[RPG] How to handle a group of inexperienced players who split their party more often than I can handle

gm-techniquesnew-playerspartysplitting-the-party

Recently I ran a steampunk themed one-shot where three of the five players were brand new to roleplaying. The session was successful, everyone enjoyed it and told me they'd like to play again.

However, I had a problem where the group kept splitting the party, which caused players to lose attention and slowed the pace of the game. The main issue though was that when they did split, it was for good reason which made it difficult for me to argue against.

This also happens in my main Traveller campaign, where players have said “why shouldn't we do it since it's a good idea?” In this instance, their PCs were under time pressure so splitting made a lot of sense, but it made it much harder for me having to think about two situations at the same time and managing two different time frames. There are additional issues when only three of the four players are present, as splitting leaves one PC by themselves causing in game problems and leaving them very bored.

The fact that my style of play is based on improvisation only makes this worse.

I know different techniques for dealing with split parties and I manage to use them, sometimes more successfully than others. My problem here though is that splitting occurs so often that their use is not always effective or possible.

Next time I play I will address this issue more clearly with my regular group, and hope that they understand how much of a problem I find it. With the less experienced players though, I fear this approach will seem rude.

What can I do?

Best Answer

Talk to your players about your constraints as a GM

Ultimately this is an issue where the party as a group of human individuals playing the game will need to make concessions in their play approach to the limitations of you as a human individual GMing the game. In a perfect world you'd be able to respond to their decisions instantly, allowing you to juggle GMing the two separate groups simultaneously, but from your description this just isn't a possibility. Sit down and talk with your players in person, outside of a game session and explain that the overall quality of the game will be improved by you being able to focus your efforts on the party as a singular group vs. a bunch of individuals or two groups. Naturally the party will split when the need must arise, but you can specifically prep/plan story points where this is indicated (the engine room is on fire AND there are enemies boarding our ship) as a way to signal to the players that this is a split which you are prepared to handle GMing.