What is your ideal sized hero group

[Watchdog]

Re: What is your ideal sized hero group

 

A larger group is better when you have people who can't make it every week due to family, work, etc. 1-2 players who can't make it won't have to shut the game down if you have 5-6 in the group, but if you just have three players, you have to skip a session.

[concord]

Re: What is your ideal sized hero group

 

I like 4 to 6 players... current group has 5...

 

use to regularly run a Champions campaign with 6 to 8 players... had one session with 12 when everyone that had a character showed up at the same time...

[greypaladin_01]

Re: What is your ideal sized hero group

 

The game that Im currently co-GMing has about 6 players in it. Although of that only 3 are the "core" group that can make it every time the other 3 join in when their schedules allow. Having more players in a group allows for a bit more of a buffer when someone is not able to play.

 

It seems like over all though most people here seem to be in the 4 or 5 player range though. What is the LARGEST group you have played/GMed?

[Kirby]

Re: What is your ideal sized hero group

 

It seems like over all though most people here seem to be in the 4 or 5 player range though. What is the LARGEST group you have played/GMed?

The largest group (aside from at a convention-type thing) contained ten people, including the one running it. This had been done for both Champions and D&D.

[Captain Obvious]

Re: What is your ideal sized hero group

 

4-6 for me, generally, although in practice, I've had groups much larger, because many of them didn't make it to every session. As long as 4-6 were there at any given time, and as long as we ended each session on a note where personnel switches were feasible, it worked out fine.

[zaras]

Re: What is your ideal sized hero group

 

We are up to 9 ott players with total of 15 inluding online only players. Things are good; despite my misgivings.

[zornwil]

Re: What is your ideal sized hero group

 

3-6 for me. Beyond 6, even more with good players actually, I find it hard to keep up the number of sub-plots and airtime, at least in an ongoing serialized campaign which is my preferred. For more episodic stuff, I guess the number wouldn't be so important.

[ross_winn]

Re: What is your ideal sized hero group

 

four works best for us. Myself and three chicks, one of them being my wife.

 

the only other guy in the group is the GM. It has to be the highest female to male ratio I have ever been involved in.

[Pathfinder]

Re: What is your ideal sized hero group

 

My ideal group size varies according to the genre of the game. A Golden Age of Champions type group I like being two or three players, more tends to get in the way. A Modern or Classic Four-Color style game I like four or five. Nowadays however, my average group size is six.

 

The most heroes I've ever GMed was nine.

[Markdoc]

Re: What is your ideal sized hero group

 

4-5 for me is ideal - enough space for diversity, not so many that thhey step oneach ther's shticks. Not so many that I can't keep individuals backstories and sublots going for each character, but not so few that if we have a drop-out for an evening or two that the group is hampered.

 

I find one on one a bit tedious for more than a session or two and even 2 players tends to lack the "group chemistry" which I find to be alot of teh fun.

 

Bigger numbers are do-able though. For a while I was GM'ing (I kid you not) for 14 players. Not a one shot either, but a once-a-week game than ran for 6-8 months. At least it started as a once a week game - the players kept splitting off into smaller groups - anywhere from 6-7 down to one on one (which I would run seperate series of adventures for) - so it was more like 2-4 games a week as the group split up, coalesced again, split up again and re-coalesced. Eventually, we lost a few and it split (permanently) into two groups (one of 5 one of six) the Wednesday night and Sunday night crews. Over time, by not replacing natural attrition, I pared it down to 6 players (phew). I moved on, but chatting with one of the players by email found out recently that the core of the wednesday night crew is still gaming together, 23 years on!

 

cheers, Mark

[Big Willy]

Re: What is your ideal sized hero group

 

I think it depends how much the PCs can do - I remember a highly enjoyable AD&D campaign I drifted in and out of, which started with three players and grew to about 12 or 14 before scaling back slightly: but for a cod-mediaeval war party, only two of whom are doing anything weirder than hitting orcs with bits of metal, that's perfectly manageable. If it had been a 12-member supergroup like the 1970s Justice League, with elemental powers going off left right and centre, the GM might have found combat a bit of a stretch.

