So, you’re sitting there, squinting over your DM shield with dice in hand, your books, spells, and monsters pre-sorted – all to aid in the fabrication of the epic marvel of a session you have thought out for the last week to place before your fellow gamers. You glance up and are forced to a sudden reality. You realize that your party consists of the equivalent of a troupe of ADHD monkeys, hopped up on Pixie Stix and Cheeto’s, halfway into a Mt.Dew induced coma, holding loaded fists full of pooh, with itchy trigger fingers.
How will your story ever be told?!
Often, DM’s find that they might be overwhelmed by the sheer personality differences existing within their group. It is even worse when the number of people in your party exceeds the norm. A DM should keep in mind that while there are a few passive wallflowers, the majority of their players will reflect alpha-male traits. Unlike a movie, where there will usually be one main character, a game of D&D will have several. Things get exponentially more complicated when you introduce more than a standard four-member party.
A few tips to handle this situation effectively might include the following:
1) Don’t force it!
The natural response to getting things under control would be to become more strict or heavy-handed with your DM’ing. Instead, loosen the reins. Give a broad spectrum goal alone, and let the story guide itself on the personalities that exist.
2) Encourage everyone to talk only as their player character in all things.
This not only allows for the story to form more fluidly, it also incorporates all in attendance upon the task at hand, and keeps the out-of-game distractions to a minimum. Such distractions from so many people can easily ruin a game session.
3) Spread your attentions equally!
There will always be one glory hog in your party that simply requires more attention than everyone else in the campaign. Be sure to handle the situations as they come, but pay extra careful attention that you give everyone else their equal opportunity.
4) Don’t focus too much on the little things!
Keeping track of everything at once is hard enough – being forced to keep track of more than 4 people in your party can be overwhelming. Instead of keeping an exact count of certain details, loosen up your control. For instance, not all monsters need to have the exact average hit points. Choose to kill a monster when it’s most dramatic. This help speed up the rounds, encourages game-play, and further helps your story by allowing your party members the spotlight of a dramatic “bad ass” moment of glory.
Follow these few simple tips, and you too could become a successful ADHD Mt. Dew junkie monkey trainer, just like me!
Brandon Hobgood
I definitely agree with not focusing too much on the little things (#4). A lot of times you just have to let things slide in order to keep the ball rolling. Also, if everyone is up for it, lots of Lemon Drops!
Another thing I’d add, is try and do 1 session that is focused on each character. This allows each player to have their time in the spotlight. It works especially well if you can take the time to talk with each player about their character’s backstory outside of the session beforehand. Then half your planning is done for you. I once had a campaign with 10 players, where we touched on each characters backstory for a session, and it has been my most successful campaign to date.
@ Starwind1985
– I think balancing the spotlight among player characters can be a tricky endeavor. It’s definitely worth it if done to everyone’s satisfaction. The trouble is handling certain PCs that don’t understand that “today is not their day.”
i was reading the other articles written on this site and came across quite a few nuggets of knowledge. One extra instance that i feel should be added that i have never incorporated (but now plan to) is the idea of helping the characters actually become heros, and aid them by offering more opportunity to shine. I think that i read this in the article dealing with trust, and it definately made sense to me.