Was introduced to D&D around 1980's and hung on tightly through the 90's making lots of nerd friends and meeting my nerd wife. Stopped playing about the time we started making nerd babies. For whatever reason I've remained close to my nerd friends throughout lifes stages and I'd been wanting to introduce my nerd kids to D&D but was apprehensive about 3d and 4e which I'd never played. While visiting a local hobby shop I got to talking to them about D&D and they turned me onto 5e about a year and a half ago, explained it was like a streamlined version of 2e which sounded very appealing to me, so I picked up Lost Mines and started reading and *bam* the old bug hit me hard.
So, fast-forward to fall of 2016. I've got a nerd wife and nerd friends. We've all created a bunch of nerd children. All of the nerd children are best friends. We do gaming cons together. Camp all summer together. Get together whenever we can to nerd out. We are talking high density herd of nerd here.
Well that got out of hand in a hurry:
I my nerd kids that we are going to play D&D. They are stoked. They tell their nerd friends. Their nerd friends are stoked because they want to try D&D too and would Mr. Pwnocchio pretty please teach them to play too? Whelp. I guess a few more would be o.k, right?
Well, word grows and more nerdlettes want in on the action and suddenly I'm looking at like 16 kids that want to play. Jeez, I just can't say know to the nerd youth so I send out the bat signal to their nerd parents and some of the Methuselah nerd veterans I'm still close with. I need help and how can we do this? We get a handful of us together. 40 somethings that played a lot of D&D and other RPG's both as players and DM's and we has out a plan to get all these kids together as well as their parents should they want to rekindle their nerd fire.
Player ages have ranged from 8-years to late 40's. I was even able to rope some folks into this that I hadn't played with nor seen much of in 15 years. Bonus.
The Plan:
We decide to have 4 co-DM's running a single campaign in Forgotten Realms. We'll start them in Lost Mines of Phandelver since it seems to leverage parallel-pathing in it's flow chart, it won't require any of the DM's to home-brew too much, and it will give the kids a taste. Because the kids are all new to this we wanted to start with a means of the DM's providing them direction and splitting them into manageable parties so we settled on starting them as green recruits into the Bloodaxe Mercenary party. Each DM would run an NPC that would serve as an officer in a new Bloodaxe chapter-house that was being founded in Neverwinter.
This setting would allow the DM's an easy means of explaining why all these odd-ball characters are congregating and give them a launch point for the Lost Mines adventure. Working for a singular company would allow us to have 'company meetings' at the start of each session where the players would rehash what happened in the previous session, what they found out, what they killed, did they make any money for the company, etc... Then we could split them up into teams of manageable size to go out and tackle some aspect of the story they want to investigate.
How it worked out:
Fortunately one of the DM's has a home big enough to accommodate a large number of players. We started meeting once per month to play, generally 5 or 6 hour sessions. At our first meeting the GM's explained the setting, their characters starting role in this new mercenary company. We talked about general role-playing philosophy, then helped them role up their characters. We gave them the next month to submit character backgrounds. In all we ended up with roughly 28 players and 4 DM's. A few players inevitably miss an event so the DM's generally have to manage 5 or 6 players at a time. Neat.
We've held about 5 sessions so far and the general framework we've set up is working. With the parallel story pathing in Lost Mines we've been able to send parties out to investigate different story arcs then return to the merc camp set up in the town green to share with the other players their stories. We've given the players some degree of liberty to determine who they get paired up with on each mission, but the party mixes have changed significantly every session. It's allowing the young players to interact with different DM's which is nice because of the DM's have their own style/flavor. It's also allowing parents the opportunity to introduce their kids to this great hobby one session while teaming up with other adults the next session.
Before each sessions the DM's have been meeting at local breweries for pre-game planning. Where are we? Where do we want to get in the story this session? Etc... This meeting is a tremendous anxiety reliever for myself. It makes it manageable. The DM's I work with are all easy going, creative, and competent. Also, a pint helps the creative juices to flow. Sometimes one party will lag behind the other groups in their 'mission' and we'll have to home brew up some content to keep the more progressed group occupied, but in general we've been able to keep the story going forward and create plenty of role-playing opportunity for the players.
