Shroompunk:
I actually try really hard to have what most online GMs would consider ridiculously large groups-- six or eight or more--
I find that 6-8, or even 10, tends to be a far better number for online games. For a few reasons:
- Some people just don't like to interact outside of "combat", I mean their Characters are there, they'll maybe quip in a sentence or two here and there, but they've shown up for the action, not the drama. So if at least half your group like the drama and intraparty interaction, you're set.
- if 1-2 people go missing, you still have a core number of 4+, and 1-2 will go missing. In fact when I run I try to recruit at least 10-12 people knowing that the standard of RPoL is "half will abandon the game within a few months". We have a lot of Players that just fade, either they were new to PbP and just don't enjoy the pacing, or your pacing, or they're not getting to play the game the way they want to, or it's been two months and Real Life
TM intrudes, or that's just who they are, they join games and bail within a few months. And that's not even talking about the people who need to take a week or a month here and there off, who will hang around forever in your game, but rel life intrudes often enough that they really can't do a face to face game (merchant marines, seasonal workers, emergency personnel, etc), so being able to have a core solid 4-5 "always around" Players (even if they rotate), means your game never needs to go on hold. Because going a month or more with your game on hold can kill it.
- Lastly, being PbP, it's far easier to wrangle large groups. If you do get a large group that are all amateur typing thespians (that is they all enjoy the intraparty interaction dynamic), they will tend to divide into smaller "inner groups" anyway, so you'll basically end up with two-three groups that are interacting with each, which can further decrease the amount you need to interject. SO I'd say 8 is the ideal 'adventuring' party size, 10ish is great for pure drama games. It does mean you need to adjust you're personal settings, if you tend to "balance challenges" for smaller parties, that might need to scale up,
or even down. The number of people participating can dramatically shift during a scene, especially if it takes weeks to play out. But "balancing" or "challenging" an adventuring party in PbP is a whole different topic of discussion.