Great White Games/Pinnacle Entertainment Group

bigsteveuk · Seasoned Joined: 15 Oct 2007 Posts: 149

Hi,

I was thinking of maybe picking up the DTA scenarios for my group, but I was concerned about group size.

I noticed that the pre-rolled characters are 4 in number, is this the ideal group size?

Cheers,

BigSteveUK

P.S This could be aimed at the game designers or someone who has played it with a large group?

Wiggy · Posted: Tue Feb 03, 2009 12:29 pm Post subject: Re: [DTA] Group Size

Other Mike · Posted: Wed Feb 04, 2009 8:59 pm Post subject:

Personally, I like 4 as a minimum and prefer 6. Beyond 6 ... though I can handle up to 8 ... there are too many.

Tavis · Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 7:25 am Post subject:

Different settings suit different numbers of characters.

Pulp really does 'die', in my opinion, with too many characters to work with - I don't know why - but perhaps it has something to do with the general setting rules for most pulp systems (the wonderful DTA included) to making characters more resilient than in most other settings.

More resilient characters=less characters needed to make an encounter challenging rather than a walkover.

Take a 'standard' Fantasy genre party - A 'Front Line' Fighter (Resilience is Key!), A 'Second Line' Fighter (Support with a Spear, or a Swift Flanker type), A Sneaky 'Skills' Fellow (To do the practical things that others can't), A Ranged Combatant (The bad guys won't always come to you), A Master of Magic (Fight Fire with Fire!) and A Mystical Healer (To keep everyone going) - one of these will also usually double as a 'face' - the one that didn't use social interaction as a 'dump stat' as interaction with the common folk of the game world is often secondary to characters prowess in more 'practical adventuring' areas.

If your characters are going to recover a wound at the start of every 'act' then the Mystical Healer suddenly isn't really all that 'needed' any more. Equally in a world without 'magic' per se. neither is the Master of Magic ... which leaves us with Four - Two 'fighters' a 'Skills' guy and a 'Shooter'

Actually, in Pulp scenarios, often the 'face' character is as important, or more so, than the 'fighter', and will become a characters first string, rather than their second.

With the way that pulp tropes work, if the 'fighter' can't take down all the enemies that come along with a little support from his friends - then it was a fight he was already 'scripted' to lose - adding in a second 'fighter' type does one of two things - makes physical conflicts so short as to be unsatisfying to those that want to play the 'fighters' or forces the GM to put in so many foes that it becomes too threatening to the other characters.

That's just my take though, as YMMV.
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Currently Playing:

SWD: 50 Fathoms (GM)

DerFinsterling · Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 7:35 am Post subject:

Tavis · Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 7:43 am Post subject:

Why thankyou, Markus.
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Currently Playing:

SWD: 50 Fathoms (GM)

Wiggy · Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 7:52 am Post subject:

Other Mike · Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 8:10 pm Post subject:

Most movies and books can't deal with as many characters as a game can, so I'm not certain that's really a good example ... though the comments about the movie and books are certainly correct. And I do agree that a Pulp group gets too big faster than other genres. Of course, there are multiple factors that come into play for group size. How tough the characters are, what are the archetypes, expectations, and so on.

My experience so far has simply resulted in that I want a minimum of 4 players and that 6 worked out better. While I used a lot from the Pulp Toolkit (thanks for the great pdf, by the way), my pulp group is just hitting seasoned. Maybe higher ranks will be different?

As for archetypes, I have the great white hunter, the detective, the professor, the doctor, the annoying kid, and the Indian manservant/chauffeur/thief. Some are good at fighting, some shooting (or throwing) ... and some are just not so good in combat. In general, there is not a lot of overlap between what the characters can do.

Then of course, there are expectations. I come from playing the HERO System for many, many years, and while I still prefer it for Champions (Superheroes), combat got ... tedious ... for the "Hero Level" games that I prefer. In addition, our gaming group mainly plays D&D ... except when I take a turn as GM ... so I'll admit that what may seem like fast and smooth SW combat to us, might seem slow to someone else. Smile