Tips for handling a large group

[Deicidal1]

I'm planning a large level 1-20 campaign for my friends and I'm beginning to worry about the size of the group. Currently I have 7 players, and the most I've ever DM'd before is 4. The campaign I'm planning is going to be a good-aligned one set in an home-brewed location similar to Ravnica (one enormous city) where the PC's run a small mercenary company that acts as a sort of police force for the city, as it's too big for the government to have one unified force. The PC's are:

1 Bard (standard skill-monkey, dragonfire inspiration build)
1 Crusader (standard lockdown build)
1 Warblade (focused on throwing, moving towards the bloodstorm blade prc)
1 cleric (focused on buffing and debuffing, and played by an experienced player who knows not to break the game wide open)
1 Beguiler
1 Barbarian
and 1 currently undecided who is willing to just fill in the gaps.

Of the players, only the warblade, cleric, and beguiler have played before, so that's another thing I'm worried about. How do I challenge a group of such large size with encounters without just throwing dozens and dozens of creatures at them or tossing out some supped up creature that will just insta-gib one of the weaker characters? Any advice is welcome!

[tyriuth]

I'm planning a large level 1-20 campaign for my friends and I'm beginning to worry about the size of the group. Currently I have 7 players, and the most I've ever DM'd before is 4. The campaign I'm planning is going to be a good-aligned one set in an home-brewed location similar to Ravnica (one enormous city) where the PC's run a small mercenary company that acts as a sort of police force for the city, as it's too big for the government to have one unified force. The PC's are:

1 Bard (standard skill-monkey, dragonfire inspiration build)
1 Crusader (standard lockdown build)
1 Warblade (focused on throwing, moving towards the bloodstorm blade prc)
1 cleric (focused on buffing and debuffing, and played by an experienced player who knows not to break the game wide open)
1 Beguiler
1 Barbarian
and 1 currently undecided who is willing to just fill in the gaps.

Of the players, only the warblade, cleric, and beguiler have played before, so that's another thing I'm worried about. How do I challenge a group of such large size with encounters without just throwing dozens and dozens of creatures at them or tossing out some supped up creature that will just insta-gib one of the weaker characters? Any advice is welcome!

The Saturday night group I play with, and often DM, contains between 7-8 people most nights. It's not too much different to playing with smaller groups except that combat is a little slower. To make things more of a challenge; it's safer to double (or there about) the number of monsters you would face with a group of 4 characters. As always, if this is too easy; increase the CR of some of the monsters. Else if too difficult; remove a few. Be careful when a majority of the foes take their turns before the player's can act, as this can be quite deadly in the wrong circumstances.

It's a good idea to have all the things you need for an encounter ready to go right when you need to (I like to do up a quick table with player's and monster's vital stats, eg AC, To hits, Saves, init and HP). This speeds things along and hopefully means that your player's wont loose interest. I also like to make sure that the spellcasters know what they're doing before their turns arrive so that they don't spend the next ten minutes looking through books trying to decide what spell to cast.

[atemu1234]

I recommend splitting the party and doing it on a week-on, week-off basis. If you've got more than five people, you're dealing with at least CR +1 per encounter if not +2, and if you misjudge the group you're going to wind up TPKing them. The easiest way to fix this is if you've got eight or more, split them into two groups and hope for the best.

[Frozen_Feet]

Have a stopwatch or a small hourglass and give turns to players to tell what their characters are doing. If someone takes too long to decide what to do, don't be afraid to say their character is twidling their thumbs and move to the next player. If two or more players need time to plan something together (like shopping lists etc.), separate them from the turn routine, or have players make their decisions as smaller groups. Even if the party splits, players should stay at the same table. Just say no to any actions or thoughts that obviously rely on meta-character knowledge. Players should also kindly shut up when it's the turn of someone else, or turn of a group their characters don't belong to. If there's a large combat where only some player characters are present and the rest of the players have theirs sidelined, allow the sidelined players to control actions of some of the antagonists.

[Nibbens]

Have a stopwatch or a small hourglass and give turns to players to tell what their characters are doing. If someone takes too long to decide what to do, don't be afraid to say their character is twidling their thumbs and move to the next player. If two or more players need time to plan something together (like shopping lists etc.), separate them from the turn routine, or have players make their decisions as smaller groups. Even if the party splits, players should stay at the same table. Just say no to any actions or thoughts that obviously rely on meta-character knowledge. Players should also kindly shut up when it's the turn of someone else, or turn of a group their characters don't belong to. If there's a large combat where only some player characters are present and the rest of the players have theirs sidelined, allow the sidelined players to control actions of some of the antagonists.

