Hey GMs – so you think you’ve run some games with large groups? Well Sam Comerford of The Spontanium Show recently ran a game for 19 players! Yes, that’s not a typo… NINETEEN! We interviewed Sam to find out how that went!
Tell us how you came up with the concept for Spontanium. What is it? How does it work?
I came up with Spontanium (quite fittingly) pretty much out of nowhere. I remember I wanted to start streaming on Twitch to make DnD content, and this idea almost instantly just came into my head. As for what it is, Spontanium is a DnD game show where the cast changes every week and I roll for the setting of the session randomly on stream—so that it can be almost entirely improvised!
You recently ran a Spontanium game for 19 players? Tell us how this became a thing!
Jes suggested the idea that we run a battle royale with the most people possible for maximum chaos. Perfect! This, of course, had to be meticulously planned to make sure players wouldn’t talk over each other constantly and that my brain wouldn’t explode.
Were the players new players to you, or people you’d played with before?
There was only one new player, and they did great.
Was this streamed?
Yep! The VOD is also up on the Spontanium Youtube Channel.
Were you the sole GM or did you have assistant GMs?
Just me.
How did you keep all the players engaged during play?
Here’s the thing—I didn’t. I was simply up front with them with the reality of the situation. As this was a battle royale, the players would be fighting to be the last fighter standing, and I told people that they needed to be aware that they could die early and that was it. They all agreed, and we had a great time.
Do you have advice for anyone doing something similar?
Make sure you keep things moving—consider setting a timer for turns or the like. Additionally, I’d recommend spreadsheets and VTTs. You’re gonna need them.
Would you do this again?
Absolutely. In fact, at the end of every month there will be (an albeit smaller) battle royale!
Thanks, Sam! Post any comments or questions below!
