Poll: Best number of players?

[Answulf]

Another poll to help GMs thinking about running a FGII campaign:

What do think is the optimal number of players (not counting the GM) for a campaign using Fantasy Grounds?

Does it depend on the ruleset? Does it depend on whether or not you use voice chat? Do you factor in player attrition?

Back in the FG1 days, it was rough having more than a couple of players. Nowadays we have better rulesets, a better and more stable program, higher bandwidth and better voice chat. Still, FGII can't really handle larger parties as well as face-to-face games - just the nature of online play.

What's your preference and why?

[Valarian]

Between 3 and 5

[VenomousFiligree]

Actually playing - what Valarian said, actually signed up - a couple more, as it’s rare when you don't get no-shows.

More than 5 just gets too unwieldy, multi conversations in chat, players drifting away from the game when it's not their turn in combat, are some of the problems.

[Spyke]

For me, three is the ideal number in play, so I'll agree with Valarian that 3 - 5 signed up works given the occasional no show.

Spyke

[Doswelk]

Our Group: 7 if all show (usually 6).

But we use VOIP pure text I think we would be too large!

Optimal depends on system to a degree but 3-5 is probably the norm but I like the larger group we currently have!

[terrell]

I am a big fan of 5 players around a "real" table. I have just expanded my WFRP FG group to 5 players now. We will see how that goes. I think it really boils down to how many players want to be in the spot light in a particular scene.

[Answulf]

I prefer 3-5 players also (using a text and voice combo), with 4 being best and 3 being slightly better than 5. As a GM, my player management system is something like this:

I start a campaign with 5 players and the game is always on as long as 3+ can make the session. Then we don't replace the first player that drops unless it's at the very beginning, like the first or second session. Four players is ideal and usually we can cruise at that level for quite a while. If and when someone else eventually drops we will add a player or maybe two, depending on how far along we are into the campaign. If it has already been a long run we may just stay at 3 until we are ready to wrap up the campaign and start a new one.

[grimm182]

I prefer the rule of gauntlet:Warrior, Wizard, Valkyrie & Elf...or more commonly: meat shield, mage, healer & sneak.

I also tend to use one of the slots with a client session open with an npc, this allows me to see what the players are seeing at all times.

[Sigurd]

Five so that you can easily go on if one can't show.

[Griogre]

I usually run around 6 players but I think it's game system dependant. I like to run one more player than whatever the rules think are suitable for the system.

I do think that in online games you need to have enough players that you can still play if you are missing one or two. Nothing kills a game faster than not being able to run because you don't have enough players showing up to a session.

I use voice for OOC, narative and rules questions; text chat for "in character" though sometimes some "in character" stuff does bleed out into voice chat.