Hex Crawl 23 #197: When Can You Split the Party?

Five hexes northwest, three southwest of Alakran.

 

Another vacant hex, another opportunity to slip in a more or less normal opinionated blog post.

"Don't split the party" is a traditional refrain in adventure roleplaying, and the rare adage that applies both in-character -- as tactical advice -- and out-of-character -- as table advice. When some characters go off to do their thing, there is only one gamemaster, and the others are left spinning their wheels, so it's an issue of enjoyment. It's also an issue of table logistics, as the two sub-parties need to have information kept from each other until they reunite. Easier to solve online, but harder in-person, with awkward moves to separate rooms and the GM running back and forth between the two.

And yet ... for every rule there is an exception. When you have a player who wants to take their character off-scene and do something separately, there is an opening for a healthy party split through one-on-one play. Some people might tut-tut, thinking that humoring the player just creates a diva syndrome and envy in the others. I haven't experienced this, though. All the split-offs met these conditions:

1. They involve one player.

2. They are resolved outside the party's joint time.

3. They involve a player with different playstyle from the rest of the group. 

I've maintained that diversity of play approaches in a group is a strength, not a weakness, of games, and has to be mechanically accommodated. Solo play is one way to do this. Let's go to the case studies.

Case 1 is an "impulsive" player-type in a party that got swept up in a local conflict between a free city and a neighboring kingdom, and wanted to do some scouting of one of the kingdom's bases. The stealthy mission was accomplished in online play (pre-roll20).

Case 2 is a story-driven player who wanted to explore their romantic relationship with an NPC merchant and do some world-discovery along the way. As part of downtime, the pair went on the NPC's northern mercantile run, a trip lasting about a week and exposing much of the map in that area. The romance suffered from the trip -- such are the ways of dice, or indeed, of long trips with someone with whom you're used to shorter interludes -- but the solo play was highly satisfying.

Cases 3 and 4 involve the same super-impulsive player who never met a dimensional portal they didn't jump through. The first jump, into Jennell Jaquays' deathtrap room from the Tomb of Borshak, was resolved through online play. This player survived but the other players were in the dark, until their further investigations of the tomb found the roon in question. The reunion was fairly smoothly done.

The second jump was into the portal of a teleportation device operated by a group of goblins. 4th level bard/warlock in 5th edition vs. a room full of 25 goblins, the goblin leader and two bodyguards. How that went ... has been resolved, but has yet to be known to the rest of the party. Suffice it to say that in order to keep the impulsive player in the game, their "B" character will be joining the party.

So, splitting the party can be fun under a few specific conditions that don't interrput normal group party play. Keep this in mind -- all rules can and should be broken if you understand their underlying principles!