How many characters in a campaign

[Meepwizard]

Tell me how many characters you've had in a single campaign(npc, or pc)

[Waterdeep Merch]

I like to have 3, who can usually cover different roles in the group proper. I often have their backstories linked somehow, so that I can explain the swapping. I especially do this when I'm in a group with a lot of newbies so that they can play whatever they want without risking party dynamics, and sometimes don't get a chance to in other games. Depends on what the DM allows.

It's especially useful for allowing dynamic character growth. When I make characters, I consider their personal overarching plot alongside it. So when one needs to do some soul searching, I switch characters and then later they come back with a new outlook.

[Sigreid]

4 is generally considered optimal. 5 and 6 is ok. I find it starts to become a mess at 7+

[Waterdeep Merch]

4 is generally considered optimal. 5 and 6 is ok. I find it starts to become a mess at 7+
I'm suddenly realizing that the OP's question can be read in quite a lot of ways.

As a DM, I aim for 5 players as my sweet spot, 6 as my maximum, and 3 as my minimum. Anything beyond these I try to avoid.

The most players I've ever DM'd at once was 9. It was a train wreck. Don't do it.

The least I've DM'd at once was 1. I've done this multiple times. It can be fun, so long as you don't overload the combat. Check out 2e's Jacob's Well for a fantastic example.

[Naanomi]

3 minimum unless specifically planning a solo or duo adventure... 4-5 the best... up to 8 still manageable (but too much overlap in abilities so sometimes players stepping on eachothers roles and they don't get a chance to shine; and both combat and non-combat encounters can slow to a crawl even if everyone is engaged)... wouldn't try with more than that at the table

[Laserlight]

Back in the early 80s, I played in a campaign with about 15 at the table.

If players were guaranteed to be at every session, I'd prefer to have two or three (plus DM). In Real Life, I get four or five.

[Sariel Vailo]

(Most 5.least two to one )pcs
Npcs two or three

[imanidiot]

Tell me how many characters you've had in a single campaign(npc, or pc)

The most I've personally had was 4, I usually cut it off at 4 from the beginning anyway. In high school my DM ran a game with 13 players of which I was one.

[mephnick]

I actually find 3 (+DM) to be the best, though I generally run with 4-5. I found 6 to be a nightmare. It really depends on the players though.

[CantigThimble]

IME 3 is ideal for roleplaying, 4 is a middle ground and with 5-6 it's hard to do anything subtle so you're left with the broad strokes of the story and tactical battles.

[Dudewithknives]

I usually run a game with 4 pcs. However, I tend to only rarely use monsters, I use npcs with their own character sheets and notes.

In my last campaign I ran in Pathfinder, I had 3 players in a city based campaign, I had maps with numbers on houses and things for where people lived. I started the game with 42 NPCS that actually had adventurer levels and probably 30 more that were commoners, nobles and tradesmen and merchants to did not have adventurer levels.

By the end of the campaign I had over 160.

As for playing in a game, I prefer 3 or 4 just so long as roles do not overlap. I have played in a game with 8 PCS in 3.0 - 3.5. Combat took so long that people would finish their turn in combat and go to a drive through and come back by the time it got back to them. That game made it from level 1 to 16, and we were going to hit 20 by the end, but it died because of a non-game related argument between the DM and one of the key players who also happened to be the guy whose house we gamed in.

The whole group split up and we went from a group of about 13 good gaming friends to a group of 7, in one night. Have never talked to the other group since, been 14 years.

[Finger6842]

I find 6 to 8 PCs to be perfect. At any given session you will have 5. As for NPC's I prep 15 to 18.

[Knaight]

Going with the dominant interpretation of the thread - I've ranged from about 2-9 players, and favor 3-4.

Going with the literal question of how many NPCs I've had in a campaign - named NPCs alone can easily hit the 50-100 mark. Once all the bit characters are in that number goes up dramatically, and that's not counting characters that don't even get lines (big swarms of mooks and the like).

[LaserFace]

My last campaign had as many as 10 different players, which was a bit much to handle at a given time; I don't think we ever had more than 7 at the table simultaneously. Our regular seating was about 5 PCs + me, which I find perfect. People rotating in-and-out, or making guest appearances and whatnot are pretty cool, though.

As for NPCs ... I have no idea. The party was constantly exploring and meeting new people; bumping into someone you already knew was kind of a treat, really. Not all of them had character sheets, obviously, but I don't think that made them less important to the game.

Eventually when the group got a HQ and started to grow some followers, they had 8-ish NPC regular bros who would sometimes join them on adventures or do other tasks they wanted.

But, beyond that, there were all sorts of friends, acquaintances, competitors and rivals, outright enemies ... whenever I needed to introduce something new and it didn't fit with what characters I already had, it was time for a new NPC. Although I like using the materials I have to expand upon the world as we play, I also don't like everything revolving around the same people, and it just demands the number of unique people the party encounters to grow.

Not sure if this is typical for most campaigns, though. This was all homebrew and was very much about wandering around and exploring stuff in the vein of Elder Scrolls games. If you want to know what the appropriate number is for PCs and NPCs for a given game, I think it just comes down to what you need. Do what works, the only wrong answer is to ignore the needs of your players and campaign.