Mostly rpg

I had a great game with the guys on Saturday night. They were following a rumour of a wizard in the North to see if he was an escapee of the House of Rose. They did some gathering of information in seedy dock side bars and met a man that dealt in secrets. The man told them about a wizard living in a town called Lothair, a few days North of them. He also gave them a contact name in the town of a guy who knows more. So while there was little action there was plenty of role playing and investigation. I really enjoyed it.

My high school students were totally freaked out by yesterdays session of our fantasy game. I decided to base their latest escapade on a survival horror model. They have not played any horror, but they have watched enough movies and played enough computer games to get the genre.

I haven't done much painting lately. I am however building a small ruined fortification. I am about half way through it and look forward to putting it on the battlefield.

I have also accidentally designed a war game for my 4th grade class to play next week. Should be amusing.

Same old same old

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?