biggest group you've ever DM'd

[big teej]

just what it says on the tin.


what's the biggest group you've DM'd, and how did it go?

my current group has 8 players, and a 9th is interested

[Drinzor]

I try to stay with mostly 4-5 players. but I once had a group of 6 people, that was to much, dont know how you can stand 8

[Krazzman]

5! And it went pretty well...until one player had to go out of town for over a friggin year, and 2 of the others being pricks :/

[TheGreatJabu]

8, and it was pretty inefficient. Basically it always boiled down to there being 3 or 4 players who were "into it" and the other 4 were just there to hang out and occasionally roll a d20 when prompted. That, and if you give each player all the time they want to decide what their action is going to be for the round (since 50% of them have to be reminded what is going on, who each model on the map represents, and whether or not their feats/abilities/spells apply in that EXACT situation or not), it takes an easy 45 minutes for a SINGLE ROUND OF COMBAT to conclude. :smallmad:

[Niceman]

Technically it was GMing and not DMing as it wasn't D&D, but for me in a Champions campaign (superheroes) it was a staggerring 17 people! People just really enjoyed the game and those wanting to get in on it and play kind of snowballed on me :P It went like that for several sessions but of course that's way too much so I broke up the party... made two groups of 8 or 9 each and ran them on different days. Whew!

[Strangedays]

10 players.

Not that's not to say they were all there at once. The group was large as many people couldn't show up all the time. The max number of players that were there was 8. It was hell. I'll never do that again.

Although I did have the idea of running two games at the same time where the parties were working against each other, but not telling them that they were opposed.

EDIT: If you want to include LARPing, then 20.

[Drinzor]

lol if we include LARPing then its over 500 people

[BlueInc]

Seven, and ditto on the "only half the people are paying attention so everything takes forever."

Currently I have 3 players, and I'm in a campaign with 3 players, both of which have an NPC that works closely with the party. Works out much better in my opinion.

[Trinoya]

Nine people. It ended with the PCs thankfully not dying even though one essentially went out of her way to sabotage the whole lot of 'em (her last session, she will never will be welcomed back for that).


Average session size for me used to be around 6, I've downsized to four.

[Drakonzeta]

Sad as it sounds, 3. And we had to track one guy down on a regular basis. Not very many people play D&D that I know. On average, one.

[Kol Korran]

largest group? it was my first group really. i was in 3rd or 4th grade when me and myfriends discovered D&D (1st edition) and we got hooked! so we told others, and many wanted to join... so suddenly i find myself, abrand new Dm that haven't even fully read the DM's guide yet (what are those strange "statistics blocks") with 17 other kids around me, some don't know the game, some not even sure why they are here, some i don't even know.

i tried to keep that group for 3 sessions, but people quickly left till i was left with 7 players, who formed my initial group.

through out the years i participated and/ or DMed quite a few groups. i like 4-5 players the best, but more are acceptable, if they are ood players and contribute to the experience.

[bimple_rouge]

I once was DM for 16 people.
normaly I wouldn't undertake such a task, but they realy wanted to play so I was DM. the way I went about this was put them in rival groups of 8. This was a military campain and was suprisingly sucsesful.

[Amphetryon]

Where I DM, I have to let anyone join on any given week. We've had 18 one week, 21 another, and 3 on yet another week. No, I don't have an assistant DM.:smallannoyed:

[Gorfang113]

I have 8 players, but on an average session only about 4 will show. Its never the same 4 either, which makes telling the story annoying as they never know whats going on. And one of those 8 hasent showed up in a couple months or talked to us much (to be honest good riddance, by the end of his run I was really starting to hate him. And having a DM who hates you is not good for your PC's welfare :smallbiggrin:).

[Optimator]

The biggest group I've DMed for was 7. My current campaign, actually. It's okay. Kinda slow combats, but it's 5 full casters.

[Tvtyrant]

One "meta-group" I was in had like 13 people that were all in an adventuring guild together, so we could shuffle our schedules as needed. 3 DMs and groups between 4-5. The focus was on short adventures like "defeat the marauders" or "find the diamond of Kentath." Worked pretty well actually.

