than six players and you start having problems with boredom and lack of attention.
When I first started playing, it was in a group of five players, and as far as mechanics went, the number of players was fine. We had other difficulties, but that stemmed from the type of players involved, rather than the quantity. I've DMed with anywhere from two to five, though the typical number has been two, due to scheduling issues.
hmm two seems like survivablility would be problematic; do you supplement players with npc's or allow players to run more than one character? just curious as I have tried both with mixed results.
At present my gaming group has 5 members, 4 of which have been playing together for about 10 years and 1 who just started his first session ever. We all take turns DMing which adds to the flavour as we all have different styles. Alot of the time at least 2 of us play 2 characters which fills in nicely what we would be missing in a standard 4 player game. Currently we are on the last leg of a 3 year campaign and all sit at about 17th-19th level. For our next game there are 2 new people that will be joining us and we will all be playing 2 characters bring us to a total of 14 characters (never tried that many before). I also find that if we miss a session at the next one we spend about an hour and a half chating and joking around before we get down to it. I guess that part of what makes this game so much fun.
hmm two seems like survivablility would be problematic; do you supplement players with npc's or allow players to run more than one character? just curious as I have tried both with mixed results.
I did generally toss in an NPC to help facilitate things. Very, very young tulani who hung out with them because they saved her from a bunch of drow. When the PCs were level 12-15, Her spell-like ability list consisted mostly of Cure Moderate Wounds and Shocking Grasp. :D She stayed up all night keeping watch and doodled on the walls with her finger. Her healing abilities were generally enough to keep the Paladin from running himself into the ground with Divine Sacrifice. (Back before the Spell Compendium came out and limited it to 10 HP per round) I made it a point to take the NPCs away from time to time to see what happened, though. Like the time that the Bard-Cleric had to fight a Bebilith all on her own... poison darn near killed her -- initial damage dropped her to four con, or something.
But then, it was a kooky campaign. One of the recurring villains was a Cleric of Iuz who fully intended to kill Iuz when she had stolen enough of his power. Iuz, for his part, kept granting her spells the entire time, even when he sent a Kelvezu to kill her for being captured by the PCs.
Like the time that the Bard-Cleric had to fight a Bebilith all on her own... poison darn near killed her -- initial damage dropped her to four con, or something.
You forgot to mention the being unable to fly part as well... I remember that. That was cruel... but fun.
Two player games can work quite well with care. Having the leadership feat definately helped and building relations with NPC's so get help from time to time was a critical part of the game at times.
I like to play with a group of six players and myself. Currently I DM a Group of eight characters. I put a capbecause the game gets slow with that many characters. Also, my mortal brain gets bogged down with keeping track of eight players plus enemies and allies.
I have been thinking of opening up a couple of new seats to expand the game to total of 10. I am trying ti get my gamers to make spell cards to speed up the game. I already place all NPC stats on cards. constantly gaming for the past three months I feel confident in handleing more PCs. I would also like to try and talk a friend into helping me DM.
Alas, only 3 players and a DM.
My group varies between four and five players and one DM (me). At one point abut ten years ago, I had six players.
I can't even imagine running a ten player game... It would be like having a three-ring circus at my house every other week. No thanks!
Ultradan
I normally run a group of 3-4. I'm trying to get more, setting my cap actually higher than most people here at 12. Samll groups of people don't seem to have the brainpower to handle my puzzles (atleast around here) and have a hard time fighting there way out of a broom closet...ussually because it's really much bigger than they think and full of shadows. Hey, it's not my fault I'm mean to my players, I give them enough oog tips and special items. I just like creating challenges and watching people trying to beat them. No, I don't help them with NPCs, altough I did have to with the last group because 5 lvl 1s went down into an old prison that was being occupied by five Spawns of Kyuss, of which they only faced 2 at a time, and a crazy old man whom had locked himself in a cage. They didn't have much fun dodging warms, and the paladin fell because, just like the rest of that useless class, he was to stubborn to let evil be for a moment to run back and rest. So, in the end, I sent a lvl 20 wizard down there with a Scroll of True Resurection to blow the undead up with fireballs and raise the paladin.
around 10+ years ago or so when i started playing.. it was my friend as the dm and two of us... i think we both played henchmen type characters.. so starting out it was 3.. then two more people were added to add the group up to 5 including the DM..
then i moved to missouri.. i found a new group to play with and depending on which town we were in.. Kennett and Jonesboro
the former was normally around 5-7 (with DM) and in latter it was around 7-20 depending on the game.. i dont think it ever grew more then 6 for D&D games though.
and now im florida.. and i have a small group that meets bi weekly which is a 5 man group (with DM) though i think the group some of the players are part of is larger.
Our group is three players, with another DM running 3 different players in another campaign. Personally, I really enjoy DMing 3-4 players, any more than that and things slow down too much.
My group of two has spiraled out of control, to about 8ish, we could proabably field 20 if the orcs got real uppity but then we're playing Battlesystem. I ran a larp weekly that peaked at about 100 people before we ran into some serious venue issues. of course campaigns have a fairly high mortality rate around here, so there's very much a feeling of "this game may be our last" which I relish.
The group I currently DM has 4 players and a possible 5th coming soon if he can find time to make it.
The group I game with on occasion now because I recently located has ten players but only about 5 show up every game session. Two of us have moved in the last 2 years. Another is away at college and also runs his own game. Two others just find other things they like more than D&D, I can't figure out what!
The most I ever ran a game for was 8 but have found that 4-5 players is ideal for me and allows all involved to really develop their characters more. Sometimes too many players, means to little time for details. I personally like details and have learned this from my DM. I still can't take exhaustive notes during game play but am working on it.