I am an experienced DM that has made quite a few campaigns. I have mostly done campaigns with 2-3 people. This most recent campaign will have FIVE. I am not used to such a large group, any tips?
This campaign will be heavier on puzzles and problem solving and less on combat (although there will be some). It will be a short campaign like 1-4 sessions ideally and I am giving them characters so we can test out ideas.
Looking for tips with playing with a larger group and may puzzle suggestions for a larger group if anyone has any.
Everything will take more time - especially combat, but everything else as well. Instead of just throwing in more enemies, consider keeping their number low, but instead use tougher ones. That way your turn doesn't take forever.
I don't know your style of playing, but if you usually play out a lot of things like buying things in stores etc, consider doing that slightly more off game. Having 5 players roleplaying through a shopping spree in perhaps five different stores can take a lot of time, and can get boring.
Talk about staying in character. Do not allow phones or things like that at your table (if you are playing at a table and not online). With five players it's usually at least one who doesn't have anything to do, and it is very easy to start to check some social media when waiting for yours attention. This is a huge difference between 2 and 5 players. With two players it's absolutely possible to have both's attention, and to give both attention at the same time. At five, that is almost impossible.
On Critical Role the players who's not in the limelight just waits and listens, I usually allows (and encourage) my players to rather talk in character to each other if I have to play something out with only one or two of the characters.
Try to get in the habit engaging with each player outside of combat. In combat with initiative it's pretty easy, but outside of it you will probably have a couple of people who dominate the conversation. Just check with the quieter ones to make sure their characters are doing something while the more vocal player's characters are doing things. Some players like to be quiet, which is fine, but good to check.
Puzzles requiring multiple people are good. Keeping communication between the characters helps. Instead of one character needing to run down a hall out of sight and hearing, it is easier if they can communicate directly, but all have different functions. One has to pull a lever, while another cranks a wheel, and one is lowered down on a rope by a fourth to do something so the 5th can <fill in the blank>. Might seem a little contrived to have 5 tasks with 5 players, but you can make it 4 or 6 and see what they do.
during combat, call out in addition to whose turn it currently is, who is "on deck" and has the next turn. A lot of players don't think about what they want to do until its their turn, and this will get them thinking earlier.
Try and help players to generate backstories that interact with the backstories of the other players/the world that they can slowly discover. If you can give your players something to talk about in character that matters to both of them then player engagement should improve markedly despite it being a larger group. And I always feel really good when I see players talking seriously in character about a story element that I helped plant in their backstories.
Talk to your players during character creation and see where there's spots where the stories can interact.
Otherwise, from a mechanical standpoint, you also shouldn't be afraid to throw bigger combat encounters at them than you would a 3 person group, since combat CR is calculated for smaller parties.
Would an examples of this be two characters are siblings or have worked for the same company in the past? Or having them be from the same region or city?
Would an examples of this be two characters are siblings or have worked for the same company in the past? Or having them be from the same region or city?
Having all the players being siblings is a great way to make sure they stay together! However, that was not part of your question, and you have not said anything about that you are concerned about this. I think what CharlesThePlant meant was more along the lines: if two players have a noble in their background they don't like, try to make it the same guy. Basically instead of creating 5 completely different backstories (difficult for you to remember and keep in mind), try to make like a couple that all the players relate to. They could be from the same village that was attacked by orcs, they can all have served in the same company etc. Give either all or at least some of them a history together so you don't sit with 5 PC's on the first session that doesn't know anything about each other. It's often better to just say: "You two served together in the army, you other three grew up together in the village that was destroyed by the fighting". That way you give your players a feeling of alliance with each other from the beginning because this can be a little more problematic with more players. Two characters HAS to find a way to get along, with five, you sometimes run into the issue: one (or more) of the players doesn't have any reason of staying with the group.
The main issue with larger groups is keeping everyone engaged. Everything else is pretty much the same. Encounters - combat/social/exploration - might be scaled to the party size (e.g. more or higher CR opponents) but other than that the key to keeping engagement is to keep things moving and try to keep everyone involved. If one of the characters wants to go off on their own this can really slow down a session with more people. A group of 7 people who all split up ends up taking 35 minutes for 5 minutes of game time each. The others spend 30 minutes getting bored. This type of play might work with 2 or 3 folks but starts to break down with more players so encourage the players to stay together. (Splitting in two is usually doable as long as you make sure to give each group equal play time).
