Howdy Tavernites!
I’m running a game with a meetup group tonight and we potentially have over 8 players (plus myself)!
I’m very excited to share Dungeon World with so many people. Are there any tips or tricks that yall have tried for games with large parties?
I want to make the experience as fun as possible!
Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
Yikes. I’d split it into two groups and run two games. It would be easier. :)
No second GM. At least not tonight. As far as I know I might be the only one who’s even played DW!
Just ran a one-shot for a group of seven players I’ve never met last night. It went really well and none of these players have ever played Dungeon World.
My main advice would be take a few minutes filling in Bonds, players seem to get a real kick out of it and it’s a good way to get the ball rolling. Also avoid anything “slow” in your adventure; things like investigations or lengthy social interactions. Keep the action coming from all sides and if you can place the characters in some sort of time crunch. On that note, open in the middle of a combat scene!
Perfect! Exactly what I was looking for! Thank you John Lewis.
I second “open in the middle of combat” I also say split the party if you can. It lets you keep the encounters manageable in scope and shows off the speed of the system. When someone blows a roll and you need to think, cut to the other group for a bit. When you get back to them it will have had time to percolate and the players may have said something that makes a great idea. I ran a group of 8-10 like this and it went good. Smaller is better but I was in the same position as you, only GM who knew the system. Good luck!
Good luck with that large a group. I wish I could help out, but tonight is not a good night for me, schedule wise.
Thanks for the advice Casey McKenzie I hadn’t thought of intentionally having the party split….Hmmmm.
I think I’ll give it a try.
I ran a party of 6 and all of them were new to DW. Started with them in cages 20 feet off the ground. Asked them what captured them, where they were, and what was this “god” that they heard was going to eat them. Small scale rioting and carnage soon followed. It was mostly action the whole while and they loved every minute of it.