OK DOODS

OK DOODS

GM crisis, seeking advice (system is DND 5th Ed)
After not playing or running a game for some time, I asked my discord buddies if they wanted me to run a game. The response was overhwelming, I've got 9 players wanting to play, majority are experienced, some new.

Now whereas I want to include everyone, an 8 player paty seems like a complete clusterfuck. With little time for character "screen time" and a single combat turn taking forever.
The alternative in my eyes is to run two groups of 4, in some form of linked campaign in the same world. Could be some fun little mechanics between parties etc. Thie issue being that it is literally double the work, and then takes up two of my evenigs to run the fucking things.

Im at an impasse as what to do, run myself ragged running two sessions? Or deal with the maelstrom of 10 people around a table?
Wat do?
Any GM's here been in the same boat?

Well if you're set on GMing for 8 people either way, you might as well do it all at once. Be sure to find a large round table...

Run the same campaign for both groups. It's almost like learning Spanish and Italian at the same time, very easy, no drawbacks.

It will be online, so no table needed.

Though the big issue I am having is that if a turn takes ~30 seconds you are looking at up to an hour for a single combat session

This is actually not a bad idea OP.

I’d just suggest dropping 3 or so players.

In an online game it's virtually guaranteed that some players will flake. My last one had seven players flake out, I had to constantly recruit more just to keep the game on life support. So what I would do is start with two groups, but merge them once they lose players.

Running a decent game for 8 people at once, with all the distractions that Roll20 entails, especially when you're out of practice, is essentially impossible. Definitely split into two groups

Thanks for the feedback

The only issue I'll have is that I will now have to either run the same campaign twice, in which case the players will almost undoubetdly metagame.

OR write two seperate campaigns and I just cant....

how will they meta do tell talk to each other?

I cant rule it out, they are part of the same community and people always WANT to talk about the campaign they are in.

Its not for sure, but I cant dismiss it

Run a different campaign set in the same world, and have both parties affect said world, letting the other parties feel the consequences of the other party's actions. Maybe two different mercenary groups working for competing lords or something?

VERY IMPORTANT

make the entire party wants to have the same kind of fun.
Are any of them silly, wanting to mess around in an imaginary world with no concequences? Do any of them want to roleplay and tell a story? Do some of them just want to kill goblins and get XP?

Make sure that you have a party of only people who want to mess around, or a party of only roleplayers, or a party of only people who want to kill goblins.

If everyone wants to roleplay, then you will tell a fun story.
If everyone wants to kill goblinsm you will have some fun combat encounters.
If everyone wants to mess around, you will have some fun shenanigans.

If you have a mix then your roleplayers will be bored while the combatters kill all the NPCs, and the combatters will be annoyed while the silly players muck around with sub-optimal strategies, and the silly players will be annoyed by the roleplayers not letting them do things or being so serious all the time.

Don't be afraid to say 'No.'

Describe the setting and type of game it will be if you have not already. If any of the responses are simply "yeah, sure" or something, act as if they didn't care. Typically people that use the word sure don't actually care.

Ok OP here, thanks for all the response.

Heres my takeaway:
put the original ASS into writing for two parties in the interim.
Perhaps for a taster session or similar to introduce the plot and the style.
Also get to know players.

If there are no flakers, divide party into two new groups dependants on play style.
Deivse some way of party-party interaction and strongly discourage metagmaing.

If there are 2+ flakers, combine into one smaller goup, issue is solved.

I think that about solves it, I THINK.

If it's possible, have the two groups together for the session zero. The characters they bring or make will be obvious who belongs with who and groups will be created by the players themselves based on how they respond to each other. Let them do half the work.

If it happens, it happens. Probably won't make a huge difference.

If they metagame punish them ?
Like they have a curse growing inside them, and at some "random" moment the curse deals permanent domage to them (reduce their MAX HP) That something I did to prevent meta, and it worked pretty well

Run a pair of oneshots for each group of 4. Maybe a third with swapping around of players to better fit party dynamic.

This Op, Thread.

say "Thanks for all the feedback guys. This is the game I want to run at this time. I can only run for 4 people"
That should get rid of a few.
Then just pick then ones you like the most.

what

Get one of the experienced ones to run a game. if 9 people want to play there has to be someone else willing to GM. Then you and the other GM work together and weave the two groups together. maybe swap players as the story progress so your friends can all see each other and have turns with different dynamics.

If you have 8 people interested in a game, it means you will have maybe 6 people actually playing at any given time.