Party Leaders

[Kalshane]

I was wondering how common party leaders are in other people's games, and how they come about. If the party has a leader, are they chosen by the group, or do they come about organically? Is it always one player defaulting to being the party leader, regardless of character, or do particular types of characters end up thrust into the roll any the player in charge of them doesn't actually matter? Do you commonly run into problems where more than one player or character is trying to be leader, resulting in some butting of heads?

In the games I've played in and run, the party leader tends to arise organically. One player or character tends to take charge and the other characters/players follow along (or don't) until it reaches a point where one character is more-or-less in charge. The leaders tend to be paladins or fighters (though there was one game where my rogue was the de-facto party leader just because I was the most experienced player at the table) and it rotates between about the half the group as to who ends up leader in that particular campaign. The other half either doesn't want to be leader, or the players don't trust the player in question to make sound decisions for the group.

Even with a leader, situations where there's time to discuss things are still handled by group consensus, but when everything hits the fan the leader makes the decisions if there's no time for debate.

What are other people's experiences?

 

[Mark CMG]

It tends, in my experience, to come out of which player is most assertive, in combination with which PC is often the one others look to for ideas, goals, and support in their own goals.

 

[edemaitre]

Party leadership

Ideally, the party leader is Player Character trusted most by the others to make decisions on their behalf, hopefully with some input and brief discussion. In actuality, it is often the most assertive gamer, whose character may or may not be qualified to lead. A Chaotic Neutral Elf Rogue should be leading a mostly human party on a holy quest for a Lawful Good Dwarven artifact, no matter how talkative the player is. On the other hand, a strong personality definitely helps move the party, and thus the story, forward.

 

[Aeson]

We have 2 people claiming to be party leader. Depends on you you talk to. Neither one does much in the way of leading.

 

[Hairy Minotaur]

I design the adventures so that eventually each PC will have to make the decisions in at least one plot arc. I spreads around the party leader role and no one feels like their character is not getting their chance to shine, even if it is the 6 INT half-orc barbarian.

 

[loki44]

We don't have an official "Party Leader" in either of the games I play in now but I would have to say it sort of rotates around depending on the situation and which character is best suited to take the lead at any given moment. Back in the day we used to assign a "Caller" just to try to speed up action by not having everyone talking over everyone else. We would decide who would be "Caller" by mutual agreement, often picking one of the quieter players to do it in order to provide an opportunity to let their voice be heard. It never worked for long.

 

[SgtHulka]

There's a difference between in-character leader and out of character leader. The in-character leader is often the Bard, sometimes the Paladin or the Sorceror...basically anyone with a high charisma, ranks in diplomacy, or both.

The out of character leader is as people have previously mentioned...the most assertive, or, at times, the most capable player.

It's pretty comical when the out of character leader plays a 6 charisma dwarf or half-orc and the wallflower player whose bard has a 25+ diplomacy has to step up and do all the actual NPC interaction.

 

[Merkuri]

In our World's Largest Dungeon game, my favored soul, Jiru, ended up becoming the party leader organically. None of the party members referred to her as the leader, but everybody (including the paladin!) seemed to look towards her to make the important decisions and everybody went with what she said. At one point even the NPCs started assuming she was the leader. I think what made her the leader was that she had developed a particular goal aside from survival, while everyone else just wanted a way out.

Jiru kicked the bucket a handful of sessions ago, and was replaced by Tesil, a kobold bard. This character hasn't had a chance to develop a specific goal besides "get out". The result is that the party seems to have been beheaded. It takes us longer to make decisions because Jiru isn't there to stand up and make a choice. Everyone's wishy washy on where to go next. I've found my new kobold slipping into a leadership position simply because it's a void that needs to be filled. Frankly, I find it rediculous that the party is willing to follow a kobold who is basically flipping a coin as to where they'll go, but they're so used to someone else making that final decision.

Just last game we had to decide whether to go north into unknown territory, south into an area ruled by big bad guys who we barely escaped from last time, or east into certain doom. Everyone sat there wondering where we should go until Tesil piped up and said "north!" Then we went north. I have a feeling if I hadn't said anything that we would've sat there until the baddies we were trying to flee from came back and ate us all.

 

[Roadkill101]

Most of my campaigns never have a designated party leader. Depending on the mix of players, I have one (player) who usually ends up playing the party leader role, regardless of character role. Or there is no party leader (of any particular note, leastwise), where the players end up discussing options and proceeding by majority vote.

 

[Chimera]

I was in a game where one player played the Face Man Cleric and was the "leader", while I played the Wizard and was 'tactical leader'.

Got into a bit of a tussle with the GM. He decided to tell me that I was just jealous of the other player, was trying to seize control of the group, but should just shut up and let the other guy lead because 'everyone listens to HIM.'

E-mails from everyone else in the game, and I do mean EVERYONE convinced him that they all considered me the tactical leader of the group and no one viewed me the way that he did.

Of course, I think that his problem with me had two root causes: 1> I had some problems with the way his SO was playing, and 2> I was the 'chosen voice' of the group when it came to bringing game issues to his attention.