Breaking the party up to move forward? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Breaking the party up to move forward? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Yoho1.5
07-05-05, 03:34 PM I'm running a campaign in which is going well. The PCs are bounty Hunters who have just rescued fellow hunters from a goblin adept. The next mission is a bounty on a mine which has to be liberated from a gang of duergar. But first the Players want to go back to the goblin adepts lair and finish unfinnished bussiness with him, and the rescued hunters want to come along for payback. The problem is that the game has stalled because of real world schedual conflicts, I can get my players to all show up on the same day! So I thought I'd break up the group and run two separate game days just to keep the game going until the players sheduals line up again. Does anyone have plot line ideas that give a good reason(s) that the party has to split up for awhile. Are there any DM out there that have had real world schedual problems that changed plot lines and forced them to run side quests with sub-units of the party? How did you run it?
rbrt_Spade
07-05-05, 03:45 PM mabye make a ingame break up of the party and send them on seperate things? :P
thats my thoughts but im a dm in training
Moonflyer
07-05-05, 04:01 PM Easiest way is to run it by your players... ask them how hey feel about splitting up... most players just want to play so I don't see it being a problem. Have the group with "unfinished business" go back to the adepts lair and the other group venture forward for the other bounty... sounds like you already have two tasks the players want to accomplish so the split should not be a problem. Let the players make the decisions on which group will do which task and where and when they will meet up... they will appreciate your candor and the fact that they get to make the choices. If you want both groups to infiltrate the mine throw the other group a bone before the split, a side adventure to keep them busy until the group can get back from the "unfinished business" with the adept and your group can get back on schedule.
wreintein
07-05-05, 04:05 PM Well I think splitting up is ok as long as you keep at least 3 PC's in each group. As for the storyline of splitting. It seems like you gave the answer yourself. Have one has deal with the gobbo, and the other go to the duergar. Have a timepressure on it (other bounty hunter are running for the same bounty perhaps), so the group will have to split if they want to do it both immediately.
I luckily never had to do such a thing. But I hope this will help you a bit.
Bruunwald
07-05-05, 04:08 PM This is a problem I deal with constantly.

My solutions have ranged from the mundane (everybody is in town, so why not a simple quest for these two, out to save the kidnapped girl from the hag, and then something similar for the other guys), to the ridiculous (the last session ended at a do-or-die moment and I had to get those who could play onto a different plane where their adventure could take place, and then back again, to where it seemed like only seconds had passed on the material plane and they could all continue when they got back together again).

Whew!

Anyway, the trick to making this sort of thing not seem stupid, is to leave plenty of options open for yourself and to keep an air of mystery to the game. The more going on behind the scenes (backstory the party can hear about and occasionally get involved in) the better and more options you have for when the group can't all make it to the game.

For instance, one of the scenarios I mentioned above worked like this: Strange things had been happening in the area lately, due to the buildup of cultic forces and their odd experiments. I had objects coming to life and people disappearing. This was really meant to be window dressing.

Then one session ended after a big battle, with the intent of having the party make an emergency run into the hills to find out what had happened to the people of a local quarry. They were supposed to leave only fifteen minutes after the battle (they were preparing to leave when we left off). Wouldn't you know it, a lot of time passed in the real world due to scheduling conflicts, and some of the players flaked out at the last minute.

So I got the rest of the group together and plane-shifted them to the shadow plane, where a "shadow" of their village existed, like an echo from the past. Here dwelt a mysterious vampire wizard in exile, who explained to them what was causing all of the disturbances in their world (experiments having to do with the cult), and agreed to send them back in exchange for a few favors. Low and behold, the missing people were here, too, and the party were able to rescue them. By the time they got back to the material plane, they had explained some of the plot and uncovered new parts of it and gained a good amount of XP. Because the shadow realm they shifted to was an echo of their world, they returned right where they exited, same time, same place, and were able to continue the original adventure.

I also used the same idea to bring stuff in from other planes, giving me more to work with and making the threat of the cult seem ever greater (what on earth are they doing up in the mountains that side-effects include whole castles plane-shifting in?).