You could try this, because I've often encountered 8-10 PC groups and this cuts down on time consumption.

At the start of combat, roll initiative: If the monsters get the higher number they all go first, if the PC's get the higher number they all go first. Alternate turns back and forth.

PC's decide when to go and how to maneuver during their "turns." Often, you get some really interesting tactical movements, but it cuts down on waiting for each individual player and making the dm speak for each and every pc and monster "John, your turn... now my bugbear... now sally, your turn... now my..." etc. It works wonders for increasing activity (stops players from staring at their darn cell phones during the the majority of combat) as well as engaging creative thinking skills and cinematic-like scenes ("I jump off my horse to attack him" other player: "Oh! As he jumps off the horse, I cast Enlarge Person." Normally, not possible according to mechanics, but looks awesome in the minds eye - so rule of cool lets it fly in my house! lol)

For more extreme cut down on time consumption I've this little gem:

I've stopped rolling dice. All monsters do average damage and I have an excell spreadsheet printed with the RANDBETWEEN(1,20) function to create a whole page of random d20 rolls. Mark them off as you use them, and when you hit the monsters do average damage. So when this is combined with the tactic above, a 20 monster turn is over in less than 30 seconds (if you move all monsters first, then attack with them), getting your players back into the action. It's ridiculous fast and keeps the gaming sailing smoothly.

[Frozen_Feet]

You can also do the preroll thing by hand, with pen and paper. Make somewhere between 50 and hundred d20 rolls and mark them down. This will be less usefull with D&D 3.x. since it uses a lot of non-standard rolls (read: rolls other than d20), but it's something.

On the plus side, a list of prerolled numbers makes a lot of divination-type abilities a lot easier to deal with.

[Nibbens]

You can also do the preroll thing by hand, with pen and paper. Make somewhere between 50 and hundred d20 rolls and mark them down. This will be less usefull with D&D 3.x. since it uses a lot of non-standard rolls (read: rolls other than d20), but it's something.

On the plus side, a list of prerolled numbers makes a lot of divination-type abilities a lot easier to deal with.

The reason for the excel spreadsheet is that it takes all the time of rolling 50 -100 dice and condenses it into a click and drag motion. lol. But you are correct, it is just a different version of doing it by hand. lol. Also, i find that - get this - rolling by hand creates higher numbers. It's so weird. Excel randomly places an "even number distribution" on the page. But It feels like I get more 20's if I rolled by hand...

I tried it with 1-6 to roll character stats... I had the most "normal characters ever" lol.

[Regissoma]

I also recommend breaks maybe once or twice depending on gaming session lengths. Lots of people usually equal lots of potential to derail, so let them get it out of their system before hopping back into the game. So have like ten or fifteen minute breaks for everyone to just talk and mess around before jumping right back in.

[Zirconia]

I also recommend breaks maybe once or twice depending on gaming session lengths. Lots of people usually equal lots of potential to derail, so let them get it out of their system before hopping back into the game. So have like ten or fifteen minute breaks for everyone to just talk and mess around before jumping right back in.

Which is also a good opportunity to deal with someone who has a side thing going on; they need to shop for something, have a question about an item they got, etc. Announcing at the start of the session while people are gathering/chatting for people to prep spells, supplies, etc. is good so that things can roll right at the start. If you want to still use individual initiatives, I've seen it handy to use 3x5" cards folded into an "A" shape with initiative numbers on them, set them in front of each person, it makes it easier for people to know when their turn is coming up and prepare by checking distances, etc. You may have to give a little extra time to the person who goes after your monsters (avoid individual monster initiative, at most 1 for boss, 1 for each of a couple types of minions), they have to adjust to whatever battlefield rearrangement just happened.

Avoid getting into note exchanging with someone who wants to do something on the side, huge time sink to have to write back and forth while everyone else has nothing to do but watch. Avoid allowing someone to derail things too much by deciding to roleplay through an evening at the tavern, for example, unless it is something the whole group will get to participate in.

I have seen a group of 8 split into two groups, which would have various "DM fiat" involuntary splitups or plot related splitups for awhile and occasionally get back together for a session or two for something big. That requires a bit more care with plot and timing, but can be fun.