The oldest Dungeons & Dragons books said the game was for 4 to 50 players, and we know people who DMed white box D&D campaigns with groups in the 20s. But that was then, and D&D 5th Edition runs into a lot of issues once you pass a certain number of players. So, what do you do when your game is already at 6 players and 3 more want to join? That’s the question posed by one of our listeners in this week’s episode of 3 Wise DMs.

How many players can you comfortably DM at one time in D&D 5E? How does that compare to earlier editions and other systems? And what do you do when your group passes that number? In this episode, Thorin, Tony and Dave talk about how many players is too many, the reasons it becomes a problem, tips and tricks for managing the chaos, and when to break the game up into two groups.

3:00 A listener question: How to handle a 6-player game when 3 more people want to join?

7:00 The challenges of managing combat and story with a lot of players

12:00 More players can make the game less interesting because managing their turns cuts into time for other things, even the DM’s descriptions and narrative

18:00 What’s the ideal number of players for a game, and is that different across systems?

22:00 Ditch the battle map? Ways to streamline the game for more players

32:00 Can you split the party up into two or more groups?

46:00 Final thoughts