Jeez.. a lot of help telling psy guy his pc is too slow. =P
Try this: Go on and model your people one at a time. If it's your cup of tea, model each one in a seperate *.max file, and then import all of them into a scene.
While working on each model, it helps to hide things so they use up less ram. use the [view] tab on the right side. Try some of the options under [Hide].
Viewport settings can be changed for optimal .. viewing too. Right-click on a viewport's name (ie "Right" or "Perspective") and select wireframe to speed things up. If wireframe is too slow when playing back animation, try "bounding box" which encapsulates all objects in a box while hiding its contents. This mode is very fast, and still suprisingly tangible.
After all the modeling is done or if you would like to see some structure instead of boxes all the time use an OPTIMIZE modifier. This will virtually remove polygons from the model. This will also make draft renders go faster. Once you're ready for a final draft dont remove optimize! righ-click on the modifier and choose 'turn off in render' so you will get all of your original model's polys in the render and NOT in your viewport.
These are all very good tips imo. And now that the prep work is done, I highly reccomend you look over
Joan of Arc which has to be the greatest character modeling tutorial ever written.
Good luck!!
If you'd like any more help, consult any one of us participating in G-3D. You can easily find us by looking for JabX's threads. There's a great logo competition going on right now. Submissions gotta be in by friday!