Ridiculous amounts of players

Came in between the original and 3e. Was very popular in it's time. Rival of the Basic and Expert sets.

ohh.

I have thusfar played and DM'd 5e D&D and played Pathfinder, Shadowrun 5e and Conspiracy X.

Have met someone who DMed for 7 players don't know if there were any extra NPCs or if PCs had familiars...

That's a big group.

I still play 1st edition. I bought the 5e core books and use them for ideas but have never felt the need to change. 

I've not played for over a year now due to real life events but when I do eventually get back it'll be me DMing and my mate playing two characters and me with a couple of NPCs to make up the party. In my last campaign my mate played 3 characters and I played 3 NPCs in the party. When we first started out over 40 years ago we had a solid group of 5 regulars, 1 DM and 4 players which lasted for about 10 years.

I have in the past allowed players to control 2 PC's each, one a level or three above the other.  Usually a Batman and robin type situation where the two characters are linked and complimentary.

my favourite example is a crusty old ranger with a young thief sidekick.  The thief is trying to give up their life of crime and be a scout, the ranger is their mentor.

how about a beautiful, high charisma magic user with a huge, knuckle dragging fighter following her wherever she goes?

I do, also on occasion, control a party member as the DM.

Playing the Ghosts of Saltmarsh for example, I had 4 players, and I controlled a PC that was the captain of the ship they were travelling on.  The captain NEVER left the ship.  But did allow a lot of advantages by controlling and securing the ship when the party was ashore, or rendezvousing with the party at certain places etc...

I don't think I would play with just one other person, but if I tried it I would customize the adventure to a one or two PC story.  Like a detective story maybe? 

When we play, we all just control on character, (Even at times where it's just me DMing and one other player.) We play 5e and play with out any D&D or other variation, we just make up stats and have a great time roleplaying. In fact many of the best role playing stories come form playing a friends game, in which he made the playable map out of Lego bricks, also made up races, characters, over 50 items for the in game shop and monsters and such. Didn't have a single role book for any RPG, we just went with it. Anyhow, a few nights ago, the party was trying to defend a town against a dragon with the guards, so each player got to temporarily play a guard's attacks and such, but not how the guards would act. Which made for really interesting playing. We are going through the camping "Hoard of the Dragon Queen." But as a twist I started the campaign with the players choosing where there wanted to be in or around Greennest. Which was planned to make the players experience the town before it get's attacked, then attempt to get to the Keep, which, two sessions in the party has yet to get to the keep, so it's a great laugh right now that the party is almost dead, (one member has gone unconcise three times already.) and most spells are used, before evening getting to the official start of the campaign!

But with help from the Town's guard and magic missiles, along with a NPC 4th level mage, the 1st level party killed a young blue dragon.

I used to play with one friend, as teenagers.

If I DMed, (which was usually) he would control 4 characters.

If he DMed, I would control 7 characters.

My favorite is 3.5