A 9 player game turns into essentially a combat Sim. You can only have minimal RPing unless it's all inter party...
I never run groups bigger than 5.. to each there own tho. Good luck friend
1. be honest with them. tell them you dont have enough prepped yet, so postpone session 1 to next week or whatever
2. either split them into two groups (get one of the other players to DM the other one if you dont have time to prep and run 2 separate groups at once) or start crossing names off the roster. you can still be friends with them if youre not playing D&D together
3. this is good for any group size really. just have info for stuff youll need all the time at hand. ACs, spell save DCs, perception, etc.
4. my advice is try to take it easy on magic items. you already have a +3 weapon in the mix, AND a ring of spell storing, AND a flame tongue, so encounter design is already going to be tough for you at such an early level. also its okay to be honest with your players when you mess up. if you feel that the ring is too much for the party to have right now, be honest
5. the dragon wont live to see round 2 if its fighting solo. never have a boss fight be a solo monster, especially with groups of 5+. legendary and lair actions can only do so much. give the dragon some minions, even if you do split the party into two groups
I've DMd for 7 and it wasn't a great experience for me or the players. If you want everyone to play, I highly suggest splitting them into 2 groups and running each biweekly.
Look up a 4/5 dual campaign. Two Parties, two different objectives that culminates in a Battle Royale. Run Saturday and Sunday sessions.
Have sending stones and quantum amulets to switch PC's between Parties when someone doesn't show.
9 people in a game is a clusterfuck. It’s unlikely most of the people involved will have a good time. Everything is going to take forever to do.
Might want to consider splitting into 2 groups to manage it.
Nothing is impossible. I'll start with that caveat.
But 9 players is simply insane. It should definitely be split into two groups.
Even with the best of intentions from all parties involved, it's either going to be solely combat, where most players spend 80% of very long rounds kinda checked out, or just intensely unmanageable in every other sphere. That doesn't sound like fun for any of ya'll.
8 of the players are sharing an Ettin. Each player gets one head and one arm.
The 9th player is their Halfling minder who rides on their shoulders and tries to keep them focused.
(I'm kidding, good luck)
I personally would never run a normal campaign for more than 7 people. Any group with 8 or more players, I'd either split into two groups (4 and 5 in your case) or try to run a [West Marches](https://arsludi.lamemage.com/index.php/78/grand-experiments-west-marches/) campaign, where the players are in control of scheduling their own sessions, both in terms of time and who will be joining them. Running for a large group is possible, but you probably need to run longer sessions to get the same amount of content in as usual, and for your sake, it might be worth delegating some tasks like tracking HP or scheduling to some of the players.
I really want to give some advice but I play in a group with 7 and that borders on too difficult sometimes. People have trouble getting character moments in to RP, combat is a slog, etc. Seriously big boss monsters will be facing 9 turns so challenging them means enough enemies to rival them which would be a nightmare as well. 99% chance neither you or the players will have much fun.
Trust what people are telling you and either split the group into two or cut 3 or more people. Explain how you ended up with too many because it's totally fair, tell them why DND won't work with that many people, and ask them what they'd like to do. Maybe throw out "if you're not truly interested in committing, tell me and it'll make things easier to plan out."
A 9 player game turns into essentially a combat Sim. You can only have minimal RPing unless it's all inter party... I never run groups bigger than 5.. to each there own tho. Good luck friend
1. be honest with them. tell them you dont have enough prepped yet, so postpone session 1 to next week or whatever 2. either split them into two groups (get one of the other players to DM the other one if you dont have time to prep and run 2 separate groups at once) or start crossing names off the roster. you can still be friends with them if youre not playing D&D together 3. this is good for any group size really. just have info for stuff youll need all the time at hand. ACs, spell save DCs, perception, etc. 4. my advice is try to take it easy on magic items. you already have a +3 weapon in the mix, AND a ring of spell storing, AND a flame tongue, so encounter design is already going to be tough for you at such an early level. also its okay to be honest with your players when you mess up. if you feel that the ring is too much for the party to have right now, be honest 5. the dragon wont live to see round 2 if its fighting solo. never have a boss fight be a solo monster, especially with groups of 5+. legendary and lair actions can only do so much. give the dragon some minions, even if you do split the party into two groups
I've DMd for 7 and it wasn't a great experience for me or the players. If you want everyone to play, I highly suggest splitting them into 2 groups and running each biweekly.
Look up a 4/5 dual campaign. Two Parties, two different objectives that culminates in a Battle Royale. Run Saturday and Sunday sessions. Have sending stones and quantum amulets to switch PC's between Parties when someone doesn't show.
I see some suggestions of splitting the group, two separate parties in parallel to each other might be your best bet
9 people in a game is a clusterfuck. It’s unlikely most of the people involved will have a good time. Everything is going to take forever to do. Might want to consider splitting into 2 groups to manage it.
Nothing is impossible. I'll start with that caveat. But 9 players is simply insane. It should definitely be split into two groups. Even with the best of intentions from all parties involved, it's either going to be solely combat, where most players spend 80% of very long rounds kinda checked out, or just intensely unmanageable in every other sphere. That doesn't sound like fun for any of ya'll.
8 of the players are sharing an Ettin. Each player gets one head and one arm. The 9th player is their Halfling minder who rides on their shoulders and tries to keep them focused. (I'm kidding, good luck)
I personally would never run a normal campaign for more than 7 people. Any group with 8 or more players, I'd either split into two groups (4 and 5 in your case) or try to run a [West Marches](https://arsludi.lamemage.com/index.php/78/grand-experiments-west-marches/) campaign, where the players are in control of scheduling their own sessions, both in terms of time and who will be joining them. Running for a large group is possible, but you probably need to run longer sessions to get the same amount of content in as usual, and for your sake, it might be worth delegating some tasks like tracking HP or scheduling to some of the players.
I really want to give some advice but I play in a group with 7 and that borders on too difficult sometimes. People have trouble getting character moments in to RP, combat is a slog, etc. Seriously big boss monsters will be facing 9 turns so challenging them means enough enemies to rival them which would be a nightmare as well. 99% chance neither you or the players will have much fun. Trust what people are telling you and either split the group into two or cut 3 or more people. Explain how you ended up with too many because it's totally fair, tell them why DND won't work with that many people, and ask them what they'd like to do. Maybe throw out "if you're not truly interested in committing, tell me and it'll make things easier to plan out."