Non-army mass combat help

[jedi8187]

I'm working on a new campaign and I want the first event to be a massive battle royale with 30 something competitors all vying to be among the top 16. My largest problem is running that many characters when I'll only have 4-6 players. One thought was having the players control some npcs their main character is fighting in addition to their normal character. The other problem is slowing things down for npcs to fight each other, which many may not care about. Having the players play some of the npc's may alleviate this somewhat.

Anyone done something like this before? Any tips to help come out as awesome.

[Anonymous Visitor 163 576]

I did this, worked great

http://arsludi.lamemage.com/index.php/75/d20-hit-point-piles/

[Edward the Necromancer]

Easy answer, you don't

You only need to actually control the NPCs that are directly fighting the Players. Anyone else is simply wall paper, scenery, background music. Just describe to the players how there is a large fight going on around them. When the Players take out a few enemies, describe how there are less people around them as NPCs win/loose their fights. Move in a few more NPCs to fight the players, as they win describe how there are less and less people fighting around the players until they are the last ones standing.

Granted you probably SHOULD weaken the NPCs that attack the players in later waves. Take away some HP, per day abilities, spells, consumables, etc.