How many normally play in your group?

When an inventor invents a game he normally has in mind a specific
number of players. But since no publisher would take on a game
designed for a precise number the rules have to be adjusted - with
varying degrees of success - to accommodate different numbers.

When I first got into modern boardgaming games seemed to be for 4 or 6
maximum. The 5 player games arrived with the rise in the German games
market, to the extent that this number (max) is now often the norm.

There seemed to be a certain sense in this. Since six can hardly be
regarded as being a standard size group I imagined that inventors had
in mind four players when working on a new game. And whilst the rules
could, maybe, be adjusted to increase the number to five, the system
creaked more than somewhat if pushed to six.

With the arrival of the internet and the many comments and reviews that
get posted I am also surprised to learn just how many games that I have
always regarded as being essentially for a larger group get played by 3
or even just 2 players.

Anyway, my idea that four players is probably the average has taken a
knock recently. I saw that Ystari had published an expansion set so
that their YS could be played by five. And today I read that a firm,
not connected with the original publication, is going to launch a 5th
player expansion for REEF ENCOUNTER. So clearly it is considered that
there are enough groups of that size out there to justify such an
investment.

This has prompted me to enquire of subscribers to this Newsgroup as to
the normal size of their own playing group. In my own case our group
is six players but work, illness, holidays, children's school
activities, etc. can intrude to bring that down to five quite
frequently. But we are seldom four (which means some good 4-player
(max) games don't get played as much as they deserve) and we are
never 3 or 2.

Derek

.

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