For context, I'm running an adventuring school campaign that's very RP heavy. The players are an adventuring party in their first year at university (similar to Dimension 20's Fantasy High) and they're not at odds with each other at all. We're a few sessions in and theyre shaping up to be a tight knit party.: they share dorms and go to classes together.As sessions go on, it's becoming increasingly difficult to ensure the spotlight is shared equally, while also fitting in plot and character development, combat with increasingly difficult opponents and NPC interactions. It's also exhausting for me to juggle 8 players at once, especially as a newer DM.
A few questions:
Does anyone have any experience with running two groups in the same campaign? How did it go?
How do you handle RPing the player characters of one group's session as NPCs for another? How do you make sure that you as the DM aren't taking away player autonomy.
How do you blend what's happening in one groups session into the next?
Since the PCs are in school, maybe you can split the PCs into two separate groups - a field trip, or their lodgings need some urgent building work and the 8 PCs need to be moved into separate lodgings.
I would avoid trying to RP some other player's PC, because you are bound to say something or do something that the player would never have done with their PC.
With 8 players and heavy RP, there will be a lot of time where the players are either sitting around waiting for the DM to play the next NPC, or they will be RPing between themselves.
With two separate groups working in the same world, and in the same town, then that could encourage the players to discuss what is going on outside of your game sessions - so feeding some clues to each group that when combined provide something more would be nice for the players.
Providing clues that lead to different strands of adventure, so the group have to split up to follow the different strands simultaneously?
8 players is too many for a game of D&D. I'd say that 4 is best, 5 is ok, 6 is an absolute limit. Beyond that, encounters have to be over in 2 turns because anything else takes way too long. The standard monsters all become unusable too, so you're doing the right thing looking to split the game.
Separate them into alternate parallel timelines, removing the missing PCs from the other group (but opening the possibility of them jumping into each others' reality if the game calls for it or if 2 of the players drop out etc.) then run the same game for each group. Make sure they don't tell each other anything! It will be fun seeing how they progress differently.
How long has the campaign been running? Often one or two players will drop off within a few weeks of starting. And also as often, one or two will be absent from a session for whatever reason. In my current campaign, for example, we have 7 players, but it’s rare for more than 4-5 to make it to any given session. So, the problem may kind of solve itself.
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For context, I'm running an adventuring school campaign that's very RP heavy. The players are an adventuring party in their first year at university (similar to Dimension 20's Fantasy High) and they're not at odds with each other at all. We're a few sessions in and theyre shaping up to be a tight knit party.: they share dorms and go to classes together. As sessions go on, it's becoming increasingly difficult to ensure the spotlight is shared equally, while also fitting in plot and character development, combat with increasingly difficult opponents and NPC interactions. It's also exhausting for me to juggle 8 players at once, especially as a newer DM.
A few questions:
Since the PCs are in school, maybe you can split the PCs into two separate groups - a field trip, or their lodgings need some urgent building work and the 8 PCs need to be moved into separate lodgings.
I would avoid trying to RP some other player's PC, because you are bound to say something or do something that the player would never have done with their PC.
With 8 players and heavy RP, there will be a lot of time where the players are either sitting around waiting for the DM to play the next NPC, or they will be RPing between themselves.
With two separate groups working in the same world, and in the same town, then that could encourage the players to discuss what is going on outside of your game sessions - so feeding some clues to each group that when combined provide something more would be nice for the players.
Providing clues that lead to different strands of adventure, so the group have to split up to follow the different strands simultaneously?
8 players is too many for a game of D&D. I'd say that 4 is best, 5 is ok, 6 is an absolute limit. Beyond that, encounters have to be over in 2 turns because anything else takes way too long. The standard monsters all become unusable too, so you're doing the right thing looking to split the game.
Separate them into alternate parallel timelines, removing the missing PCs from the other group (but opening the possibility of them jumping into each others' reality if the game calls for it or if 2 of the players drop out etc.) then run the same game for each group. Make sure they don't tell each other anything! It will be fun seeing how they progress differently.
How long has the campaign been running? Often one or two players will drop off within a few weeks of starting. And also as often, one or two will be absent from a session for whatever reason. In my current campaign, for example, we have 7 players, but it’s rare for more than 4-5 to make it to any given session. So, the problem may kind of solve itself.