Too many people, How many is too many? Options

[Crazy Ivan]

How many players do you think are too many for a SR game? Last night I played in one with 8 players and the DM. The party was a full mage, a shaman wanted to do a little bit of everything (hacking and physical combat included), a drake with a bow, a infiltration specialist with a sniper rifle, a combat monster dwarf, a technomancer, a night one street sam, and a well-connected troll sammy. The group hadn't been more than 6 (which too me is unwieldly, but workable for SR) in previous days, so when I walked in the door to the game session, I was a wee-bit overwhelmed.

The session was really bogged down with people trying to talk over each other and get the spotlight. Between the dwarfs constant attempts to kill people for no reason and drinking to the shamans 'androgyny', a lot of time was lost with people trying to make everyone laugh with their antics. Granted, a lot of the issue was the fact that 4 of the players are relatively new players to RPG's in general.

Normally, I would probably have left the game or didn't return, but I don't have another option for gaming (my previous group had a falling out due to personality issues from some of the players).