[PTA] The maximum number of players, or Will it work with 8 or more?

[WildElf]

I know this has been asked before, but only for 6-7, and I'm pushing 8-9.

Cross posted from Story-Games:

Has anyone played PTA with this many? I made an open call to friends for some roleplaying, hoping that maybe half would be able to make it. Instead almost everyone could. I know at least three want to play PTA as the top pick out of the options I gave (and three more are interested), so it's looking likely. I've got 8 people showing up with my as the Producer.

I was thinking this was on the high side after some stories, but the book suggests having a season that closely matches the number of players, so since there's a 9 episode season option, I figure the player number could at least go that high. Also Firefly has 9 core characters, so it should work story wise. But we might only be doing a pilot (I'm not sure if all 9 of us will be able to meet regularly).

So, experiences with a lot of people in PTA? How did it go? Any tips on helping it run smoothly?

As an aside, I put 9 in parentheses because one person who can't make it is interested in making it at some future point. I figuring adding him in will be easy, since the first episode will be the pilot, it won't be hard to fill in a gap (well, hopefully) and at least mechanically will work out just fine. But, can you run PTA with inconsistent players? Like I have 8 this time, 7 the next, 9 after that, 6 for episode 3, etc....

- Just to be clear, I know I have the option to uninvite people and split of the group, but that's exactly what I'm hoping to avoid.
- Also, if you tried it and it bombed or that it's a bad idea, I'd like to know specifics on why it bombed or why you think its a bad idea. This will help me rationalize if I need to do the above and convince me its a good idea. Experience is better than a gut feeling for me.
- If you tried and it worked, I'd also like to know any specifics on any hurdles that you overcame or if you did anything special from onset to help make it work.

[Matt Wilson]

Hey, thanks for posting.

The big concern is that with 9 people there's going to be a real weight on who gets attention and who doesn't. Make sure you distribute the screen presence evenly, so that there aren't eps where everyone is at least a 2. When your screen presence is 1, you don't get to request a scene. You can be in other people's scenes, but you don't get to request any.

That should keep play partially sane.

Hope you have fun!

[WildElf]

Ah, good tips. That really matches large cast shows where So-and-So barely (or never) shows up.

Thanks!

[WildElf]

Just a quick update, with cancellations, I ended up with 4 players, so I didn't try out anything differently. Which was nice, I'm glad we got to play out the pilot.