Running High Player-Count Shadowdark

Big Game Hunting...

Jul 08, 2025

Welcome to the Glyph and Grok - A weekly blog-letter exploring topics in the tabletop gaming arena. We explore design, execution, and culture relating to anything played on a tabletop. Explore the other Game Mastering entries from Glyph and Grok here.

Introduction

The last three entries here at the Glyph and Grok have revolved around rehashing a high player count 16-person, 2-table, Shadowdark game that we ran at the beginning of June. I intended to pause and analyze ideas I thought made running that game the success it was WHILE rehashing, but it turned out to be all-consuming just to get the story of the game out there in a cohesive manner.

So this week, we are focused on the things that we do when running a large player-count game to stack the odds in our favor of having the table have a great experience and want to play table-top roleplaying games.

Many tabletop roleplaying games will rightly state their best player counts are between 2 and 6 player characters to a single game master. Changing the player counts above that just makes it feel like a different game. That doesn't mean it has to be a bad game, it just means the focus needs to shift and the expectations need to follow that focus. More players equals less nuance, less focus for each player, and it creates more time between each player at the table making interesting decisions - which is arguably the whole game.

Shadowdark is the game that was run in this way, but I think most of these ideas are universally applicable.

Principles and Practicalities

We cannot control everything, taste is subjective, but what can we do to promote a net-enjoyable experience for the group as a whole?

Principles

Provide meaningful choice

Always be thinking about what you're passing back to the players. What does one need to make a decision in the context of the current moment? The story is being written in real time in play at the table.

Cut combat initiative to the bone

Even in very rules-light games, combat with a higher player count takes a lot of time. Players won't feel a loss when strict dexterity ordering hierarchy is not followed, but they will feel the whole table drag when it takes 10 minutes between their turn in a combat carousel.

Arbitration - the projection of true neutral

Rulings over rules. This is an OSR mantra, but if you're playing a "modern" game like 5.5E or Pathfinder - you're going to end up doing this to some extent, just make it the norm for higher player count.
You are not the enemy. You are an impartial judge who also happens to be rooting for the PCs to do great things.

Let go

Hold the reigns loosely. Keep the table in the here and now, but let the player's decisions effect the narrative to give it meaning. If the players have decided on chaos and you're just responding to that, you're playing the game they want to play.

Description, not prescription

Fill at least two of the five senses of the player characters, give them what they need to know, then let them take the ball and roll with it.

Keep.It.Moving.

Be the conductor. Feel out the rhythm. If there’s a player leaning too far back, pull them in and ask them what they’re doing. If there’s a player too excited and in the forefront, ignore them here and there in leu of other players. Take whatever breaths you can when the players are planning and conspiring amongst themselves.

Practicalities

Principles are excellent, but we must make do with imperfect situations.

Meaningful choice

Left or right? Well what is different about these two options? Don't wait for the players to ask for this information - give it freely and often. Then when the players make the decision to go left, that is now reality. Once it happens in game, it is real. So what about what's down that right corridor? It is quantum. It is amorphous and doesn't exist in a solid state - So it can become an injection point for you as the game master. Nobody knows you didn't have something interesting there before. None of it is real until the play at the table makes it real.
To me, this is far more fun and interesting than putting your thumb on the scale fudging dice rolls. This situation is also very likely to come up in a large group if it splits up even a little. Just make sure once something is set by the players, it is then accounted for.

Combat Initiative

Go around the table clockwise and just pick a spot for the bad guys take their turn. If it matters, it will likely only be if someone really needed to do something before or after the bad guys anyways. Make it obvious in the first round how you're handling this, and then if players have objections they can raise them then. You can always suggest they can re-order themselves for best tactical outcome - but I don't expect there to be a stink after players realize combat is moving at a good clip even with 12 players at the table.

Keep it moving.

More with less. Be descriptive, but be brief. Don’t let yourself languish in long descriptions. Don’t go for a fancy word when a simple one will do. Use the biggest, nastiest descriptors you have flowing from your mind, hit it hard and then pass the spotlight. Lead by example so the rest of the table absorbs the vibe.
Engagement levels are infinitely varied and modulating - you're always engaged and moving between players, and you need to keep the socket open for connection at all times, but you don’t have to be pushy. Take what is offered, but always look for a player that might make a move if they knew a bit more.

Rulings over rules

A mantra of OSR gameplay, but always worth mentioning.
Be firm, just also be fair. There’s no time for shenanigans. Even if the rules are being bent real bad, make a call and stick with it so everybody is playing by those same bent rules. If you end up in a back and forth rule-lawyering something, make a case for the most fair and balanced option, then be firm in your standing.
Presenting a front of neutrality allows the game master the room to maneuver. I am a big fan of rolling out in the open after declaring all the modifiers, the goal, the risk, and letting the dice fall where they may…But keeping an air of neutrality can serve the discerning game master to make subtle changes to the map or to move something to a location that is more exciting in the current context the players have developed at the table. Everything is quantum until it’s made real in play - and having your players think you’ve got nothing to hide let’s you hide small but important things in the rare instances it will make a big difference to the story.

Conclusion

There’s nothing particularly ground-breaking here in these thoughts, but they’ve served me well in running high-player count one-shots.

Remember you are not beholden to any one player at the table. Even if a couple players don’t have an amazing experience, they’ll still be at a table with a story worth telling, where the group is having a great experience.

Hopefully these tidbits will help you generate a net-positive result for group at your table!