If you have ever played a role-playing game, you will know that the more people you have at the table, the harder it is to run the game. I have experienced this first hand in my first (and only) game of Dungeons and Dragons 3.5. There were about fifteen people at the table. I had a new character: a cleric. I was praised for my back-story, and in my mind I had a few great interactions planned for introducing the character to the group of players.
Instead, in the five hour game, I got to make two moves: one roll to heal someone and one to attack something. I failed one of those rolls.
It was not a fun time, and needless to say, I didn't go back to that group.
Let's fast forward several years. White-Wolf came out with their epic game based off of anime-troops: Exalted. Exalted was designed to be played with five players and a game master / storyteller. Any more people, and the game gets a bit bogged down. Any fewer, and the characters will have to become more creative to meet all of the challenges presented in the story (not necessarily a bad thing). Five was the magic number for this particular game.
As I run my games, since they are run in a public space, other people become interested in what is happening. At times, they ask if they can join in, even if it is just to try the game. The good news is I have yet to have a player make two moves in five hours! The bad new is, with more players coming to the table, fewer characters (and therefore fewer players) get the spotlight.
What can be done about this?
The simplest solution would be to limit the number of players at a given game. Five seems to be the maximum number of players that I can handle. I know game masters who can have 7 or 8 players take part in an adventure in a meaningful way. At LARPS (a topic for another post) a game master may be overseeing dozens of players. The challenge with this is, what do you do with the other players?
If you have the time, you could create another game for the new players on a different day. This may take up more time than you had budgeted for gaming, as a typical game session can take anywhere from two to six hours. This doesn't include the preparation that you would need to do beforehand, to ensure that you have an appropriate adventure for your players. Of course, to save time, you could even run the same adventure with the different group.
Another option would be to invite the (potential) new players to game after your current story-arch has ended. A role-playing game is just an interactive story-telling session, and most good stories have a distinct end. If this is an option, you would have to decide if non-new players would be able to participate in the upcoming game, or if the new game would just be fore new players.
A third option would be to get some of your current players to step up to the plate and run a game for the potential new players. This option would depend on the other player's willingness to run a game, as well as their ability to run one. However, you may still be responsible for what goes on in the game, even if you are not the person who is running it.
What other solutions have worked for other GMs?
Picture References:
"Boys at the Table" is from http://honduraskeiser.blogspot.com/2011_01_01_archive.html
"Exalted" is from http://www.flamesrising.com/exalted-rpg-review/
