[Twilight Time] Reader Views on Splitting the Party

[Heather Grove]

October 28, 2002 - Reader Views on Splitting the Party
Volume 3, Issue 15

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Good morning!

It's getting cold where we are - we had our first brief snow of the 
season last week, and our second this weekend. And we're coming up on 
Halloween, when a gazillion kids will come walking up our driveway 
looking for candy. (No, really - I swear last year more kids rang our 
doorbell than there are people in this entire county!)

We have two new articles up on the web site for you, both of which are 
a bit interesting and different for us, and a review of AEG's 
"Farscape Roleplaying Game." Links to all three can be found after 
this week's article. Speaking of which, this article is a little bit 
different than usual. I hope you enjoy - and don't get sick on candy!

Oh, yes, if for some reason you haven't read last week's article yet, 
you might want to read that one first:
http://two.pairlist.net/pipermail/twilighttime/2002/000011.html

Have a great day,
Heather

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More on "Splitting the Party"

[Copyright of reader comments remains with their authors]

I didn't express myself all that well last time; some of the people 
who sent me responses thought I was coming down on the side of not 
splitting the party in a roleplaying game. That article sprang up 
because I *don't* like the whole "don't split the party" truism. Oops! 
My bad! It's just that I can see how it sprang into being, and why 
it's important to some people, even if I don't always agree with it. 
The suggestions for ways to make splitting the party work (or when to 
do it or not) were meant to give people who have problems with 
splitting the party something to work with.

Unfortunately, I can see how people came away with the wrong 
impression, looking back at the last issue. In a belated attempt to 
get what I said to make some sort of sense, I'll try a slightly 
different approach: When I say that in general it's a good idea not to 
split the party, I mean it in a conceptual way. I don't mean that 
literally every member of the party should stick together in the same 
space at the same time, doing the same things. As long as everyone in 
your gaming group is enjoying themselves, the things they're doing are 
connected in some way, and they aren't bored or resentful of other 
players, then in spirit you *haven't* split the party. Only worry 
about doing more than that if you're running into problems.

Mostly what matters is that each of the players (and the GM!) keeps in 
mind the fun and enjoyment of the other players. Sometimes that means 
that they cut short their solo expedition and bring the party back 
together. Sometimes it means that they keep having their lone 
conversation with an NPC, because everyone's enjoying it. As long as 
they're remembering to pay attention to how the other players are 
getting along, that's great.

As it turns out, though, my lack of clarity worked out remarkably 
well. How's that? Because lots of people sent me their wonderful 
suggestions for why and how it's okay to split the party - and now, 
I'm going to share them with you!


 From James O'Rance:

Hullo Heather ~

A very pertinent Twilight Time this month! I would really love to see 
a follow-up article directed at players - when to split the group, 
what to do when the GM has to divide her attention between two groups 
of players, how to bring split groups back together more easily, that 
kind of thing.

Personally, I find that a bigger problem than split groups is solo 
players. Sometimes these players make "loner" characters, sometimes 
they are just so self-focused that they forget that other players 
would like to be involved in situations.

To encourage solo players to take at least one other PC with them on 
activities, I began to abstract encounters that didn't involve the 
majority of players. I was quite honest about this - "I can't afford 
to spend to much time on this, because six other people are waiting." 
The more people that the solo player takes along, the less abstracted 
the encounter would be.

This had some measure of success - the solo player began to always 
bring an off-sider or co-conspirator along.

A split group can be quite fine if each mini-group has something to 
do. In my last campaign there was a session where half of the PCs 
spent a lot of time looking for a mysterious tower, while the other 
half drew up an extensive mind-map of character names and events on 
the whiteboard (we played in a university room). I kept an ear open 
for them while handling the first group, but they kept themselves busy.

A similar situation involved players deciphering a coded letter for 
about an hour while I introduced a new player.

This only works with particular people, though. Players who don't 
enjoy puzzles would have been bored witless by the coded letter. It's 
not something that I can plan for, just take advantage of when the 
situation arises.


Thoughts From The Editor:

There are some great ideas in here for keeping sub-groups occupied. 
I've only rarely seen a GM pull this off, so it wasn't a solution I 
thought of. Thanks for the ideas, James! For more on players who tend 
to create loner characters, we have an article on "The Problem with 
Loners." It's primarily before-the-game stuff rather than during-game 
stuff, but hopefully it'll help some people:
http://www.burningvoid.com/pipermail/void/2001/000024.html
And one on party coherency:
http://www.burningvoid.com/pipermail/void/2000q4/000007.html
And one for players on creating useful PCs:
http://www.burningvoid.com/pipermail/void/2001q1/000013.html

Certainly the loner problem is a good topic to bring up with your 
players before character creation. As that first article mentions, 
it's possible to have characters who have the loner mystique and 
personality but who can also serve as team players.

