Quote from ChoirOfFire >>

Update: The app seems pretty neat. It's basic and sort of modular. You'll need to set up your own macros for dice rolls (they call them widgets) if you want to not have to do them manually every time. The interface looks like a group text conversation, with avatars and different colors. I wouldn't want to run an exceedingly complicated character on it. Artificer with homunculus and steel defender and racial spells... Would be a pain I think. But that's gonna be true no matter where you play lol.

My username on there is ChoirOfFire, as it is here.

 Hey Choir. I added you on there. I should be Amnon.

I think doing a PbPM is a good idea for now and perhaps those of us who are interested can test out the app and report to the rest.

Question of the day - What is your ideal number of players (either from a player or DM or both) perspective?

And for bonus question - why?

Quote from SirTawmis >>

Question of the day - What is your ideal number of players (either from a player or DM or both) perspective?

And for bonus question - why?

 
Heh. LOL

My personal ideal number of players is 5.

It represents the highest number of subplots I can properly juggle, lol, but really, is just a sweet spot for building fun stuff, and is an ideal number for triggering cool banter and the "showing off" stuff that is a big part of what I like to see in the game.

Not gonna lie, it also works well for my teams or zoom stuff because it makes the feeds fit perfectly with my screens on, lol.

Quote from SirTawmis >>

Question of the day - What is your ideal number of players (either from a player or DM or both) perspective?

And for bonus question - why?

 I have little enough experience that I'm not sure, but I think I would say 3 or 4. A group that size lets me personalize the campaign for the players and PCs while letting the players have a group large enough to generate ideas that a single player might not come up with alone.

Quote from SirTawmis >>

Question of the day - What is your ideal number of players (either from a player or DM or both) perspective?

And for bonus question - why?

 I think my favorite is three. The game can easily be made to be more personal, there is less "overcrowding" at the table (too many people trying to do too many things), and it makes combat slightly more difficult. It also gives the DM the opportunity to give the party a sidekick to offer a little extra support. 

Three might be my favorite, but I have more than three friends, and anywhere between three and six is fine. 

Quote from SirTawmis >>

Question of the day - What is your ideal number of players (either from a player or DM or both) perspective?

And for bonus question - why?

 Four has felt right. One of my current groups started with five, but is now four and better off for it (for several reasons). My other group is six players, and while I love the people and it can be lots of fun, it can oscillate between being too chaotic and having too much downtime as you wait for things to resolve.

I just started DMing for the first time, and I'm only two sessions in, but that group is four players (was gonna be five but it didn't work out with one) and it feels just right.

I think four just works really well for most aspects of the game. Combat is dynamic but not insanely complicated, there can be varied rp relationships between the player characters without the plotlines getting too intricate to remember, etc. That's not to say five, six, or more players can't have those things work as well, but from what I've seen (though I'm not that experienced) four has gelled the best. I may also be biased from classic rpgs like Final Fantasy, lol.

Quote from SirTawmis >>

Question of the day - What is your ideal number of players (either from a player or DM or both) perspective?

And for bonus question - why?

 4 or 5. It depends on the players (;

If I count my favorite players, it amounts to four…

But really, I prefer four or five players because of three reasons. First, if I want to run a pre-written game, most are designed for 4-5 players. Secondly, (4 especially) this number of players is just right for a game where everyone gets a chance to do something and talk, while many bigger games I’ve been a part of (6 or more) get really bogged down, especially during combat, if we try to give everyone a turn. Finally, four or five people can fill the requisite roles in a party without being such a full party that some players are redundant or the party thinks that splitting would be a good idea…

Quote from SirTawmis >>

Question of the day - What is your ideal number of players (either from a player or DM or both) perspective?

And for bonus question - why?

 The best number for me would be 3 to 5. After that it can start to bog and people at the table can get distracted or bored. I've done big tables but that involved a great deal of cooperation on the players part to keep the party on track (10 players). 

Quote from SirTawmis >>

Question of the day - What is your ideal number of players (either from a player or DM or both) perspective?

And for bonus question - why?

 
4-5 (max 6), for all the same reasons everyone else has cited.

