For the old classic adventures did anyone ever have a full boat load of 8 or 12 players at the table; one player for each of the pre-gens in the books?
Thanks for any reply.
Thanks for any reply.
Did anyone have a full 8 or 12 players at the table?
- Thread starter Blue Ghost
- Start date
ShawnDriscoll
SOC-14 1K
Never.
I had 8p for a T4 game running TTA....
I don't remember the most players that ever sat at my table for Traveller. Based on interpreting the game logs (I ran a game using a Compaq suitcase computer for note taking and other tasks), it looks like maybe 6 players max. I know most sessions just had 2 or 3 players present.
Outside of that, I do know the first time I ran D&D at a game convention I had 16 players. This is for sure the most players I have ever had sit at my table.
In 1985, I had started a Fantasy Hero campaign because that was what I had in my backpack when the college games club had it's first meeting having put a notice in the first issue of the school paper. We had a huge turnout that resulted in my campaign having enough players that we regularly saw 10-11 players at the table. This is the campaign with the highest sustained player presence.
I have participated in other campaigns with large numbers of players. Paul Gazis used to run a Traveller game with quite a large player base and at least 3 or 4 different active groups each with a ship (or multiple ships in the case of the most successful PC). I'm sure there were sessions with at least 8-10 players.
Note that all of these big games were in a club environment and back in the 70s and 80s.
Frank
Outside of that, I do know the first time I ran D&D at a game convention I had 16 players. This is for sure the most players I have ever had sit at my table.
In 1985, I had started a Fantasy Hero campaign because that was what I had in my backpack when the college games club had it's first meeting having put a notice in the first issue of the school paper. We had a huge turnout that resulted in my campaign having enough players that we regularly saw 10-11 players at the table. This is the campaign with the highest sustained player presence.
I have participated in other campaigns with large numbers of players. Paul Gazis used to run a Traveller game with quite a large player base and at least 3 or 4 different active groups each with a ship (or multiple ships in the case of the most successful PC). I'm sure there were sessions with at least 8-10 players.
Note that all of these big games were in a club environment and back in the 70s and 80s.
Frank
The largest CT game I played in, only one, was 6 of us.
Largest game sessions I ran as a 1e ad&d DM was at Zocchi's store in Gulfport, MS. Typically 8 to 10 players, but 12 to 14 wasn't unusual. It was more an intro game, to show people who were curious about the game, how it was played.
At CoastCon in Biloxi, MS, I ran games in ad&d, and later on Toon, from 6 to 8 players.
Largest game sessions I ran as a 1e ad&d DM was at Zocchi's store in Gulfport, MS. Typically 8 to 10 players, but 12 to 14 wasn't unusual. It was more an intro game, to show people who were curious about the game, how it was played.
At CoastCon in Biloxi, MS, I ran games in ad&d, and later on Toon, from 6 to 8 players.
Okay thanks. I'm curious why the default was 8 to 12 pregens. I did have eight players at two different sessions, one of which turned more into a rap session.
Thanks.
Thanks.
Gives choices to the typical 4-7p game groups.
Group size has, largely, shrunk over the years.
It's been 3-4 players for me for 37 years ...
I don't think I ever had players use pregens in an adventure, with one exception. I do find them useful as NPCs.
Stan Shinn
SOC-10
Traveller, as well as D&D and many of the games back in 70s, often had big groups. These days I usually run 4-6 players in my home games, but here is a picture of a group I ran at a con game back in 2015 which had 11 players (this was at North Texas RPG Con). Note Rob Eaglestone on the right helping me run this big group through character creation:
And some of the activity on the table during gameplay:
Note that in 76 Patrons the adventures were organized like this:
Which gives you a sense of how big the games (particularly at cons) would run back in the old days.
-- Stan
And some of the activity on the table during gameplay:
Note that in 76 Patrons the adventures were organized like this:
- 2-6 Players
- 5-12 Players
- 9 or more players
Which gives you a sense of how big the games (particularly at cons) would run back in the old days.
-- Stan
Very cool picture.
Yea, the only "large" games I was ever involved with, for any system, were at conventions save for one particularly spectacular scenario during an SFB campaign where even though there were ostensibly only 2 people "playing" the game, everyone was there watching.
We (my friend and I) gave the Wyn 5 Lyran warships (including 1 CA, 2 DDs, and 2 FF) to greet the Klingon battle fleet with.
It was worth it to see the look on the Klingon player's face, but it was all for naught in the end as the Wyn player was, well, an idiot and held back the ships.
C'est la guerre.
Well, I figured it was because of the lethal nature of Traveller combat. As pointed out on the other thread one side either gets knocked out or killed in the first round, so maybe someone was playing two or three characters.
One session with 8p just fell apart because no one was paying attention. The other was kind of free spirited. When generating pregens for anything I've written … I do wonder why so many. I'm thinking I'm not going to make any for my next offering. We'll see.
To be blunt Snapshot is my favorite supp / boxed board game because it does away with a lot of abstract RPing, and creates the mechanics for combat. I bring this up because FWIR Snapshot's chargen was sorta-kinda like extended chargen in a round about sense, but also the game gave you a sense of how to control a single character, and keep him or her alive.
Come to think of it, I think in the early days, pre-high school, I think I had near eight friends over for a few games, but they were strictly "kill the beast on the scout ship" / or "fight pirates" type of affairs, not really RPing sessions.
Thanks. Sleep beckons.
creativehum
SOC-14 1K
Here is a passage from the 1977 edition of Book 1:
The 1981 edition suggests a cap of ten players, with the optimum size based on what the Referee can handle.
Things were different back then!
The 1981 edition suggests a cap of ten players, with the optimum size based on what the Referee can handle.
Things were different back then!
Last edited:
I can't imagine anyone doing a 40 player session.
creativehum
SOC-14 1K
Miller and Chadwick had started doing "role playing" games with Model UNs and other such political representations before they formed GDW. These games often involved dozens of participants. I think Miller's idea of what a role playing game was was much looser than ours and he was used to working with dozens of participants at a time. Thus, his statement from 1977.
Similar threads
