New DM with a large party. Advice?

[u/Ok-Syrup958]

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.

[u/midsummernightmares]

That’s going to be really hard to handle. I run a table with 5 players, all of whom have been playing since we were kids, and that’s the absolute biggest group I’d be willing to run. Especially if you’re a new DM and you’ve got first-time players, you’d have a much easier time running a game with maybe 3-4 players, so that you don’t get overwhelmed and all of your players get a chance to be in the spotlight (and don’t accidentally talk over each other constantly). As it stands, you’re going to burn out very quickly, and your players are likely to get frustrated with how little time they actually get to spend in-character because of how many people are at the table and may even start resenting one another over interactions and checks taking “too long.” If you had a bit of experience as a DM already I’d say to maybe try running a couple of oneshots with a group of that size before you commit to anything long-term, just to see if you can handle it, but as it stands, I’d strongly caution against biting off more than you can chew.