As for players who go off on their own not because they mean to 
shanghai the game, but rather because they don't stop to think about 
it - perhaps we can help them remember. James' suggestion to abstract 
activities that only involve one character and don't entertain the 
rest is a great one. Also try things like experience point awards for 
keeping the group entertained (specifically mention the idea of not 
stranding other players with nothing to do if you have no good reason 
to do so); that can serve as a great memory aid. Depending on the 
player, you could sit down with him and ask him what the two of you 
can do to help him remember - changes to the character, gentle 
reminders, etc. As always, these are just suggestions - do whatever 
works for your group.

As a side note, James and I got into an interesting discussion about 
*why* players tend to create loner characters. If you look at popular 
media, most of the heroic or semi-heroic characters out there are 
loners. It's very rare to find a fantasy, mystery, horror, or 
science-fiction TV show, book, or movie that has a true ensemble cast 
of equals. Two of the TV shows that I think work best along these 
lines are the Sci-Fi Channel's "Farscape" and the new Joss Whedon 
show, "Firefly." Both of them depict ensemble casts made up of very 
disparate, unique individuals. You might try finding a good movie or 
TV show with a real ensemble cast (yet unique, heroic or semi-heroic 
characters) and showing it to your players before character creation 
begins.


 From MoonHunter:

Hello

Breaking up the party into smaller sub-parties, in non tactical/ 
dungeon situations, is perfectly okay.  Sure your beginning GM will 
have issues with it, but it is really no harder than running several 
characters in a city environment.

There are two tips to making this work:

The first is the most important and one of the most revered, ancient 
gamemaster secrets... assign players that are in the off camera to 
NPCs and Monsters "on Camera". (Well, to be honest the secret is not 
that old, but I'm an ancient gamemaster soooo)

I have always found myself in the unenviable position of running large 
groups, that are normally broken down into smaller ones (Current 
record is 32 people in a Stalking the Night Fantastic Game).  This 
technique has always served me in good stead no matter the group's 
size.  I have used it in groups as small as 3.

By assigning PCs NPCs and Monsters, it allows the active group to 
interact with the game world, without tying up GM time/ processing 
power.  I can set up one sub group talking with another, and move on 
to yet another sub group.  These subgroups could be 1-3 players. The 
techniques are valid for anytime the group is "dispersed".

Caution: Make sure to assign the right PC to the right kind of 
opposition or monster.  Just don't assign them positions because they 
are there... they must be able to handle the position.  So don't force 
the player who uses few words to be the flamboyant NPC.. it just won't 
work.

I like this technique for a couple of reasons.

It allows me to split my attention between players. I can set up two 
sub groups to interact with each other and do a longer interaction 
with the third that requires my direct attention.

I can be fairer in my play; because I don't have to dumb down the 
monsters because I am the All Knowing GM.  The monsters are normally 
being played with the cunning of a PC, so it makes them more 
challenging.  I, as the GM, can return to the referee aspect of the 
job, rather than the authorial (in control of the world) portion of 
the job.

PCs must be rewarded with EPs and Karma points equal to their 
performance as the NPCs/ Monsters.  This rewards good play and 
prevents players from running the opposition "stupid" so their friends 
will win easily.

(An extension of this "tip" is to create a troupe of actors: Every 
character will have NPCs associated with it, supporting cast. These 
are their coworkers, landlords, guild members, significant others, 
pets, family members, and a host of others. When a player is 
interacting with their supporting cast, it ties the GM up and leaves 
the other players with nothing to do. Assign supporting cast members 
to other players in the troupe. The GM gives the player running the 
supporting cast member a little direction, and off they go. This frees 
the GM up to set up other scenes, advance plots, and still allows the 
player roleplay opportunities with their environment.)

The second tip is not required, but helps make the first tip work 
better. It is learning when to cut scene or change which players are 
"on screen". You need to think of game action in terms of movie 
shots... and learn to change scenes when it is dramatic or the scene 
has gone on for too long.  Keep changing back and forth between 
groups.  This keeps everyone engaged in the game and their characters, 
keeps the story moving, and (cue evil GM glee) keeps the players off 
balance.