I will admit that I haven't been able to do a five person game in *years*. I kinda miss them now that I've had to think about it between this thread and mine, lol.

I’ve run the gamut of games and after I hit 12 players I decided I would never go past 5 again (I have a few times, but very, very few).

Quote from Amnon_Balderk >>

I’ve run the gamut of games and after I hit 12 players I decided I would never go past 5 again (I have a few times, but very, very few).

A DOZEN? With a baker's DM to boot? For want of a wittier thing to say, "We're gonna need a bigger table."

Quote from Quar1on >>

Quote from Amnon_Balderk >>

I’ve run the gamut of games and after I hit 12 players I decided I would never go past 5 again (I have a few times, but very, very few).

A DOZEN? With a baker's DM to boot? For want of a wittier thing to say, "We're gonna need a bigger table."

Nah, try two dozen, lol.

That ginormous battle I finished in June?  That started with two dozen players (a few died getting to it). At once. I had to break out the pennies and dimes to set the markers up on the screen (which showed four of those giant sized poster post its taped together). It took longer for me to move the markers than it did to roll the attacks.

but damn it was glorious. 

Quote from Amnon_Balderk >>

I’ve run the gamut of games and after I hit 12 players I decided I would never go past 5 again (I have a few times, but very, very few).

 A dozen?

Good heavens.

The most I've been at a table for was, I think, ten people.

But it was technically five.

It was interesting, because it was 2nd Edition Dragonlance. And five people played the heroes, five people played the villains (all custom characters). 
And the DM would go back and forth. We'd do something for 30 minutes. While we were doing that, the folks playing the villains could sit at the table, or eat, play video games, etc. Then it'd be their turn, and then the heroes could go eat, play video games, sit at the table.

And it was cool, how it worked out, because they got to see our characters grow and we got to see the motives and such for the villain side.

And everyone was great about not meta gaming (so there was no, "Hey, we should go to Stonegrey Keep because I heard the Dragon army just left a small squad there because they're moving towards Sanction instead.")

It came to a climatic, for the first time ever a PVP type event, where the DM wasn't controlling the big bad - because the big bad was the players. The DM was just keeping track of turns, and would do random events (as the war was happening around us, so sometimes an "ally" would stumble into the field, wounded, and we'd need to keep fighting or decide to pull back and try to help them, etc) - and all these small events had "points" - and in the end, those "points" were tallied to see how the final war turned out.

Was very fun and interesting.

But I could not imagine managing 12 people, at once, doing the combat thing. Even the most experienced players, are going to wait a long time before their turn - because if there's 12 players, the DM has to either throw a few monsters but change their stats (in which case, if the party of 12 focus fires, the enemy is going to go down quick) or a lot of monsters, which means initiative is going to take forever to loop back around.

Quote from SirTawmis >>

Question of the day - What is your ideal number of players (either from a player or DM or both) perspective?

And for bonus question - why?

As a Dungeon Master, the biggest group I can properly handle is 6. As a player, I can be in a group that's  why bigger than that and still enjoy myself, but I probably won't have as much fun as I would in a regular game

Quote from SirTawmis >>

Quote from Amnon_Balderk >>

I’ve run the gamut of games and after I hit 12 players I decided I would never go past 5 again (I have a few times, but very, very few).

 A dozen?

Good heavens.

The most I've been at a table for was, I think, ten people.

But it was technically five.

It was interesting, because it was 2nd Edition Dragonlance. And five people played the heroes, five people played the villains (all custom characters). 
And the DM would go back and forth. We'd do something for 30 minutes. While we were doing that, the folks playing the villains could sit at the table, or eat, play video games, etc. Then it'd be their turn, and then the heroes could go eat, play video games, sit at the table.

And it was cool, how it worked out, because they got to see our characters grow and we got to see the motives and such for the villain side.

And everyone was great about not meta gaming (so there was no, "Hey, we should go to Stonegrey Keep because I heard the Dragon army just left a small squad there because they're moving towards Sanction instead.")

