Does the party need a leader?

[Mark]

I think it is the nature of the game that a party has their chances for survival severely crippled if they do not manage to cooperate in a team effort. Communication is key to that effort and is more easily facilitated by one or more players taking a leadership role which usually manifests itself within the game through the characters.

 

[Czhorat]

But I've found that parties without a leader tend towards situations like the following.
DM: You've arrived at that Ankalis, the port town. You're greeted by the smell of the ocean, and a view of the docks.
PC's: ...
DM: ...
PC1: Uh, yeah...
PC2: I guess we should go see that Rolf guy.
PC3: Probablly.
PC4: Yeah.
PC's: ...

This, more than anything, is what I thought of when I read the initial subject. I don't think anyone expects one leader to take complete control of the group both in and out of combat; that may as well be a solo adventure. I don't think I've ever played in a game in which someone was formally elected leader, but there's always someone who takes the mantle of leadership -- pushing the party along, making suggestings, spotting alternatives. Not quite a field-general, but someone to give direction.

For example, let's look at the scenario DWARF discussed. The kind of leader I'm talking about would say, "OK -- it looks like something's up ahead. We can try to approach en masse or have the rogue sneak ahead to scout. Are you up for scouting? Does anyone object? No? OK. Go for it. If you run into trouble, hoot like an owl. If you're in REAL trouble, blow this signal whistle and start running back for us. If we don't hear from you again in the span of 150 breaths we'll come and get you? OK? All agreed? Go for it.

The "leader" in this case DID let the rest of the group make the choice of scouting or not, but he accomplished a few things. First, he listed the alternatives. If the party were tactically inexperienced, he could have added something about how moving as a group is safer, but having the rogue scout could supply intelligence and help gain the element of surprised. Second, he made sure that the details were all plans. What would the group do? How long would they wait? This saves lots of confusion, but still gives the others in the group a chance to comment.

Role-playing situations can be similar. The group with which I'm currently playing is a bit leaderless, and the campaign seems to be wandering a bit as a result. To repeat ThoughtBubble's example with some leadership added:

DM: You've arrived at that Ankalis, the port town. You're greeted by the smell of the ocean, and a view of the docks.
Leader: OK. We have some loot to sell, our underworld contact to meet, and that clue about the pirate ship to follow up on. Anything else?
PC1: I wanted to buy new armor!
PC2: I want to see if my wizard can find someone to teach him new spells.
Leader: OK. PC1 and I can go shopping. We'll sell our captured weapons and get his new armor. Someone needs to accompany the wizard while he looks for a new mentor. You have anything planned #3? No? Great. Why don't we meet at that pub across the street after running those errands and then head for the docks together.

Again, neither bossing people around nor allowing anarchy. What it DOES accomplish is keeping the game on track. Otherwise players might run off to do there own thing without a plan, a rendez-vous place, or protection for characters who might get into trouble on their own.

Just my two cents.

 

[Voadam]

Here's a more detailed version of the battle that went horribly wrong last session, if you're interested;

Our horses were stolen during the night by agents of the big bad guy. So, we manage to track them to the beach and there along the waters edge to a small cove. The nights dark and foggy, so we can't see very far ahead of us. We send the halfling rogue up ahead to scout out a light source in the distance, which turns out to be a lamp. So, the halfing decides not to come back and let us know what's going on, but to continue forward, wandering into the fog. Our DM runs a very "act what your character knows, not meta-knowledge" game, so we're not sure if it's from magic or whatnot. So, to keep from losing him in the fog, half of us decide to follow. The lamp turned out to be a targeting device. A huge ambush group was hiding in the fog, and a druid aimed an entangle spell at us when we moved through the light. Half our party gets stuck in the seaweed that grabs us, most of the rest are trying to pry them out. I follow after the halfing to get him out of there, and run across about 5 combatants, backed by 3 or so archers, the druid and a really tough mage. Why do I say really tough? Well let's just say our party of 8 level 4 characters then got hit with a delayed blast fireball. I get beat down after a few rounds, and only after using a magic item I nabbed off an assassin (sort of a blink spell stored in a breakable glass sphere) did I get away with my life, and managed to drag the rest out of there. We would have been pursued, but our Mage had a delayed blast fireball scroll of his own that he unleasshed and managed to drop nearly half of the opposing party. We called the watch in the morning and they went in to check the place out, it was abandoned and our horses were still inside.

But I'm tired of there not being any cohesion, no one that can decide what happens. Our DM may often run things as a "I'm telling a story" sort of railroading a bit, so some players figure no matter what they do, the DM will make sure they have fun; but I WANT to be challanged, I want there to be a chance that we don't suceed. And is it wrong that I want someone in the party to make sure we're not making stupid decisions?

Your problem seems to be lack of coordination and communication, not necessarily a need for a leader (although that can help).

If the halfling had said, "I plan on being back in X amount of time" that would have let you know whether to follow after him.

Tactically what you wanted was for the halfling to come back after seeing the lamp. If somebody had said, "come back when you find out what is out there," then you would have gone in as a whole group, instead of having the halfling separated when the ambush hit.

Either you can have one person who makes sure about these things every time (a leader) or you can talk about plans as a group before hand, and then have individuals make decisions thinking about the group on their own.

If I was your character I would talk to the halfling in front of the group and tell him when he scouts and finds something he needs to come back. Otherwise the group doesn't know if he has been captured or not and might walk into an ambush trying to find him.

Usually there are active PCs who dive into things, and reactive PCs who go along for the ride and react to the things thrown at them. The active PCs are acting as leaders, whether their actions help the group determines whether they are good leaders.

In your example, the halfling was a leader, he went off and did something, driving the rest of the group to act as well. He was not a good leader because the group split up and was disorganized when the ambush hit. A second leader was whoever was back with the rest of the group saying "we need to follow after him."

 

[AeroDm]

I don't think a gaming group needs a leader but I do think that a party would. The only reason leaders don't form in D&D groups is because of meta-gaming, but positive meta-gaming. People who get along and are mature don't need leaders, because they naturally work as a team.

Needless to say, we need leaders.

 

[Voadam]

oops mispost

 

[Voadam]

wrong thread.

 

[DWARF]

I'm thinking of a leader in the sense Celtavian and Czorhat have said it; someone who's more like a coordinator than a "big bossman".

As for how the fog worked;

The fog allowed people with darkvision to see roughly 30 feet in front of them. The ambushers were stationed about 40 feet from the lantern on a 90 degree angle from the direction we were approaching. So when we passed between them and the lantern they easily saw us silouhetted against the lantern and dropped both spells "in the area" around us.

 

[fusangite]

Well, the Zen of it is that if your party needs a leader, having one probably won't help. If the party is so non-cohesive as to need a leader, the leader who is formally chosen probably won't be able to impose the order you want/need on the party.