This is a product designed for members of the Dizzy Dugout chapter of the RPGA network. The Dizzy Dugout RPGA Chapter is a non-profit organization.

This Monday marks the launch of our second group. So once again I’ll try to get these groups coordinated. Most of you know we have had a difficult time getting the second group going but it looks like it is finally going to happen.

The new groups are:

Monday Night 5:45-9:45

Kenny Kuhn (Judge), Nick Pashia, DJ Pratt, Michelle Sharpe (Judge), Steve Walkup, Charles Williams

Thursday Night 5:45-9:45

Jeremy Booth, Matt Dellamano, Kendra Kuhl, Scott Kuhl (Classic Judge), Sunday Moulton, Jason Wakefield, Dave Wilson (LC Judge)

This week I will be sending off our Club application. Two big benefits that will come with this are playing in team competitions at conventions and play testing pre-release TSR material. You will only be able to participate in these events if you are Guild Level. For those of you who don’t know Guild Level membership is $20 per year and comes with quite a few perks of it’s own. Including a free module and a subscription to Polyhedron magazine.

Rumors - Classic Tournament

This classic tournament is set in Dragonlance and is a preview of Rise of the Titans. We will be playing using the AD&D second edition rules, not the Saga System.

Players - Jeremy Booth, Matt Dellamano, Kendra Kuhl, Sunday Moulton, Jason Wakefield, Dave Wilson

Judge - Robert Frazier

Volume 2, Issue 8, February 21^st, 2000

Hello and welcome back to part two of a three-part series about what happens when there are too many players and what, exactly, we can do about it. As I stated last time, of course, not all of this will apply to every gaming group. It’s really a blessing in disguise to have too many players – it means, at least, that you don’t have too few.

I remember a time when my gaming group, going on eight years now, had at best three players and a DM, and organizing games between us was incredibly frustrating for said DM. Later, when we had the chance to acquire new players, we did so vehemently and immediately, and added too many, too fast. All this is to suggest that even if you don’t have a huge gaming group now, you may eventually. Also, the situations as I am about to illustrate don’t only occur when there are large numbers of people playing together. It could happen to any group, as you’ll see why. With that in mind, onward to part two.

As I touched on but never elaborated on in last week’s article, when you have too many people playing in a game (and exactly how many people that is varies), one of two things will happen – either chaos will rule, or people will be left out. This week, I’ll be covering the latter, and next week, the former, as well as what to do about it.

The fact of the matter is, when you have too many people, in any situation, not everyone will get a chance to speak. I don’t care if it’s a classroom, a jury, a business meeting, or just a night at the bar – add more than maybe four people into any mix and you get some kind of confusion. When everyone pushes to get their say, you get chaos. Worse, though, in my opinion – when some people force their say, other more shy or quiet people lose out, and only some people get the benefit of having the floor. Both situations have come up many times before in my gaming group.

I think, though, that from just an ethical standpoint, the second situation is far worse. It just really doesn’t seem fair to allow certain people to take all the time and attention for themselves.

Right off the bat, I have to admit that I’m a type A personality, something of a go- getter. Unless I really don’t care, I almost always have something to say about just about anything inside of a D&D game. And in that sense, I contribute to the problem as much as anyone else. I do, however, try to keep conscious of other people, and I hope that’s enough on my part. Of course, it isn’t.

It’s not fair that some people should gain more than others, especially if it’s just because of their personality. In most of those real-life situations I illustrated above, I’d say "tough luck." If you don’t want to talk in a meeting, that’s your business. If you’re perceived as lacking initiative later on, that’s your problem. But gaming is about friendship and camaraderie, and to leave some players to the wolves (the other, more aggressive players) is unfair. We all game to have fun. In theory, not only for us, but for everyone to have fun. When you have too many people, though, some lose out, and almost invariably the quieter people will lose out proportionally more.

There are a few things that can help to remedy this situation, but only one of which can really make a difference. Basically, the aggressive players have to hold off. A deliberate effort must be made to accommodate the shyer players, to ask them about their take on a situation, what they’re doing this round, do they want this magical item, et cetera. When you have a chaotic, populous situation, to assume

that their silence implies their indifference is unfair.

Most players, though, don’t seem to care. They either get too wrapped up in their own characters or they really don’t care on any level. So in some cases, it’s up to the DM. I know that personally, if my DM asked a player, "what do you think about this?" my response would be, "which NPC is asking him/her that?"

There are other things that can be done. A lot of them just involve not eating up all the time yourself. If one character – and this applies even in a game with a perfect amount of players – is constantly performing actions, especially actions which further his character more than the story-line, then you have a situation where one selfish person is taking away time from everyone else. This has come up on more than one occasion in my home game, and in one instance, the player was eventually asked to leave because it got so bad. But that’s really a topic for next week.

The Wizard of Id

By Brant Parker and Johnny Hart

Volume 2, Issue 8, February 21^st, 2000

The Monster Mash creation instructions are up. Clubs can create monsters for a big battle royale at Gen Con this summer. The concept of Monster Mash is to create a monster or several monsters within clubs using a uniform set of rules. Each Club’s best monster (determined by vote, or by a ladder style tournament) will then go on to battle other clubs’ winners in a single elimination tournament set up at the GEN CON Game Fair. Between rounds of the GEN CON tournament, monsters will be completely rested, and able to use all special abilities in the next round. Any qualifying tournaments run by clubs should follow the same format.

For more information see Wizards of the Coast web site at: