New DM buried under avalanche of players

[Artemis97]

Hello everyone,

As the title suggests, I am a new DM. I decided a few weeks ago to pull together a gaming group here at my school. Invited 4 friends to play, even though some of them were new to the game. I was running the starter module that came with the box, so I figured we can all learn together.

For our first session, only 2 people showed up because of exams and other things. Second week, all 4 of them showed up. We had been playing on the coffeetable of my apartment, but realized we'd need mroe space.

Recently, a bunch of my friends managed to officialize a gaming club on campus. Usually it's all videogames and some MTG but I asked if they could do anything for us tabletop gamers. We were able to reserve a room in the student union to play one night a week.

Last night was the first night we played in the Student Union. Word got around and now I have nearly a dozen players (Thank Pelor for pre-made character sheets), and even more may come next time.

My plan at present is to ask someone to step up and DM a second game to help split things up. However, only 1 or 2 people out of the whole group have any experience playing, and they're all in my original core group of players. I feel somewhat obligated to let them keep playing in the game I have planned out.

Though I feel it's statistically unlikely I won't be able to find someone to DM out of all my friends, I'm worried I won't be able to find someone who will be reliable enough to show up week after week.



TL;DR: New gaming group has suddenly ballooned to almost a dozen players. Help! :smalleek:

How can I best recruit and train a new DM quickly? And if I can't do that, how should I go about managing so many players in a single game?

Oh, also I'm using pre-made adventures/campaigns because with school, I don't have time to invent a story line of my own.

Thanks in advance!

[Kalmageddon]

Tough times... From my experience, more then 4 people are already a problem, I'd suggest a player limit of 6, if the other 6 really want to play then one of them might want to pick up the manuals and become a DM himself.

[Arbane]

12 players is WAY too many for one game. (I know this because a friend of mine once tried it. It didn't work out well.) Would it be possible to run them in shifts? But then whoever DMs would have to run the same adventure 2 or 3 times...

[chaotician375]

Maybe consider splitting up the groups into separate adventuring parties that might work against each other or together some times, like friendly rivals.

I'm in a gaming group with 10 people and were doing that for a Werewolf the Forsaken game with 10 people, 2 packs of four, and one dm each.

Downside coordination can be a pain, and you need 2 dms.

[Aegis013]

Downside coordination can be a pain, and you need 2 dms.

Not if you DM both groups separately, but that's double the work for you.

[Artemis97]

If I ran multiple games myself, I worry the downtime between me dropping by each group would kill interest and really bog the game down. Having two groups working against one another would be interesting, but as I said above, I don't have the time to create that sort of adventure myself. Though I could limit how many people in a party, I cannot limit how many people attend. It's an official college event now, and open to anyone who wants to come play.

This means I need to have a way to incorporate new players and periodically missing players too. I intend to make up a few spare characters, but everyone's going to want their own, of course.

[Coidzor]

How often are you available to meet? If it's biweekly you're set for a rotational schedule. If it's once a week it's a bit more difficult, but not unreasonable for an every-other week game, you just need to work on streamlining things so that you can afford a faster pace for the individual sessions than normal.

[Particle_Man]

There are other games more suited to large numbers of players (I have heard Buffy the Vampire Slayer can work this way, and personally I have run Savage Worlds (under a plot point campaign book called 50 Fathoms) this way.

If you do D&D this way you may need some people to take over some of your duties. Have someone be "caller" that organizes what the players will do, keeps track of initiative, etc. Have someone be "mapper", etc. Delegate as far as you can.

[Icestorm245]

Make DMing sound like the most illustrous, rewarding part of the game. Which it can be. Tell them why only make one character when you can create an entire world to your liking? Eventually someone will give it a try, and if they come to you for help, set them up with something simple. Maybe a kick in the door introduction.

[Artemis97]

We only meet once a week for about 4 hours. I might try to run a game on fridays as well, but that would be with an entirely new set of people who couldn't show up to the monday meetings.

I like the idea of delegating. With so many people talking at once, I couldn't hear initiative rolls last time, so that'd be a good thing to pass to someone else.

We're playing DnD because it's the game I have. I also have the first box for the Dragon Age RPG, but I'm pretty sure I'd have the same issues if I switched to that. I'd be willing to try a new game. It'd be fun for everyone to learn together, but money is an issue, and I doubt I'd be able to request it through the club, either. Because it's a school thing, we have to go through school approved vendors for purchases. Unless Costco has a gaming section I'm unaware of, I'm out of luck there.

[Yora]

There are other games more suited to large numbers of players (I have heard Buffy the Vampire Slayer can work this way, and personally I have run Savage Worlds (under a plot point campaign book called 50 Fathoms) this way.
The only game I would play with 12 people would be RISUS. Which would probably end up as a hilarious shouting match. :smallbiggrin:

But D&D with 12 people can't be done under normal conditions, espically as a new DM. If all those people want to play, one or even two of them have to become DMs as well. Depending on the schedule, the DMs could even also be players in the groups of other people. From what I know, player's don't need to spend a single though on the game when not sitting at the table, so being a DM doesn't prevent you from also being a player.
But yes, groups of 3 or 4 players are preferable, with 6 being the upper limit. It's not just the way D&D works, but the simple fact that group dynamics change dramatically once you reach 7 people and you always end up with two or three people making all the descisions and everyone else sitting by and silently watching. Seems to be hardwired into human brains, happened with every group of people I've been with.