[Editor's note: the "cut scene" tip is the whole "switching the 
spotlight" thing that has come up in some of our other articles.]

Pacing is important in any game/ story, and more so when you are 
running sub groups.  As the GM you must keep the drama and or action 
(these are not synonymous in this context) going at all costs.  If one 
group is slowing down the play, cut to them less and less often. Their 
own desperation will make them "speed up".

As for the occasional lone wolf. Sometimes it is appropriate for a 
character to go off by itself. That is fine. They do the job and get 
back to the group. Sometimes it is just the player searching for 
glory/ spotlight time/ their own thing to do.  That is not fine. 
Roleplaying games are group activities, a mutually supportive game. 
These kinds of lone players often find their "camera time" coming in 
shorter and shorter intervals (and their opposition being ratcheted up 
a notch or two... after all they were going to need friends to deal 
with them).  If you then assign NPC/ Monster opposition to the other 
PCs, the lone player often finds themselves at a serious disadvantage.

Just a few thoughts on the subject.


Thoughts from the Editor:

I realize now that after so many articles, I've started leaving out 
some of my usual caveats because it feels to me like I'm getting 
repetitive. Unfortunately, I forget that most people won't have read 
the insane backlog of articles on the site. Thanks to MoonHunter for 
reminding me of one of the more important caveats: "if it ain't broke, 
don't fix it."

Splitting the party is only a problem when it's a problem, just as 
loner characters are only problems when they're problems. My 
suggestions for dealing with loner characters and splitting the party 
are only meant to be played with if you're having problems with these 
things - not if they're working out just fine. (If they're working out 
just fine, then obviously you don't need to fix them!)

*Anything* can work out all right in someone's group - as our friend 
here has illustrated, the right GM and the right players can make a 
group of 32 people work out all right (whew!). Roleplaying is such a 
personal thing that only you can know which things need to be fixed in 
your game - and which things don't. I like to address "problems" that 
seem common in gaming, but that certainly doesn't mean that you 
personally are one of the people who's experiencing that problem. I 
don't think there's a single problem that can be considered universal 
in roleplaying.

Thank you to MoonHunter for some great suggestions for dealing with 
split parties - visit http://www.openroleplaying.org/ to find more of 
his tips!


 From Paul Runstedler:

Hi Heather!

Just read your latest "Twilight time".  Interesting discussion.  I've 
often found splitting the party can be really fun, but as a GM you're 
walking a very fine line.  Often there are one or two players in the 
group that tend to be the most energetic and the most active.  This 
leads to a great deal of spotlight time being absorbed by them during 
normal 'party' play.  This isn't bad, and the players don't 
necessarily mean to 'hog' the spotlight.  It's just their personality.

One way I've found to help satisfy the less outgoing player is to have 
personal moments, that I've created for them, both with and without 
the party.  As you said, you don't want these things to last too long 
or else everyone else can get bored and frustrated...

On a similar note, I've (in a previous game) toyed with splitting up 
the characters (not the party) for long periods of time.  I realized 
during one of my games that if the party met an NPC and that NPC 
traveled with them, or helped them out of a scrape or what-have-you, 
that certain members of the party formed a tenuous bond with that NPC. 
  Now when I took that NPC away for a while (months of game time), 
then brought them back, the tenuous bond that existed before suddenly 
became much more powerful.  It was as if the party had met some long 
lost relative that they hadn't seen since childhood.  I'm still not 
sure about the psychology of what's going on here, but the players 
seem to really enjoy this stuff...

So... Back to splitting up the characters.  I figured if the bond 
between character and NPC strengthened with absence, what would happen 
if this same situation were to occur with the PCs?  I took one PC out 
of the mix and had the other players roll up brand new characters to 
travel with this PC.  Then the one player whose PC left the party 
rolled up a new character for the original party.  Both parties 
traveled for quite a while (both attempting to complete separate 
quests that would help prevent a great evil that was scourging the 
land).  It worked quite well actually.  We would play the one party 
for a while, then switch over to the other party for a while (like 
chapters in a book often do).  Eventually when the party was re-united 
with its former member, they were ecstatic.  The bonds between that PC 
and his former party were still present, and in fact seemed to be 
strengthened by his absence.

