Dealing with Scouting Missions

[asdel]

Basic Problem: How do I deal with the "I'll just scout ahead a bit" problem. How do I do justice to the scout characters while not allowing the rest of the party to become bored, rowdy, and ultimately unhappy?

It has happened a dozen times in the past three campaigns: The GM has set up a castle to storm/dungeon to loot/ what ever, and the party is all geared up and chomping at the bit for ACTION. But the rogue/ranger/scout wants to go in first, check out the lay of the land.

If the rogue goes in, and has no success, he simply rouses the castle to the presence of PCs. If he has too much success, he essentially removes much of the suspense and mystery of the game. Meanwhile, the rest of the players are getting very bored.

As a GM, I want to give the rogue a chance to shine, to use his thieving skills for something constructive towards the mission. I want them to do something besides detect traps on the treasure chest so the rest of the party that 'did the real work' can get their reward.


Does anyone have any suggestions? I don't want to simply kill of the rogue for wandering too far ahead (although there is a time for this...), because scouting really does make logical sense. What works?

 

[Asmo]

I think it´s ok to let the scout/rogue/ranger do his thing, it´s after all one the things he´s really good at.
Just don´t let the scouting missions take to much time: take the scout player in another room for 5 minutes and let him do his work, then check with the rest of the group what they do: will they lay still, or perhaps some other character wants to do something?

Asmo

 

[irdeggman]

You can always have the waiting PCs encounter an enemy "scout" party themselves.