Being chased by Mayan villagers with pointy objects looking for sacrificial victims is so much more enjoyable when shared with friends!
Way back in the dawn of Whately, we opened registration without much prior warning, and within a day or so, had sixty registrations listing the dates each person could play and the people they hoped to play with. This led to us spending a day sitting at the dining room table with sheets of paper labeled with dates and post-its with players’ names, trying to put together runs that would make the greatest number of players happy.
The next year, we sent out a “Registration Opens in A Week!” type announcement, giving the following instructions:
That year, we learned that we should have asked groups to contact us BEFORE registration, because we ended up with several large groups all waiting to play Halloween weekend. So now we add:
Up until Meddling Kids, every Whately held an even dozen players. Mayans holds exactly 10 (no bogus spots for hopefully-stealth-NPCs this time 
). We are once again having players start as two separate groups of characters–we know it’s nearly a cliche by now, but we keep finding nifty plot things to exploit with two groups. We nearly went for three groups this time, but that was too crazy even for us.
But that doesn’t mean we haven’t upped the crazification factor for this Whately. This time, player groups can choose to turn the game into a two-session event, by having a “planning session” before their run which will allow them to pool their knowledge and prepare for the expedition (this includes doing some puzzles beforehand; if you don’t opt for the planning session, the puzzle results will be props that exist in game). Details are on the About the Game page on the website, so I won’t repeat them here. The ramifications for group coordination is that you should also be discussing whether your group are interested/have the time to do a “planning session”. Since each of the two groups will be doing separate planning sessions, that should also be discussed, although that’s of much greater importance if your group is filling a run or has more than four players. [Groups will either be both 5 players, or one group of 6 and a second of 4, based on casting preferences and planning session considerations.]
To recap:
- Coordinate with your friends your preferred/possible nights to play.
- If that’s 4 or more people, email us with your players and date preferences ASAP so we can head off any big-group-collisions.
- Discuss people’s interest in doing the optional “planning session.” [Final decision won’t need to be made until after casting is sent out, but knowing your general preference will help us schedule dates.]
- Make sure that everyone in your group knows to register starting September 12th, what dates to indicate and what group to specify on the form.