Large Play Groups

17 Sep, 2026

Introduction

One of the things that I find really fascinating about the early history of the hobby is the way in which characters existed outside the specific campaigns they played in and could travel between them fluidly. I would have my dungeon, and my buddy would have their dungeon, and our players would swim back and forth between the two tables with the same characters and this was fine, probably, unless you were Gary Gygax (who was allegedly so upset about characters who leveled up to high levels without a commensurate increase in player skill that he wrote Tomb of Horrors).:

There are a lot of reasons I think this behavior is worth emulating in the modern day. I'll outline a few below based on my experience both playing and running in such a community (the pickup game culture in Gay Beholder/Big Purp OSR is very amenable to OD&D characters joining from any campaign, provided they're still alive) and then muse about tips for setting up such a community. They'll be referred to in the context of this blogpost as Play Groups, but some more specific name like Organized Community Play is probably more specific and appropriate

Advantages & How-To

The obvious benefit of creating a community where moving between games is common is that you get to play with a wider variety of people more regularly. This mingling of people is good for the hobby writ large, since you're presumably all participating in the hobby and working on your own things, but it also helps to compare notes with other referees, compare techniques with other players, and get exposure to best practices at your table and others. This is a function that online messaging boards serve, too, but I think a lot of the more toxic elements of places like Reddit, Discord, and the YouTube Comments section are alleviated by time spent playing with your interlocutors. It's easier to read tone when you've played pretend with someone, and the context they bring to a discussion is more readily apparent. Also, in our lonely age, it's good to know for certain that the person you're speaking with actually has experience at the table, and playing games is the only way to get that experience.

Beyond that, I find the community worldbuilding aspect of this way of play basically unmatched in terms of coolness factor. Characters will die, live, and die again in epic fashion, and because people move between games throughout their time in the community, these stories get brought with them. The legend of the Clown War in ASE exists in large part because many core members of the gaming community were able to attend and there are at least two characters from that session who make appearances today.

In some ways, this mythos of events and stories that happen across Play Groups is more realized and relevant than whatever cosmology or deep history you write for your particular setting, in large part because it took place in a way the lore of a setting can't quite. People come away from the Clown War with thoughts on what happened, and invariably put their own spin on things. Details are forgotten or misrepresented, characters are changed, and memories are made through sessions like these. There's nothing cooler in my mind than seeing a new player bring in a high level character and knowing that that character has a rich history that extends beyond their current context¹. It makes the game feel more lived in and concurrent with an overarching experience than any setting I've played in or ran.

A good example of this phenomena in action are the Super Adventures that take place on the server. They're intentionally wide in scope, and many give out fun new toys for the characters involved to bring back to their home game. Most notably to my own games as a referee, Wilbur the Death Knight began his career as a Death Knight several months ago in the Tower of Collage and made a triumphant return to the rainy region of 1000 Statues, which he was expulsed from² several real life months before.

Narratively, if that's something that interests you, perverted little OSR gamer, this transference of characters between games is basically the secret sauce to high drama and investment from players. There's precious little that invests a player into the world more than having something to lose, and a character they can play in many games is a hell of a thing to lose. The drama that's been created from famous characters in the Play Group like Ascellus Tiramisu, Snakeskin Strutta, and Mortigaunt the Mesmerizer are so great that people regularly reference them and talk about them outside the context of play. When one of these characters die, it will be an event, felt not only by the people at the table when it happens but by the Play Group and community at large. That feeling, of missing out or being tangential to huge events in the campaign world, is impossible to achieve in a normal group on the same scale.

Creating A Play Group

If I've sold you on this sort of play, how do you start? Well it's not as big a deal as it might seem. There are two steps.

1. Get some friends to run games with open slots for visiting players, or open tables generally which allow bringing characters from other games
2. Play

The shenanigans and hijinks and legends will result naturally from the two steps above.

As a general rule, be less precious about verisimilitude than you might otherwise. A best practice would be to ensure that you're running with a similar level of craziness in comparison to the other referees, but this isn't required and might make the tables feel a bit samey; it's often a lot more interesting to be a medieval peasant in a spaceship on Mars or an Alien in the grain fields of 14th century France than it is otherwise, and the strong juxtaposition makes switching tables and groups more exciting generally. Of course, you know your Play Group best and can come to a decision around setting and tone that fits best.

Also speaking generally, don't worry too much about system compatibility or balance. The important thing is translating the concept and relative strength of a character into the adventure. Devil's World Heroes Alumn Meatface did a Dragon Ball fusion with a sentient ribeye steak and now stalks the halls of Big Purple OSR with Fallout-style power armor and Thor's (yes, the God of Thunder's) Hammer. Oh, and did I mention the Iron Man repulsor blasts? With a character like that, it's tempting to wag your finger and go "noooo! you're breaking my precious game!" and then burst into pedantic tears. The reality is characters like Meatface probably won't be able to attend every game, due to both inter-game demand (hey we need Meatface to bust some skulls in our game over here!) and out-of-game situations. Instead of nerfing Meatface into the ground, try to convert him into something equally as powerful as his legend makes him out to be. With Old School D&D (the system lingua franca of Gay Beholder/Big Purp) this conversion is trivial, but you can achieve the same thing with Traveller or the whole BRP family of games pretty easily. This isn't as disruptive to the culture of play as you think it might be; many players are awed to play alongside a legendary character, or just happy not to risk dying as much with a paragon of violence on their team. If you happen to pilot a Meatface, you get to revel in your prowess and work to protect your squishier teammates.

Conclusion

Of course, you don't have to play like this. I'm not your dad and I'm not trying to join your game either. As we enter a lonelier age, though, I think group activities that foster community are super crucial to staying sane. Large groups of players and referees like what Play Groups provide allow you to have that sense of community with more people than a typical table without sacrificing the fun of playing in smaller groups. Either way, play more games!