"Let's split up, gang!" [Archive] - Wizards Community

"Let's split up, gang!" [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
zephyrTR
08-06-07, 11:22 AM I've got a large group of players (7 actually) and I want to split them up for a kind of murder-mystery chapter in our campaign. My problem is I don't know how to do this fairly! Combat and waiting for your turn is bad enough, but then your whole party is waiting for their 'turn'.

Has anyone found a good system to deal with people constantly running off on their own, or temporarily spitting up groups?
CrazyOzzy
08-06-07, 11:47 AM Traps are a good way of cutting off members of a group.

Another way is by creating 2 urgent tasks that have to be delt with at the same time or something bad wll happen. EX : the Good Giant in the hills next to the village wants revenge on the mayor because he hired adventurers to kill his wife and some diplomatic players need to go disuade him before he kills the whole village and at the same time The mayor's daughter is going to be executed by the BBEG so the other players have to go rescue her at once! Split-iups like this can let you create suitable encounters for different party members that will let them shine. Just remember to adjust the CR of the encounters since you split-up the party.

You can play the split-up groups like a movie : the camera turns to one part of the group for 5 mins until they reach a difficult situation. BAM change to second group while the first moves to another room and thinks about what to do. During that time the second group plays. Move back and forth like this. A good example of this is the LOTR movies (or books). When the tension is unbearable and you JUST HAVE TO SEE THE NEXT SCENE the camera moves to the other party. Everyone stays interested and the group that is not playing has something to discuss and prepare.

Ok, now to me this sounds good in theory but I have never practiced it for real. Perhaps others have.

Good luck mate
Sterling
08-06-07, 11:52 AM CrazyOzzy's advice is quite good. I've used this method before and it worked very well. The key is to make sure you plan things out so you can give all the groups roughly equal time. It also works well for mystery/puzzle situations since it gives the groups not currently in the spotlight some time to confer and decide what they are going to do next.
Xandria
08-06-07, 11:52 AM Jinkies! That is a problem. Every time I've been split up as a player we've been seperated by a trap or someone chasing us, and then one group goes to buy a drink or do something while the other plays. As soon as something exciting happens they have to stop, and we get the play. Cutting it in to cliffhanging moments is pretty exciting because then you sit off to side going, "Oh snap!"

Yes, I did use 'jinkies' and 'snap' in the same paragraph.
SillyRobot
08-06-07, 11:53 AM Splitting up groups is a technique that works better in passive entertainment (comics, books, movies, etc.) than active entertainment which requires adjudication/interaction from a single source. Outside observers can be kept fuly engaged watching a fraction of a group. Members of said group cannot be kept fully engaged when focus flicks to a different subgroup.

Unfortunately, the adjudicator is kept fully engaged and can easily miss growing impatience/boredom among those parties off-stage.

Although necessary at times due to player actions and environmental restrictions, the DM has to be constantly mindful of its impact on the group as a whole. There is little that can be done short of building a splitting/replicant technology with hive mind capability or other form of parallelism for the DM since he becomes the bottleneck.
Buron
08-06-07, 12:09 PM Combat and waiting for your turn is bad enough, but then your whole party is waiting for their 'turn'.

I suggest you to put a "timer" in everyone's turn (10 sec is good choice, plus dice rolling time), and enforce players to think in advance what they will be doing in their turns and have everything ready. If the timer runs out, that player's turn is skipped. Past the initial complaints, everyone will be very surprised and pleased on how flashy and exciting combat sequences have become.
For additional effectiveness, post put rule consultation till the fight is over (meanwhile just go by whatever you remember or pops your mind), and slightly adjust the timer according to the nature of the encounter.
Also, do not forget to follow the timer rule yourself or you will break the pace. Try this instead of splitting the group(which IMO detracts a lot from the experience).

If you absolutely have to split the group, don't keep anybody waiting for more than 5 minutes. Being the DM you won't notice it, because you're playing full time, but the party that's waiting really gets pis5ed off and will probably get angry/complain/start offtopic discussions and so on.
Khazan
08-06-07, 01:27 PM My players always tend to split up at some point.... it's become a running joke actually: "Hey, let's split up the party - we can cover more ground that way!". They are a group of 7, sometimes 8, and they just can't help themselves, it seems. Invariably this leads to all manner of grisly, albeit humorous, deaths, which as a laissez-faire DM, I of course, applaud and encourage. :devil:

Back to the point: yes, it can be a boredom-fest for some people as they wait....and wait....and...wait for their turns, and I agree with the other suggestions - use a timer, make sure you switch back and forth at climactic moments so that they groups have a 'cliffhanger' feel, and try not to keep them separated for too long. If they are running off on their own, well, the best you can do is roll with it and see what happens to the little wanderers, I suppose. Often times that leads to interesting developments anyway, and can be exciting just the same.
danielinthewolvesden
08-06-07, 04:23 PM Split party = half the fun for the players AND twice the work for the DM. Bad idea.
zephyrTR
08-06-07, 11:46 PM thanks for your comments everybody, if i do split up people, i'll be sure to keep a heavy stock of cliffhangers

