I'm an experienced GM well-versed in Play-by-Post, but I've got a question for the collective.
I've volunteered to GM a campaign of "The Strange" for a group of eight friends using Play-by-Post. I'm wondering whether everyone's enjoyment (including mine) will be greater if I let all 8 PC's be part of the same group or if I divide them into two groups of four PC's whose stories infrequently intersect?
On the one hand, I didn't volunteer to run two games and dividing the group means more work for me in that sense. It also means that the players in one game won't be able to have as much fun with the players in the other. On the other hand, four Player Characters is a good size for an adventuring party.
The downsides to eight players in a single game are many also: Not only is every party niche covered so the group is never scrambling to accomplish anything, but some PC's may struggle to find a role that's theirs. It's also harder on the GM who must manage larger groups of enemies and for whom a single boss villian is almost never going to be feasible.
The upside, of course, is that I have -eight- people who want to play this game with me!
Which do you think is the better solution?
I think dividing it might be more fun. When you have eight people, it's really hard to get your personality and role-playing through. Also, everyone tends to be lower level to compensate, which can be annoying for some people. I think it you could do a bit of both however. Maybe they all work in the same place, and for the same organization. They may be sent in missions in groups of four, and maybe even two or six depending on the quest, and all the different side missions. For a huge epic boss battle you may need to different groups, one to fight some of the goons, and another to take on the boss. (Maybe even one person doing mass combat). You can shift it about and the CR all you want, and constantly shifting it all will definitely make it memorable.
Can you expand on that, Hmm? What do you do to keep from tripping over each other? How does your GM keep challenges interesting?
I'm in the same eight-player game as Hmm. As far as combat challenges go I don't think our GM is really worried about beefing up the combat challenges right now since we're all just 2nd level and still on the first book (Mummy's Mask). Honestly even with 8 PCs we've still had a few hairy combats thanks to Will saves and stuff like swarms and things with DR. As to later combat encounters and such, we'll have to see when we get there.
As far as party roles it's kind of impossible to not have some overlap with so many but on the other hand we've pretty much got at least one or two people that can cover something so it helps if someone gets incapacitated in combat.
One thing our GM has done is put a lot of emphasis on RP - between the PCs and between the PCs and other NPCs/adventuring groups. Everyone from the socialite sorcerer to the curt fighter has people to interact with and little side stories and such happening. Of course it helps a lot that everyone is good about posting (or letting the group know when they'll be busy) and that everyone is comfortable with a lot of RP.