I recently began running a new campaign for a group of friends. Most of which have never played before. Well word got out and I now have the largest group I have ever DMed for (7 PCs). I was hoping people could give me there best tips for running with large a group of players.
Try your best to keep things moving and involve as many people at a time as you can while remembering to remind the others to be ready on their turns. Nothing kills a game faster than waiting forever for your turn to come around in large groups, only to roll a miss or something and have to wait a half hour or more to try again.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
Firstly, be organized behind your screen. Have a system for keeping initiative you're good with, maybe keep some cheat sheels with characters' AC/Passive Perc/etc to keep them from always pouring over their sheets. Keep players involved by keeping them together, and if they split up switch back and forth between them often enough (I like to cut to the other group after a needed roll or sudden event, add some suspense for them to occupy themselves with).
Second, be ready and willing to take control. Any group is gonna have quirks, so the bigger the group the more potential for things to... take a while. If they're trying to cite rules enough to slow progress, make a call and leave yourself a note to check the books during a break/post session. If someone is habitually waiting until their turn to form a plan, impose a time limit to act before letting the next character get to go in their stead that round (a mini sand timer gives plenty of time even for the unprepared, while still insisting urgency). And most importantly, put a stop to excessive side barring. If your players aren't focused, find ways to include them in the action. Sometimes, all it takes is asking, "what are you up to during all this?"
Lastly, if you're making your own campaign from scratch, focus on making encounters that bring out the players classes, races and abilities. Let the ranger have a chance to track something, let the bard have a stubborn informant that doesn't want to talk, let the dwarf have a chance to notice the seem in the stone wall no one else would've seen. It's easy to make and adventure that every participates, but it's something else to make an adventure that these adventurers were made for. Otherwise, any NPC could do it. Study the classes of your players, their profeciencies and abilities and backgrounds, give them chances to cooperate and shine alone, and most of the time they'll be so engrossed that they'll manage themselves. It may sound like I'm saying "just be bether at making your game", but when you think of it in terms of letting them explore their class and characters, especially early on, the more invested they'll be.
Here's things I do with my group (which sometimes swells up to 15 people at the table).
Get players to help with some of the facilitation of the game; I have one player keep track of initiative, one player keep notes, one player track a shared party inventory (including wealth), one player draw/assemble maps (instead of me getting up and moving around the table to do it myself), and I have players help me place and move miniatures for monsters.
Use the best tool you have for each job - by which I mean don't use a map/minis if the encounter is likely to run its course in less than the time it would take to set up map/minis, and always use a map/minis (or some sort of visible representation that everyone can see) when there are more than 1 or 2 moving parts on the DM side of the encounter so that no one has to ask where things are.
Encourage players to figure out what they are going to do before their turn comes up - which is easiest to do if you have the initiative list visible to everyone or have the person tracking it mention who's coming up next.
If players aren't sure what to do on their turn when you call on them to act, make suggestions of two courses of action. I like to suggest an at-will attack option, and an option that helps some other character in the party (even if it is just the Help action).
Design encounters that will be fun and entertaining without the expectation that they'll be tough for the party - make the "tough" element of the game come from getting through a large number of individually easy encounters. Not only will that keep the game moving more quickly, but it is easier to reach a feeling of challenge in this fashion than to make each individual encounter a challenge for a large party since that would require silly-large number of enemies or dramatically more potent enemies, both of which inherently slow down game-play speed.
Primarily, my tactics for running large groups revolve around keeping the players actively engaged in playing the game - rather than playing on their phone, or chatting with another inactive player, or the like - as much as possible, even if it is just doing one of the things that normally the DM would be doing (which means that not only are the players active more often, but the "DM turn" of things takes me less time so there is less opportunity for players to tune-out).
I just was talking about the same thing on FB... here is my post. I hope a few of the things listed might help you too...
One of my 3 Ravnica groups consists of 17 players (so far). I am picking up peeps that are overflow from "Adventure League". I am only allowing 12 to play at any given time.
Here is what I am already doing. Some of these things save more time than others. Other items are there just so peeps get along better at the table (which also ultimately saves time).
1) The party sits in "order of initiative". Initiative moves clockwise around the table. the first player rolls for the whole group and gets to add their init bonus to the rolls everyone else counts down by one all the way around the table. The Monster goes after the player who ties init.
2) When it is a peeps turn I count down from 5. If the player has no idea then we move on.
3) I have encounters pre-separated into gladware. All minis are WYSIWYG, unless otherwise noted.
