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Post by ripx187 on Feb 23, 2018 22:31:49 GMT -5
I study the old AD&D rules a lot and I noticed that some of them hint that the party can and should split up. Now, you always hear the age-old advice, "NEVER SPILT UP THE PARTY". I know in the past I had refused to allow this to happen, but I've changed my mind on this. If the person who leaves does so just to be a jerk, I'll honor their request that they are no longer with the party, but I'll ignore them thereafter. If there is, however, some strategic sense to this action, we run the action.
It is difficult to DM, as what you are saying to each party has to be interesting and fun to listen to. I also like to really speed up the pace, and I mean really fast. I will switch back and forth between parties, trying to end on cliffhangers or sometimes to give them a little bit of time to think.
Elves, halflings, gnomes, and thief characters in light to no armor can move quietly if it is just them, this would suggest to me that Gygax dealt with this situation. You've also got the fact that any group is only as nimble as the person with the lowest DEX, thus, in order to actually get any use from a high DEX, one would have to be by themselves. I know that when I was playing in the past, a few DM's would allow me to scout ahead a little ways, I'd say what I was doing, and they'd roll a couple of dice, we wouldn't actually split the party, I just got told what I had found, though the party was always sticking my thief characters into dark stinky holes to find out what was down there, and they would just let the DM and myself play for a bit before finding out if I got eaten or not. It didn't take long.
How about you? How do you handle it when this happens? Does it ever happen in your games?
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Post by Deleted on Feb 23, 2018 22:34:02 GMT -5
How about you? How do you handle it when this happens? Does it ever happen in your games? From a 'blog post about that: There is safety in numbers but if the slowed and rather awkward play arising from splitting the party is how you wish to spend your gaming time? Have at it. |
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Post by ripx187 on Feb 23, 2018 22:55:19 GMT -5
How about you? How do you handle it when this happens? Does it ever happen in your games? From a 'blog post about that: There is safety in numbers but if the slowed and rather awkward play arising from splitting the party is how you wish to spend your gaming time? Have at it. But it doesn't have to be slow and awkward if the DM doesn't want it to be. Sometimes splitting up into different groups to find something faster works. Sometimes it makes sense to keep a look-out. Sometimes you've got to send somebody back to town for dimes.  |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 23, 2018 23:00:42 GMT -5
But it doesn't have to be slow and awkward if the DM doesn't want it to be. Sometimes splitting up into different groups to find something faster works. Sometimes it makes sense to keep a look-out. Sometimes you've got to send somebody back to town for dimes. When a group separates, I run them without the knowledge of what the other half of the group is doing. This requires separating them into two discrete rooms/areas. This, in turns, basically doubles the time it takes to do something. It seems fair to me to run it that way, because of the fog of war (so to speak) of them being separated. I'm more than willing to hear of a better way to do that. How do you expedite play with a divided party? In the example you give? I'd probably handwave it, depending upon circumstances (of course). In my response I'm talking about splitting up in the underworld setting. |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 23, 2018 23:18:10 GMT -5
Great film reference, by the way!  |
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Post by ripx187 on Feb 23, 2018 23:44:56 GMT -5
Breaking up a party should be short term, shouldn't it? But now that you mention it, some underworlds have gates that can potentially move individuals to random places. I'm not sure what I'd do in that situation. Probably fudge things so everyone is near each other. If people are just being jerks because nobody can agree on the direction, I'd see if a bit of outside conflict can't bring everyone together again.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 23, 2018 23:57:07 GMT -5
Ah! Yes, well ... that's what wandering monster checks are for!
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Post by sixdemonbag on Feb 28, 2018 15:59:31 GMT -5
Players may always split the party if they wish. I then do my best to bounce around the table to keep everyone involved. Only very rarely is splitting the party (on purpose) advantageous but it does happen on occasion and usually for good reason.
