Well, I'm gearing up to run the Savage Tide, and let me tell you, finding interested players has not been a problem! That's a good thing and all, but...
It looks like I might wind up with as many as 7 players. Will a group of this size find the adventure(s) too easy? Will I have to do a lot of work to scale the encounters up? I'm assuming the AP is written for the D&D 3.x standard 4 PCs, although I could be wrong about that.
Any advice from James or any of you other people in the know? Thanks!
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This is a guess.
My guess would be that it would balance out since the XP for encounters is divided up between more characters and the treasure is geared towards a party of 4 (if the path is written that way). At some point I would think you may to run a side-trek to increase the wealth of some of the pc's and get it more in line to where they should be.
This is only a guess. If this had been actual knowledge the previous statements would be facts followed by instructions. This is only a guess.
FH (I guess)
isnt 7 vs 4 just a question of +2cr iirc?
Boost the encounters and you have equivalence again.
isnt 7 vs 4 just a question of +2cr iirc?
Boost the encounters and you have equivalence again.
Yes and no. The easiest way is to increase the numbers in the encounters, but I'm running into an issue with my over-sized party in AoW, space. Some of these small rooms in EBK and HoHR make it hard to see how all the monsters and PCs can fit into the room without making every fight a battle at the doorway. And ship-board combat could become very cramped.
I have run into simillar troubles running my group of 7-8 PCs through AoW. They tend to steam-roll the smaller encounters without a problem, and when I pump up the cool baddies, I risk making them too powerful or giving them abilities that the party just can't handle. Eight 2nd level players is definately not the same as four 4th levelers; one swipe of an owlbear's claw can kill the lower level fighter.
A little modification is nessisary for that kind of thing, and generally speaking instead of advancing one bad guy two or three levels, I try to increase the number of opponents or just add some extra hp/AC for staying power and let the villian have some time in the spotlight. Still haven't mastered the art yet, though. It's tricky... but worth it. I love my big gaming group, and the wide variety of play styles and character types gives me enough inspiration to toil at the DM's chair for as long as it takes to get it right.
yeah, more encounters early.. but post- say, 8th level a toughening up should work, since 8 lvl10 certainly are atleast as tough as 4 level 12. Probly more so..
hmm..
more encounters until you hit 3rd, then +1.. and when they hit 5th level it should be safe to have the full +2. And as demonstrated above at 10th and above the group of 8 are something of an overkill ;)
What about running the adventure twice with a 4 person party and a 3 person party ? Granted, time tends to always be a factor, but in this day and age of D & D 3.5 it seems like every adventure is generally geared towards the standard 4 person party. A group of 7 seems like a lot to me.
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I dm'ed for a while with a gimormous group once. I'd have 6-8 people at the table. It's daunting, and there's inevitably going to be real-world attendance problems with that many people, even if everyone's in college w/out family young'un issues. But it's a trip. If you've never done it, it's something you need to experience.
The main problem seemed to be adjusting up/down/back up/back down because you never know who's gonna not be there that day... Everybody has to just take it free and easy. Rules lawyers have to be willing to relax and let a dungeonmaster foible now and then.
And if you have one or two guys who you have gamed with a while, and a bunch of people you're not used to and aren't used to you, you have to be really sensitive to that and aware of your natural tendancy to want to make your 'veterans' the star of the show all the time.
And be ready for crap to jack up, because it can be a logistical nightmare, but it's something to be experienced.
A couple of answers here from me. Not sure if they are right or not but yeah ideas none the less.
When I started Shackled City, I assumed it was set for four characters and increased some loot based on this. Divided by four and multiplied by six etc etc. However I was advised later on that it was in fact written for a six person party. Ive never seen any official numbers on this, but it sure seemed right as far as advancement is concerned with xp / 6. If that was the case maybe STAP is actually written for more than four? I dont have any of the guff yet as NZ takes months to get any information :(.
As far as room concerns, I can definately relate to that. In the weekend my large party went into the Kopru ruins in SCAP and I was delighted it was 10' spacing for the most. However even then I found most room fighting was cramped. This was to the parties detriment more often than the enemies as they caught a few AOE's in bottle necks. But in saying that it also does not give the enemy much chance to move as well, and they can equally get caught in said bottle necks.
Perhaps it might give party members additional options that they dont normally think of. A few might choose to use reach weapons for a change and attack from the middle ranks over the door blockers. Or on the flip side some may choose to be small and take the feat (I forget the name) that lets a couple of small characters pile into the same square. Imagine 3 halfling monks tumbling into that one orcs square. However these options do rely on the players of course and we can never steer them into a decision that they dont want.
Good luck with it whatever happens =)