How to Run D&D for Small Groups

By Luke Hart

Today we’ll be talking about ways to overcome a few of the challenges of running RPGs, such as D&D, for smaller groups of players – that is, fewer than four.

Now, running an RPG for small groups is much easier than running it for LARGE groups, so you have that going for you. The things you might often struggle with in a large group are much less of an issue with small groups, but small groups do have their unique struggles.

By the way, if you're looking for a low level pre-made adventure module for your D&D 5e game, I highly recommend Into the Fey. It's designed for levels 1 to 5, features tricksy fey and their sly schemes, and contains everything you need to play!

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#1 There aren’t enough PCs. The group isn’t strong enough!

This problem results from a couple different things. The first could be if you are running a module that is designed for 4 to 6 players, but you may only have 2 or 3. Or maybe just 1. How do you run that module for your group?

The other issue results from the way action economy works in the game. In essence, if the bad guys out number the good guys, the advantage will lie with the side that has more combatants, EVEN IF the challenge rating of the encounter might indicate otherwise. Yes, I know the math and rules are supposed to take that into account, but they don’t really. The CR system is corrupt and broken. You can trust it only so far before it steals your kid’s college savings and takes out a second mortgage on your home behind your back.

So, there are some basic strategies to help with these issues: NUMBER ONE, give the party more warm bodies. That is, give your players’ characters folks in the game to help them out during encounters and combat. There are a few different ways to go about this.

First, players can run more than one PC. When I GM’d 1-on-1 for my daughter, there were 4 PCs. She ran two of them; I ran two of them. (Yes, this was the DREADED DM PC situation, but don’t worry. I avoided all the classic pitfalls of DM PCs.) Of course, if you have at least two players, your life is easier. Each player could run two characters, giving the group a total of 4, and you’re job is done. There are benefits to this beyond just giving more PCs to the group: Allows players to run more than 1 character, which they may enjoy. More variety to what they can do in the game. The downside is that PCs are fairly complicated and some players just can’t handle the burden. Like some players, bless their lovely hearts, can barely manage to run one character, and if they had to run TWO characters, their brains are likely to melt into a puddle on the battle map and all over the minis.

The next way to provide more warm bodies is by HIRELINGS or NPCs. Hirelings are basically mercenaries that the PCs can hire to go along with them. NPCs are people that you, the game master, might devise to go along and help the PCs, usually for reasons that have something to do with the ongoing plot and story. My recommendation here is to lean toward HIRELINGS that are a bit weaker than the PCs themselves, and don’t create the hirelings with full blown character sheets. Instead, either use the Sidekicks rules in Tasha’s, or create a stat block (much like you would for a monster) that the players can use.

And that’s my second recommendation: have the PLAYERS control the hirelings (if they are capable of doing so without the aforementioned brain melting complication, of course). You have a lot going on as game master; don’t add running hirelings to your plate if you can avoid it. Like maybe you RP the hirelings OUTSIDE combat, but in combat, the players should be running the hirelings. Now, if you go with NPCs, that’s fine (and kind of like the tomato tomatoe situation), but NPCs tend to be more “important” to the plot or story, and you’ll be tempted to give them plot armor. Or the players will feel obligated to protect them – you know, the often dreaded NPC babysitting situation – whereas with hirelings, meh, if they die, they die.

Though, I might add, if the character get a reputation for churning through hirelings, future hirelings might refuse their employ because they know they’ll likely end up dead. You see, mercenaries do want to make money, but they also want to live to SPEND that money.

So, if you go with an NPC, cool, but DO NOT make them more powerful than the players’ characters, and make sure they are just as vulnerable to death as anyone else in the group. I would also suggest that you have players run the NPC in combat, too, even if you RP the NPC out of combat.

Finally, you could go with a DM PC, but it’s generally best avoided. There are too many pitfalls involved, and many game masters are likely to fall face first into them.

The NEXT strategy to help with not having enough PCs in the group is to adjust your encounters. The basic idea is to keep action economy in mind when designing encounters. And what does that mean?

Action economy in essence is how many times can X PC or monster do something in 1 round of combat. So, if your PC can attack TWICE in a round, we’ll say the PC’s action economy is 2. If my monster can attack ONCE in a round, it’s action economy is 1. So if there are two PCs with action economies of 2 each, the total action economy of the group is 4. Now, if I deploy EIGHT monsters against them, and each as an action economy of 1, my group of monsters has a total action economy of 8, double that of the PCs’ group. That means that for every time the PCs attack, they’ll get attacked twice. So, the action economy will FAVOR the monsters, in many situations. It doesn’t mean that whoever has the action economy advantage will ALWAYS have an advantage, but when you’re dealing with PCs and monsters mostly close to each other in power and challenge rating, it does. For instance, if I have 2 level 10 characters with 2 attacks each, and 12 CR ¼ goblins with 1 attack each – trust me, the PCs are going to mop the floor with the pitiful goblins, but that’s because the power difference between the two is so great. It it were more equal, things would be different.

Okay, so how do we design encounters with action economy in mind. There are two ways to go about it: one is a rule of thumb, the other is slightly more sophisticated. FIRST, the rule of thumb is to not have there be more enemies than there are PCs. That helps balance action economy in many situations. However, if you want to take it a bit farther, consider how many attacks (such as swinging swords, casting spells, etc.) your PCs can do and compare it to how many the group of monsters can do. If they are roughly equal, give or take a little in either direction, action economy is balanced. NEXT, if you want to take it to the next level, I would calculate the encounter using the Challenge Rating system first – online CR calculators such as the one on D&D Beyond are your friend here – and THEN I would compare action economies. If there is a gross imbalance either way, that would make the encounter easier or harder than the CR system would otherwise indicate. And then you adjust things if you want.

