Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rune" data-source="post: 6672960" data-attributes="member: 67">First, I would strongly encourage the players not to split the party--for their sake, as well as for mine. Failing that, however, I would get a rough synopsis of what the lone PC is going to do and handle it almost completely off-screen, keeping the focus of the adventure on the party. To included everyone, the player with the missing PC would get an NPC to play, if possible. Also, I would make very sure that the player has a good idea whether or not their plan is likely to succeed before they commit to it. Not prohibited, but strongly discouraged. Time management of which would be as described in my previous answer. First, understand that by electing to split the party, you are making a deliberate choice to make the DM's job harder. It is entirely unfair to do that and then complain about the consequences. Your frustration is valid, but your indignation is misplaced. Assuming you want to be a good player (and I'll explain why that will help YOU out momentarily), when confronted with the possibility of splitting from the party, it is your responsibility to: 1. find out how good a plan you have before you commit to it (so the DM has enough information to be able to weave things together), 2. send NPCs (like your awakened mount) instead of PCs on side-missions, when possible (to keep the party at full strength and make it much easier for the DM to keep everyone in the spotlight), and3. accept or propose alternate methods of keeping focus on the party, including allowing side-mission stuff to happen off-screen and taking on the role of an NPC in substitution of an absent PC (so the DM doesn't have to divide time, attention, and focus from the players or adventure).Now, to talk philosophy a little bit: no matter how good a player you are, and no matter how good a DM you have, both of you can improve. Further, the two are inextricably linked; improvement of one side improves the other. Therefore, if you want your DM to improve, do what you can to make DMing for you easier. I hope so! I would very much like to see a second perspective on the game.</blockquote>

Verification