I’ll repeat my (possibly tired) refrain – all players want screen time for their PC. There are legitimate real-world constraints on a session that limit the amount of time available. The fewer people there are, the more everyone’s PC gets to be the star (for a little while).

Though there’s more to gaming night than playing the game – camaraderie, bullshitting and alcohol are also important (though now that I’m a teetotaler the alcohol isn’t all that important to us). But the game is pretty important, and it’s the moments when PCs get the spotlight that make the game live in everyone’s memories.

I mentioned in a comment a long time ago that I was losing a player, and I wanted to give him a memorable good-bye game. The way I did it was by putting the spotlight on his character (something all the players helped me do, quite generously of them). He’s a hack-n-slasher, but he roleplayed with great gusto for this game because I made sure everything came down to his characters’ interests – a test of riddles, a pictographic puzzle (that took me four hours to design), a formal dinner heavily inspired by the Colonel Kurtz scene at the end of Apocalypse Now, and a fight with a dragon.

The game came off splendidly. But part of the reason it came off the way it did was because I only have 4 players, so even with the spotlight on Chris’s character everyone else got meaningful screen time.

Understand that I’m not saying large groups can’t work or that they aren’t rewarding – I’m just saying that they’re a perfect storm to royally fuck up a newbie DM’s new campaign. I’m a veteran DM, and most of them time they’re something I’m just not willing to tackle because the things I value in gaming are largely incompatible with the screen time diffused among that many players.

-neal

Something that I did back in my 3.5 days was to preroll initiative for the whole party. This can be more tricky in 4E if someone has the “+X if you see me” abilities, but it can still be done.

If you’re using index cards, have them pre-sorted, and you can even do a quick re-sort if the “+X” shows up.

Another pointer – Have someone at the table time the combat rounds, and point out who takes the longest. This isn’t to berate anyone, but most players can’t see how long their rounds are, only how long everyone else’s is.

Newbie, you are doing a great job with this site and as a DM. Keep up the god work and have fun @ GENCON.