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

[aco175]

@TheNewPlayer welcome to the site.

 

[bloodtide]

What about stealth and observation focused characters, characters with familiars, or casters with any number of "scouting" spells?

Or do you just tell groups not to bother with that?

The issue is the Solo game, not just doing stealth and observation.

And as said, when part of a plot, I will ask the player to do a separate solo game that does not disrupt the main game.

I do love to do a main game and on the side have a single player 'stealth' game running at the same time. This works great on Discord, doing a couple hours in-between the weekly game.

 

[Desdichado]

Go back and forth quickly. I don't really think about it, but intuitively, it's probably similar to a tense action movie edit in terms of ruining back and forth.

 

[Retros_x]

If you don't want to lose that 10-30 min of game time then don't split the party.

Or just sit in the same room and be amazed by what the other part of the party does. Enjoy the story.

I just switch back and forth between them. I absolutely do not care about metagaming in this instance (and most others). Only exception could be when e.g. there is some pvp element to it, secrets and conflicts between the parts of the party. I never had that played out in way like this, but I could imagine here some metagame protection. But in most cases, just let them watch and you know roleplay that they don't what is going on. Believe in your players ability to do that.

I try to do switch after 10 minutes or so, so the other part is not passive for too long.

 

[Horwath]

What about stealth and observation focused characters, characters with familiars, or casters with any number of "scouting" spells?

Or do you just tell groups not to bother with that?

scouting spells,
player that controls the spell or a familiar can share info with rest of the party and get input on what should be checked next so that can involve the whole party in scouting.


for stealth, 3,5e rules come in handy with -1 penalty on perception for 10ft of distance.

so someone with 8 dex in heavy armor will have an average check of 4, someone with +10 in stealth will have an average of 20.
difference of 14, that is 140ft of distance that lowest stealth character needs to be behind the stealthiest to get same expected stealth score.
with Dash and some extra movement, they can be in one place in 1 round. 2 rounds at the worst.

 

[Lanefan]

scouting spells,
player that controls the spell or a familiar can share info with rest of the party and get input on what should be checked next so that can involve the whole party in scouting.

Plan B: long-range communication (via telepathy, magic device, or whatever) between characters such that the scout can report back on the fly and get up-to-the-minute instructions and-or questions from the rest of the party.

If a party has this ability, I'll run the scouting character at the table with everyone else present. Exception: if the scout wants to keep anything secret, that's done by note or in another room.

 

[TheNewPlayer]

Let them listen, it's fun to know what's going on.

Thank you

 

[TheNewPlayer]

Though I won't forbid it, I'm generally not a fan. Tends to split my attention, leaves some players twiddling their thumbs, and can cause problems if there is a serious combat encounter.

There are ways around any and all of those problems, but 5e doesn't tend to embrace them wholeheartedly (for ex. Combats with half the party missing can be unforgiving).


This i fully agree with. No real reason to exclude the rest.

Yes thank you, much appreciated

 

[TheNewPlayer]

I've usually just told the whole group, and don't worry about it too much. Most groups are pretty good about keeping PC knowledge separate from players, and even if they don't it's fine. I think people have more fun when everyone is listening to what happens to everyone else.
(It's also less hassle for the DM, tbh.)

Thank you so much, I felt sort of lost and wasn’t sure what to do

 

[loverdrive]

I personally think splitting the party is fine but with caveats.

As a player, I don't mind to just sit back and watch for a while, take time to think about what's going on, quietly chat with other players and discuss the events of the game (having a separate room is a godsend), and also go for a smoke, text my boyfriend a little, and otherwise take a break from the game. Obviously I don't want to do that the whole session, but 30 minutes? Sure.

I would be significantly more annoyed if the GM was like "okay, meanwhile, and what are you doing?" every five minutes, thus requiring my actual attention, while not being able to do anything. That's exhausting! I don't want this spotlight, keep it.

That's why as a GM I do it exactly like that -- give one group a significant chunk of the time, then the other, instead of them being simultaneous. I also aggressively skip time to keep all the groups more-or-less in sync.

I also don't worry much about players learning things their characters don't know. It's okay, and, frankly, it's better if they act on it! Like, that's the benefit of someone going for a scouting mission -- to give intel. If players then are forbidden from using that intel until scout returns and tells them that in character, what's the point? It's annoying.