Game Mastering For Large Parties

Vox Machina, the large party of Critical Role via Geek and Sundry

Tabletop gaming groups come in all shapes and sizes. But ideally the size of a group is a game master and somewhere between three and eight players. I tend to categorize these party sizes into the following classifications:

• Single player
• 2-3 Players: Small party
• 4-5 Players: Standard party size
• 6-8 Players: Large party
• 9+ Players: Huge party

If your group ever reaches the size of a huge party, I recommend splitting into two groups or recruiting one of the players to act as a second game master. You will need help managing and coordinating things anyway, and it is a good way to reduce the burden of so many players. When it comes to large parties, it can be difficult to keep things going smoothly and efficiently. Here are a few useful tricks you can use to make sure that your game is still a success and doesn't leave anybody left out...

Keeping It Moving

The first big challenge posed by large groups is the chaos that they bring with them. It is difficult to track all the players and divide your attention equally between them. That's why it is important to focus on giving each player a time in the spotlight. Ask quieter players what they would like to do if they have not contributed in a while. Make sure you have everyone's undivided attention when you speak as DM and provide new information to the group. 

You will also need to reduce the amount of time that players spend on each turn. In order to keep things from grinding to a halt and leaving a lot of players waiting in boredom, advise your players to be thinking about what action they will take before their turn even comes up. If a player is stumped and unable to come up with something, it may be a good idea to have them delay their action and let another player go before them. By doing this, you can have the more gung-ho players make their moves while the ponderous ones prepare their own strategies. Everybody gets to take their turn, but it cuts down on time spent waiting for a single player to make a decision.

Another useful trick to help you manage the game is to assign specific jobs to certain players, like tracking initiative, or moving miniatures on the map. This saves you a lot of valuable time, and reduces the strain of having to do everything yourself. And speaking of maps, remember that maps, tokens and miniatures are extra important when you are playing in a large group. It is very difficult to track the relative positions of so many players in the game world without some sort of visual aid. Don't neglect this vital aspect in your large scale adventures.

Screenshot from Community, NBC Television

Useful House Rules For Large Groups

When running encounters, keep in mind that a single round of combat will take a long time to get through. With so many players in the mix it will be hard to get through a single revolution of the game table in a short period of time. With this in mind, I recommend using house rules to maximize the amount of action contained in each turn. Let the players take an extra bonus action from time to time, or let them travel a little bit further than usual with each move action. 

In some games I run, I might tell a player "It will take your entire turn to draw that large weapon, but you can use it next round." But in a game with a lot of players, that would be dooming that character to waiting for a very long time while the rest of the group completes their actions. That's why I will speed up the rate of in-game time, allowing certain actions to take less time to perform than they usually do. It's not game-breaking as long as you implement it equally across the characters and enemies. Just keep the action economy cheap and fast. Let players do three things per turn instead of two. Make sure that a lot more happens in a single round in order to keep things interesting.

In the same vein, I recommend turning up the damage output or turning down the hit points as much as possible. Since turns go very slowly and take up a lot of time, you want to make sure there are fewer of them per combat if you want the encounters to run for the right amount of time. In order to avoid tedious slogs, create a dangerous combat environment in which each action and attack has more impact. With a large group you might have a small fight that takes more than fifteen minutes but only lasts three rounds. Make sure that you can resolve a lot of action in those three rounds. If the players have barely scratched the enemy, or are barely threatened themselves, it's going to get real dull. Tweak combat stats as necessary to prevent this.

Conclusion

Large parties can be a real challenge, and they are not ideal for an inexperienced game master. However, the methods listed here can alleviate some of the more problematic issues of this kind of campaign. Go into the game with full knowledge of the obstacles it presents, and use whatever methods work best for you to overcome them. As long as your group gets along well with one another, a good time may be had by all. Enjoy sharing in the adventure with your innumerable band of heroes.

Happy ventures!