so i’ve been roped into running an intro/oneshot of this game for a group of 10, this is the game they want me to run and according to reddit this is a VERY bad idea, any advice?, assuming they won’t let me break it down into two separate runs
Edit: I spoke to the event coordinator and after showing him this and a fair bit of discussion he is letting me split it into 2-3 groups
I don’t know, learn to say No to people? I don’t have any good advice how to make this game work for more than double the number of players it was designed for. Maybe you can make a World of Blades-style simplified version of the rules work.
I’d say system has nothing to do with it, there’s real issues of being able to effectively manage spotlight time with a group that large with any game system. I can’t even conceive of trying to run for 10 people at once. Any time I’ve been involved in a group larger than 5, it’s always the same: “Okay, your turn, what do you do?” “I attack.” “Okay, roll.” “Ugh, I got a 3.” “Okay, you miss. See you again in an hour.” Best thing to do is split them into two groups.
I’d never run a PbtA type game for more than four and even a ‘trad’ RPG tops out at 6 and that only because of prior expectations (i.e. many cons say games should be for 6 to ensure that GM freebies don’t get abused). I’ve played with more folks back in the day – up to 8 or 10 and it was never very satisfactory so you can expect to find yourself under a lot of stress and with very bored players who probably will resort to playing with phones, wandering off etc.
So perhaps you should trust reddit that running almost any RPG with 10 players is just a bad idea. They will have to let you do whatever the hell you want, since you’re the one running the game.
I don’t know whose brilliant idea it was to organise this, but you need to express clearly to them that you either break it up into smaller groups or this is not happening, otherwise you’re setting yourself, and your prospective players, up for disappointment.
Heck, I would do three groups and tie all the crimes together. Ten newcomers of anything is a stretch.
Yeah, two (or three) groups or get a co-GM to arrange a situation where two separate crews are after the same or similar goals and cross over at different moments
I’ve only played Blades in small groups, but I joined a D&D5 table at a Con that had a listed max of 6 players, but the GM let anyone and everyone in, capping out around 13. The game was new at the time, so I sort of understood the excitement, but in 4 hours, I got something like 5 turns and practically no roleplaying time. This was years ago, and it left a terrible taste in my mouth.
Run three one shots for 3-4 of them at a time. Or better yet have two of the first sub group run one shots for the other two sub groups.
BitD’s XP is based on how you RP. 5-6 person sized groups tend to get 2-3 XP each. 3-4 person sized groups tend to get 4-5 XP.
If you must run for a group that size, you should run it as a larp so they can all entertain and interact with each other without requiring your attention. This will by necessity be rules light and info heavy, with each having some info the others need/want. Good luck, but follow your instincts on how and who you want to run for.
Yep, this is a terrible idea. It’s like saying “Lets play baseball with 100 people.” That’s not how the game works.