However, even in situations where everyone is together, you need to be proactive in giving everyone a voice if they want to do something. Some folks are quiet, others boisterous, aggressive or social. The quiet player often needs to be specifically asked if they want to do something since they won't necessarily jump in and it is up to the DM to make that happen.
Five players isn't much different from 3 or 4. When you get up to 7 players, the DM often needs to adjust play and keep folks watching (be sure to give folks the opportunity to participate but if they don't want to do anything then don't make them).
Finally, as mentioned above for combat, let each person know who is taking their turn and who is next. If folks are thinking of casting a spell they should look it up before their turn. If they want to attack or move they should have more or less figured that out before their turn comes around. This keeps combat moving more quickly.
In addition, if folks know what they are doing have them roll the attack and damage dice at the same time. If they have multiple attacks (and the dice available) roll all the attacks at once. On top of that, if a modified roll of 20 or above will hit then say that since that saves even more time. The player can look at their dice, if the modified attack roll is over 20 they hit, add damage and tell the DM how much and the type in case it matters. Combat goes much slower when a player picks up their d20, rolls, "does a 22 hit?", searches through their dice for the d10, rolls, umm 4+5 is 9 damage, next attacks, searches for the d20, rolls again, "18 does that hit?", searches for the d10 again, rolls, "umm 6+5 another 11 damage". I've played in games where I roll all my attacks with damage dice, ask about any borderline rolls, report damage and my turn is done in 30 seconds while having to wait about 3-5 minutes for another player to do the same dice rolls. So there are certainly some tactics that can be used to speed up combat which can get quite slow with a large number of players (though 5 is still pretty good)
Would an examples of this be two characters are siblings or have worked for the same company in the past? Or having them be from the same region or city?
Having all the players being siblings is a great way to make sure they stay together! However, that was not part of your question, and you have not said anything about that you are concerned about this. I think what CharlesThePlant meant was more along the lines: if two players have a noble in their background they don't like, try to make it the same guy. Basically instead of creating 5 completely different backstories (difficult for you to remember and keep in mind), try to make like a couple that all the players relate to. They could be from the same village that was attacked by orcs, they can all have served in the same company etc. Give either all or at least some of them a history together so you don't sit with 5 PC's on the first session that doesn't know anything about each other. It's often better to just say: "You two served together in the army, you other three grew up together in the village that was destroyed by the fighting". That way you give your players a feeling of alliance with each other from the beginning because this can be a little more problematic with more players. Two characters HAS to find a way to get along, with five, you sometimes run into the issue: one (or more) of the players doesn't have any reason of staying with the group.
It doesn't even have to be with each other. In my current game I have a soldier character who left his army life behind after a city he was protecting was sacked because command didn't listen when he reported the enemy is approaching and moved the garrison away, leaving the city defenseless. What he didn't know at the time we settled on this backstory was that the main villain had a direct hand in making sure he failed and left the army in disgrace (what he still doesn't know is that it's because the main villain is a former-hero from an alternate future who's using foreknowledge to re-write the world, and he did that out of revenge against the soldier's alt future self for failing to save his world). As my player's been slowly uncovering the mystery of why the city he was protecting fell, he'll be drawn more and more into the plot as it engages directly with his character.
I also have another character in that game who's a warlock and former archaeologist who can't remember how he got his powers-- he just remembers that he was on a dig, found this weird orb, and then he woke up days later with his team all dead, the orb gone, his mind addled, and warlock powers. Now I assumed what he expected me to tell him was that he somehow killed all his men, so as a fun subversion of that, I had what really happened be our friendly neighborhood Main Villain launching an attack on the dig sight and kill ing everyone, including the warlock (he doesn't know it's out of revenge as well due to his alternate future self dooming that world), who was then revived by the orb as his patron's essence chose to reanimate him as her instrument.
So now, both those characters had backgrounds that engage with the world, the main plot, and however indirectly, each other's. They both have in common the mystery of who this mysterious villain really is, and why he's doing what he's doing.