We had to take roughly a 6 month break due to busy summer schedules and other life events, but suddenly around the holidays I started getting multiple kidletts and even some adults demanding when we were going to start playing again. Was nice feeling knowing that they were really enjoying the game.
Tonight the DM's are meeting to figure out the attack on Cragmaw Castle. This will be the first time all of the various parties converge on one mission so we envision expanding the size of the castle and adding content, but we don't know if the players will choose a multi-pronged attack, or a diversionary attack with some covert group sneaking in the backdoor. We'll see what they do.
Lessons learned:
In this kind of setting you really have to key on how your younger players are holding up. In my youth we simply couldn't get enough of this game. We'd play for 12 hours straight and then want to play again the next night, but that was when we were in high school. You've got to be able to detect when your younger nerds have reached their limit for the session and be willing to wrap it up when that happens. Otherwise they'll get distracted and the more focused players will get frustrated.
Gotta help the home owner set up and clean afterwards. Keep those people happy. Bring them a six pack or a bottle of wine. Set up a potluck list and make everyone participate in bringing food/snacks. This is critical.
Note passing is more difficult. Sometimes a player passes me a note that relates to something another DM's initiated in a prior session. Be patient. Do your best to improv. Follow up with the other DM during a bathroom break or after the session, but don't shut the game down to sort it out.
Looking Ahead:
I expect we'll be done with The Lost Mines in the next 3 sessions. After that we'll have to decide if we want to delve into one of the other official story-archs or go home-brew for a bit. I suspect we'll start letting some of them explore their own personal plots and pursuing job postings back at the chapter house in Neverwinter. Probably start planting the seeds of DM-ship in the heads of some of the teens in the group "Hey, you know, if you want to run a one shot for your buds, you can do that within this campaign or as your own group." :)
Anyone else have experience playing a single campaign in a hoard sized gaming group? How'd it work out? Lessons learned?
I played once in a group of 8 for a time. It was very hard going.
Key things are make sure initiative is tracked by the party as well as the DM, so everyone is ready to do what they need on their turn. The other things is keep the party at the same level. We had two members join at level one we were five, it wasn't fun for the level one party members.
Other than that just make sure you're prepared, read adventures and know them, have a DM's screen ect. I'd also recommend using something like Microsoft one note to track the campaign with the other DM's, perhaps get the players to do some notes to make your life easier.
My only similar experience was DMing a Tier 2 group at an EPIC at a con. It was a large scale attack with an army of 100 characters (goodies) attacking the baddies. We had 70-something PCs, so almost no NPCs needed for the story. It was awesome and quite amazing how it all held together. Props to you and your group for making it work with around 30.
Anyone else have experience playing a single campaign in a hoard sized gaming group? How'd it work out? Lessons learned?
I love big groups - however many I can fit at the table, even if by "the table" I actually mean "push those two tables together and gather all the chairs in the house to surround it".
It often works out, but sometimes it doesn't. The lesson learned that feels the most important (but also is likely the most obvious) is this; The bigger the group is, the more important it is that everyone involved are on the same page as to what they want from the gaming experience, and that everyone is compatible in- and out-of-character.
My first 15 person campaign was when I was still very new to the table-top gaming thing. In fact, it started my third ever session, and was the first session I'd participated in that had more people involved than me (as DM) and my cousin (as the sole player character). It went fantastically well because all of the players, more relatives and close friends of mine and my cousin's, were equally new to the game so our expectations were equally non-existent and nobody new the rules except for me so there was zero opportunity for arguments to break out. The players even ended up having the same thoughts about what sort of party to put together - someone picked a halfling thief, another person was interested in playing a magic-user, and all the rest were struck by the same idea that was basically "Oh, like in The Hobbit! I'll play a dwarf!" The campaign only lasted until the end of summer (I think there were 9 sessions, but it could have been even less) and the party managed to reclaim a lost dwarven stronghold from the orcs and other monsters that had overrun it.
