Troll Lord Games

I was wondering what number of players y'all thought were a maximum for a game to be successful.

I guess success could be defined as everyone had opportunity to participate and generally had fun.

As a CK the number is about 6 for me, beyond this I feel like someone is getting cheated

As a player I have attended cons where the player max was 6 and the gm let several more folks in at the last minute to be nice. I selfishly felt like the experience would be diminished and typically it became very difficult to participate. In other words they weren't Troll Lord level CK's!

Just wondering about the experience of others.

Morgan

I once, and only once, ran a game that had 50 people in it. I would say that is far too many.

I would generally, if using things like henchmen and hirelings, prefer to keep the game down to 10 players, not including the Castle Keeper. Even then, it might get bogged down, so it becomes a matter of speed vs. precision. And, each player needs to be aware of it.

In a tournament, where players compete against each other -- 4 to 6.
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Serl's Corner

6 is generally my top number as well, but players help a lot with that. If I have a group that stays on top of things and actually helps things move along, rather then get distracted between their turns and need to be brought back up to speed every time, I could go with more. But its rare to have such a group of people.
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The Ruby Lord, Earl of the Society

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I would agree with that. We usually had a our best luck and sessions with about 5-7 PCs. Anything above that and things can quickly get out of hand if you don't lay down the rules right away.
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When I ran my game, we had 6 players and me as CK. I managed 6, but would not want to do more. I think 4-6 is optimum, at least for me.

6 or 7 is my optimum for a regular group.

Cons I typically run up to 8 to maximize involvement, though it takes a bit of effort to make sure everyone is engaged. Have done as many as 10 at a con, wouldn't do more than that.

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John "Sir Seskis" Wright

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In a few of my campaigns we had 7-9 people in at one time. It took a while to get used to GMing for that many people and keeping everybody involved. It was rough in the beginning but eventually worked out. I think that to get maximum amount of play time without a player or two feeling left out, my personal choice is 5-6 players at max. I feel that a game of this size plays pretty well for everybody. My comfort level as GM is best at this level as well.

~O
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Duke Omote Landwehr, Holy Order of the FPQ ~ Prince of the Castles & Crusades Society

I'm in the 6-8 range myself, though at 8 you do risk having people without much to do at time. The upper limit is usually for con games, since I generally try to use adventures with more frequent and intense action to keep the involvement level high.

But 6 players is the sweet spot for me in my normal games. That gives you room for some diversity in the party and enough voices & ideas around the table to make things interesting, up the chances that someone will pick up the CK's clues, etc.
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I prefer 5.

6 is my max number anymore.

I find the smaller the group the more chance to immerse and roleplay.

Get 6 involved and your competing for the GM attention and waiting too long for your turn.

I have ran up to 8-9 and it just turns into a loud...loud...obnoxious...loud....fiasco.

Did I say loud?
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'Nosce te Ipsum' -Delphic Maxim

'Follow your bliss.' -Joseph Campbell

Well, when I was running a game for the TLG crew I had 10 players there for a while. It was a little tough to manage but since everyone is pretty easygoing, it went over well enough. Optimally, I would say 6 is a good limit. Convention games are seldom limited to 6 players; and for good reason. A convention CK wants to maximize the audience exposure to his hard work. Many CKs are skilled/experienced enough to handle large groups, but many are not. I know one guy specifically who runs an awesome game for 4-6 players, but the few times I've seen him try to run more than that the experience suffered greatly. Then you have CKs like Steve Chenault or Todd Gray who will run a 12 person group at the drop of the hat and more likely than not pull it off quite nicely.

I think the larger games, and con games are a whole different animal.

I came from a background of small intimate games. Crowd control was not a factor.

Large games and con games I would not even categorize the same. i indulge in them because its something to do and to socialize.

I think the game moves from a fantasy immersive thing to a social thing the larger we get.

Thats ok as long as everyone realizes that.
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'Nosce te Ipsum' -Delphic Maxim

'Follow your bliss.' -Joseph Campbell

Having 4-6 players works perfect for me...and it is what most packaged adventures are designed to handle. Each DM/CK/GM can do whatever they wish, however, but games I've played in with more than 6 players are either chaotic (loud and crazy) or boring (hard to entertain everyone).

For a year or so, I ran an email game with 10 players - damn near drove me insane! Lot of fun, no doubt, but I could never do that f2f.

6-8 for me . . but if I were to CK veteran players, I might prefer 4-6.

I have been feeling more confident as of late ~ having the opportunity to be a PC in some great games with excellent Castle Keepers. I watch, play and learn!

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Count Rhuveinus - Lejendary Keeper of Castle Franqueforte

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used to be in the 10-16 range but have gradually halved that over the last ten years or so due to a reduced amount of energy...
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Baron Grignak Hammerhand of the Pacifica Provinces-

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I'd say 5 is ideal, where 6 is getting somewhat cumbersome.

I did DM Queen of Spiders over an eleven moth period with 7-8 players, which was doable, but presented problems.
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I usually find six is the max for my comfort level. I'm very comfortable with three, four and five-- usually that's when we have our best games. I can do six, but beyond that and there tends to be a problem with getting everyone on point and focused.... sadly, sometimes including myself.

At one time I used to run a large group of 11 players on the weekends, but it got to be such a pain to run that many people together RPGing at one time. Now days I run a group of 4 to 6 (depending on schedules) and that seems to be about right and all I want to handle.
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