And I did that without leaning on either character to include certain backstory elements, I just looked for opportunities in their backstories to see what connected to what. Maybe the ninja clan that your party's Ranger was ejected from for sparing a victim is the same clan that assassinated the king of your country and kicked off the main plot? Maybe another party member lost family to the ninja clan and can't work out how to feel about the other party member after they find out? Maybe there's a spy in the king's court and the rogue suspects it's a former partner of theirs? Maybe that partner is the one who paid the ninja clan to take out the previous king so they could rule from the shadows? Now you have a thread that connects three players and multiple other world/plot threads for players to gradually discover and engage in.
Tl;dr: look for opportunities to tell stories within your characters' stories.
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I am an experienced DM that has made quite a few campaigns. I have mostly done campaigns with 2-3 people. This most recent campaign will have FIVE. I am not used to such a large group, any tips?
This campaign will be heavier on puzzles and problem solving and less on combat (although there will be some). It will be a short campaign like 1-4 sessions ideally and I am giving them characters so we can test out ideas.
Looking for tips with playing with a larger group and may puzzle suggestions for a larger group if anyone has any.
Everything will take more time - especially combat, but everything else as well. Instead of just throwing in more enemies, consider keeping their number low, but instead use tougher ones. That way your turn doesn't take forever.
I don't know your style of playing, but if you usually play out a lot of things like buying things in stores etc, consider doing that slightly more off game. Having 5 players roleplaying through a shopping spree in perhaps five different stores can take a lot of time, and can get boring.
Talk about staying in character. Do not allow phones or things like that at your table (if you are playing at a table and not online). With five players it's usually at least one who doesn't have anything to do, and it is very easy to start to check some social media when waiting for yours attention. This is a huge difference between 2 and 5 players. With two players it's absolutely possible to have both's attention, and to give both attention at the same time. At five, that is almost impossible.
On Critical Role the players who's not in the limelight just waits and listens, I usually allows (and encourage) my players to rather talk in character to each other if I have to play something out with only one or two of the characters.
Ludo ergo sum!
Try to get in the habit engaging with each player outside of combat. In combat with initiative it's pretty easy, but outside of it you will probably have a couple of people who dominate the conversation. Just check with the quieter ones to make sure their characters are doing something while the more vocal player's characters are doing things. Some players like to be quiet, which is fine, but good to check.
Puzzles requiring multiple people are good. Keeping communication between the characters helps. Instead of one character needing to run down a hall out of sight and hearing, it is easier if they can communicate directly, but all have different functions. One has to pull a lever, while another cranks a wheel, and one is lowered down on a rope by a fourth to do something so the 5th can <fill in the blank>. Might seem a little contrived to have 5 tasks with 5 players, but you can make it 4 or 6 and see what they do.
Everyone is the main character of their story
during combat, call out in addition to whose turn it currently is, who is "on deck" and has the next turn. A lot of players don't think about what they want to do until its their turn, and this will get them thinking earlier.
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Try and help players to generate backstories that interact with the backstories of the other players/the world that they can slowly discover. If you can give your players something to talk about in character that matters to both of them then player engagement should improve markedly despite it being a larger group. And I always feel really good when I see players talking seriously in character about a story element that I helped plant in their backstories.
Talk to your players during character creation and see where there's spots where the stories can interact.
Otherwise, from a mechanical standpoint, you also shouldn't be afraid to throw bigger combat encounters at them than you would a 3 person group, since combat CR is calculated for smaller parties.
Would an examples of this be two characters are siblings or have worked for the same company in the past? Or having them be from the same region or city?
Having all the players being siblings is a great way to make sure they stay together! However, that was not part of your question, and you have not said anything about that you are concerned about this. I think what CharlesThePlant meant was more along the lines: if two players have a noble in their background they don't like, try to make it the same guy. Basically instead of creating 5 completely different backstories (difficult for you to remember and keep in mind), try to make like a couple that all the players relate to. They could be from the same village that was attacked by orcs, they can all have served in the same company etc. Give either all or at least some of them a history together so you don't sit with 5 PC's on the first session that doesn't know anything about each other. It's often better to just say: "You two served together in the army, you other three grew up together in the village that was destroyed by the fighting". That way you give your players a feeling of alliance with each other from the beginning because this can be a little more problematic with more players. Two characters HAS to find a way to get along, with five, you sometimes run into the issue: one (or more) of the players doesn't have any reason of staying with the group.
Ludo ergo sum!
