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View Full Version : New DM with Large Party- Help!



Samtonia
2007-07-22, 02:10 PM
Maybe I'm dumb, having agreed to DM (for the first time too, mind you) an adventure for my friends. We picked up the books and are all pretty much brand new to D&D. Basic rules I seem fine with, but I'm pretty well stumped on appropriate CRs for the group, as well as making sure that they're all able to participate in the adventures as evenly as possible (no attention hogging by one or two people)

We've got 11 people (yes, I know, ridiculous size but the books are so expensive! and no one wanted to be DM, so I kind of got stuck with it and, now that I've learned the rules, no one else wants to try to) who all may or may not show up- average number is about 8 per session.

Human Rogue 1
Human Ranger 1
Half-Elf Paladin 1
Half-Elf Wizard 1
Wizard Cleric 1
Dwarf Cleric 1
Human Bard 1
Dwarf Barbarian 1
Half-Elf Sorceror 1
Half-Elf Druid 1
Human Druid 1

I've got the overall plot arc worked out and the characters are throguh their first session- they've escaped prison, killed a few guards, and maanged to down 3 Wererats without anyone becoming afflicted by lycanthropy. But from now on out, CRs should be what? It's a big group of low-level adventurers, so anything too huge will be 1-hit KOing people. And I don't want to have to try to help them make characters again. :smalltongue:

Also, any advice, tips, tricks, etc for a first-time DM are greatly appreciated. Thanks!

nerulean
2007-07-22, 02:37 PM
My goodness, that's an insane group, good luck to you, my friend.

Fight fire with fire, and huge numbers with huge numbers. If you throw them up against large numbers of identical things then you won't have too much trouble with PCs, or at least melee types, getting killed in one shot, since all the things they'll be fighting are pretty weedy. If all the opponents have the same statistics then all you need is one set of stats and one line for each opponent to record hitpoints and adjustments to stats because of status-affecting spells.

If you don't use miniatures, start doing so, and if you don't have miniatures, use named or numbered counters to differentiate between each character. You don't have to have them out for every step of the way, but in actual combat it can be invaluable to be able to see where everything is and who's next to who.

You might find that your group slims down a bit over the coming sessions, since with that size of group there's no way everyone can be doing something all the time. Don't take this as a problem with you, it's an almost inevitable side effect of that number of people, and will probably make the experience slicker and more enjoyable for those who are left.

Learn pacing fast. Find out how much your group can get through in a typical session and play to that. Unless you have an amazing amount of focus and an enormously small amount of messing around and out of character chatter, I'd guess you'll be going slowly, perhaps at only two or three fights a session, so plan the timing of those fights within the game for maximum effect. Don't try anything too complex, just build towards a big or plot-critical encounter at the end of the session so they all feel like they've achieved something, and expect them to mess up along the way.

Be confident with making stuff up, in terms of both plot and rules. So long as everyone's having fun, nothing else matters too much, especially not precise adherence to a bunch of rules no one knows too well. Just make sure that everyone knows when you're having to make a rules call off the top of your head and accepts that you might have to change your mind later if it's making one or two people noticeably more powerful than everyone else.

Oh yes, and while the books can be prohibitively expensive to a new group, this website (www.d20srd.org) contains almost all of the rules, excluding a couple of monsters and the stuff about character generation, which has already happened. A few of your keener players might be interested in browsing through that to see what their options are, but make sure they make a note of the exact name of any rule or section they're interested in using so you can actually find it later.

Dairun Cates
2007-07-22, 02:47 PM
With 8 people at level 1, you're effectively looking at them being a CR 6 group for most encounters. However, I'd honestly start them at level 2. With such a big group, any encounter of any reasonable level is probably going to kill one of them instantly a round. At least at level 2, they'll have more HP to survive with. Honestly, with a group that big, you're really asking for trouble though.

There's not much you can do to solve the problems associated with a group that big. Trying to give everyone their time in the spotlight is impossible, encounters are ALWAYS either way too easy or way too hard regardless of CR, and you just often can't keep track of things. I would honestly sit them down and explain that an 11 man group is really hard and not fun for the players involved and ask politely again for someone to bite the bullet and take up GM'ing a second group. Make sure to offer to tutor the second GM and guide him yourself. It'll be more fun for everyone involved because they won't feel like they're lost in the crowd.

If no one will still do it, then it's time to run two different campaigns with you as the GM in both. A party of 8-11 is going to kill you, especially if you're new at this.

Kiero
2007-07-22, 03:21 PM
For your own sanity, you need to split your group into two, or better yet three smaller ones. Running a good game for 11 people is pretty much impossible. Encounters will take forever, and no one will really get a satisfactory level of GM attention. Even if you somehow managed to ration out your time to 30 seconds a player, that's still five minutes each person is sat twiddling their thumbs until their turn comes round again. Not to mention that you as GM will be pulled in every direction at once.

If no one else is willing to GM, getting less frequent play in smaller groups is the price they pay.