4) I have maps printed out and ready to go. rather than drawing them out.
5)I am going to make PC-Nameplates w/ their mini and Class/Race/Guild on them (Player suggestion).
6) We don't argue about rules. If they want to use a spell or ability they should have to book/spell card ready to hand to me if it needs to be referenced.
7) We use DND Beyond (right?!).
8) Players are encouraged to help out those that sit next to them...quietly.
9) The party levels up ONLY at the end of a session and they all level up at the same time.
10) No "exposed" Dimir. There may be Dimir, but the rest of the part can't know about them infiltrating the Guild they have infiltrated. This will result in their character being "recalled". I also share info with these players via informants between sessions. This is to prevent internal party strife, and still allow someone to play the concept they want.
11) Character creation is "Point Buy" which is ultimately faster and fairer to all involved
12) Ravnica only Races (2 racial exceptions: Tieflings for Cult of Rakdos, and Aasimar for Orzhov Syndicate and Boros Legion)
14) I made a Pact Team website 3 so far: (this is the one for my largest group I am still updating the party section) each of my groups run this many players: 12, 3, and 2 players. This is the site for the largest party. If someone leaves the group I leave them on the Party page for now...I may make a new page to ID those characters that are dead or no longer active. in the future. https://sites.google.com/view/defenders-of-the-vault/home
15) There is a second DM for this too and he is running the fourth Pact Team called "The Knick Knacks".
16) Since all of my encounters are WYSIWYG as far as minis are concerned I am working with another DM/Newer Painter/Player to paint up Reaper Bones (from bones 3) for some encounters. In trade he gets minis that I have not gotten around to painting in the last couple of years. My "Bin of Shame" is slowly getting to a manageable level. :)
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
May the Oracle of the City guide you and keep you from all harm.
"Encourage players to figure out what they are going to do before their turn comes up - which is easiest to do if you have the initiative list visible to everyone or have the person tracking it mention who's coming up next."
I have players pre-roll their attacks and damage (I trust them to be fair) at the start of a round. Then I just ask them if they hit and what the damage was. The fights fly by.
This is what I did running a one-shot for 7 people:
- No long character introductions, it will take up half your evening - Instead I asked everyone for the looks of their characters and wrote an intro for the whole group introducing their characters - Before even starting the storytelling I made clear that managing their characters, spellslots etc. is their responsiblities as it's impossible to consult or keep of track of that for 7 players - I wrote a story that led them straight into something that required their action - Even when not in combat I let them take turns (both to keep it going and to involve the players which are from nature more on the background) - I even took a hourglass with me, just in case it starts taking to long (didn't need it yet) - Make a table with: real-life name, character name, race, class, alignment, looks and characteristics for a good overview and keep one column open, for writing down initiative (add a few empty lines for monsters) - Come up with a logical choice of choosing targets in combat so it makes sense to you and the players (I use first seen, first contact and most damage done to creature)
This is what I remember from the top of my hat, any cheat-sheet you have will be of help basicly!
I regularly run a campaign for 7-8 players so these are the things I try to do:
1. Use Baseball Hitting setup. Focus on the player "up" to bat, but let the next player in line know that they are "on deck" and the player after them that they are "in the hole".
2. Use "swarms" of creatures. Due to the action economy of dnd 5e, large creatures, if they are low on initiative roles are going to get squashed by the characters. Figure it's like this: The party gets 5-7 "Shots" in before your BBG even gets 1 and that's IF the BBG hits. I like to attack with a BBG but bring some minions in on it. So Dragon that has a tribe of Kobolds working with it. Then I group the kobolds into groups of 3-5 and if they hit, they each hit for average damage (rolling for each K's damage would take forever) this way the party has to divide their attention. Kobolds, orcs, bats, you name it. I had my group go up against a pack of blink dogs...and they loved it. They couldn't focus on the Alpha dog as it kept blinking away...
3. Use area of effect effects. This is a little BG3'ish, but a red dragon breathing fire is HOT... Therefore the rock is now slagged and anyone that steps (or even better gets knocked prone on it) are going to get burned...so 1d4 or 1d6 of damage (depending on how tough you want the encounter to be)
4. Use legendary actions. These can be a lifesaver for your creature if it has it. Remember...the PC's are in THE CREATURE'S LAIR. Think of it like this...if you were attacked by strangers in your home...you know where the weapons are (bat, knife, etc.) so you'll have an advantage. The lair is the creature's "home" so let it have the advantage of knowing where the "good spots" are to hide/duck behind.
