Hello there, my name is Amanda and I'm a verynew DM. I'm going to be running "Dragon of Icespire Peak" for a large group of friends in a little over a week and seeing as how I might have eight Players at the table (and the adventure is built for five) I wanted to get some input on ways I could adjust the encounters appropriately. I hadn't counted on so many folks responding to my open invite and this is going to be the only time we all get to play in person for a long time, so I want to avoid turning people away if I can. This is going to be an all day affair starting at either noon or 3PM and going until midnight or later so I'm hoping we get to the end and slay the dragon by the end of the night.
The other idea I just had was splitting the group into two parties and letting the two parties cooperate to complete all of the quests separately or together. I could ask another friend to run the encounters for the second party when they go off on their own and when both work together for a quest we'll run the encounter together. I imagine I would just have to adjust the experience earned so both parties reach the appropriate levels at the appropriate times. What do you guys think of that?
Splitting the big party in two is an approach you could take to alleviate some of the stress. Big parties tend to have a problem being improperly paced, especially since you are new to being the DM and likely won't know how to handle your players accordingly.
I advise to have as much fun as possible and let things happen in a fun way, so going the "unorthodox" path of running two campaigns simultaneously sounds like it could gloss over some mechanical difficulties.
However, be aware that you have one major challenge to overcome this way: pacing. What if one party reaches the boss or challenge way earlier than the other party? Maybe one party is straying very far from the planned path and suddenly nothing lines up anymore? What if the players suddenly "get creative" and try to cheat the system? At least have answers to these questions if you go that route of co-existing campaigns. Alternatively you could try to run two completely different campaigns.
If you do not wish to split the party in two then think in advance how you are going to handle dissonance within the group, both in character and out of character. Think about how you will speed up the process to avoid players becoming bored because it takes ages for their turn to come again (one of the biggest issues of large parties). Mechanically speaking, to adjust encounters for larger parties look up how challenge ratings work and pump up the numbers. But be careful! Action economy is a thing. So if you feel like you are overwhelming the players with hordes of monsters, find clever ways to lessen the pressure. Maybe some of them are fightened by the party's mighty barbarian splitting their friend Kevin in half or perhaps a retreat is in order to lay an ambush down the road.
I forgot to mention in my original post that this is going to be nearly an all day affair. Depending on the day of the week we choose (spit between Friday the 9th and Saturday the 10th at the moment) we're going to be starting at either noon or 3PM and going until either we all get tired or we slay the dragon. I edited my original post to include that info. Basically I'm saying we might have time to get through the entire adventure depending on how we do things.
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Hello there, my name is Amanda and I'm a very new DM. I'm going to be running "Dragon of Icespire Peak" for a large group of friends in a little over a week and seeing as how I might have eight Players at the table (and the adventure is built for five) I wanted to get some input on ways I could adjust the encounters appropriately. I hadn't counted on so many folks responding to my open invite and this is going to be the only time we all get to play in person for a long time, so I want to avoid turning people away if I can. This is going to be an all day affair starting at either noon or 3PM and going until midnight or later so I'm hoping we get to the end and slay the dragon by the end of the night.
The other idea I just had was splitting the group into two parties and letting the two parties cooperate to complete all of the quests separately or together. I could ask another friend to run the encounters for the second party when they go off on their own and when both work together for a quest we'll run the encounter together. I imagine I would just have to adjust the experience earned so both parties reach the appropriate levels at the appropriate times. What do you guys think of that?
Splitting the big party in two is an approach you could take to alleviate some of the stress. Big parties tend to have a problem being improperly paced, especially since you are new to being the DM and likely won't know how to handle your players accordingly.
I advise to have as much fun as possible and let things happen in a fun way, so going the "unorthodox" path of running two campaigns simultaneously sounds like it could gloss over some mechanical difficulties.
However, be aware that you have one major challenge to overcome this way: pacing. What if one party reaches the boss or challenge way earlier than the other party? Maybe one party is straying very far from the planned path and suddenly nothing lines up anymore? What if the players suddenly "get creative" and try to cheat the system? At least have answers to these questions if you go that route of co-existing campaigns. Alternatively you could try to run two completely different campaigns.
If you do not wish to split the party in two then think in advance how you are going to handle dissonance within the group, both in character and out of character. Think about how you will speed up the process to avoid players becoming bored because it takes ages for their turn to come again (one of the biggest issues of large parties). Mechanically speaking, to adjust encounters for larger parties look up how challenge ratings work and pump up the numbers. But be careful! Action economy is a thing. So if you feel like you are overwhelming the players with hordes of monsters, find clever ways to lessen the pressure. Maybe some of them are fightened by the party's mighty barbarian splitting their friend Kevin in half or perhaps a retreat is in order to lay an ambush down the road.
Let chaos rain... uh, reign!
I forgot to mention in my original post that this is going to be nearly an all day affair. Depending on the day of the week we choose (spit between Friday the 9th and Saturday the 10th at the moment) we're going to be starting at either noon or 3PM and going until either we all get tired or we slay the dragon. I edited my original post to include that info. Basically I'm saying we might have time to get through the entire adventure depending on how we do things.