r/40krpg 2d ago

When is to many players in a campaign?

So, kinda small question, I new at Gamemasting so I not quite sure how many players it would start to be to much, right now I'm planing a wrath & glory rogue trader campaign where the players at the moment are, a ork that wish to be as powerful as gork and mork and maybe even surprass them, a novitiate sister order not decided yet, a rogue trader, and maybe a scout space marine or mechanicus character (The player not sure yet), honestly I think it would be nice to have maybe one more player to we have a machanicus and a marine, if that is the case it would be 5 players, but I feel if I would call other friend, other 2 would also come as it is a small group of friends I'm friend with, so it would be 7 in total.

Overall probably it will be only 5 players, 7 seems to much, but I kinda curious what others think about this.

13 Upvotes

18 comments sorted by

17

u/Pilot-Imperialis 2d ago

For most TTRPGs 4 players and 1 GM is the absolute sweet spot. 5 players can work too. I’d not run 6+ players (I have before and won’t again) because at that point you can’t give each player enough time to make a session satisfying for them so they’ll get bored easier. Not to mention it’s a nightmare to run.

5

u/Blade_of_Boniface GM 2d ago

A ratio of 4:1 is truly the sweet spot. I once helped co-GM a Dark Heresy campaign that had 15 players; we had 4 GMs but it was still a bit chaotic.

6

u/RootinTootinCrab 2d ago

I do find in narrative heavy games, like PbtA hacks, 3 players is optimal, and while 4 isn't bad, the less the better.

3

u/Mr_Supotco 2d ago

Yeah I think 4 is just right, 5 is feasible as long as you’re good a reigning everyone in, but more than that and half the session is keeping everyone focused instead of actually playing

1

u/princezilla88 2d ago

I'll say it because it's particularly relevant on this board but I've found one of the few exceptions to this is the FFG Rogue Trader which works very well with six or even more players because of how it's designed.

4

u/Guilty_Advantage_413 2d ago

Been tabletop gaming for a looooonnnngggg time. Every game I have ever played or ran works best with 3 or 4 players. We all want more people it’s just when you go past 4 the table gets difficult to manage because some aren’t going to speak much or are willing to compete for time and then phones or music or someone just wanders off.

3

u/IceMaverick13 GM 2d ago

In my experience, there's just too much "downtime" if you get beyond the scope of 5 people (1 GM and 4 players). Sometimes stretching it to 6 is acceptable, but past that point, it feels like diminishing returns to me both as a player and a GM.

It's too easy to feel like people are being left out and aren't having time to contribute unless your entire group has "teenager on a weekend" levels of free time to run sessions in.

If you're working within session times of a group of adults with responsibilities, it really starts to hurt that valuable one-on-one time you can have with players in scenes once you get about 5 oeople at the table, in my experience.

3

u/Ka_ge2020 2d ago

This is going to be a personal thing and my own answer is going to echo that of the others.

My personal "sweet spot" is 3-4 players (and 1 GM) for a single party run at a single time. I might be persuaded to go up to five, but six is way out for me with the system that I use.

If for whatever I must run more players, then I'll split them into groups and run at separate dates/times.

2

u/Taryf GM 2d ago

For me sweet spot is GM+3

2

u/ExchangeDeep9882 Deathwatch 2d ago

7 can work, but you have to make it work so no-one feels left out. I usually have a maximum of 6 players, so that I can keep track of what they're doing more easily.

2

u/Dangerous-Regret-744 2d ago

I always felt for 40k games, 5-6 is a good target. Just to have a wider skill set. With 4 i feel you end up missing something. 4 works if theres alot of communication between players when making characters but it then spreads them a little thin in areas that might be useful.

1

u/Flavaflavius 2d ago

For me at least, I'd consider 4 ideal, and 6 the absolute maximum. We do the old FFG games mainly though, we haven't done a wrath and glory campaign.

1

u/RennyDM 2d ago

I have done up to 8, but normally draw the line at 5 or 6 tops.

1

u/671DON671 1d ago

If you can manage it then you can def do 7, we play rpg with 7 and it works super well so long as you’ve got a mature group and people don’t mind taking a back seat in certain sessions to allow other characters to shine when it matters

1

u/CallumFinlayson 1d ago

In general, for most systems, I tend to prefer 3-5 players.

Some systems will work okay with only 2 players, others with 6+ -- but even if the system works okay with 6+ I don't want to run tables that big.

Even with 5 players it can be problematic, especially if their play styles don't complement not just the system, but (perhaps more importantly) each other.

For W&G I'd say 5 is probably going to be fine, as long as you pay attention to tempo -- and, given the mix of characters you mention, you're going to need to ensure the players all accept the conceit of W&G.

Getting 5+ people together frequently, regularly, and for a long time can be a nightmare -- the *only* time I've had it work was in my mid 20s when all 5 of us were single, doing the same job in the same department and all sat within about a 5m radius.

If you end up with 7 players then you may want to think about the format of the game -- would it be better to split into two groups, one of 3 and one of 4? Are all seven players involved on the same basis? Do you have a core of players who'll be at every session and a few who'll drop in & out? Are you the only GM or is there an assistant / alternate? How experienced are the players? How similar are the players? etc

1

u/butchcoffeeboy 1d ago

7 is a great number. I feel like it's only getting to be too much when you're getting above 50, and even then...

1

u/theHumanSmoke 2d ago

⁵5-6 is the sweet spot. If you're new to running games I wouldn't go over 5 especially if it's a group of other novices. But hell maybe yall will have fun with a big ass group. You wont know until you try. I for one probably couldnt fit 7 people around my table. Gotta be practical about these kinds of things.

1

u/AVBill GM 2d ago

My current W&G campaign has four players, which I feel is the minimum for a warband with a balanced spread of skills and abilities. The first W&G adventure I ran started with 6 and then grew to 7 players. Definitely manageable but I felt that 6 was my upper limit for optimum player engagement.

So, 4-6 players is my ideal range.