[Lonely Tylenol]

There is nothing I could say to help that wasn't already said in my thread about this same problem (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=228912), which in itself makes it a worthy read.

[Artemis97]

That is incredibly, specifically applicable. Thank you.

And RISUS could be a fund idea in the meantime while I get things sorted out. I had forgotten about that one.

Good News: I think I may have convinced my most experienced player to GM a second game while I keep with the original. He didn't give me a straight answer, though. I shall have to ask him more directly later. Or kill of his character in the next game, ya know, whatever works.

[Coidzor]

We only meet once a week for about 4 hours. I might try to run a game on fridays as well, but that would be with an entirely new set of people who couldn't show up to the monday meetings.

With only 4 hours to devote to games, even without 12 players (and I imagine it'll probably winnow out a bit anyway), you'd need to be taking a lot of steps to get enough gaming in. :smalleek:

Delegation though. THat's good. We always had a party mapper just for that purpose.

[Artemis97]

What does the party mapper do, out of curiousity? I've got premade tiles from the box right now, as well as some extra random tilesets from another box, but I know those won't fit every situation. I will probably be switching to a dry erase grid later on. Does this person help drawing the maps, or are they just keeping a record of where the party's been?

On the upside, I do have one player who's keepign a campaign journal of sorts, so I can always ask him where we left off.

[PlzBreakMyCmpAn]

1 combat and 1 rp/etc DM
10 player max
also see m

[Coidzor]

What does the party mapper do, out of curiousity? I've got premade tiles from the box right now, as well as some extra random tilesets from another box, but I know those won't fit every situation. I will probably be switching to a dry erase grid later on. Does this person help drawing the maps, or are they just keeping a record of where the party's been?

On the upside, I do have one player who's keepign a campaign journal of sorts, so I can always ask him where we left off.

Can do both. Give the rough dimensions of the room and then they'll draw it on the party's map of where they've been, and if you play the encounter start music, then they'll battle-grid it out for ya.

I'd say try to get at least 2 players keeping a log with that many people, just because of how one person might forget a thing or two.

[Artemis97]

1 combat and 1 rp/etc DM
10 player max
also see m

I can't set a limit on how many people come to the event. It's a public event, any student can come.

I don't know what m is supposed to be.


I'll give that a try, Coidzor. Thanks.

[houlio]

Good News: I think I may have convinced my most experienced player to GM a second game while I keep with the original. He didn't give me a straight answer, though. I shall have to ask him more directly later. Or kill of his character in the next game, ya know, whatever works.

Is there any reason why your player can't DM in one game and keep playing in yours? As long as he/she has the time to show up to your game and run another one, I don't see any problem with that.

Also, you could try to use the public event as a place to let people see what DnD/roleplaying is actually all about, and if you can get enough other people to DM, filter them to an open group or something.

Just my two cents.

[Skyrunner]

I suggest cutting off people in the order they came (whether it is 'character made order' or 'attendance order') in danger of seeming aloof or some other bad adjective, and letting the others watch. Eventually, they'll pick up enough (interest or knowledge, insert word as fit) and someone will try to DM.

That's my two copper pieces. :3

[Namfuak]

I can't set a limit on how many people come to the event. It's a public event, any student can come.

I don't know what m is supposed to be.


I'll give that a try, Coidzor. Thanks.

If you are in college, I think most people will understand if you say "Every extra person who plays in one game will mean combat will last exponentially longer, and everyone will get less time to shine." Another thing you could do is make up one-shot campaigns in familiar settings (like LoTR), and let people take premade sheets for the characters and have someone DM it. It won't be so bad for the DM if they know the story already, and the people will get a taste for what is going on. Assuming that many people come, of course.

[Artemis97]

A player couldn't DM and play at the same time, at least not at the monday night time slot. If I can get people to DM extra games, they'll be playing those games on monday nights while I'm running my original game. That's when we have the room reserved, but there are plenty of tables, so that shouldn't be a problem. I've actually attracted a ton of new players interested in seeing what it's all about. They've seen it parodied on TV, but wanted to give it a try. Despite the slow play last week, they all enjoyed it, and will want to come back and try again.


As it's a public event, I can't really just cut people off. I'm trying to be as inclusive as I can. Though, I may end up having to if I run out of character sheets.


If I can find some spare time between schoolwork, I'll try to come up with something possibly based in LotR. That's a good idea. I've actually been throwing some ideas around in my head based in Greece or Athens. Maybe something out of Mythology would be cool. Still, they'd all need characters to suit that. Maybe I can build something during Spring Break.