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?
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?