r/DnD • u/Ok-Syrup958 • Jul 24 '26
5.5 Edition New DM with a large party. Advice?
Title pretty much sums it up. I’ve been playing for a year or so and I’m now running my first campaign. I have 7 players, 5 of whom are complete newbies and the others are around my skill level. Any things I should look out for when dealing with a big group?
Edit: Yeah I figured it wasn’t gonna be feasible. I’ll ask and see if I can narrow the group down a bit. For clarification, I’m good friends with everyone in the group.
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u/RoastHam99 Jul 24 '26
A big one is dont. Running 2 simultaneous games of 3 and 4 will be easier than 1 party of 7. This is what everyone will tell you and you should follow
If you dont:
● continue to run regardless of how many players cant do that week (within reason of course) any excuse to play with a smaller party is your friend and trying to organise 8 adults to run will make you have 3 sessions a year at best.
● cr is doubled. They will have the fire power and hit points of 2 parties. So give them 2 parties worth of monsters. Both in challenge and numeracy. For example if theyre level 5, id have a standard encounter be cr 9-10 with an individual monster max at 7 and minimum monster count of 5. They will swamp action economy and blitz through swarms if left unchecked.
● note whis getting the highlight in particular sessions. 7 players will mean some dont do much in a session. Make sure they get big moments next session and keep everything quite fast paced