[@Shohmyoh] 
[hider=Here's my little spittle, if you're interested…]As a GM, I tend to prefer smaller group games myself. It's a helluva lot easier to  keep track of all the players/characters and the secret information you give out, which is paramount in something like this. I had run a game similar to this in that the outcomes of the situations I threw them in were mostly character driven. I had a cast of five, which was enough to keep me busy all night typing up and sending PMs to each of them. 

As for the trials, I'll just say that you never know how the players/characters will react to what you give them, so it's good to have lots of leeway on the plot end. In the aforementioned Bliss-game, my cast threw me plenty of curveballs, so rolling with the punches was a big thing for me. And it generally kept it all more entertaining, since it was sort of like I was playing along with them because I'd have to adapt to what they wrote, too.

Hope that helps![/hider]