new DM advice: so many players, so little time...

[commander panda]

ok, so i'm a new DM who has found himself running my schools D&D club. unfortunately the high nerd/not-nerd ratio has made the club way bigger than anticipated. my group is currently at 8 people (though two are talking about leaving) and we have a max total of two hours a week, split between two days, in which to play.

needless to say, things are going slow. we aren't even out of the first encounter yet. so, now i'm appealing to the playground :smallredface:... help me speed things uuuup! (please)

ideally i would like to get through an encounter a week (combat or puzzles, they want both) plus some roll play. any advice?

[theIrkin]

name a co-dm. someone who helps keep track of the fiddly numbers. initiative, keeping other players on task during combat. if you have to, institute a 30 second turn limit in combat, 2 minutes out of combat. that way everyone plays fast and you can keep the game going. of course, exceptions will be made, but if you want to keep the game going, you can make that happen.

if you don't already have one, get a cheat sheet with everyone's vital combat stats. starting HP, init, AC, etc. Heck, if you're rolling a monster's attack and know what their AC is, you won't have to ask, just tell them how much damage they take.

also, whiteboard all your initiative counts so everyone knows who's turn it is.

[rexx1888]

split your school group in half and start meeting out of school hours. Aim for 3 - 5 hours a week for each group, preferably each session you hold with a grou(so if you meet with one group once a week, its a 3 to 5 hour session). If you cant commit that, dont DM. Especially since thats just playing the game, not doing the necessary prep for it.

on a side note. Big groups are not conducive to fun play. Theres too many voices, and only one person can speak at a time. Ppl get bored and start chatting on their own when they arent involved, and then they start doing it when they are. Aim for a play group size of 4-5. Sure, other DM's can do bigger groups, but thats either because they have an amazing group of players or they are oblivious to how bored they are

*edit* P.S have them in SEPERATE CAMPAIGNS!!!! seriously, trying to run two groups in the same campaign world is not only a pain, its flat out dumb. You force them to share the limelight with others, and when you start tryiing to use the consequences of one groups actions against the other, you start dropping false plot hooks and all sorts of bull**** starts happening. JUST DONT DO IT

[Red Fel]

Agreeing with everything that's been posted.

Large groups (e.g. in excess of six) can be hard for a veteran DM to run; for a new DM, it can be akin to drowning. Find, bribe, or train a co-DM. Break this campaign into (at least) two smaller campaigns, or alternatively start (at least) two brand new ones. Keep group sizes to around 4; that's a healthy number for a fledgling DM and for new players.

I also agree that an hour a day, twice a week is going to prove exceedingly frustrating. I would recommend finding time (e.g outside of school) to increase that to 3 hours a week, all in a single shot, rather than broken up. Part of the problem with short sessions is momentum - it takes awhile to get players into the groove, sitting, paying attention and interested. If you have only an hour to do it, by the time they're ready, your time is up. You need longer, more dedicated chunks of time.

If you can't devote 3+ hours a week, in large chunks, try a larger chunk (say, 4-6 hours), once every two weeks or once a month. Dedicated time is often more important than frequency.

[commander panda]

thanks for all the advice!

the two who were thinking of leaving have decided to do so, which brings me down to six, and we are talking about putting together a weekend game session. so thats good. and i'v also got a guy who retroactivly offered to co-DM :smallbiggrin:.

any other advice? just in case?