Back to splitting up the party for a minute... Not sure if you 
remember that we talked previously about a game myself and my brother 
were putting together (a while back).  Our plan was that we'd both GM 
it as a sort of tag-team GM team.  So far it's worked out wonderfully. 
  Battles are more vivid (one person keeps track of the nuts and bolts 
while the other provides elaborate descriptions) and game play doesn't 
get frustrating for the players very often.  If someone wants to go 
off and do something on their own, the other GM steps up and continues 
the game for the rest of the party.

Take care Heather!


Thoughts from the Editor:

If you have enough people to form a GM team, that can be a great way 
to handle split parties. It can take some forethought, planning, and 
coordination, but it's a great idea! I'm also curious to play with the 
psychological dynamics of absence that Paul brought up. It's an 
interesting phenomenon...


 From Nicolai Paulsen:

Heather,

As always: I'm impressed! This week's topic is particularly pertinent 
as the two main characters in my group have developed a genuine 
hostility (bordering on hatred) for each other. This is, of course 
slightly influenced by, and influencing, the players and their 
relationship to one another. We have had to split up the campaign in 
two parallel ones, despite the fact that the youngest of the two 
characters has been around since 1996 and the oldest since around 
1989. Very sad, but that's how it goes when a highly independent and 
self-reliant personality clashes with a (mostly self-professed) 
natural born bully... sorry: leader for long enough (no free tickets 
to Fort Lauderdale for guessing which one I play!).

So that is one point I think you overlooked a bit. In a game with a 
strong emphasis on storytelling and character development over long 
periods of time, characters with free will may simply HAVE to go off 
into seperate directions.

As an aside to that, we have for the longest time used a little pearl 
of wisdom we found in SF author John Varley's Titan-series, where a 
character at one point says: "In every movie I ever saw, splitting up 
happened just before the big disaster."

We tend to say that together every once in a while. Usually after the 
big disaster, though. Maybe we are slow learners in my group.

Looking forward to your next newsletter


Thoughts from the Editor:

Nicolai brings up a very important point. No matter how much care you 
take to ensure that the group is capable of being compatible, 
sometimes it just doesn't work out that way. That's okay! Going back 
to that whole "if it's a problem, then it's a problem" thing, this 
isn't necessarily a problem. Some players can get wonderful 
roleplaying situations out of such a turn of events.

Sure, if relationships between PCs get bad enough you might have to 
split your game in two, or have one character eventually exit and have 
his player roll up a new character, but that's okay. The roleplaying 
you do in the meantime can make it worthwhile. It's only a problem if 
this starts tearing apart the group of *players*, or in some other way 
makes the game unplayable or not fun. (In which case, maybe it's time 
for one or both of those characters to make an exit, and for the 
players involved to roll up new ones.)



I hope you've enjoyed all of the wonderful suggestions from your 
fellow readers. (And thank you to everyone who sent in tips!) As for 
me, sorry about the misunderstanding! As we've mentioned in other 
articles: all that really matters is that GM and players should all be 
having fun. As long as that's the case, it doesn't matter whether 
you're doing things in ways that other people agree with or not. 
Roleplaying is a very social hobby, and as such how it works for each 
group depends entirely on the people involved. Do what's right for 
*your* gaming group!


What's Your Opinion?:

Comments on this issue's topic? Suggestions? Tips? Special topic 
requests? Drop me a line at (heather at burningvoid.com). If I pass any 
of your suggestions on (either through the newsletter or the RPG 
resources page), I'll attribute them to you. Be sure to tell me if you 
don't want me to use your name and/or comments!

The next issue is coming in just a few weeks - mid- to late November.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

SITE UPDATE:

Burning Void Roleplaying Resources:
http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/resources.html

http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/integration.html
How to Integrate Elements from Different Roleplaying Game Systems
There are good reasons why so many people disapprove of "crossover" 
games, or of allowing players to create new and unusual character 
types. Here we talk about how you can address those issues, and go on 
to create a crossover game or new character type that will make for a 
fun gaming experience! Warning: this is a long one...

http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Reviews/1002-1.html
A review of the "Farscape Roleplaying Game" from AEG! If you're 
despondent over the cancellation of your favorite TV show, never fear. 
The RPG is here!

http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/barakah3.html
Barakah Powers Listing Part 1: Fire, Sand, Heat, and Wind
We're once again adding to our series on the half-human, half-djinn 
Barakah, and we hope you'll enjoy the first installment of the powers 
we've cooked up for these folk!

And, believe it or not, we've once again updated the majority of our 
links listings. :)

Burning Void Writers' Resources:
http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/writing/resources.html

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