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I had seven people show up for my game at the Univ of Buff meetup last night, and it looks like there will be more next week. Any advice on handling large player groups?
Garrett

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Honestly, my advice tends to be to break them up into smaller groups. The major problem tends to be in instances like combat where a person does their actions, then has to wait 5+ minutes for them to act again. Players tend to get bored with such things, as they are spending a lot of time doing nothing. One way to make sure things like that go faster is to use some sort of timer to make sure that people are planning their actions on other people's turns and that they act quickly when it is their turn.

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I wish I had advice for you. The group I played with got up to 9 players and there was just too much socialization going on to keep the game moving.

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If you're not comfortable with handling such large groups, you may simply have to suggest splitting them up into two groups. Simply be up front and honest with them that you're just not capable of handling that many players without the game getting bogged down and thus resulting in a drastic decrease in the amount of fun. I don't know what your game schedule is, but maybe you can run bi-weekly, with two sessions for each group. It might also be the case that some of the new faces will fade out for any number of reasons (most of which will have nothing to do with you), so the number of players may quickly come back under control to be run as a single group.

Like DocGirl said, another risk of excessively large groups is the rampant socializing, often leading to players not paying attention and missing critical information.

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I'm scheduled at the meetup to run for a total of three weeks through the adventure. I'm not uncomfortable with the large number, and they surprisingly were focused on the game and got things done. I was just hoping for ideas to streamline/make it more efficient.
Garrett

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-Initiative cards and trackers will be a big help for large groups to keep track of who's next.
-Give players a few minutes at the start of game or battles to discuss quick, simple strategies amongst themselves to try to avoid stepping on each others toes.
-Ask players to try to plan their moves at least a turn in advance.
-Try to keep track of how active the players are so it's not always the same people acting out. It's very easy to have someone overlooked or skipped because of the size of the group.
-Try to disperse the actions among the whole group. Avoid the whole "You go twice in a row, then you go three times" yadi yadi yada. People who have large gaps between turns, unless thoroughly engrossed, will get distracted.

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Thank you for your advice. It looks like it comes down to organization. I'm spending all my free time at the laptop, making sure everything is nailed down, so I can tackle the game with minimal stress. BTW, I have 8-9 scheduled for this weekend. SAGA is conquering Western New York!
Garrett

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Listen to Threat Detected. The Dawn of Defiance Podcast.
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