So, I would say, feel free to split the group for short times. Make sure to give each group equal chance at experience, and use every development to your advantange. Keep options open, and make sure there's more going on beyond the scope of the PCs and make sure the party knows it. That way, when you need to ad lib something, you'll be better prepared and your solutions won't seem contrived or forced.
Cymraegmorgan
07-05-05, 04:24 PM Splitting the party should not be a problem, just make sure that even though they are going seperate ways temporarily, that the treasure question is discussed ahead of time. Whenever my party splits up, they still share treasure equally.
Yoho1.5
07-05-05, 08:41 PM The main problem is party balance and player time. The two players that are on opposite real world scheduals right now have radically different characters, so when I break the party up one half will get far more combat power than the other and whoever gets the healer will be at an advantage. I want these guys to stay close in exp and treasure because I will have to put them back together again.

The meatshield Barb/Rogue player works opposite the Investigator/partyface Bard player so they will have to be on separate quests. The party healer Druid can attend either session. The payback on the gobbo has some NPC help from a figther and Wizard and a Rouge (the guys they rescued). The last problem is the 1/2 orc fighter, he is now a NPC run by me the DM as his player took a job out of town and left us, I was going to write himout and run with a three person group but the schedual problems came up first. Both the Bard player and the Barb/rouge want to pay the gobbo adept a personal visit so its going to be a fight to see who gets that quest! Lastly the gobbo is pretty tough but a partial party with NPC help should be able to get through, but the mine bounty as written needs the whole party to have half a chance. This thing isn't as easy as I wrote up in my orginal post. The two adventures are a atleast a week apart in travel so who ever goes to the gobbo lair will have to move fast in order to catch back up with the mine adventure. This whole thing will require an out of game disscussion with all the players to work out some thing fair. The bard player was a no show on the last session that we all could have played together so I'm thinking on sending him to the mine but I don't no if rewarding the Barb/rouge Player for his perfect attendance, and punishing the bard player for his no show is cool from a DM prosective.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Yoho1.5 07-05-05, 03:34 PM	I'm running a campaign in which is going well. The PCs are bounty Hunters who have just rescued fellow hunters from a goblin adept. The next mission is a bounty on a mine which has to be liberated from a gang of duergar. But first the Players want to go back to the goblin adepts lair and finish unfinnished bussiness with him, and the rescued hunters want to come along for payback. The problem is that the game has stalled because of real world schedual conflicts, I can get my players to all show up on the same day! So I thought I'd break up the group and run two separate game days just to keep the game going until the players sheduals line up again. Does anyone have plot line ideas that give a good reason(s) that the party has to split up for awhile. Are there any DM out there that have had real world schedual problems that changed plot lines and forced them to run side quests with sub-units of the party? How did you run it?
rbrt_Spade 07-05-05, 03:45 PM	mabye make a ingame break up of the party and send them on seperate things? :P thats my thoughts but im a dm in training
Moonflyer 07-05-05, 04:01 PM	Easiest way is to run it by your players... ask them how hey feel about splitting up... most players just want to play so I don't see it being a problem. Have the group with "unfinished business" go back to the adepts lair and the other group venture forward for the other bounty... sounds like you already have two tasks the players want to accomplish so the split should not be a problem. Let the players make the decisions on which group will do which task and where and when they will meet up... they will appreciate your candor and the fact that they get to make the choices. If you want both groups to infiltrate the mine throw the other group a bone before the split, a side adventure to keep them busy until the group can get back from the "unfinished business" with the adept and your group can get back on schedule.
wreintein 07-05-05, 04:05 PM	Well I think splitting up is ok as long as you keep at least 3 PC's in each group. As for the storyline of splitting. It seems like you gave the answer yourself. Have one has deal with the gobbo, and the other go to the duergar. Have a timepressure on it (other bounty hunter are running for the same bounty perhaps), so the group will have to split if they want to do it both immediately. I luckily never had to do such a thing. But I hope this will help you a bit.
