7-Player Party! Help!

[Regitnui]

Through a sequence of events involving a player not being able to keep their mouth shut and being up until the early hours of the morning, I am now running a game for 7 players instead of 4. Now beyond the fact that this skyrockets the CR of the monsters I can throw at them, with CR 5 being a Deadly encounter, does anyone have advice for me on keeping the game manageable and fun?

[Herobizkit]

* Have the table elect a party spokesperson and agree that, when that player says "We go this way", EVERYONE'S going that way. There are too many players for "Lone Wolf" shenanigans above and beyond a point-man scouting ahead or a ninja waiting in ambush.

* Make each combat a set piece instead of a room-to-room slog. Use a handful of bigger monsters instead of a bunch of weaker ones, then place those monsters in am obstacle-filled area. Make the players work separately yet together and discourage their focus-fire tactics via cover, difficult terrain and whatever other shenanigans you'd like.

* Tell the players ahead of time they have 15-30 seconds to plan and announce their intention, or their action defaults to Dodge. Explain this BEFORE THE GAME STARTS and tell them that because the group is so large, time is precious and combat will be chaotic.

* Throw out initiative. Go around the table for actions and intersperse monster turns in between them when drama suggests (or mathematically if it does not). :)

* USE A BATTLE MAP WITH TOKENS if you can, or any kind of visual combat display, even if it's just a rough sketch. 7 people is too many to use Theater-of-the-mind to place everyone.

* If you're using a pre-gen, read the crap out of that and know it inside and out. If you need time to gather your wits, though, don't be shy to request it. Take a breather, re-organize, then come back with a solid plan for your players.

* Everyone's there to have fun, including you - try not to come off as adversarial. There's 7 of them and 1 of you, but in the arms race, DM always trumps PC. ^_^

[gfishfunk]

When creating encounters, change the difficulty multiplier by adding 1 or 2 more monsters without affecting the multiplier (pg. 82 of GM guide) as follows:

1-3 = x1
4-5 = 1.5
6-9 = x2
10-12 = 2.5
13-16 = x3
15+ = x4

I recommend this rather than simply upping the difficulty of the monster(s). Also, have larger encounter locations and more spread out monsters groups (can be the same monster or type or whatever). Two medium sized groupings in one encounter will create an interesting choice for the players, especially if both monster groups have a ranged attack that is slightly and identifiable different, or if both employ different tactics.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Honestly, I think the biggest problem is going to be social scenes. We all know the ways to speed up combat, but it's hard to keep things under control when there are half a dozen people all wanting to talk at the same time. I suggest asking the party to rely on one or two spokespeople.

Splitting the party parties will become even worse, with so many people sitting and waiting. Ask that either no-one plays a scouty-type, or that several people do.

[Final Hyena]

Have you considered running two games? It's always worth considering if running a large game isn't something you are too keen on. I've heard that some people can do it well, I have seen that in most instances of unexpected (or planned) big groups things tends to fall apart.

Anyway if you are set on giving it a go here are my suggestions;
Mass skill checks can get out of hand making many checks meaningless, either put a skill proficiency requirement on checks. Or consider limiting the number of attempts from the group on any single check.

Group conversations are difficult with 7 people vying for progression and engagement so perhaps try giving significant npcs a relationship with a select few of the pcs focusing that conversation on them.

Combat can slow down when there is more of anything, players already have so many other players taking a turn a dm having 7 or more creature can make combat very boring for the players. So try to avoid using masses of enemies over fewer stronger enemies, but remember that save or suck will wreck them as such give lots of condition immunities or magic resistance. In addition keeping the level progression slow also aids this.

Magic items can be a cause of squabbling normally let alone when you have 7 players, in addition as there are so many PCs diversity is harder to come by. You might consider tackling these at the same time, make magic items specific to races, classes, archetypes but make them have a significant impact on how that character plays, make it change their class features or give them completely new abilities.

[MrStabby]

Possibly a campaign with strategic time pressures such that splitting the party is sometimes advisable. 7 players is a bit of a handful and a change of pace with a smaller group on some sessions will help, not to mention that it is often going to be be tough getting every player to every session.

[Joe the Rat]

I've got 7ish (6-8 by night). It's an interesting challenge.

gfishfunk has a good point - upping numbers can rebalance. If you find yourself wanting to use big numbers, use the auto-damage option in the DMG (if they need x to hit, n attackers will hit once). If you can pre-count, move the mugs as groups (I will make my gang template one day...).

Bigger maps help here.

Action economy gets wacky with boss monsters. You need those Legendary actions, or minions to act as meat shields/ mobile obstacles.

Minimize party NPCs. Hirelings and tagalongs should have a minimal impact on action. If they are combatants, use the gang-up rule above, and randomly decide which one deals the auto-damage.

Make sure all the players are getting acting / action time. Outside of combat, it's easy to lose track of someone. Going around the table can help.

Minimize solo time. The scout gets a mechanically functional round, then back to the party. Try to arrange to do "personal business" before/after/between sessions.

Passive scores: if you have everyone making a lot of rolls against NPC attributes, just use the passive for the monsters/NPCs. The only place I don't do this is with opposed physical actions (like grappling).