I played a fantasy rpg with my old Sydney group on Saturday night and despite looking forward to it, it was far from a success; in fact I spent the last hour looking for an excuse to end it.
Here are the problems as I saw them:
1. There were too many (eight) players.
2. Players didn't listen to each other and character cooperation was low.
3. Both in and out of character, people found ways to annoy each other and they also found in and out of character ways to become upset.
4. People spent periods of time disconnected from the game.
The first one is easy to fix: Five players max.
The next two have been problematic to different degrees for a long time.
The last one is not disruptive, so it has never been addressed, but when three people at the table are not involved in the game, it makes it difficult to maintain (GM) enthusiasm.
How do I choose who to include in the future?
How do I fix problems 2-4?