Bruunwald 07-05-05, 04:08 PM	This is a problem I deal with constantly. My solutions have ranged from the mundane (everybody is in town, so why not a simple quest for these two, out to save the kidnapped girl from the hag, and then something similar for the other guys), to the ridiculous (the last session ended at a do-or-die moment and I had to get those who could play onto a different plane where their adventure could take place, and then back again, to where it seemed like only seconds had passed on the material plane and they could all continue when they got back together again). Whew! Anyway, the trick to making this sort of thing not seem stupid, is to leave plenty of options open for yourself and to keep an air of mystery to the game. The more going on behind the scenes (backstory the party can hear about and occasionally get involved in) the better and more options you have for when the group can't all make it to the game. For instance, one of the scenarios I mentioned above worked like this: Strange things had been happening in the area lately, due to the buildup of cultic forces and their odd experiments. I had objects coming to life and people disappearing. This was really meant to be window dressing. Then one session ended after a big battle, with the intent of having the party make an emergency run into the hills to find out what had happened to the people of a local quarry. They were supposed to leave only fifteen minutes after the battle (they were preparing to leave when we left off). Wouldn't you know it, a lot of time passed in the real world due to scheduling conflicts, and some of the players flaked out at the last minute. So I got the rest of the group together and plane-shifted them to the shadow plane, where a "shadow" of their village existed, like an echo from the past. Here dwelt a mysterious vampire wizard in exile, who explained to them what was causing all of the disturbances in their world (experiments having to do with the cult), and agreed to send them back in exchange for a few favors. Low and behold, the missing people were here, too, and the party were able to rescue them. By the time they got back to the material plane, they had explained some of the plot and uncovered new parts of it and gained a good amount of XP. Because the shadow realm they shifted to was an echo of their world, they returned right where they exited, same time, same place, and were able to continue the original adventure. I also used the same idea to bring stuff in from other planes, giving me more to work with and making the threat of the cult seem ever greater (what on earth are they doing up in the mountains that side-effects include whole castles plane-shifting in?). So, I would say, feel free to split the group for short times. Make sure to give each group equal chance at experience, and use every development to your advantange. Keep options open, and make sure there's more going on beyond the scope of the PCs and make sure the party knows it. That way, when you need to ad lib something, you'll be better prepared and your solutions won't seem contrived or forced.
Cymraegmorgan 07-05-05, 04:24 PM	Splitting the party should not be a problem, just make sure that even though they are going seperate ways temporarily, that the treasure question is discussed ahead of time. Whenever my party splits up, they still share treasure equally.
Yoho1.5 07-05-05, 08:41 PM	The main problem is party balance and player time. The two players that are on opposite real world scheduals right now have radically different characters, so when I break the party up one half will get far more combat power than the other and whoever gets the healer will be at an advantage. I want these guys to stay close in exp and treasure because I will have to put them back together again. The meatshield Barb/Rogue player works opposite the Investigator/partyface Bard player so they will have to be on separate quests. The party healer Druid can attend either session. The payback on the gobbo has some NPC help from a figther and Wizard and a Rouge (the guys they rescued). The last problem is the 1/2 orc fighter, he is now a NPC run by me the DM as his player took a job out of town and left us, I was going to write himout and run with a three person group but the schedual problems came up first. Both the Bard player and the Barb/rouge want to pay the gobbo adept a personal visit so its going to be a fight to see who gets that quest! Lastly the gobbo is pretty tough but a partial party with NPC help should be able to get through, but the mine bounty as written needs the whole party to have half a chance. This thing isn't as easy as I wrote up in my orginal post. The two adventures are a atleast a week apart in travel so who ever goes to the gobbo lair will have to move fast in order to catch back up with the mine adventure. This whole thing will require an out of game disscussion with all the players to work out some thing fair. The bard player was a no show on the last session that we all could have played together so I'm thinking on sending him to the mine but I don't no if rewarding the Barb/rouge Player for his perfect attendance, and punishing the bard player for his no show is cool from a DM prosective.