A Tale of Survival: GM-ing for 30 Players
As some of you know, my previous place of employment was The Malted Meeple (Northeast Ohio’s first board game café) where, involved with the company from its inception, I served as the General Manager (or Head Game Master, as was my official title). Shortly after The Malted Meeple opened to the public in March of 2015, we began discussing what kinds of events we wanted to host. Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition was the new hottest thing so the decision was easy; we would run sessions of this latest iteration of Dungeons and Dragons. I had a few years of GM-ing under my belt at this time and so I felt confident in my abilities to run the event.
We began by running two 2-hour sessions on Wednesday nights with an hour in between sessions for teardown and setup. We also wanted to make use of the newly revamped D&D Adventurers’ League and with our participation we were given access to a new module titled: Defiance in Phlan which tied in to the first story arc for D&D 5e: The Tyrany of Dragons. D&D 5e was still very new so everyone was still learning the system, myself included. I admit I was a bit daunted at the thought of learning a brand-new system, creating my own homebrew world, and running the day-to-day aspects of a new business. However, this would be the first time I would be running for clients outside of a convention and I was determined to show them all a good time.
Every player was welcome at my table even when we had to literally squeeze them in like sardines.
The day of the first session arrived and I sat everyone down and handed out pre-made characters for those who didn’t want to worry about building their own. The first session had only 5 players and the second session had only 3 players [to be honest, I was worried that the second session would not regularly fire]. But the players from each group had a great time investigating Madame Freona’s Tea Kettle, exploring the area surrounding Phlan, and battling various enemies. In the weeks to come, each table would increase in size exponentially, especially the table in our second slot which would grow to roughly 10 players, most of them regular guests of The Malted Meeple. (And many of them would remain my friends even after I had left The Malted Meeple.)
After a month or so, word got out about our D&D events (by that time we had transitioned into the latest module published especially for D&D 5e--the freshly minted Horde of the Dragon Queen) and we began to see a steady influx in players, increasing from ten player sessions to fifteen players and from fifteen players to twenty. My thought was always “What’s one more player?” Our policy was to never turn a player away from our table. Not only was it bad for business to turn away clients, it also wasn’t how I liked to do things. Every player was welcome at my table even when we had to literally squeeze them in like sardines.
I took a deep breath, printed off more character sheets, got everyone settled, and began to run a session for thirty players.
Then one day it happened. We had been sitting regularly at fifteen to twenty players but new players just kept coming through the door and all at once I was faced with my worst possible nightmare. Thirty eager players packed into a 20-foot conference room, looking up at me and expecting a Dungeons and Dragons experience. *Gulp*
So what did I do? The only thing I could. I took a deep breath, printed off more character sheets, got everyone settled, and began to run a session for thirty players. I started by having everyone introduce themselves and their character. As I had everyone pre-roll initiative, I began quickly scribbling character names in initiative order on the conference room’s chalk board. I then hastily drew a map on the chalkboard and tripled the number of monsters in the room. I added my monsters to the initiative. The party Warband of thirty players would be encountering a boss tonight. The module called for a single half-dragon champion for the players to battle--so I had them face three at max hit points! I set the scene, describing how the half-dragon stepped out of darkened cavern to intercept the interlopers, flanked by two identical twin brothers whom he introduced as his “clutch-siblings.” The encounter began and I did my best to keep the action moving and to describe each blow and every attack. To make sure that each player had their time in the spotlight, I constantly looked around the room to ensure that all eyes were fixed on me, that players were engaged in every moment of the action, and that they were anxiously awaiting what would happen next. I found that in such cramped quarters, breath weapons were surprisingly effective and I knocked down quite a few characters in short order. (Oops).
The important thing is to run with what you have and to never let the players see you sweat.
The pitched battle was desperate, but in the end the three half-dragon brothers were defeated and when the last of them fell, a mighty cheer erupted from the room! I doled out experience points and loot to the players and asked if everyone enjoyed themselves. I was pleased as everyone stated they had a great time. As they filed out of the conference room to settle their tabs, I looked over the tables scattered with napkins, pint glasses, popcorn bowls, and plates, and allowed myself to breathe a sigh of relief. It was over. I had survived running a thirty person D&D session. And while it could never have been my best work, I was happy everyone had a great time. And almost all of the players came back to play in future sessions; thankfully, we never had that big of a table again . . .but there were a few times we got close.
So what did I learn from my thirty person session? Well, I certainly don’t recommend it and, for me, it was definitely a trial by fire. But through it I learned that despite all of the prep work and session planning, even the best Game Masters get thrown for a loop sometimes. The important thing is to run with what you have and to never let the players see you sweat. You are there to deliver an awesome experience for them. In the end, even if it wasn’t your best, giving it your best is what truly matters.
Take Heart!
Karington Hess
Game Master and Founder of Open Heart Games