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
zephyrTR 08-06-07, 11:22 AM	I've got a large group of players (7 actually) and I want to split them up for a kind of murder-mystery chapter in our campaign. My problem is I don't know how to do this fairly! Combat and waiting for your turn is bad enough, but then your whole party is waiting for their 'turn'. Has anyone found a good system to deal with people constantly running off on their own, or temporarily spitting up groups?
CrazyOzzy 08-06-07, 11:47 AM	Traps are a good way of cutting off members of a group. Another way is by creating 2 urgent tasks that have to be delt with at the same time or something bad wll happen. EX : the Good Giant in the hills next to the village wants revenge on the mayor because he hired adventurers to kill his wife and some diplomatic players need to go disuade him before he kills the whole village and at the same time The mayor's daughter is going to be executed by the BBEG so the other players have to go rescue her at once! Split-iups like this can let you create suitable encounters for different party members that will let them shine. Just remember to adjust the CR of the encounters since you split-up the party. You can play the split-up groups like a movie : the camera turns to one part of the group for 5 mins until they reach a difficult situation. BAM change to second group while the first moves to another room and thinks about what to do. During that time the second group plays. Move back and forth like this. A good example of this is the LOTR movies (or books). When the tension is unbearable and you JUST HAVE TO SEE THE NEXT SCENE the camera moves to the other party. Everyone stays interested and the group that is not playing has something to discuss and prepare. Ok, now to me this sounds good in theory but I have never practiced it for real. Perhaps others have. Good luck mate
Sterling 08-06-07, 11:52 AM	CrazyOzzy's advice is quite good. I've used this method before and it worked very well. The key is to make sure you plan things out so you can give all the groups roughly equal time. It also works well for mystery/puzzle situations since it gives the groups not currently in the spotlight some time to confer and decide what they are going to do next.
Xandria 08-06-07, 11:52 AM	Jinkies! That is a problem. Every time I've been split up as a player we've been seperated by a trap or someone chasing us, and then one group goes to buy a drink or do something while the other plays. As soon as something exciting happens they have to stop, and we get the play. Cutting it in to cliffhanging moments is pretty exciting because then you sit off to side going, "Oh snap!" Yes, I did use 'jinkies' and 'snap' in the same paragraph.
SillyRobot 08-06-07, 11:53 AM	Splitting up groups is a technique that works better in passive entertainment (comics, books, movies, etc.) than active entertainment which requires adjudication/interaction from a single source. Outside observers can be kept fuly engaged watching a fraction of a group. Members of said group cannot be kept fully engaged when focus flicks to a different subgroup. Unfortunately, the adjudicator is kept fully engaged and can easily miss growing impatience/boredom among those parties off-stage. Although necessary at times due to player actions and environmental restrictions, the DM has to be constantly mindful of its impact on the group as a whole. There is little that can be done short of building a splitting/replicant technology with hive mind capability or other form of parallelism for the DM since he becomes the bottleneck.
Buron 08-06-07, 12:09 PM	Combat and waiting for your turn is bad enough, but then your whole party is waiting for their 'turn'. I suggest you to put a "timer" in everyone's turn (10 sec is good choice, plus dice rolling time), and enforce players to think in advance what they will be doing in their turns and have everything ready. If the timer runs out, that player's turn is skipped. Past the initial complaints, everyone will be very surprised and pleased on how flashy and exciting combat sequences have become. For additional effectiveness, post put rule consultation till the fight is over (meanwhile just go by whatever you remember or pops your mind), and slightly adjust the timer according to the nature of the encounter. Also, do not forget to follow the timer rule yourself or you will break the pace. Try this instead of splitting the group(which IMO detracts a lot from the experience). If you absolutely have to split the group, don't keep anybody waiting for more than 5 minutes. Being the DM you won't notice it, because you're playing full time, but the party that's waiting really gets pis5ed off and will probably get angry/complain/start offtopic discussions and so on.
Khazan 08-06-07, 01:27 PM	My players always tend to split up at some point.... it's become a running joke actually: "Hey, let's split up the party - we can cover more ground that way!". They are a group of 7, sometimes 8, and they just can't help themselves, it seems. Invariably this leads to all manner of grisly, albeit humorous, deaths, which as a laissez-faire DM, I of course, applaud and encourage. :devil: Back to the point: yes, it can be a boredom-fest for some people as they wait....and wait....and...wait for their turns, and I agree with the other suggestions - use a timer, make sure you switch back and forth at climactic moments so that they groups have a 'cliffhanger' feel, and try not to keep them separated for too long. If they are running off on their own, well, the best you can do is roll with it and see what happens to the little wanderers, I suppose. Often times that leads to interesting developments anyway, and can be exciting just the same.
danielinthewolvesden 08-06-07, 04:23 PM	Split party = half the fun for the players AND twice the work for the DM. Bad idea.
zephyrTR 08-06-07, 11:46 PM	thanks for your comments everybody, if i do split up people, i'll be sure to keep a heavy stock of cliffhangers