I find myself with the Blogger on this one. Shocking as most readers will find it a well run game can handle a split party and the game with thrive. But the execution rests on the GM.
This advice is not taken lightly if you are not confident that you can handle the party breaking up tell your players. Be honest with yourself and your fellow gamer’s. If you can no handle a split party you will lose your players fast and it can easily make a great session a boring or even bad session.
Myself I am very confident and comfortable splitting my party. To the point that often the moment my players hit the safe location they scatter to the four winds. Nine times out of ten I handle it like a champ. Some nights rare as they are it is an utter failure. And I have been at this for nearly 30 years !
But my advice do it anyway! your players will thank you for it in the end. Those moments when you pull it off and allow your players to play to their individual strengths and develop. Far outweigh the occasional slow moments.
The most common advice I heard on RPG boards for awhile was “Never split the party.” The reasons for this on both sides of the screen are compelling. As a player, separating the party weakens and exposes you to dangers. As a GM, it makes your work much harder, trying to manage all the separate strands. This makes it great advice for new players or GM’s. If you aren’t new though, it limits you in what you can accomplish in terms of telling diverse stories or enacting cunning plans.
Lets start from a player perspective. Always being grouped together means you can’t really pursue individual goals or stories. Think how much less epic those Vader Luke fights would have been if every time Luke was backed by a wookie, smuggler, two droids, and a princess. Hardly the climatic showdown we all wanted. Or imagine trying to flirt with your first…
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