The main issue with larger groups is keeping everyone engaged. Everything else is pretty much the same. Encounters - combat/social/exploration - might be scaled to the party size (e.g. more or higher CR opponents) but other than that the key to keeping engagement is to keep things moving and try to keep everyone involved. If one of the characters wants to go off on their own this can really slow down a session with more people. A group of 7 people who all split up ends up taking 35 minutes for 5 minutes of game time each. The others spend 30 minutes getting bored. This type of play might work with 2 or 3 folks but starts to break down with more players so encourage the players to stay together. (Splitting in two is usually doable as long as you make sure to give each group equal play time).
However, even in situations where everyone is together, you need to be proactive in giving everyone a voice if they want to do something. Some folks are quiet, others boisterous, aggressive or social. The quiet player often needs to be specifically asked if they want to do something since they won't necessarily jump in and it is up to the DM to make that happen.
Five players isn't much different from 3 or 4. When you get up to 7 players, the DM often needs to adjust play and keep folks watching (be sure to give folks the opportunity to participate but if they don't want to do anything then don't make them).
Finally, as mentioned above for combat, let each person know who is taking their turn and who is next. If folks are thinking of casting a spell they should look it up before their turn. If they want to attack or move they should have more or less figured that out before their turn comes around. This keeps combat moving more quickly.
In addition, if folks know what they are doing have them roll the attack and damage dice at the same time. If they have multiple attacks (and the dice available) roll all the attacks at once. On top of that, if a modified roll of 20 or above will hit then say that since that saves even more time. The player can look at their dice, if the modified attack roll is over 20 they hit, add damage and tell the DM how much and the type in case it matters. Combat goes much slower when a player picks up their d20, rolls, "does a 22 hit?", searches through their dice for the d10, rolls, umm 4+5 is 9 damage, next attacks, searches for the d20, rolls again, "18 does that hit?", searches for the d10 again, rolls, "umm 6+5 another 11 damage". I've played in games where I roll all my attacks with damage dice, ask about any borderline rolls, report damage and my turn is done in 30 seconds while having to wait about 3-5 minutes for another player to do the same dice rolls. So there are certainly some tactics that can be used to speed up combat which can get quite slow with a large number of players (though 5 is still pretty good)
It doesn't even have to be with each other. In my current game I have a soldier character who left his army life behind after a city he was protecting was sacked because command didn't listen when he reported the enemy is approaching and moved the garrison away, leaving the city defenseless. What he didn't know at the time we settled on this backstory was that the main villain had a direct hand in making sure he failed and left the army in disgrace (what he still doesn't know is that it's because the main villain is a former-hero from an alternate future who's using foreknowledge to re-write the world, and he did that out of revenge against the soldier's alt future self for failing to save his world). As my player's been slowly uncovering the mystery of why the city he was protecting fell, he'll be drawn more and more into the plot as it engages directly with his character.
I also have another character in that game who's a warlock and former archaeologist who can't remember how he got his powers-- he just remembers that he was on a dig, found this weird orb, and then he woke up days later with his team all dead, the orb gone, his mind addled, and warlock powers. Now I assumed what he expected me to tell him was that he somehow killed all his men, so as a fun subversion of that, I had what really happened be our friendly neighborhood Main Villain launching an attack on the dig sight and kill ing everyone, including the warlock (he doesn't know it's out of revenge as well due to his alternate future self dooming that world), who was then revived by the orb as his patron's essence chose to reanimate him as her instrument.
So now, both those characters had backgrounds that engage with the world, the main plot, and however indirectly, each other's. They both have in common the mystery of who this mysterious villain really is, and why he's doing what he's doing.
And I did that without leaning on either character to include certain backstory elements, I just looked for opportunities in their backstories to see what connected to what. Maybe the ninja clan that your party's Ranger was ejected from for sparing a victim is the same clan that assassinated the king of your country and kicked off the main plot? Maybe another party member lost family to the ninja clan and can't work out how to feel about the other party member after they find out? Maybe there's a spy in the king's court and the rogue suspects it's a former partner of theirs? Maybe that partner is the one who paid the ninja clan to take out the previous king so they could rule from the shadows? Now you have a thread that connects three players and multiple other world/plot threads for players to gradually discover and engage in.
Tl;dr: look for opportunities to tell stories within your characters' stories.