Number of Players for Con Games

A good friend just had his 50th Birthday, and our gaming group organized a day of gaming for him as a present. Three games with three different GMs, and three different settings (Star Wars, Fantasy, Modern/Horror). Great day, lots of drinking and playing.

I ran the Star Wars game (Clone Wars scenario done in Savage Worlds – stole stuff from my GenCon game) and I have come to the conclusion that six is too many players/PCs for a four hour session. A four hour Con game is really three and a half hours when you add in prep, intros and time to get to the next game. There is just not enough time to have everyone get their moment in that amount of time.

Most of the Con games I run are what I would call a race. The PCs have an objective with a short time to accomplish it. They also have some clearly defined roles, leader, shooter, tech, sneak and beyond that it gets a little more vague. I think that fewer PCs means more defined roles, and an even greater opportunity for the spotlight.

Not sure how to really test this. Home games aren’t the same, and we never get four hours of gaming in anyway. This may require either GMing at a local Con or hosting my own. Bride of Grognard Con?

Credit to Happy Jacks podcast for starting me to think about this – happyjacks.org

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