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Minimum number of players
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Jedi Skyler
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 03, 2006 11:59 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

It's very true that as long as the player is active and working to develop his character, a single-person campaign can be absolutely fabulous. It's even better when the GM is also the type who's always working to come up with creative, new ideas for the campaign.

Single-person adventures are also a GREAT sideline to an existing campaign. I'm currently in a game right now where one character has been off by himself for quite a while now, under the influence of a Sith artifact. My character is working with another character to catch up to the main group (we entered the game late, and are being worked in), and the main group has been looking for a way to destroy the artifact. When we get together, it's going to be climactic indeed! But it's going to be very interesting to see what the loner has been up to all this time...
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Jamfke
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 03, 2006 8:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Right on Skyler. Side-lines are wonderful as well, but I've had the experience that if you get too involved in a single character side-line adventure, the other players get the impression of favoritism. This of course leads to dissention in the ranks, and so on and so forth...

I have nothing against large groups by any means. In fact, my PBP going on right here is one of the largest groups I've run in a long time, and I'm loving every minute of it. There are times when some of your players feel neglected though, and it is understandable. But in a large group setting, the GM has to go with the strongest character in the immediate situation. If most of the characters are wounded, then the medic gets the spotlight. If it's a fire-fight, then the gunslingers are the stars and so on.
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Chabit Rane
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 03, 2006 9:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Good points Jamfke.
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K_Feldspar
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 05, 2006 3:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I find in my groups that we can have 2 players and one GM, but it's not as much fun. So that's our bare minimum. The max that I can effectively run is 8 or so. Beyond that I'm not capable of controlling the session well. To many side conversations going, and it's hard for me to keep everyone's focus. That's not to say though that a more interesting GM couldn't run a larger group well. Smile
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Gry Sarth
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 05, 2006 3:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The problem with large numbers of players is not only keeping them all focused on the adventure. I think the worst problem is for the GM to keep track on what everyone is doing at all times. Everybody wants to chip in with their actions, and it's very hard for a GM to keep everything organized and not forget that player 8 had told him he was going AROUND that obstacle, and not over it, etc.

Plus, combat rounds tend to last an eternity....
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Exoviper
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 05, 2006 5:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

This thread has been very informative. Thank you very much. The single-player story tie-in is a great idea! Let's say that I can't get all the guys together for a big game, but I can go one on one with each before hand....I could use those individual sessions to build up to the group story.
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Grimace
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 05, 2006 7:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ah...the minimum amount. Normally people are so worried about how many they can shove into a game. Very few are concerned with the minimum.

From my experience, two is the minimum for a sustainable, long term game. Notice I didn't put fun in here. Why is that? I've run a single player game before. They are difficult...for the GM, but can be quite fun and enjoyable. The one player in that game *still*, to this day, remembers some of the NPCs in that game (which was almost 15 years ago). That shows that you can have very fun games with one player, but they aren't likely to last very long. The only single player game I ran lasted probably two months. We didn't finish the "campaign".

I've run 2 player campaigns for years, so I know for a fact that they are sustainable. Two players do a fair job of bouncing ideas off of one another, and can barely provide enough ideas to keep the campaign running and moving along (meaning they don't get bored). The players also don't get the feeling that the GM is feeding them information, which can occur in a single player game if the GM is not experienced with such things.

I had been GMing for 16 years before I tried a single player game, and my player said that he felt, only at times, that I was feeding him information. If I were to do a single player game now, I would run some things differently, but I would keep the basic groundwork that I had previously figured was a necessity for a good single player game.

How many players do you have? It almost sounds like you're down to one. If that's the case, I can probably provide some pointers if you decide to try a single player game. Remember, though, it's not likely to last very long...probably a couple 2-3 months (longer if you're extremely lucky) or less. So don't get too disappointed if you do it and the game falls apart. If you've got two, you're all set for plenty of time to carry on a game.
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Jedi Skyler
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PostPosted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 12:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Jamfke wrote:
Right on Skyler. Side-lines are wonderful as well, but I've had the experience that if you get too involved in a single character side-line adventure, the other players get the impression of favoritism. This of course leads to dissention in the ranks, and so on and so forth...