My most recent 15 person campaign, though... I was hosting a game in a gaming store, so I had to be open to all comers. Everyone ended up constantly bickering over play-style differences (one player lecturing others about how to play faster in combat, and trying to drag out every in-town bit of role-play with far too much detail about his character's relaxation and hygiene practices - another just hanging out with friends and not having a clue what was going on in-game - a few others power-gaming to try and "ruin" my campaign - and most of the rest just wanting everyone to chill out and have fun playing). It took hours to get anything done, taxed my memory because a dozen or so of the players needed constant reminder of what their characters' were capable of and how to resolve those capabilities (a few because they hadn't learned yet, and too many because they were deliberately trying to get one over on the group by feigning ignorance that their character wasn't even more powerful). It was such a rough experience that I've completely sworn off DMing for any game or in any situation in which I am not 100% in control of who gets to participate. I can't even remember what kind of adventures the campaign involved because all of the negativity of the group not fitting together has drowned out all the other details.
Some of the players that were involved are part of my current core group of players, and we can all look back and share a laugh about how silly that particular campaign became.
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Background:
Was introduced to D&D around 1980's and hung on tightly through the 90's making lots of nerd friends and meeting my nerd wife. Stopped playing about the time we started making nerd babies. For whatever reason I've remained close to my nerd friends throughout lifes stages and I'd been wanting to introduce my nerd kids to D&D but was apprehensive about 3d and 4e which I'd never played. While visiting a local hobby shop I got to talking to them about D&D and they turned me onto 5e about a year and a half ago, explained it was like a streamlined version of 2e which sounded very appealing to me, so I picked up Lost Mines and started reading and *bam* the old bug hit me hard.
So, fast-forward to fall of 2016. I've got a nerd wife and nerd friends. We've all created a bunch of nerd children. All of the nerd children are best friends. We do gaming cons together. Camp all summer together. Get together whenever we can to nerd out. We are talking high density herd of nerd here.
Well that got out of hand in a hurry:
I my nerd kids that we are going to play D&D. They are stoked. They tell their nerd friends. Their nerd friends are stoked because they want to try D&D too and would Mr. Pwnocchio pretty please teach them to play too? Whelp. I guess a few more would be o.k, right?
Well, word grows and more nerdlettes want in on the action and suddenly I'm looking at like 16 kids that want to play. Jeez, I just can't say know to the nerd youth so I send out the bat signal to their nerd parents and some of the Methuselah nerd veterans I'm still close with. I need help and how can we do this? We get a handful of us together. 40 somethings that played a lot of D&D and other RPG's both as players and DM's and we has out a plan to get all these kids together as well as their parents should they want to rekindle their nerd fire.
Player ages have ranged from 8-years to late 40's. I was even able to rope some folks into this that I hadn't played with nor seen much of in 15 years. Bonus.
The Plan:
We decide to have 4 co-DM's running a single campaign in Forgotten Realms. We'll start them in Lost Mines of Phandelver since it seems to leverage parallel-pathing in it's flow chart, it won't require any of the DM's to home-brew too much, and it will give the kids a taste. Because the kids are all new to this we wanted to start with a means of the DM's providing them direction and splitting them into manageable parties so we settled on starting them as green recruits into the Bloodaxe Mercenary party. Each DM would run an NPC that would serve as an officer in a new Bloodaxe chapter-house that was being founded in Neverwinter.
This setting would allow the DM's an easy means of explaining why all these odd-ball characters are congregating and give them a launch point for the Lost Mines adventure. Working for a singular company would allow us to have 'company meetings' at the start of each session where the players would rehash what happened in the previous session, what they found out, what they killed, did they make any money for the company, etc... Then we could split them up into teams of manageable size to go out and tackle some aspect of the story they want to investigate.
