I'm sure this has come up already on the forums, but I haven't had any luck finding it.

The box says 2-4 players. My gaming group has six people including me. Is it impossible to stretch the game to four or five PCs? I assume not, and that the major issue is to have enough cards for everyone.

Have people tried playing with larger groups? What adjustments were required?

I bought 2 core boxes and 2 toolkits. So I can run with 8 players, although I never would. I have a group of 6. The REAL problem of running with more than 3 with 1 core box is not enough basic cards, so players must share.

Also you can't ever have players choose the same action cards without sharing as well.

So to answer your questions, you CAN play with more than 3 players but they will need to share cards.

I wish the FFG would make a character sheet program similar to wotc's 4E character builder. It puts the cards on the character sheet. That way you would have this issue. Then again FFG may be banking on people like me buying 2 core sets.

Biggest issue is 3 sets of basic action cards (and a 4th in the AT). You can share or write the info the contain down on paper, but copying them would probably be the best solution since it is possible for the GM to put recharge tokens on any action, including basic actions, so it's handy for each person to have their own. Information is the same on both sides, so stance doesn't factor into their use and you can just copy one side.

My take on the lack of duplicates of other cards is that they are a designed to act as a limit to duplication between players. This promotes diversity in the group and gives the party a wider cross-section of abilities. There are plenty of action cards and Talents to go around that everyone should be able to pick something unique. This belief was strengthened by the fact that they included a second copy of the advanced forms of the active defense cards in the AT, giving you two copies of these (but not three). So it is now possible for up to two characters to have Improved Dodge. Obviously however, the available pool of cards stretches thinner over a larger group and you may just want to allow overlapping abilities in your game. Buying a second set still doesn't solve your problem if 3 players all want the same card, so making copies of the just the needed cards may be the way to go.

mac40k said:

No, but it gives you 6 basic sets of cards, back up rulebooks, another set of dice, twice the cardboard stands and 2 of every other card.

Sinister said:

No argument there and certainly the extra dice would come in handy for a larger group, but I read the OP as asking if he could stretch to accommodate 5-6 players without having to buy a second core set. While that is certainly one way to accommodate more players, it isn't the only way. The dice can be bought separately (soon I hope) for far less than $100, but you can also get by with just those that are provided in the core set. A second set of standees still isn't enough for groups of creatures larger than 2 since there is only one of each in the box, so that's not a good reason to puchase a second set. The rulebooks aren't really needed for reference much during play, so a second set isn't needed and doesn't provide as much value as they might in a game where rulebooks must be referenced frequently and are passed around often during the game. So the main reason in my mind for why you would want a second core set is for the cards. My point was that depending on how you view the limitation on card availability, not having extras may not matter and if it does, you can get by with copying just the ones you need. So yes, the OP can stretch to accommodate 5-6 players with just 1 copy of the core set.

Thanks for the replies folks. It's good to get some perspectives about this.

So I'm OK with using copies of cards for the time being instead of buying a second core set ($200 is a pretty high buy-in for a game I don't even know if my group will like).

Are there any other issues folks have run into GMing for larger groups? Scaling adversaries for example?

I am GMing a group of six. As stated above-making copies of needed cards is the best solution. With six, the game can bog down at times-but this is due to 1) Its a new system .(4 sessions so far), and 2) More importantly a dice shortage. Passing the die around is a pain. and 3) Space. But that is more do to the size of our gaming area....

Dice shortage was our biggest problem at the game last night.

Imagine running D&D with one set of dice and 6 players. It's slower than that.

jh

I just have people put all their cards on our copier and run a copy of the "set" they need- front and back. I also order another set of dice I would like to get a second set but at the price tag- nah- I will survive on one.

Space can be an issue at the table with large groups. I'd suggest using doc_cthulhu's portrait character sheet and tracking stress, fatigue, wounds and stance using paper clips. This also removes a number of component constraints.

I would then suggest making a sheet of photocopies of the 9 basic cards for each player so everyone has a copy.

I think having done these the only thing you'll be short of are dice, and stance rings.