I ran a nine session game at our club recently and a couple of those sessions ended up with seven players (accommodating folk who were short of a game for a week or two.)

I'm not sure that DW is any worse at coping with that many players than any other game.  It came down to screen time  and people talking over one another as it can do in any game.  Just try to keep the pace up so that no-one has to wait too long and if anyone looks like they're falling behind, ask them what they're doing - I was playing the 1st beta rules and it may have changed since then but the lack of a formal initiative/turn order made it a little easier for an enthusiastic player to take more than a fair share of the spotlight.

I’m starting a 9 week run of DW at our local club tomorrow night.  It should be interesting – it’s a good crowd and the players ranging from indie-friendly to the tradest of trad.  I think only one of them has signed up because of the rule system – I guess the rest have been sold on my pitch of old school adventuring.*   I’m going to be using the 1.1 beta rules.  I’ve been through the threads and seen suggestions here and elsewhere but are there any moves or rules that have been officially or semi officially/by consensus replaced since that release?  I feel like I’ve read so much stuff around the game lately that I’m starting to lose track!  The only one that sticks firmly in my mind is the revised monster creation guidelines. 

_{*I did make it clear that we weren’t using old school rules.}

One more thing:

I had fun coming up with background information about my character ("who is your biggest role model?" etc), but I found my gamer's instincts kicking in when I did so. I wanted to come up with something interested that implied things about my character and gave the MC things to build on.

I wonder if a "normal" person might say, "Oprah is my biggest role model," and leave it at that.

When I had to tell my MC (14 yrs, not really a gamer) my role model I read the instruction out first and it surprised her.  Her first reaction was that she couldn't see why naming a role model would be relevant to what we were doing.  Once I'd named my role model and given a bit of explanation for the choice she got it but I think that had she been the player she might have been thrown by it.  Not sure why, just an observation.

We didn't play this quite right so I don't know whether that makes this report more or less useful:)

I printed out the two books, didn't read either ahead of time and gave the MC book to my daughter, Ruth.  We're going for a second session tonight and I don't want to know too much so I still haven't looked at much of the MC book yet so please bear that in mind.  Ruth's had a tiny bit of rpg experience - a couple of sessions of old school D&D and she ran a short game for me using The Pool.

I found the game play quite smooth - the player instructions were clear, my answers gave her things to incorporate and I found the game really rather spooky.  Part of that might have come from not knowing just how much of what we were doing was coming from the book and how much from Ruth's imagination.  We were, however, missing one vital thing.

After about and hour or so I asked Ruth if she'd read anything that told her to draw more cards.  She said she didn't think so, so we carried on a bit longer before deciding that we'd call it a day and I'd have a look at what we were doing wrong. 

It turned out she'd missed the bit in 5 that says that any move by the player is, by default, a move towards escape.  She'd seen the bit about a move towards triggering a draw but without taking in that paragraph didn't know what a move towards escape was and so never drew.  If the MC is directed back to 5 regularly then I guess she skipped the bits she thought she'd understood.

A couple of thoughts: as the player I felt at times like I was exploring a dungeon and there were a handful of times when I asked D&D questions (can I hear anything at the door, how far can I see with this torch.) This didn't feel right because, based on the Player Book, I was pretty sure the MC book wouldn't be set up for that kind of thing.  Ruth could (and did) make up answers but I was worried I might de-rail things for her but, going with the fiction, they were the right things to ask. I also worried about taking too long with what I wanted to do - how much could I get done in my turn and what was it that would trigger the end of my turn.

Ruth's comments after the game was that the instructions were clear but sometimes she wanted more guidance.  She said the entries were written like they were notes for a longer version of the rules.

Of course, there could have been other things going wrong in the game - I hope we'll spot those when we swap books.