I quite agree, Jam. I think the best answer to this is to try to make sure that if you DO have a character who goes off on a sideline adventure, you try to make sure that ALL the characters get to from time to time. Sidelines are a great way for a single character to have a chance to do a little more rapid advancement, and as such should be an opportunity for everyone's characters at some point. Plus it also allows that player and GM to really learn each others' style, and it can be a great chance for a GM to lead a character into some knowledge he wants the whole party to have at some point. He can put the single character through some rigamarole, and as a reward for coming out alive, he gets some important clue that will help the party successfully stage a raid on an Imp supply convoy, or avoid attacking a berthed SSD because the actual defenses are WAY more than have been detected, or some other thing to help the group through their adventure. Tying it in that way helps the individual player feel like he's really contributing to the cause, and helps the rest of the party feel like that character has always been there, working right along with them.
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Exoviper
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 08, 2006 1:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Grimace wrote:


How many players do you have? It almost sounds like you're down to one. If that's the case, I can probably provide some pointers if you decide to try a single player game. Remember, though, it's not likely to last very long...probably a couple 2-3 months (longer if you're extremely lucky) or less. So don't get too disappointed if you do it and the game falls apart. If you've got two, you're all set for plenty of time to carry on a game.


Hi Grimace!
I'm down to only one player but I'm working to convince my other buds to try out RP'ing for the first time. That would boost the number up to 3 PC's. I used to GM a lot back in highschool and now I'm cleaning out the cobwebs, so to speak. Boy, getting back into this again gets me all excited! I had such a great time back in the day.
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Exoviper
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 08, 2006 1:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Jedi Skyler wrote:
Sidelines are a great way for a single character to have a chance to do a little more rapid advancement, and as such should be an opportunity for everyone's characters at some point. Plus it also allows that player and GM to really learn each others' style, and it can be a great chance for a GM to lead a character into some knowledge he wants the whole party to have at some point.


That's a great point there. Not only would the players (and myself) get our RPG fix more frequently, but our characters would advance quicker AND push the story more rapidly.
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Jedi Skyler
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 08, 2006 2:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

That's exactly right. It rotates the chance to be "in the spotlight," so to speak, and also mixes up the group dynamic every so often by taking one or two of the normal crew out of the mix so the remaining members have to perhaps be a little more creative. It's the kind of device that can help the entire group grow, not just the individuals- as long as the overall group is made up of people who are willing to take advantage of the opportunity.
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Firehawk0220
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PostPosted: Wed May 17, 2006 3:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'll only play with a minimum of two. And even then, only if they are my stronger players. Some of the ones that react more than they are pro-active aren't good enough to form a game on.

I've got two like that and three that aren't. I will also let the weaker players play alone with one stronger player, but I prefer either two strong ones or the whole group. (Or close to it.)
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Rasputiza
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PostPosted: Thu May 18, 2006 7:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Back in MERP times i used to run adventures with a 1-9 players range. 9 players party were harder to deal, but allowed to set up nice mass combat situations. In later times though, i frequently found them splitting in less numerous sub-parties (2-3) to do different tasks in different places at the same time (these are the moments when it comes helpful to play in the kitchen and having the living-room avaible to segregate players not involved in the action... Wink )
I found that with high level (i.e. experienced) characters. playing wwith one of them for a brief period is not very difficult nor dull. The most important thing is focusing their path towards a party-related goal (securing an escape path, distracting some enemies, retrieving a necessary object/info to bring it to the rest of the party later...)
Knowing how dealing with 9 players can be though, i decided to start my first SW campaign with 4-5 players only though.
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Pel
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PostPosted: Thu May 18, 2006 7:21 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've really enjoyed the aforementioned sideline solo adventures. It really helped us out when not everyone could make a given session.

For regular gaming, I prefer at least 2 players, minimum, with a maximum of 5 or 6. Any more than that and people get lost in the shuffle. Anything within those limits is fine by me.

I think I prefer multiple players for the increased interaction. With multiple ideas and viewpoints bouncing around it really takes some of the GMing strain off of me. One never knows when inspiration will strike. 8)
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Firehawk0220
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PostPosted: Thu May 18, 2006 10:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Pel wrote:
I've really enjoyed the aforementioned sideline solo adventures. It really helped us out when not everyone could make a given session.

For regular gaming, I prefer at least 2 players, minimum, with a maximum of 5 or 6. Any more than that and people get lost in the shuffle. Anything within those limits is fine by me.

I think I prefer multiple players for the increased interaction. With multiple ideas and viewpoints bouncing around it really takes some of the GMing strain off of me. One never knows when inspiration will strike. 8)


Agreed. I cap my games at about 5 players typically. I just don't like dealing with more than that.
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