Large/irregular groups without large/irregular parties
The group of friends for which I DM has grown larger over the last few years. We now have eight PCs in the party, with three other potential players waiting in the wings. All of us are adults, most of us married, with children, most of us employed full-time. Therefore, we have the related problems of a large party and irregular attendance.
Other people might have thought of this before, and I may even have read some of these ideas elsewhere. Regardless of the ultimate origin of these ideas, I recently offered my players the following options.
First, we introduced some table roles, somewhat analogous to character roles in D&D 4e. Some players are Actors and some are Stunt Doubles. The Actors are the players with long-running PCs in the party. Right now, our party consists of eight PCs. I am thinking about capping the party at seven, if one character dies off soon. Stunt Doubles are players who want to play but don’t have ongoing characters in the party, whether because they haven’t been playing with us throughout the campaign or because scheduling irregularities make it hard for them to participate.
If an Actor can’t attend a particular session, a Stunt Double can step in to play that character. This gives us party continuity, or at least the potential for it, during multisession adventures.
If a character dies while under a Student Double’s control, that character’s Actor gets to introduce a new character. If a character dies while under its Actor’s control, that Actor becomes a Stunt Double and one of the Stunt Doubles creates an ongoing character and becomes an Actor. Stunt Doubles who anticipate very irregular attendance can waive this promotion, though.
If all of the Actors are present on a night when a Stunt Double wants to play, that Stunt Double can run monsters or NPCs. This gives us a player vs. player experience without creating a rift in the party.
I hope that these table roles will allow us to welcome more players into our group without causing the party size to swell to an even more unmanageable extent.
Do you have experience with similar schemes? How have they worked?
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Hmm. That’s a very interesting idea. I occasionally have this problem too – my group is currently at 6 – which is on the large side of manageable (for me). I don’t like bisecting into two different games because we all like playing together – and your solution addresses that.
However, I’m not sure all my players would be satisfied or have as much fun if they were relegated to Stunt Double for long periods… …and if they’re not having fun, I’m not.
I have often wondered how well having other players running monsters would be. On one hand, if they’re straight from the book, it would free me up for more adjudication. On the other hand, if the ‘monster’ has some personality, knowledge or something otherwise plot-related (as many monsters in my games do), this might be impractical.
Keep me/us posted on how this goes. I’m interested.
~PS
PS: To clarify, I will still play the “big bads” or monsters/NPCs who affect the plot in major ways. Stunt Doubles will play monsters who are just around for a fight or two, or perhaps recurring henchmen, but not bosses. Also, I’m thinking that the Stunt Doubles are players who cannot commit to regular attendance but want to play once in a while. Thanks for the comment!