5. This is a weird one, but I've found it helpful...roll attack and damage in front of your players. They want to feel the "thrill" of the roll. Also make them make any death saves in front of the whole table. Bonus: if you use your minions to drag the dropped PC to a secure location, it helps keep others from reviving them all the time. Seems cruel...but again...this is the monster's home. Everyone needs a snack now and then.
6. Finally, don't be afraid of killing your PC's. this is something I've struggled with. These are your friends and you want them to succeed...but if you're unwilling to "pull the trigger" then they will quickly get bored because there's no real consequences. Killing a couple of them (but let them roll a new character of course!) let's them feel a little thrill
Here's a bonus that I've used to help craft a kewl story with my PC's. - Gold sucks, (it's really boring and kinda lazy after awhile). SO I like to give out magic items as loot, but I put a twist on them. Everything has it's bonuses...but they also have their issue. Even if it's cosmetic, it becomes a great hook for the players to Role Play. Example, we've got a PC on our squad that picked up a Luck Stone that's shaped like a fox head. So I gave them a chance to attune to it, with the chance to get extra bonus, but if they failed the role, they get all the +1 saves and etc...but they are slowly turning into a fox. He rolled like crap, and I let him know that he was turning into a fox. Now, I remind him he's starting to sprout a tail and his hair has turned red (which is hilarious since he's technically blue.) The rest of the squad has jumped on it, and I've made sure that the NPC's are making note of his odd look. He's a lawful evil wizard, so people giving him side eye and making comments has really crimped his style of trying to be a bad-ass. Lol
Turn order is your friend for any decision making or inflection point, pre-rolling is your friend (I always trust people ----but if they cheat and I notice it - the mob will crit on them the rest of the night.), session prep and not complicated mobs are also your friend. I use D&D Beyond create 1 Character load all the creature attack stuff on that character and roll digitally always.
Lastly I think 7 is the absolute maximum any more than that and you basically do not have time to allow the players the social aspect of the game - and for many players that is at least as important as rolling dice. Good Luck big groups can be a ton of fun but require more prep and attention to detail from the DM.
One thing I use for my games (which are streamed) is Improved Initiative. It has a "Player view" so that anyone can watch on their device or screen what the current combat order is, how many HP everyone has, the monster states etc. It also provides room for players to add tags (dm approved) to the monsters so it's another tool for interaction and cooperation with the "mechanics" of combat.
I've used it off stream just as a way to make it easier for the players to see how long until their next turn, get reminders how many baddies there are etc. It also has a feature to "hide" the monster HP behind labels of "Healthy/ Wounded/ Bloodied/ Dead". That can help keep the players from asking too many questions unless you're the sort who prefers to jsut say "It has 14 HP left".
I recently began running a new campaign for a group of friends. Most of which have never played before. Well word got out and I now have the largest group I have ever DMed for (7 PCs). I was hoping people could give me there best tips for running with large a group of players.
Try your best to keep things moving and involve as many people at a time as you can while remembering to remind the others to be ready on their turns. Nothing kills a game faster than waiting forever for your turn to come around in large groups, only to roll a miss or something and have to wait a half hour or more to try again.
Firstly, be organized behind your screen. Have a system for keeping initiative you're good with, maybe keep some cheat sheels with characters' AC/Passive Perc/etc to keep them from always pouring over their sheets. Keep players involved by keeping them together, and if they split up switch back and forth between them often enough (I like to cut to the other group after a needed roll or sudden event, add some suspense for them to occupy themselves with).
Second, be ready and willing to take control. Any group is gonna have quirks, so the bigger the group the more potential for things to... take a while. If they're trying to cite rules enough to slow progress, make a call and leave yourself a note to check the books during a break/post session. If someone is habitually waiting until their turn to form a plan, impose a time limit to act before letting the next character get to go in their stead that round (a mini sand timer gives plenty of time even for the unprepared, while still insisting urgency). And most importantly, put a stop to excessive side barring. If your players aren't focused, find ways to include them in the action. Sometimes, all it takes is asking, "what are you up to during all this?"
Lastly, if you're making your own campaign from scratch, focus on making encounters that bring out the players classes, races and abilities. Let the ranger have a chance to track something, let the bard have a stubborn informant that doesn't want to talk, let the dwarf have a chance to notice the seem in the stone wall no one else would've seen. It's easy to make and adventure that every participates, but it's something else to make an adventure that these adventurers were made for. Otherwise, any NPC could do it. Study the classes of your players, their profeciencies and abilities and backgrounds, give them chances to cooperate and shine alone, and most of the time they'll be so engrossed that they'll manage themselves. It may sound like I'm saying "just be bether at making your game", but when you think of it in terms of letting them explore their class and characters, especially early on, the more invested they'll be.
