Can someone give me advice on how to make the game a little less hectic when you have six players at the table?

7 thoughts on “Can someone give me advice on how to make the game a little less hectic when you have six players at the table?”

1. When I run at cons, it’s always for 6 players, but in this area we can get 6-hour time slots instead of the 4 hours mandated at most cons.

   What is “hectic” in this context?

   For a six hour game, we spend one hour on character creation and bonds. Then we have a 20-30 minute break for the players while I quickly create a big bad and some minions, based on the PCs they made. Then we play for four hours.

   In play, I let each player set their first scene to show our imaginary audience what their character is all about. I weave the Mystery hook into their first scene and encourage them strongly to reach out to one of their comrades as soon as possible, so that each opening scene “tags” and leads into the next character’s opening scene.

   Once everyone is hooked in and on the same page, I basically give people turns. If there is a logical place for the story/character to go, I will set the scene. If I’m out of ideas, I ask the player what they want to do. It’s an open conversation and folks are free to contribute to any scene, but must be polite and give everyone at the table a chance to shine. I hate ballhog players, so if someone is talking over others and creating confusion, I rein them in. 

   I run very cinematic games, but it’s hard to translate that into advice. Basically the conflict or potential should be set up at the opening of the scene. If multiple players are involved, each one gets a few moments and at least one roll (often 2-3) to make something dramatic and awesome happen. When that is resolved or escalated due to failures, I switch to the next PC to give them a chance to respond. Often, if things are going well, rather than just going around the table, I’ll turn to the person who seems most eager to get in on it, or ask, “Who wants to do something about this?”

   I generally run for very mature and diverse groups who know how to share the spotlight. Feel very lucky for my great tables and good feedback.

   Hope this helps some. I can offer more when I better understand what hectic means in this context. 🙂

2. /sub

3. My main concern is running conflicts with multiple players.

   In TV shows, when multiple charcters are involved in some action-scene, usually the camera focus on just one/two of them at a time.

   My players are very willing to share the spotlight but sometimes, as a Keeper, it’s hard to keep track of everyone just using your “framing skills”: so I was looking for a way to add some kind “cinematic initiative rule” that could help me.

4. Got it. Marvel Heroic RPG has some cool concepts for Initiative. Basically make a card for each player. You can eitehr put the players in charge of them or keep them to yourself. Once a player has had a turn, the card gets flipped to the “done” side. As each player’s turn wraps, either turn to the player who is logically implicated by the last actions or ask, who’s next. Once all cards show “Done” everyone flips their cards to “Ready”.

   The complication with this is that MotW helping moves can be done after the roll, and elicit cooperation. Also, there’s the conversational style backed into pbta games. the way I deal with these is that if a player just rolls a helping roll or offers a suggestion, they still get a full turn of their own and others can help them or comment, too. But if a team action shot or effort gives mucho spotlight to both characters, then they both are done for that “round.”

   Old school initiative doesn’t have to be the enemy of pbta conversational style, if used with flexibility and for the sake of making sure everyone gets a chance to shine.

   Also, if you give the big bad lots of disposable minions and maybe a non-combat goal, there should be lots of stuff to do. Example: Big Bad is a demon. He’s got some little flying buddies that have to be dealt with, as well as some cultists who are engaged in a ritual to keep him invulnerable. Someone has to keep the Demon occupied while others break the spell and defend against the flying ones.

   I’ve blabbed a lot here. Also interested in what others have done.

5. I was thinking about Marvel Heroic too, but your advices made me think that maybe we should just get better at handling the conversation in those situations.

   Thanks a lot for your advice, you’ve been super-helpful.

   Anyone who has more advice to offer, is more than welcome!

6. Simplest Thing for ME was stick to the move Structure.

   Player a makes a move. Keeper makes a move (reacting) and points it to Player b ..and so on. Ist simple and works….

7. Bryanna Hitchcock​ and Jared Rascher​ covered the tactics I use in these cases.

   The only thing not mentioned is that I try to keep a mental list of when each player last got to do something. Whenever there’s a chance, I ask what the person who is at the end of the list is doing. Basically the same as the ready/done cards but held in my brain. Most likely, using cards explicitly would be an improvement just because it doesn’t rely on me to keep track.

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