How it worked out:
Fortunately one of the DM's has a home big enough to accommodate a large number of players. We started meeting once per month to play, generally 5 or 6 hour sessions. At our first meeting the GM's explained the setting, their characters starting role in this new mercenary company. We talked about general role-playing philosophy, then helped them role up their characters. We gave them the next month to submit character backgrounds. In all we ended up with roughly 28 players and 4 DM's. A few players inevitably miss an event so the DM's generally have to manage 5 or 6 players at a time. Neat.
We've held about 5 sessions so far and the general framework we've set up is working. With the parallel story pathing in Lost Mines we've been able to send parties out to investigate different story arcs then return to the merc camp set up in the town green to share with the other players their stories. We've given the players some degree of liberty to determine who they get paired up with on each mission, but the party mixes have changed significantly every session. It's allowing the young players to interact with different DM's which is nice because of the DM's have their own style/flavor. It's also allowing parents the opportunity to introduce their kids to this great hobby one session while teaming up with other adults the next session.
Before each sessions the DM's have been meeting at local breweries for pre-game planning. Where are we? Where do we want to get in the story this session? Etc... This meeting is a tremendous anxiety reliever for myself. It makes it manageable. The DM's I work with are all easy going, creative, and competent. Also, a pint helps the creative juices to flow. Sometimes one party will lag behind the other groups in their 'mission' and we'll have to home brew up some content to keep the more progressed group occupied, but in general we've been able to keep the story going forward and create plenty of role-playing opportunity for the players.
We had to take roughly a 6 month break due to busy summer schedules and other life events, but suddenly around the holidays I started getting multiple kidletts and even some adults demanding when we were going to start playing again. Was nice feeling knowing that they were really enjoying the game.
Tonight the DM's are meeting to figure out the attack on Cragmaw Castle. This will be the first time all of the various parties converge on one mission so we envision expanding the size of the castle and adding content, but we don't know if the players will choose a multi-pronged attack, or a diversionary attack with some covert group sneaking in the backdoor. We'll see what they do.
Lessons learned:
In this kind of setting you really have to key on how your younger players are holding up. In my youth we simply couldn't get enough of this game. We'd play for 12 hours straight and then want to play again the next night, but that was when we were in high school. You've got to be able to detect when your younger nerds have reached their limit for the session and be willing to wrap it up when that happens. Otherwise they'll get distracted and the more focused players will get frustrated.
Gotta help the home owner set up and clean afterwards. Keep those people happy. Bring them a six pack or a bottle of wine. Set up a potluck list and make everyone participate in bringing food/snacks. This is critical.
Note passing is more difficult. Sometimes a player passes me a note that relates to something another DM's initiated in a prior session. Be patient. Do your best to improv. Follow up with the other DM during a bathroom break or after the session, but don't shut the game down to sort it out.
Looking Ahead:
I expect we'll be done with The Lost Mines in the next 3 sessions. After that we'll have to decide if we want to delve into one of the other official story-archs or go home-brew for a bit. I suspect we'll start letting some of them explore their own personal plots and pursuing job postings back at the chapter house in Neverwinter. Probably start planting the seeds of DM-ship in the heads of some of the teens in the group "Hey, you know, if you want to run a one shot for your buds, you can do that within this campaign or as your own group." :)
Anyone else have experience playing a single campaign in a hoard sized gaming group? How'd it work out? Lessons learned?
I played once in a group of 8 for a time. It was very hard going.
Key things are make sure initiative is tracked by the party as well as the DM, so everyone is ready to do what they need on their turn. The other things is keep the party at the same level. We had two members join at level one we were five, it wasn't fun for the level one party members.
Other than that just make sure you're prepared, read adventures and know them, have a DM's screen ect. I'd also recommend using something like Microsoft one note to track the campaign with the other DM's, perhaps get the players to do some notes to make your life easier.
My only similar experience was DMing a Tier 2 group at an EPIC at a con. It was a large scale attack with an army of 100 characters (goodies) attacking the baddies. We had 70-something PCs, so almost no NPCs needed for the story. It was awesome and quite amazing how it all held together. Props to you and your group for making it work with around 30.