How many players do you prefer?

[Ilwan]

I have always been wondering how some adventure modules said for 6-8 players. I have heard about 8 players at the FG table and mostly when I speak with americans, they prefer 5-6 players at least. That has always wondered me, since I prefer 3-4 players and think that even 5 players is too much both in FG in in RL PnP. Maybe this poll will state how many players people prefer on average.

[gurney9999]

For me I think 3 is the perfect number. I'm still learning FG, but for pacing I would think anything more than 4 would get crazy.

[Ram Tyr]

I voted for 5-6 players. (I assumed that "players" doesn't include the GM, by the way. I know it probably should be obvious, but I thought about it for a sec.)

The main reason I say that is that unless the DM is ensuring that character classes are diverse during party formation, it takes that many actual players to create a functional party of characters. If players are flexible with their character concepts you can do 4 and still have a good time knowing that the DM has good range of obstacles to throw at you. (You know you hate it when there is no cleric for undead...no true tank, etc.)

My FG campaigns have ranged from 4 players to 6 players. They all worked fine. If everyone is a big talker (in character), it can get slow, but that happens in face to face games too. Besides, if everyone is having a good time chatting it up, and one player doesn't like the speed, s/he is probably in the wrong group.

In my face to face group, the goal number for players is 5. It works pretty well.

The other issue is the number of characters that a single player can run. In FG there is a 1:1 ratio of players to characters. In some face to face campaigns I know that some players run more than one character. That would make keeping the number of players down easier.

To be honest, the thing that I sometimes find most frustrating in both face to face and FG games is the decision making process. Do we go left or right can be debated for days... lol

Anyway, there you go.

Later.
Ramza

(Oh, Gurney, just call me Ramza. :)

[Cantstanzya]

I think that 5-6 is the ideal number as long as everyone understands that there is a lot going on and there may be delay in the chat from the DM. I have been the DM of our campaign and my kids complain that it is too slow, but on my end there is a lot happening. Constant whispers where someone might think that nothing is going on, where as a ton is happening that they don't know about. All I can say is they better check their backpack.
One thing I thought of that would help FG support more players in a campaign would be Dual DMs. Any group over 4 and the game slows down tremendously. If there could be a function as a second DM you would be able to support 8-10 people with no problem. Both DMs would have to be on the same page, so to speak, but one DM could handle some NPCs and the other DM could handle the other NPCs and they could share the duties of a battle. Hopefully this is something the developers might consider, that way my group could join another group to battle fierce monsters, or better yet work with or against another group. :twisted:

[Valgard]

I voted 5-6, though my 'true' choice would have been 4-5. As Ramza0Tyr stated, those numbers allow for a well balanced party in respect to classes. As party numbers increase I feel that some of the quieter players can have a tendancy to end up standing on the sidelines somewhat. Not that I practice what I preach, my current face to face game has eight players and the FG game I'm setting up seems to have gained it's seventh. Oh well, go figure. :lol:

[kepli]

I voted 3-4 ... keeps the game more personel. Currently I'm running a game for 2 ... :wink:

[Alkaven]

The magic number is 3 for me. Kepli said it best. Keeps the game more personal. Part of DMing (in my opinion of course) is tying all the PCs together in some fashion... Now obviously, your not going to sit a lawful good high-elvan paladin next to a chaotic evil dark-elvan priest... But you want the characters to relate in some fashion. It's tricky, but not hard to do. My personal favorite is giving each player character identical goals. You can have them connected in some fashion, like each of them having the same NPC friend.

Because I'm a big fan of fodder in my adventures, I like to treat PCs somewhat like officers in a division at higher levels. Around level 6, if one or two of them have high enough charisma, the battle is really between the elites of each squadron. For example, the great sorcerer Thorvacas is approached by Drulican the mighty. Any mere warrior who crosses Drulican's path is immediately cut down as he slowly makes his way towards Thorvacas who is prepared to cast a spell that will end Drulican's life.

The disadvantage of having more than 5 players is the lack of political adventure. You don't leave much room open for roleplay because that's 5 stories you have to manage, each one different from the other. And from experience, it's definitely no fun for players to sit and stand around in a session that doesn't interest them. They want to hear something about their long lost sister, or meet an interesting NPC that relates to their character, or find a magical item that would benefit them.

[Ilwan]

Thanks for your participation so far. This has been very informative

My prejudice seems not to stand :)