I do want to say here, though, that NOT EVERYTHING need be balanced. It’s okay if the PCs run into baddies that are really tough from time to time – or really weak for that matter. Variety is the spice of life, and different levels of challenge are a good thing, IMO. I occasionally throw a monster in the game that my players have almost zero chance of defeating just to see what they do and how they handle it. Of course, when I do so, I make sure there are another options to resolve that encounter besides combat, since I know they are likely loose. Remember, bad guys have other motivations besides just murdering and pillaging!

FINALLY, if the PCs need a power boost to handle the challenges in the game, give them more MAGIC ITEMS, especially consumable ones. Now, you’ve probably hear me rant several times about giving out magic items like they are candy because it shifts the power balance of the game in favor of the PCs – but that’s EXACTLY what you’re looking to do in the case of a small group. So, this is your excuse to happily ignore me and give your players some cool magic items to up their power. (Of course, you’re not REALLY ignoring me, because I just told you to do it…) I will still recommend going with more CONSUMABLES – like potions and scrolls – over permanent magic items, but the latter should still be bumped up a bit.

#2 Key roles aren’t covered by the PCs

The essence of this problem is that since there are only say two players and thus two PCs, they don’t have all the skills that are “required” by the game. For instance, say you don’t have a rogue who is good at finding and disabling traps – that could be a liability for the group. Or you don’t have a utility spellcaster – typically a wizard – which will cause you to feel some real pain at the later levels of play. Or you don’t have a healer – not that dedicated healers are really needed in 5e. But an even BIGGER problem, IMO, is when there are no FRONT LINE MELEE TYPES, and the players are all playing squishy dudes or spell casters. That could cause real problems right away. So, there are various ways you can handle this.

#1 Tell your players to build their party and create their PCs WISELY and just deal with it. This would probably be my preferred method if I have veteran players. “Yo guys, there are only two of you. You can expect bad guys to be mostly melee weapon combatants and archers, with a speckling of casters. It’s up to you to build your group to handle that.” That means, if you create a wizard and an archer, you had better have a plan for how you’ll deal with front-liner melee types rushing up next to you all the time – or this might be a short campaign. The drawback of this approach, of course, is that the players might not get to play the class they want to. And I want my players to enjoy themselves and have fun – and it depends on the player, of course, but some folks just don’t enjoy playing PCs they are forced into – so, this method might not be the best for that reason.

#2 Give your players hirelings or NPCs to help filling the skill and ability gaps. Need a rogue? Get a rogue hireling. Feel like you REALLY need healing? The mercs got those, too. This is a good, solid approach, and will work well for 90% of small groups, I feel.

#3 Adjust your game and encounters according to their party makeup. This is probably the method I recommend the least, not only because it’s a big old giant pain in the butt for the game master, but also because it’s not REALISTIC whatsoever to have a game world with encounters that just MAGICALLY happen to account for the groups’ lack of key abilities. And I am very big on creating BELIEVABLE worlds in RPG games. Also, do you really want to adjust every single encounter in the module? Maybe not. But then again, I find myself adjusting many of the encounters anyway, and my groups are average-sized and have most key roles covered – so….maybe there isn’t too much of a different there. Furthermore, this approach also assumes that you know HOW to adjust encounters in this manner, and if you’re a new-ish game master, you might not. At any rate, this is an option, but just be aware that it involves a lot more effort for the game master – it’s often ENJOYABLE effort, but it still takes time.

#4 Let your players create GESTALT characters. Gestalt PCs are basically a PC that levels up in TWO classes at the same time. Now, I don’t have any official rules for doing this for you – but I bet a Google search might help you find something for your specific game system – yet this could be a cool way for players to get access to more skills and abilities to help them overcome challenges, and they might have a blast doing it. It also makes their PCs more powerful – to a degree, though action economy would still be a limiting factor – which helps a bit with the first issue of small groups being less powerful.

#5 Provide magic items, such as scrolls and potions, or even special abilities that will help fill in skill gaps. In my Wonder Panda campaign, the characters were all from an alternate plane of existence, and when they were transported to the plane the campaign took place in, they were infused with magic that not only allowed them to use scrolls, but also gave them special abilities, including spell casting.

Now, of all the various options I’ve given you for overcoming the downsides of running small groups, which do I think are the best and easiest to implement? Give your groups a couple hirelings that they run in combat and bump up the number of consumable magic items they get: healing potions, other types of potions, and scrolls. Those two things have a good chance to resolve most of the pain points of a small group, IMO.

Confront Devious Fey and Their Tricksy Plots!

For years, the fey creatures inhabiting Pelview Grove to the north and Pelfell Bog to the east have not been a source of trouble, though perhaps they were a shade too mischievous at times. That has now changed.

Beset on all sides by a variety of issues -- childish pranks gone wild, dwarves forced out of their own brewery, and farmers missing -- the Aeredale guard is looking for help from local adventuring parties to set things right.

For those brave souls who accept the call to adventure, it'll be time to go into the fey.

If you’re looking to start up a new 5e campaign or reboot your current one, Into the Fey may be exactly what you need. Designed for levels 1 to 5, Into the Fey contains everything you need to start playing:

• Eleven fey-themed adventures for level 1 to 5 adventuring parties
• Over 40 new fey monsters
• The fully fleshed-out town of Aeredale
• Maps of Aeredale, the surrounding region, and the Fey Plane
• Player handouts
• Hag potion system
• 15 new fey magic items
• JPG image files of all Into the Fey adventure maps, including GM versions and gridded/non-gridded player versions
• JPG images files of all Into the Fey world maps
• Digital tokens of Into the Fey NPCs and monsters

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