So I feel like I need to talk this out a little bit with others who play and enjoy the game.

So my current group and I just finished our campaign, which a lot of people enjoyed. I had them start making up new characters for a follow up we're doing in January and last night one of my players insisted on being a Lepi, those silly rabbit humanoids that only made small appearances in random comics and books here and there. I like to keep my games as close to Star Wars realism as I can, I try to craft this believable world with believable characters even though there's space magic and travel. So I told her no, that there are other races she could pick. But she refused.

I told her over and over that I just want her to be something less comical for the campaign, I'd rather her be a gungan, at least they show up in the Nexus of Power book. She was getting to the point of being mean when I was just trying to keep out something I personally thought was ridiculous. I basically gave her an ultimatum that if she's not going to change this ridiculousness and not do what I'd like her to do, she can leave. She and her friends did, bringing the group I had from 6 to 2.

I honestly felt like I wasn't asking too much, I only wanted her to change her race but she insisted on it and it became a personal attack on me for not letting her "express herself". Granted most of her friends were the ones that left, I honestly feel liberated. Throughout the whole campaign there's been tension between me and her, and more between the others that left. I allowed them a say in what kind of sessions they wanted to see, I allowed them to find the cool equipment they wanted, but when I ask them to change a race that I think is silly and doesn't fit in my story? Total chaos.

But get this, it all worked out for the better. The two that stayed are committed, and put the most depth in their characters and enjoy the game the most. I feel like these two aren't showing up just to hang out and goof off instead of be invested in the campaign (one of the players that stayed even said he loved the drama of the stories I was crafting, but its seriousness and awe factor were ruined by the way they silly role played, his words not mine.) I honestly feel like this was a long time coming, but the good news is someone who wanted in but I said six was too many is joining us, putting us at a confirmed 3. Only one or two more people would be the perfect size for me, and I'll press on them early on I want them to get more out of the game and their characters than those who left.

So in the end, people I did not want in my group left, and people I wanted stayed, and I have new people looking to join in. I honestly didn't think it would end up like this, but I'm happy it did. It felt like a toxic environment for me sometimes, so hopefully the next group is better.

I know this is a lot, but I just feel like I needed to share it, get people's opinions and plan on what to do in the future if something like this happens again. Cheers

Don't underestimate the fun of small groups. Out of Ashes only has two players, and it's so far the best campaign I've ever run. They've been amazing—both of them are creative, dedicated players, and they haven't been discouraged by the rather sandboxy style of the campaign at all.

They also like talking their way out of potential fights. I had set up a "certain" two-way (and probable three-way) combat.

Jen'et's weapon of choice is apparently confusion. It worked. Somehow they're now working on recruiting the boss fight.

I love them so much.

Don't underestimate the fun of small groups. Out of Ashes only has two players, and it's so far the best campaign I've ever run. They've been amazing—both of them are creative, dedicated players, and they haven't been discouraged by the rather sandboxy style of the campaign at all.

They also like talking their way out of potential fights. I had set up a "certain" two-way (and probable three-way) combat.

Jen'et's weapon of choice is apparently confusion. It worked. Somehow they're now working on recruiting the boss fight.

I love them so much.

I'd be fine with only three at this point, it allows me to introduce NPCs that are memorable and can work with the group on multiple occasions. I've got a plan for the future, I just didn't expect it to work out so smoothly for me.

Most of my groups are 5-6 players. 6 is already pushing the envelope for me.

One group had players who were not showing up regularly, so one of the regulars suggested we expand the group. It turned into a group of 9 players, because the people who couldn't make it all of a sudden starting finding the time to play. We're down 1 player for an undetermined amount of time as of now. The same regular player from before suggested to me that we add in another to replace the 9th, someone we both knew was interested in joining. I said that we need to lose players before we add any more in. The problem is that these are all my friends, I don't enjoy kicking people out of the group but some are quite inconsistent and some don't even have the decency to respond when we're trying to schedule it out, I hear about who's coming second-hand from one of my regulars. I'm a bit stretched thin running 5 groups and I can't split them up to make a 6th group. Seriously thinking I need to kick 3 players out from that group. I also have a bit of a drama queen in the group that tends to complain a little too much about the kind of star wars themes they don't enjoy but are pretty darn integral to star wars.

So I understand having issues with players and with a large group.

Most of my groups are 5-6 players. 6 is already pushing the envelope for me.

One group had players who were not showing up regularly, so one of the regulars suggested we expand the group. It turned into a group of 9 players, because the people who couldn't make it all of a sudden starting finding the time to play. We're down 1 player for an undetermined amount of time as of now. The same regular player from before suggested to me that we add in another to replace the 9th, someone we both knew was interested in joining. I said that we need to lose players before we add any more in. The problem is that these are all my friends, I don't enjoy kicking people out of the group but some are quite inconsistent and some don't even have the decency to respond when we're trying to schedule it out, I hear about who's coming second-hand from one of my regulars. I'm a bit stretched thin running 5 groups and I can't split them up to make a 6th group. Seriously thinking I need to kick 3 players out from that group. I also have a bit of a drama queen in the group that tends to complain a little too much about the kind of star wars themes they don't enjoy but are pretty darn integral to star wars.

