Re: Too many players?
I took a look at your GPIaA thread and your game and I have a couple of observations. These are not criticisms, just observations.
Your IC thread got about eight expressions of interest in under four hours. It's Shadowrun, which a lot of people want to play and not many run, so good on you. With that many potentials, you might have done a 'soft opening' and just let those who had responded know that the game was up. If most of them failed to respond in a day or two, you could have gone W-P then.
Your game has nothing much in the way of RTJ requirements: "If you are interested in joining, send me a request to join. If you have an idea for a character you'd like to play, send that along too." That makes it hella easy for anyone to just throw their hat in the ring and you know almost nothing about them as players.
Suggestion:
Give it today to see if more of the IC people respond. Close accepting players. Then do RTJ - Round 2 in which you ask them to put a little more effort into the process: character idea (or two), including two paragraphs of back story and a two paragraph post as that character. You can give them a bit of a scene to respond to, if you're feeling generous. Give them three days to reply -- if they can't make that, they're probably not going to keep up with your eventual post rate target.
Let them know that you've had X responses and you're only looking for about Y players. That way they know they're under the gun to impress you with their submission and that not everyone will make the cutoff. If you have any other limits -- only one techmage, no more than two runners, one a woman -- set those as well.
In terms of size of group, I've started with as many as nine characters and ended up with about six after a month or two. People do drop out.
Two groups? Some people do it. I know I couldn't. I sometimes get confused about what's happened and to whom with one group.
Another solution is to start them in a sort of prelude with solo threads or pairs. Run those until attrition starts to winnow the field and then combine them for the main plot, retconning as necessary.
Looks like you have the potential for a great game.
This message was last edited by the user at 16:32, Tue 18 Nov 2014.