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Difficulty Playing D&D: Player Still Waiting Off Screen After 3+ Hours
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<blockquote data-quote="delericho" data-source="post: 6672898" data-attributes="member: 22424"><p>Ick. Split parties are a pain. Especially when the nature of the split is deliberately set up such that one character is going to be absent for an extended period of time.</p><p></p><p>I hate to say it, but from my perspective the person most responsible for you being excluded in this case is you. After all, you took your character off on your own days-long side-quest. Now, that said, I do think your DM handled something badly:</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Had it been me, I would have delayed this event until several days had passed in-game, so that your PC was well on his way back, so that you could return in good time. And I'd have placed the delay <em>before</em> the orcs showed up. The moment the negotiations started, there was a real good chance it was going to go south.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Make sure the players are well aware of the timescales involved. If the orcs are going to arrive in hours and one PC is planning to absent themself for <em>days</em>, make it clear they're going to miss out on the fun. But if they <em>still</em> choose that route, then that's on them.</p><p></p><p>In the event that a PC is unavoidably absent from a scene that's going to take a long time to play out, I'll find something else for the player to do - be it run a couple of friendly NPCs, run some of the bad guys, or <em>something</em>. Because it does indeed suck if they can't do anything.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Prohibited? No. Strongly discouraged.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>People are too quick to jump to confrontation, IMO. <em>Discuss</em> it with the DM.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>If you're not having fun, walk away. Life's too short to play in bad games. But if it was just a glitch in an otherwise enjoyable game, put it down to experience and play on.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>When dealing with a split party, I'll try to slice my time between <em>players</em> as far as possible. Which means that if you (1 player) are off doing your own thing while the others (4 players) are doing something else, they'll get 20 minutes for every 5 I'll give you (on average). I'll try to slice the time up such that you're never waiting too long without <em>some sort</em> of activity.</p><p></p><p>But with the timings involved, it's difficult to see how things could have happened differently - your character simply didn't have time to complete his side-mission in the timescale of the adventure. So I suspect the best I could have done was to give you an early 'escape hatch' for your plan, where you see something that indicates you need to get back, coupled with some means to actually do that (orc reinforcements on magic carpets, or something, with one carpet landed for a comfort break?).</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Kudos for recognising that you may not be entirely objective. You'd be surprised at how rare that is.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="delericho, post: 6672898, member: 22424"] Ick. Split parties are a pain. Especially when the nature of the split is deliberately set up such that one character is going to be absent for an extended period of time. I hate to say it, but from my perspective the person most responsible for you being excluded in this case is you. After all, you took your character off on your own days-long side-quest. Now, that said, I do think your DM handled something badly: Had it been me, I would have delayed this event until several days had passed in-game, so that your PC was well on his way back, so that you could return in good time. And I'd have placed the delay [i]before[/i] the orcs showed up. The moment the negotiations started, there was a real good chance it was going to go south. Make sure the players are well aware of the timescales involved. If the orcs are going to arrive in hours and one PC is planning to absent themself for [i]days[/i], make it clear they're going to miss out on the fun. But if they [i]still[/i] choose that route, then that's on them. In the event that a PC is unavoidably absent from a scene that's going to take a long time to play out, I'll find something else for the player to do - be it run a couple of friendly NPCs, run some of the bad guys, or [i]something[/i]. Because it does indeed suck if they can't do anything. Prohibited? No. Strongly discouraged. People are too quick to jump to confrontation, IMO. [i]Discuss[/i] it with the DM. If you're not having fun, walk away. Life's too short to play in bad games. But if it was just a glitch in an otherwise enjoyable game, put it down to experience and play on. When dealing with a split party, I'll try to slice my time between [i]players[/i] as far as possible. Which means that if you (1 player) are off doing your own thing while the others (4 players) are doing something else, they'll get 20 minutes for every 5 I'll give you (on average). I'll try to slice the time up such that you're never waiting too long without [i]some sort[/i] of activity. But with the timings involved, it's difficult to see how things could have happened differently - your character simply didn't have time to complete his side-mission in the timescale of the adventure. So I suspect the best I could have done was to give you an early 'escape hatch' for your plan, where you see something that indicates you need to get back, coupled with some means to actually do that (orc reinforcements on magic carpets, or something, with one carpet landed for a comfort break?). Kudos for recognising that you may not be entirely objective. You'd be surprised at how rare that is. [/QUOTE]
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