 

Campaignwise, the advantage of such a large group is obviously the range of possible character interplay, subplots etc - and in a supers game these subplots can be pretty wild - but it takes a lot of juggling, and you might wait a long time for any particular thread to get the attention it merits, let alone be resolved (just ask Chris Claremont!).

 

Conversely, some of the best individual sessions I've been in (as player or GM) have been with only two PCs: it's a much more focused style of play, each player gets plenty of "screen time", and it's more appropriate for certain genres - particularly investigative scenarios, where the main villain doesn't necessarily have squads of goons or a doomsday ring to protect him.

 

Inevitably, though, I find most of my games fall between the two stools, with a typical five-to-seven-PC party facing off against Major Threats every few weeks. I think four players would be easier, but it's not a number I've ever ended up with for some reason.

[BlackSword]

Re: What is your ideal sized hero group

 

I play in two groups. The first group is a bunch of college friends, since its one of the few times we can all get together, the group can become quite large, sometimes up to 10 people, but usually in the 4-6 range. The GMs that run do a good job of trying to keep everyone in screen time or at least busy.

 

The weekly, group is five members (4 PCs with a rotating GM), which is good. We used to have only four people, which meant that if someone was out for sickness or work the game dropped to two PCs which could be difficult to run.

[Lord Kilsco]

Re: What is your ideal sized hero group

 

Between 3 and 5 players is my ideal, but it can vary depending on game style. For dark ambiance inquiry scenarios, I prefer small groups (up to 4 players).

[Onyxclaw]

Re: What is your ideal sized hero group

 

I have yet to play in a game smaller than 9...my current game is 11, and it works out fine because we are all for the most part willing to wait our turns and to carry out unimportant character interaction without demanding the GM's time..which he appreciates but sometimes wishes he could get in on.

 

I would prefer to run a game with 3-6 players, and more preferably 4 because I like depth and it allows me to give them al the time they need.

 

I believe that right now I have 5 players for my upcoming Sci-fi/HighFantasy partyless game (some have dropped due to time and another has dropped to help Tech GM). Wich should make for a difficult but enjoyable learning experience.

[altamaros]

Re: What is your ideal sized hero group

 

Depends on the plot and the length of the scenario.

 

for long scenarios, i like to have 5 to 6 players so i can deal with the various people unavailable at some time ( "where are they ?, why can't we contact them? " "Secret ID stuff, don't ask").

 

For short adventures, i like to have 4 players. 3 is the limit but fine if the characters have good profiles (the problem with my players is that they all came with martial artists and whined when their always-successful attacks didn't do anything to the Big Bad Brick; since that, i ask for the players to discuss before coming of the role of each character)

[Supreme Serpent]

Re: What is your ideal sized hero group

 

For short adventures' date=' i like to have 4 players. 3 is the limit but fine if the characters have good profiles (the problem with my players is that they all came with martial artists and whined when their always-successful attacks didn't do anything to the Big Bad Brick; since that, i ask for the players to discuss before coming of the role of each character)[/quote']

 

One of the most fun campaigns I was in for a good while only had two characters, both martial artists. Our main recurring villainess was a tough brick. We'd have very enjoyable fights with her trying to stay up long enough to whittle her down, lure her off of cliffs, etc. Several times we'd have one character go for all-out attacks (pushed offensive strikes, etc) to get some damage in, while the other one would go defensive, blocking for lower-dcv partner, etc. Those fights were a blast.

[Snowcat]

Re: What is your ideal sized hero group

 

4 - 5 is ideal for me , now i've got 11 - 12 anybody want some ...

there really really cheap. will game for food!

[Lord Mhoram]

Re: What is your ideal sized hero group

 

4-5.

Right now our group has 5 players and a GM. That is the maximum I would want to run. I've run games with three before, but it never seemed to work as well as having 4.