So I understand having issues with players and with a large group.

OMG this ... I started out my campaign (see sig below) with 5 players, knowing that one was returning to school full time and another was heading to another state to visit family for a year+. That left a comfortable group of 4, which is about perfect. Then, another friend moved back from Maine, no biggie, 5 is easy peasy. Then my daughter moved home and jumped it to 6, well, haven't lost anything ... then, the husband of one of our regulars wanted to play, 7 ... now, another friend of ours begged to play, and I suck at saying no, so ... 8 ... now, we have another friend that wants to play and my brain is turning to mush. I'm working on an idea to split the game into two groups of 4, which would be much more reasonable, but the problem is that three of the players live in the house ... which basically means since we play at the house they are there for both sessions. Ugh ... popular GM problems, right?

I've been running with 3 for the last 2.5 years. We started with 8 in 2008, playing Dark Heresy. Over the years people have dropped out because of new relationships, college, and moving away. About the time we dropped to 3 I floated the idea of playing EotE, and everyone bought in. We have, in my opinion, a very tight group core, and I've considered doing some recruiting for the next campaign, though I'll wait a bit longer so everyone gets their "final act" then put the idea of bringing in new blood to a group vote before going ahead.

IME, the best gaming groups have a bit of conflict among the members. Games with too much conflict are obviously doomed to fail, but those without any such conflict are boring.

Quick skim through the posts; Easy option as a GM: Here's the OFFICAL FFS SWRPG splat and resource books containing all playable species. Sorted!

We started as 2 players, then my youngest son asked to play... it means that even splitting the party (oh MY!!) is easy as we did a couple of weeks ago. Hans Olo (yes really) kept the minions busy top side while my character and my son's went off shooting minions and searching for the missing shipment. It felt like an episode of SW:TCW or SW:R.. awesome!!

....and all that without a single shot of Corellian Brandy

Removed... pointless post

Kyla, one thing you may be able to have fun with doing 2x4 groups... Have them operating on opposite sites of the same campaign and as the season/series finale hits you get ALL of them together to either A battle it out or B team up against a super-mega-huge-scary-mean-bad-thing.

​I admit fully that I'm stealing the idea from a gent who ran a Deathwatch campaign I was in and a Dark Herecy campaign and the intent was to throw the Space Marines of the Deathwatch at the cluster of fun that was Dark Herecy. Sadly it never made it to fruition.

I generally think that groups are pretty easy to fill, just need to find people with the time and make the story interesting. Although as it would have been a custom species you'd have had complete control over the character build (a species I'm not familiar with) so in the long run it likely would have ended poorly for your player. I have done the same to get Sephi (space high/moon elf) into a game for my gf. We used D&D as a base, translated to FFG, and only did one stat bump iirc.

Great Minds, lol. I actually had set this up. The other group was going to be in a campaign called "Honor and Duty" which was about a group of Imperial Soldiers that got called upon to serve an Inquisitor known as "The Emperor's Hand." They were going to start out researching the murder of some Imperial scientists that were butchered at a backwater research facility (which was the backstory of the HK assassin droid in the main group) and eventually track the droid to the base the main PCs were using. The Imperial group would then attack and destroy the base while the main story PCs were on a mission (coincidentally getting money to keep the base operational) which would move the main game from EotE to AoR as they sought out the Rebels for aid and revenge. The problem is that since three of the PC's live in the house, splitting the group of 8 would two groups of about 6 .... manageable but still large ...

That sounds like a blast. A HK PC though huh..interesting.

He had a blast playing him! He was found in his backstory by another PC, who was a Force Sensitive Smuggler, and didn't want to get involved with the whole "Jedi" thing at all, but they wound up getting stuck right in the middle of it. I highly recommend reading the stories of the adventures on my pages' adventure logs ... their banter is hilarious.

HK droids are always fun. I keep meaning to play a droid, but then I just end up making more Force-sensitives.

I just can't resist the urge to be a space wizard. >_<

Herner - really sounds like the player who left wasn't a good fit for the table, and if that many others fled they probably also weren't too attached to it. I have done similar fiat in the past - declaring Chiss and Hutts off-limits because I didn't want to deal with those stories - but there are so many other options, my players just shrugged and moved on.

If it comes up again, and is a player you want to save, I'd do a bit more digging into what about the race/ class/ whatever that they liked. Find that kernel of a story they want to play; see if there's another way to deliver that experience, without ruining the remaining players'.