#OpenDnD. #DnDBegone
Here's things I do with my group (which sometimes swells up to 15 people at the table).
Primarily, my tactics for running large groups revolve around keeping the players actively engaged in playing the game - rather than playing on their phone, or chatting with another inactive player, or the like - as much as possible, even if it is just doing one of the things that normally the DM would be doing (which means that not only are the players active more often, but the "DM turn" of things takes me less time so there is less opportunity for players to tune-out).
I just was talking about the same thing on FB... here is my post. I hope a few of the things listed might help you too...
One of my 3 Ravnica groups consists of 17 players (so far). I am picking up peeps that are overflow from "Adventure League". I am only allowing 12 to play at any given time.
Here is what I am already doing. Some of these things save more time than others. Other items are there just so peeps get along better at the table (which also ultimately saves time).
1) The party sits in "order of initiative". Initiative moves clockwise around the table. the first player rolls for the whole group and gets to add their init bonus to the rolls everyone else counts down by one all the way around the table. The Monster goes after the player who ties init.
2) When it is a peeps turn I count down from 5. If the player has no idea then we move on.
3) I have encounters pre-separated into gladware. All minis are WYSIWYG, unless otherwise noted.
4) I have maps printed out and ready to go. rather than drawing them out.
5)I am going to make PC-Nameplates w/ their mini and Class/Race/Guild on them (Player suggestion).
6) We don't argue about rules. If they want to use a spell or ability they should have to book/spell card ready to hand to me if it needs to be referenced.
7) We use DND Beyond (right?!).
8) Players are encouraged to help out those that sit next to them...quietly.
9) The party levels up ONLY at the end of a session and they all level up at the same time.
10) No "exposed" Dimir. There may be Dimir, but the rest of the part can't know about them infiltrating the Guild they have infiltrated. This will result in their character being "recalled". I also share info with these players via informants between sessions. This is to prevent internal party strife, and still allow someone to play the concept they want.
11) Character creation is "Point Buy" which is ultimately faster and fairer to all involved
12) Ravnica only Races (2 racial exceptions: Tieflings for Cult of Rakdos, and Aasimar for Orzhov Syndicate and Boros Legion)
13) As a point of reference for my players I made a "World" website: https://sites.google.com/view/oracle-of-the-city/home
14) I made a Pact Team website 3 so far: (this is the one for my largest group I am still updating the party section) each of my groups run this many players: 12, 3, and 2 players. This is the site for the largest party. If someone leaves the group I leave them on the Party page for now...I may make a new page to ID those characters that are dead or no longer active. in the future. https://sites.google.com/view/defenders-of-the-vault/home
15) There is a second DM for this too and he is running the fourth Pact Team called "The Knick Knacks".
16) Since all of my encounters are WYSIWYG as far as minis are concerned I am working with another DM/Newer Painter/Player to paint up Reaper Bones (from bones 3) for some encounters. In trade he gets minis that I have not gotten around to painting in the last couple of years. My "Bin of Shame" is slowly getting to a manageable level.
:)
May the Oracle of the City guide you and keep you from all harm.
I have players pre-roll their attacks and damage (I trust them to be fair) at the start of a round. Then I just ask them if they hit and what the damage was. The fights fly by.
This is what I did running a one-shot for 7 people:
- No long character introductions, it will take up half your evening
- Instead I asked everyone for the looks of their characters and wrote an intro for the whole group introducing their characters
- Before even starting the storytelling I made clear that managing their characters, spellslots etc. is their responsiblities as it's impossible to consult or keep of track of that for 7 players
- I wrote a story that led them straight into something that required their action
- Even when not in combat I let them take turns (both to keep it going and to involve the players which are from nature more on the background)
- I even took a hourglass with me, just in case it starts taking to long (didn't need it yet)
- Make a table with: real-life name, character name, race, class, alignment, looks and characteristics for a good overview and keep one column open, for writing down initiative (add a few empty lines for monsters)
- Come up with a logical choice of choosing targets in combat so it makes sense to you and the players (I use first seen, first contact and most damage done to creature)
This is what I remember from the top of my hat, any cheat-sheet you have will be of help basicly!
Regards,
Rob.
