4-Player Campaign for 6 Players?


Advice


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

So , Im looking to GM a run of Skulls and Shackles (cause who doesn't love pirates?) and couldn't help but notice that it says for 4 people and a medium run. Well, the group I play with has 7 people (total, so 6 players) and I was wondering what it takes to make a run compatible. Do I make it an easy level up? Do I not make the xp divide? Or just let things run it's course, then adjust the encounters accordingly? My first time GMing, not sure what I'm doing, and don't want to mess up the campaign. So what do I do to make it work for 6 people? Any other advice is more than welcome.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

You divide the xp as you would with a 4 person group. You just divide by 7. This will mean that they'll level slower, but they will have larger numbers to compensate.

An AP is a rather large thing for a first time GM. I'd seriously suggest that you cut your teeth on something smaller like a couple of modules (The Crypt of the Everflame trilogy is a good one) or the mini-AP, Dragon's Demand.


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

Well, by 6. like i said, 6 players and me. I thought that might be the answer, but wasn't sure cause it gave level recommendations for the groups to be at. Numbers make up for it, got it.

The one thing I really like about this AP though is that it is, for the most part, all on the one boat. Crypt of Everflame-sounds interesting, might check it out. But S&S is fairly self-contained for the first chapter, thus why I'd considered it for my first go.

Sovereign Court

You could look into just using the advancement track. It would allow you to forgo experience points completely. Its what I do and I have 5 players. I tend to max out enemy HP and at about level 8 I start to slow down the leveling and keep the party about a level behind the advancement track.


Having 6 players instead of 4 increases the average party level by one, so CR wise you can just slap the advanced template on everything and call it a day.

I dont know that adventure path specifically.


I think that you might want to read the GM's Guide to Creating Challenging Encounters post. (It's a couple of posts down) It will give you an idea of how to go about adjusting the difficulty level of various encounters to ensure that your PCs don't just blow through them. He has a really well thought out guide and makes the math behind encounter design easy to understand and scale appropriately.

That said if your Player are all new to pathfinder and you are first time DM you might just want to sick to the book.

Silver Crusade

or, do like I do, the party steam rolling encounters? add your personally made NPCs, and or just extra mooks beefed up.

Dark Archive

I've found it evens out; the party is going to end up with less treasure / person, and will start to be a little lower level than the module otherwise suggests. Just let it self-balance; I've run APs with more than 4 and it works fine.


2ndGenerationCleric wrote:
So , Im looking to GM a run of Skulls and Shackles (cause who doesn't love pirates?) and couldn't help but notice that it says for 4 people and a medium run. Well, the group I play with has 7 people (total, so 6 players) and I was wondering what it takes to make a run compatible. Do I make it an easy level up? Do I not make the xp divide? Or just let things run it's course, then adjust the encounters accordingly? My first time GMing, not sure what I'm doing, and don't want to mess up the campaign. So what do I do to make it work for 6 people? Any other advice is more than welcome.

I find it best to just add 50% to the numbers of any encounter. XP is the same, loot tends to be a little light, but with more PCs there are more odds of a Crafter in there, so it tends to even out.


What I have found in running APs and playing in APs is that if all things remain the same, and the party number increases, then:
Action economy favors the party.
Leveling slows down.
Wealth distribution makes for thinner individuals.

All said, the risk increases to the party as the story progresses, I've found. More people that are lower than expected in level and item strength means less hits, fewer saves, more damage taken, less ability to heal, less access to higher level spells, etc. etc.
Conversely, if the larger party stays current with the APs expected level, then as written, the party will face-roll the encounters, due to action economy.

My solution includes increasing encounter numbers and adding in or beefing up "elite" enemies with gear the party can make use of. This has the benefits of providing that XP the party needs to advance, balances the action economy, and the gear keeps individuals on par with enemy strength. Mind you, this makes the whole AP a lot more work for the DM, for adding to encounters and keeping things challenging without TPKing the players. If you are a first time DM, I feel for you, but it's a great challenge to bend an existing work to your will, and make a fun game for all!

Community / Forums / Pathfinder / Pathfinder First Edition / Advice / 4-Player Campaign for 6 Players? All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.