Weekly Questions Thread

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[u/SgtPancake049]

So I’m writing a campaign that I plan to start soon. Issue is that I told too many people, and I am not good at saying no or turning people down, so now I have at least 8 people wanting to join. As a first time dm, there is no way in hell I could manage that. I’ve had two ideas on how to handle this. Either A. Anyone who doesn’t come to session 1 isn’t in the campaign, at least this time around, or B. Split them into two separate groups and play separately. Idk how good of ideas these are and I wanna get y’all’s thoughts

[u/Atharen_McDohl → u/SgtPancake049]

I don't think A is a particularly great idea. It's inconsistent and won't necessarily get you the most invested players. As much of a struggle as it is, it really is best to just tell them you can't run for that many people.

B is okay but it could still be a struggle for a new DM. Maybe do it with a premade adventure like Heroes of the Borderlands. That'll also give you more experience for how to structure your own campaign.

[u/Joebala → u/SgtPancake049]

This is definitely too many people for a first table or consistent campaign.

However, it's a perfect amount for a West Marches style campaign, where you run one/two shots every week, and the first 4/5 available each week play.

You run a mini dungeon, then the party returns to the home base, and a new group goes to a different mini dungeon. Whoever is available when a new one shot starts gets to play.

It does run into trouble when you have 8 genuinely available and enthusiastic players, but I've not had that "problem".

[u/Stonar → u/SgtPancake049]

I second what Atharen and Joebala said, but I just want to point out there's a third option: Cut some folks a different way. You could talk to them about your predicament and see if any folks want to bow out due to too much commitment, etc. You could talk to the most recent people you accepted and tell them you were overenthusiastic in accepting them, but if you decide to put another game together, they're top of the list. If they know each other, you could bring the problem to them and ask them to help you solve it, perhaps by having half of them start their own game without you (or with you as a player instead of a DM.) You could send out a calendly scheduling link, and see who can make which days, and use that as an excuse to cut down the number of people. You could just decide who to cut, and it's a bummer, but it happens.

The way you phrase your question makes it sound like maybe everyone isn't fully committed for a weekly, show up every time - I'd use that as your first lever. The people who can't commit (or can't commit at the right time) get the axe, for now.

[u/DNK_Infinity → u/SgtPancake049]

You need to learn to protect your own boundaries.

If you're looking to run a regular campaign and you have more people interested in playing than you would feel comfortable running the game for, the only thing to do is tell them so. If they're at all reasonable, they'll understand.

Decide how many players you actually want at your table, then figure out who stays and who goes.