Splitting up the party...best ways?

[Ogrehatescomputers]

The game I am running has been a great success (in my mind at least lol) so far by way of keeping things a bit of a struggle and not handing the adventures everything on a silver platter. I've managed to keep the game balanced between hack and slash and trying to talk there way out of things...or into things if needs be.

But soon we are coming to the point of my game that I have planned to separate the party, from one another. They're four character. A monk, a fighter, a cleric, and a Wizard. who have just reached level 2. I would like to break up the group so it would be one spell caster with either "warrior" type. But I don't want it to feel forced. I don't want to just say... cop out, on them and say "flavor text time THIS HAPPENS no matter what" I personally hate it when DM's do that and feel like it cheapens the experience for the players.

The group is currently under ground inside of an old INN that a few centuries ago sunk into the ground during an earthquake. So parts of it are worked walls and doors etc and other parts are dug out tunnels and lairs. They cannot go back the way they came because they failed to pay attention to the environment (which they have been warned about) and didn't realize that the tunnel they were coming through wasn't made for medium sized characters and was in deep need of repair. So... after a while it collapsed.

The INN they are inside has opened to a large cave on one side of the room where a wall has slid off the edge down into the blackness. They players don't know it but the cave is 200ft deep. I would like to have another "mudslide" or "earthquake" type event force them to separate. I considered having a quake pull apart the ground and make them go different paths to meet back up some where but IN GAME that would be much more difficult. Because, quite simply. My players characters are very heroic. And will go out of their way to save each other and stay together.

So if Monk and Cleric go one way and Fighter and Wizard go the other during the quake. They will all try to find a way to keep together. Jumping off platforms onto other ones throwing ropes etc. I can't stress this enough. They will get ...stupid... about saving each other. Like Errol Flynn jumping, swinging, heroics.

So my real question is. Do I make the jump checks or the str checks very high to keep them from making to eachother in time? Or maybe just have it happen int he blink of an eye with no chance for rolling? Because that seems...unfair? almost. Even though me forcing them apart with no choice isn't exactly fair either. I know if I was playing I would want at least a Reflex save for some kind of chance. Or do I just take the cop out and say BOOM YOU'RE SEPARATED!!!! MWAHAHAHAHHAAHAHHA

SO....whats a DM to do?

 

[concerro]

Players are good at seeing through manipulation, and having split groups means balancing game time. I would probably drop the idea unless it is story essential and even then I would try to keep it short.

 

[Dingo333]

The only time I have seen a successful party split was when the DM had 2 players who had to be away from the game for a bit come back as captured slaves. One was sold to a master who (with a gather information check) was known for some rough handling of his slaves. The other wasnt sold and was thus being carried to the next selling block.

Long story short, party split, somewhat evenly, we broke in, rescued all the evil guy's slaves and beat up the slavers and freed the unsold slaves (paladin had a fit trying to wrap their morals around the choices)

It worked then, but I have seen it a couple times where it did not (half the group just took out books and read, looking for new rule abuses for them to use)

I would say avoid it if you can

 

[Ogrehatescomputers]

I should have clarified. It's four characters but only two players. They would be split for about three hours of game play all contained in one game session. It's a very controllable situation.

 

[Mr.E_Danger]

I don't think there is anything wrong with a tiny "railroad" split, especially if it's just for one session. Sometimes you got to shake things up.

So two players, each controlling 2 characters. Were you planning on splitting them up so that both players are with both parties? or splitting it up so the two characters being controlled by one person are going on way and the other two being controlled by the other person going the other? Does my question make sense?

either way, i'd do a cave in. that way unless they can magically move 10 tons of rock and dirt, there is no way they'll get back together. Now how you split them up, that's the tough part. One thought i had was skills. Are there any skills in common with two, but not with the other two? like stealth for example? if two are stealthy and two are not, then have the two stealth one way once once they're far enough way, BAM, cave-in. Otherwise have them walk in a straight line and separate them based on "random dice rolls" and fudge the numbers. not really fair, but will get the job done.

 

[Ogrehatescomputers]

I have decided to go ahead and do a "minor railroad" They are going to fight a rather large Spider right before it happens so I have a feeling that the party will be split rather naturally.

As far as who to split with who. I'm ignoring who is controlling which character. Who ever happens to be on one side of the "line" is going with each that "guy" lol. But if I head to guess the Cleric (who is a bow user) will most likely be going with the Mage. While the Monk and the Fighter go the other way. It will be interesting have them split from their front line fighters and the others split from their supporting fire.

But it should be pretty fun i think. The split itself with be pretty short.

 

[Wik]

In your case, splitting the party is fine - just be aware that even if you adjust the CRs of your encounters, your smaller groups will be less useful, simply because there are fewer allies on the scene. For example, wizards do better in large groups because there is a better front line to keep the monsters away, rogues do better with more chances to flank, etc. You'll probably also see your cleric step up a bit more, since he can presumably use more spell slots to defeat enemies as opposed to heal allies.

If you were in a group where you had four players and split into two groups, there is an easy way to split the group that I like to use - either you use "rapid shifts", wherein you spend no more than five minutes at a time with one specific group and let players from the "inactive" group control NPCs or take over minor GM functions, or you allow for "PC NPCs" to fill out the group.

In the second instance, I'd let your two inactive players create NPCs. My view is the NPCs have to either be of a level equal to the PCs in an NPC class, or one level lower than the lowest level active PC in a PC class. And the general rule is that these NPCs have to be of a common race, and can't be super-noteworthy.

It lets your active PCs have a chance to shine, while keeping the inactive Players still in the game. Also, tell the "inactive" players that they receive the same XP as the active players, with a +10% bonus if their NPCs survive (or, a +25% bonus if they achieve some goal that is against the interest of the rest of the party, if you like doing that sort of thing!).