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jan 10, 2021 1:03:59 GMT -5
I study the old AD&D rules a lot and I noticed that some of them hint that the party can and should split up. Now, you always hear the age-old advice, "NEVER SPILT UP THE PARTY". I know in the past I had refused to allow this to happen, but I've changed my mind on this. If the person who leaves does so just to be a jerk, I'll honor their request that they are no longer with the party, but I'll ignore them thereafter. If there is, however, some strategic sense to this action, we run the action. It is difficult to DM, as what you are saying to each party has to be interesting and fun to listen to. I also like to really speed up the pace, and I mean really fast. I will switch back and forth between parties, trying to end on cliffhangers or sometimes to give them a little bit of time to think. Elves, halflings, gnomes, and thief characters in light to no armor can move quietly if it is just them, this would suggest to me that Gygax dealt with this situation. You've also got the fact that any group is only as nimble as the person with the lowest DEX, thus, in order to actually get any use from a high DEX, one would have to be by themselves. I know that when I was playing in the past, a few DM's would allow me to scout ahead a little ways, I'd say what I was doing, and they'd roll a couple of dice, we wouldn't actually split the party, I just got told what I had found, though the party was always sticking my thief characters into dark stinky holes to find out what was down there, and they would just let the DM and myself play for a bit before finding out if I got eaten or not. It didn't take long. How about you? How do you handle it when this happens? Does it ever happen in your games? I don't know how I missed this thread. I also like to go with a really fast pace in face to face games, I like what happens when players are making decisions in real time without talking and debating on what action to take. I think you get a more interesting and fun result when play is at pace. We very rarely split the party, except once we added thieves to the game when we added the Greyhawk supplement one of the main duties of the thieves was scout duty. Moving silently and hiding in shadows was a big deal and the players had no way of knowing if there roll was successful or not, because they made the roll, but could not see what they rolled. We generally played in out in front of the whole group. But at some point I would briefly take them aside and speak to them. I insisted that they always be poker faced whether it was good or bad. It is really fun to see the group react when the thieves come running back and through an away while yelling "Flee for your lives!!" |
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Post by El Borak on Jan 17, 2021 20:59:45 GMT -5
But it doesn't have to be slow and awkward if the DM doesn't want it to be. Sometimes splitting up into different groups to find something faster works. Sometimes it makes sense to keep a look-out. Sometimes you've got to send somebody back to town for dimes. When a group separates, I run them without the knowledge of what the other half of the group is doing. This requires separating them into two discrete rooms/areas. This, in turns, basically doubles the time it takes to do something. It seems fair to me to run it that way, because of the fog of war (so to speak) of them being separated. I'm more than willing to hear of a better way to do that. How do you expedite play with a divided party? In the example you give? I'd probably handwave it, depending upon circumstances (of course). In my response I'm talking about splitting up in the underworld setting. This, I separate the players into separate rooms when this happens. |
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Post by mao on Jan 21, 2021 6:52:00 GMT -5
Just say "NO"
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Post by Dartanian on Jan 31, 2021 15:25:23 GMT -5
I have no problem with splitting the party, if they choose to do so, then they reap the consequences. Scouting ahead is a time honored tradition, splitting the party and dividing into two or three groups down two or three separate passages is a different matter and will often get you killed.
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Post by The Editor on Feb 6, 2021 2:00:14 GMT -5
Go ahead split the party, I triple dog dare you!
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Post by youngbuck on Feb 21, 2021 0:15:48 GMT -5
Go ahead split the party, I triple dog dare you! Tell us how you really feel!  |
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Post by youngbuck on Feb 21, 2021 0:18:16 GMT -5
When we have split up to have some scouting done, that usually works really well. When we try to split up for tactical advantage that never seems to work out so well. We end up with both groups being a little underpowered vs the opponent. On the other hand if we had not split we would have been attacked from two sides. So I suppose it means we just bit off more than we could chew.
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Post by The Editor on Feb 22, 2021 10:57:42 GMT -5
Go ahead split the party, I triple dog dare you! Tell us how you really feel!  |
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Post by hengest on Mar 2, 2021 19:10:31 GMT -5
I say split the party wildly and have ongoing separate sessions by text, phone, and in person! Then when the players get together, get the PCs back together and have them report to each other. Make them do some of the storytelling and use their strengths and surprise at seeing each other to strengthen the game, while using the tech that keeps people apart to keep the game going in the meantime!
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Mar 2, 2021 23:05:12 GMT -5
I say split the party wildly and have ongoing separate sessions by text, phone, and in person! Then when the players get together, get the PCs back together and have them report to each other. Make them do some of the storytelling and use their strengths and surprise at seeing each other to strengthen the game, while using the tech that keeps people apart to keep the game going in the meantime! That would be a novel way of running dozens of players in the same world, assuming you had a ref who had that kind of time, because only he would need to have that much time. |
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Post by The Editor on Mar 3, 2021 1:48:14 GMT -5
I say split the party wildly and have ongoing separate sessions by text, phone, and in person! Then when the players get together, get the PCs back together and have them report to each other. Make them do some of the storytelling and use their strengths and surprise at seeing each other to strengthen the game, while using the tech that keeps people apart to keep the game going in the meantime! I like your spirit, do you want to DM the game or play in it? |
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