D&D General DMs, how do you handle 'split party' situations?

[Nefermandias]

Depends whether the priority is efficiency in the fiction or efficiency at the table.

How many times, for example, have you and your SO gone shopping and to get it done faster, each hit a different store in the mall rather than both going to both?

In the fiction it's the same: the party splits up so the MU and the Thief can go get info from the MU's guild while the Cleric checks in with her temple and the two Fighters go looking for a hench to hire. Afterwards, they all meet up and compare notes.

Woefully inefficient at the table but more efficient (and probably more reflective of what the characters would actually do) in the fiction. To me, the latter is more important.

You chose an example with fairly low stakes though. It usually doesn't really make much of a difference when the party is shopping or hiring underlings.

Now, splitting the party during dungeon exploration (and I'm not talking about the rogue scouting ahead) can be a real problem.

 

[Lanefan]

You chose an example with fairly low stakes though. It usually doesn't really make much of a difference when the party is shopping or hiring underlings.

Now, splitting the party during dungeon exploration (and I'm not talking about the rogue scouting ahead) can be a real problem.

True, but the in-town example leaped to mind first.

In the field, though, the result is the same: in the fiction multiple things are (potentially) happening at once, while at the table there has to be some back and forth as the DM can only do one thing at a time.

 

[iserith]

I find it hilarious and at the same time annoying that players have this weird idea that splitting the party is going to get things accomplished faster.

I mean, surely if you check the attic and I check the basement, we will get to the bottom of this quickly and with no troubles whatsoever!