Best # of players? How to play with small groups?

[234U]

Hi everybody.

I've been checking around this forum for a while and finally registered today to ask the following:
I'm hoping to gather some opinions as to what the ideal number of player is for TOR played in person.

I've been out of the gaming world for a few years, and finally TOR is giving the opportunity to get back in as a loremaster. So, do you think it would be necessarily easier for me to manage a game with fewer players?
Say I'll only have three players; how do I tweak encounters, ennemies in combats, and positions during journeys, for the players to still enjoy a similar level of challenges? It seems like small groups would have significant disadvantages compared to regular ones (which is what size in your opinion?).

[farinal]

I would say 4 players is ideal. 3 is not bad either. Probably don't even need to tweak any encounters. I play with 2 players most of the time.

[Marko]

I too play with 3 players. No rules-tweaks needed. Every now and then one of the characters needs to spent a point of hope to act as another role (we don’t have a scout) during travels, but that didn’t happen very often.

[Yepesnopes]

We are 5 players and a LM. It works great!

[Woodclaw]

I'm currently playing with 5 (sadly with 2 archers which creates a bit of a problem sometimes) and the game run pretty well. I think that 4 is probably the minimum number, but 3 is viable too if the characters are willing to deal with a little more complications.

[Hermes Serpent]

Like Woodclaw I run a game with five and it works fine. I also run another, FTF, game with three heroes but had the same issue with multiple archers. I had a player with an Elf and one with a Barding but the Elf player would not concede the Barding culture was better at archery under the rules so the Barding player changed to a Hobbit to keep the peace.

[Yusei]

3 players is my favourite configuration, as it's easier for me to ensure that everybody has something to do and an opportunity to shine. The bigger the group, the higher the chance that someone is left out during a lengthy scene (combat or roleplay interaction).

[Heilemann]

We're three players as well, which works well although I at times miss the complications of having more players; they're often in too much agreement!

It creates a 'problem' in travel, since they can't fill out all the roles; but that's just another way to steal their hope, so it works out well.

[234U]

Thank you all for your replies!
It's also interesting two of you brought up the archer issue; I'll have to pay attention to it at character creation.

[Hermes Serpent]

Make sure you have a session zero to discuss who want's to play what and make sure the players get their options sorted before it comes down to squabbling over who hides in Rearward Stance