It came to a climatic, for the first time ever a PVP type event, where the DM wasn't controlling the big bad - because the big bad was the players. The DM was just keeping track of turns, and would do random events (as the war was happening around us, so sometimes an "ally" would stumble into the field, wounded, and we'd need to keep fighting or decide to pull back and try to help them, etc) - and all these small events had "points" - and in the end, those "points" were tallied to see how the final war turned out.

Was very fun and interesting.

But I could not imagine managing 12 people, at once, doing the combat thing. Even the most experienced players, are going to wait a long time before their turn - because if there's 12 players, the DM has to either throw a few monsters but change their stats (in which case, if the party of 12 focus fires, the enemy is going to go down quick) or a lot of monsters, which means initiative is going to take forever to loop back around.

 Yeah it was a pain. The middle school near me had just lost their GM (a good friend of mine) at their D&D Club (which I had actually started) and I stepped in, but the problem was that I could only do one day each week and the club had over 20 people the year before divided into 4 groups. I worked for a while at it but it really wasn’t working.

I ended up talking with the host teacher and we figured out that it couldn’t keep going like this. I played with a selection of the players that had been in the club before and anyone who hadn’t had to figure out their own GM. I think they did, but I’m not actually certain.

Chiming in here to say hi! I'm actually the CEO of TabletopTown, and I found our name mentioned in the forums here. I'm so glad that you think what we're doing is cool. We're trying really hard to be modular and system agnostic (in part due to the OGL), and we're working on better support for more complex character sheets. We also are working to get the 5e SRD on our app soon, so at least you'll have a character sheet template to work from. If anyone wants to join in on a game there or has any questions, let me know!

And to clarify, we make our money through taking a cut of marketplace transactions, not from ads or selling your data.  I do realize that that's very easy for me to say, but we're trying to be as transparent as possible, and you can check us out here, or poke around on our discord. (We also aren't technically sponsored by Paizo, though we'll have both Pathfinder and Starfinder on our app soon.)

Anyway, the game you all are building sounds pretty cool, and for those that are interested, we'd love to have you try TabletopTown out, and we're always looking for feedback and suggestions!

Quote from ArynKinara >>

Chiming in here to say hi! I'm actually the CEO of TabletopTown, and I found our name mentioned in the forums here. I'm so glad that you think what we're doing is cool. We're trying really hard to be modular and system agnostic (in part due to the OGL), and we're working on better support for more complex character sheets. We also are working to get the 5e SRD on our app soon, so at least you'll have a character sheet template to work from. If anyone wants to join in on a game there or has any questions, let me know!

And to clarify, we make our money through taking a cut of marketplace transactions, not from ads or selling your data.  I do realize that that's very easy for me to say, but we're trying to be as transparent as possible, and you can check us out here, or poke around on our discord. (We also aren't technically sponsored by Paizo, though we'll have both Pathfinder and Starfinder on our app soon.)

Anyway, the game you all are building sounds pretty cool, and for those that are interested, we'd love to have you try TabletopTown out, and we're always looking for feedback and suggestions!

 Hey there! I’m glad you heard about our little thread! I’m certainly interested in a game on there if there are community ones!

Quote from Amnon_Balderk >>

Quote from ArynKinara >>

Chiming in here to say hi! I'm actually the CEO of TabletopTown, and I found our name mentioned in the forums here. I'm so glad that you think what we're doing is cool. We're trying really hard to be modular and system agnostic (in part due to the OGL), and we're working on better support for more complex character sheets. We also are working to get the 5e SRD on our app soon, so at least you'll have a character sheet template to work from. If anyone wants to join in on a game there or has any questions, let me know!

And to clarify, we make our money through taking a cut of marketplace transactions, not from ads or selling your data.  I do realize that that's very easy for me to say, but we're trying to be as transparent as possible, and you can check us out here, or poke around on our discord. (We also aren't technically sponsored by Paizo, though we'll have both Pathfinder and Starfinder on our app soon.)

Anyway, the game you all are building sounds pretty cool, and for those that are interested, we'd love to have you try TabletopTown out, and we're always looking for feedback and suggestions!

 Hey there! I’m glad you heard about our little thread! I’m certainly interested in a game on there if there are community ones!

 
Little?

It's 108 pages. :D