[Delcor]

At Gen Con we were forced into a group of 16. Except they were testing the the new 4e Blackmoor which bombed. :smallannoyed: Combat was pointless, it was a horrible experience.

[Titanium Fox]

14, single party, no assistant DM.

[some guy]

i like 4-5 players the best, but more are acceptable, if they are ood players and contribute to the experience.

Honestly? I never allow ood players in my group, let alone more than 5. You may call me specieist, but I get really unnerved when I DM for the ood. Always making sure I don't make any mind flayer jokes or whatever.
I just can't imagine me DM'ing for a haggle of these... things.
http://www.thedoctorwhosite.co.uk/pictures/doctorwho/s4ep3/37.jpg
I can't even think of them as alive, you know?
:smalltongue:

But yeah, 4-5 players is my favourite number of players as well. I once ran a game for 8 people, 7 of them new to the game. It was a disaster. A fun and entertaining disaster.

[Daedroth]

15 players, in web, but they aren't in the same adventuring party.

[molten_dragon]

In college we had 10 players in our group. Most of the time they weren't all there, but there were a couple of times that I ended up DM'ing for the entire group of 10. It tended to not work all that well. Combat took forever, and people got bored waiting for their turn to come around, so there was a lot of random stuff going on besides playing D&D. It was a lot better when our group went down to 6, then 5.

[Parra]

The group I game with currently & DM is 7 players strong

While I have spent most of my gaming life with the same core group of people there have been a few additions, at its height the group was 16 players and managed to survive for about 4 months before dropping back down to 11 (which then lasted for about 3 more years).

Im so used to DMing for large groups that I actually feel unclean if I have 4 players or less.

[Andorax]

13 in total (myself included). Typically, at least co-DMs, or a DM and 1-2 assistants.

'course, that was 15 years ago when we were playing 2/2.5E and could go until 2-3AM.

"Story" DM putting huge amount of focus on keeping things interesting and telling a good tale kept attention at the table. "Numbers" DM was the initiative nazi and kept things moving so that nothing ever stalled. Worked like a charm, despite the massive group.

[Doug Lampert]

Technically it was GMing and not DMing as it wasn't D&D, but for me in a Champions campaign (superheroes) it was a staggerring 17 people! People just really enjoyed the game and those wanting to get in on it and play kind of snowballed on me :P It went like that for several sessions but of course that's way too much so I broke up the party... made two groups of 8 or 9 each and ran them on different days. Whew!

I've run 17 in Ars Magica, that was a long running campaign with alternating GMs (so 18 players total). It works because the emphasis was NOT on combat. There was rarely a session over two years with fewer than 14 or so people. There was also a Runequest campaign going on with largely the same group but I didn't try to GM that, and wouldn't, I have no idea how Eric made it work.

I've run comedy games (Macho Women with Guns and Tunnels and Trolls and the like) for up to 12 or more and that works and is technically roleplaying.

The largest group I've ever run on combat heavy games that weren't basically a joke was 8 I think, and that didn't work well. The 7 in my current game is really too many for D&D but works for a social group (and the players keep picking up stray NPC allies to make it even more unwieldy).

DougL

[TurkeyBlizzard]

I have 8 players, but on an average session only about 4 will show. Its never the same 4 either, which makes telling the story annoying as they never know whats going on. And one of those 8 hasent showed up in a couple months or talked to us much (to be honest good riddance, by the end of his run I was really starting to hate him. And having a DM who hates you is not good for your PC's welfare :smallbiggrin:).

This. The groups I have been in and DMed vary between 4-9 players, but any given day there will be 2-4 missing. One even goes as far as to insist he'll be there, but he'll be late, and then when the time he's supposed to arrive rolls around, we'll give him a call and he will say he's not coming after all. It happens so often that we use his name as a phrase. "I'm going to be late, no.. not Mike-late, just normal late."

Also, forgive my ignorance, what is ood?

[Calimehter]

I've only personally ever DM'ed 6 people. It was an epic session, though - it was a campaign finale that lasted 13 hours if you include a couple of ~45 minute food breaks.