I put in a request for interest for a new WFRP3e game and have already got five interested players. I initially capped at three for obvious reasons, but I'm buying the +1 expansion and one of my players is getting the base box. Bear in mind that none of us have used WFRP 3e before, is five far too many? Or is it manageable?

(So far in the party we have a trollslayer, a Brettonian Knight, and a barber-surgeon who I've nicknamed Sancho Panza).

Hmm... It's not going to be easy, but I think it's possible.

I would have a dry run character creation yourself, and run a combat against yourself, to get a rough idea of how things work. Then when you get the group together, make clear that you'll be having to wing it and look stuff up as you all get the hang of things.

Once you know what you're doing with the rules, and you'll have a better idea of what's 'normal', you'll be able to have a think about whether or not there's anything you want to cut out to make things run faster. And hopefully your players will get into the hang of interpreting dice rolls which will speed things up and help you out.

There are some other discussion threads ongoing (or recently tailed off) about how to speed up playing in general and combat in particular - things you can do to prepare for a game to save you time and keep the game moving quickly.

So, it's possible. But try not to get put off by learning the rules at the same time as trying to learn how to manage a big group.

I can manage a table of 7 in D&D 4e. It's the system and not running that's the problem. Because I know from experience that running 9 in OD&D is possible but going above 6 in 4e is a real pain (and I'd rather keep it to 5).

I enjoy our group of 5, however...

I have extra dice sets

We dont use the basic actions card deck, we use the summary sheet

we dont put the career sheet on the table, aqnd have total soak and total damage per weapon precalculated

we dont use party sheets or talent socketing

I eyeball player's rolls and quickly determine outcomes

We dont fight a lot (our group is rogues/charlatans)

I mentally track ACE dice and mostly use basic actions for monster attacks..and mentally track recharge if i do special actions (reduction of formality)

Having a 5th player can reduce roleplaying..especially if they're a combat hog

Players are experienced so they know how to play and cancel dice

We don't have a boardgame mentality about the rules.

Our group burned through TGS in a couple sessions, and we've already played Rough Night at the 3 feathers, Dog eat dog World, Eye for an eye, Howls in the Night (Ravenlof), Something about Marie, and Unfinished Symphony and they're only 14 xp.

I ran 7 for False PRetenses at a convention last year. That was a mistake.

jh

..

I had five at times, and I'd echo Emirikol here. Four seems to be the sweet spot; five means you have to do some work to keep things moving. Make sure everyone is "trained" to take his turn quickly and think about his action while the others are going. It's easy for things to lag a bit and for people to disappear into cross-chatter or smartphones, which only slows it down further because nobody knows what's happening on his turn. If at all possible, don't include anyone who has a tendency to overthink. Keep turns efficient by announcing the parts of each player's combat turn at first, making sure that everyone gets into the "routine" of all of the steps. And reinforce RP by having players narrate the outcomes of their own dice rolls. All that should help keep five moving along smoothly!

I would say GMs are bound both by components and comfort. I find that it's hard to give enough good attention to more than 4 players; occasionally a one-off adventure can balloon to 6, but I find 4 is my most comfortable.

From a component standpoint, I find 4 is doable with 1 core set and the adventurer's toolkit. Though I have bought several sets of the dice to facilitate (though at this point, 2 of my players have acquired their own core box).

Here's how we keep things flowing for our group:

• Combat is very taxing timewise and we have 1, maximum 2 combat encounters per 6h session. Quality over quantity. The biggest yawns are always during combat.
• Combat is 1-3 rounds in length and then cut by an event if prolonged.
• Players track recharge but not 100%. Speed over accuracy.
• Monster A/C/E and wounds are in GM laptop, notepad.
• No books are used at all - only cards and GM uses laptop in which all adventure keypoints are documented.
• GM uses creature cards, preselected before the session.
• Wizards turns are simplified - no channeling required or tracking of power. A house ruled "Simple Magic Rules" with stress and fatigue based on WP vs. Spell Power Requirement.
• GM approximates all skill difficulties with no NPC stats reference etc
• GM steers the group anytime things start to stall in a single event - simply decides what PC group will do as their choice or introduce an external motivator to move forward. No "choices" are presented to PCs that aren't really to choose between.
• We throw a lot of miscellenious skill checks, easily 50+ in 6h session. These are the fun and flavor of the game.
• Social encounters are not run in encounter mode but story mode - always.
• Progress tracks are seldom used, usually a few skill checks do the same thing. Long progress tracks from adventure modules are shortened for time.
• All dice are in center of the table for all to reach. Enough dice for all players to start to collect their individual Fear 2 check simultaniously.

So it's a combination of mechanics, playstyle and adventure structure.

Our group is 4 players. Our sessions are 90-120 minutes each. As such, we always work to plow through a lot of role playing in a limited amount of time. Resolution speed is of the essence for us. Now, ours is an epic, very heroic game, and there is a big emphasis on combat. The rule set is actually very condusive to this style of play. Using the henchman rules, the players mow down mountains of enemies at a time, but every encounter includes a boss and few sub-bosses, which keeps the challenge up for the players. It becomes a thinking-man's game...how does the tank, melee dps, ranged dps and support character optimize his actions to overcome each encounter while keeping stress and fatigue from spiraling out of control.

Because of the high success ratio implicit in the dice system, each player's initiative activation is seen as an opportunity to maximize overall success. The drama in dice rolling comes from the occasional failure, rather than the numerous success outcomes.

In order to facilitate play speed, everyone has access to their own card sets, and the dice reservoir on the table is enormous...we bought a lot of dice. The players know their characters and strategize their approach to each round...as such, dice pool creation is quick and action resolution is fast as well. I think the most important thing is that the GM must make quick calls on the fly as to how chaos stars and comet results unexpectedly change the encounter environment. Sessions aren't exciting unless there are unexpected twists in how everyone thinks an encounter will play out. We leverage unexpected dice results to create funny, tragic and/or surprising changes in an encounter. The key is to make snap decisions on the fly and just roll with it. The GM must be fair and consistent, and he should want to work with the players to create an interesting narrative with an inspired dose of crazy. Keeping players on their toes and enforcing quick decisions in a changing tactical environment actually speeds up the perceived passage of time and keeps everyone engaged.

Essentially, the GM must train the players over a few sessions that quick decision making is important and will be rewarded with whatever mechanisms he's using in his game. Chaos stars and comets are the best thing to ever happen to role playing...

Sounds good, Kevin.

The essence is to have fun and that fun for most players comes from epic memorable events where wits, skill and luck played a role. Usually it takes nothing more than a well-placed skill check based on player chosen free-form action (basics of any RPG).

Wrapping around that core element everything else is supplement which should be evaluate for "time : fun ratio".

Having fun micro-tracking everything may be for some group of people and they sure don't mix with the above. If you are accountant by profession (in real life) you may like to switch off in RPG ;-)

Keeping things logical, consistent and real is essence for immersion but any inconsistency is easily masked by GM so that players won't notice it. It's anyways not playing by the rules but meeting the expectation of people playing.

If it's not your close group of friends, maybe you could split them into two groups.

For me, maximum is four players, in any rpg I play, and I highly recommend three.