I regularly run a campaign for 7-8 players so these are the things I try to do:
1. Use Baseball Hitting setup. Focus on the player "up" to bat, but let the next player in line know that they are "on deck" and the player after them that they are "in the hole".
2. Use "swarms" of creatures. Due to the action economy of dnd 5e, large creatures, if they are low on initiative roles are going to get squashed by the characters. Figure it's like this: The party gets 5-7 "Shots" in before your BBG even gets 1 and that's IF the BBG hits. I like to attack with a BBG but bring some minions in on it. So Dragon that has a tribe of Kobolds working with it. Then I group the kobolds into groups of 3-5 and if they hit, they each hit for average damage (rolling for each K's damage would take forever) this way the party has to divide their attention. Kobolds, orcs, bats, you name it. I had my group go up against a pack of blink dogs...and they loved it. They couldn't focus on the Alpha dog as it kept blinking away...
3. Use area of effect effects. This is a little BG3'ish, but a red dragon breathing fire is HOT... Therefore the rock is now slagged and anyone that steps (or even better gets knocked prone on it) are going to get burned...so 1d4 or 1d6 of damage (depending on how tough you want the encounter to be)
4. Use legendary actions. These can be a lifesaver for your creature if it has it. Remember...the PC's are in THE CREATURE'S LAIR. Think of it like this...if you were attacked by strangers in your home...you know where the weapons are (bat, knife, etc.) so you'll have an advantage. The lair is the creature's "home" so let it have the advantage of knowing where the "good spots" are to hide/duck behind.
5. This is a weird one, but I've found it helpful...roll attack and damage in front of your players. They want to feel the "thrill" of the roll. Also make them make any death saves in front of the whole table. Bonus: if you use your minions to drag the dropped PC to a secure location, it helps keep others from reviving them all the time. Seems cruel...but again...this is the monster's home. Everyone needs a snack now and then.
6. Finally, don't be afraid of killing your PC's. this is something I've struggled with. These are your friends and you want them to succeed...but if you're unwilling to "pull the trigger" then they will quickly get bored because there's no real consequences. Killing a couple of them (but let them roll a new character of course!) let's them feel a little thrill
Here's a bonus that I've used to help craft a kewl story with my PC's. - Gold sucks, (it's really boring and kinda lazy after awhile). SO I like to give out magic items as loot, but I put a twist on them. Everything has it's bonuses...but they also have their issue. Even if it's cosmetic, it becomes a great hook for the players to Role Play. Example, we've got a PC on our squad that picked up a Luck Stone that's shaped like a fox head. So I gave them a chance to attune to it, with the chance to get extra bonus, but if they failed the role, they get all the +1 saves and etc...but they are slowly turning into a fox. He rolled like crap, and I let him know that he was turning into a fox. Now, I remind him he's starting to sprout a tail and his hair has turned red (which is hilarious since he's technically blue.) The rest of the squad has jumped on it, and I've made sure that the NPC's are making note of his odd look. He's a lawful evil wizard, so people giving him side eye and making comments has really crimped his style of trying to be a bad-ass. Lol
Good luck!
I'm running an 8 player campaign. 😭😭😭
Turn order is your friend for any decision making or inflection point, pre-rolling is your friend (I always trust people ----but if they cheat and I notice it - the mob will crit on them the rest of the night.), session prep and not complicated mobs are also your friend. I use D&D Beyond create 1 Character load all the creature attack stuff on that character and roll digitally always.
Lastly I think 7 is the absolute maximum any more than that and you basically do not have time to allow the players the social aspect of the game - and for many players that is at least as important as rolling dice. Good Luck big groups can be a ton of fun but require more prep and attention to detail from the DM.
One thing I use for my games (which are streamed) is Improved Initiative. It has a "Player view" so that anyone can watch on their device or screen what the current combat order is, how many HP everyone has, the monster states etc. It also provides room for players to add tags (dm approved) to the monsters so it's another tool for interaction and cooperation with the "mechanics" of combat.
I've used it off stream just as a way to make it easier for the players to see how long until their next turn, get reminders how many baddies there are etc. It also has a feature to "hide" the monster HP behind labels of "Healthy/ Wounded/ Bloodied/ Dead". That can help keep the players from asking too many questions unless you're the sort who prefers to jsut say "It has 14 HP left".
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Tips, Tricks, Maps: Lantern Noir Presents
**Streams hosted at at twitch.tv/LaternNoir
MAN THIS HELPED! I got 9+ in my group and I can’t tell you how much this helped our last session