Games where you split the party

[Mendicant]

Are there any games out there that deal well with player characters being geographically distant from each other for long periods of time, and/or that toggle gracefully between characters in different locations/scenes so that people who aren't currently up aren't bored and disconnected?

[Knaight]

Basically anything without subsystems that tend to produce really long scenes (which usually means combat, but Shadowrun nicely demonstrates other possibilities) can work well. Apocalypse World is outright made expecting no party structure with splitting PCs if they're together up being an explicit GM permission, but that's just GM philosophy stuff - the actual handling works for most games which don't have sections that get really mechanical for a while.

[Mechalich]

Splitting the party tends to work better in modern or futuristic settings because everyone can turn on their phones/comlinks/helmet feeds and thereby pseudo-experience whatever is happening to the part of the group that's somewhere else and potentially even offer helpful advice or snarky commentary - which is particularly useful because that's what players at a table who are watching other players go through a scene are likely to do anyway if they're still paying attention, so you might as well have it be in character.

[Tyrrell]

Ars Magica is designed to have the PC's split up by giving each player at least two characters. The players try to split up their characters so they have only one in each scene.

The game is set up this way so that the game master doesn't have to deal with too many wizards in a scene at the same time.

[Spore]

In my own experience, VtM and other WoD games often split the party because the characters are usually not combat focussed and sometimes certain characters are just very VERY misplaced in certain environs.

[Knaight]

Ars Magica is designed to have the PC's split up by giving each player at least two characters. The players try to split up their characters so they have only one in each scene.

The game is set up this way so that the game master doesn't have to deal with too many wizards in a scene at the same time.

That's not quite how troupe play usually works in Ars Magica - you all have two characters (plus access to the common pool of minor characters that aren't anyone's in particular), but in any given adventure most of them are back home, studying magic or performing tasks that allow for the mages to study. The focus characters generally have one per PC.

[Max_Killjoy]

In my own experience, VtM and other WoD games often split the party because the characters are usually not combat focussed and sometimes certain characters are just very VERY misplaced in certain environs.

Plus there tends to be a high intrigue content, and more potential for personal drama.

[Great Dragon]

Not sure if this is helpful, but whenever I run a game where I know there's going to be a long split in the Party (Shadowrun is indeed a good example, with both Matrix and Astral); I'll either let the Players not directly involved make another Character to play in that session or simply give them a choice between NPCs to play.

Then, next session, switch to the PCs left behind, with the "Away" Players playing NPCs or New Characters.

I find that this really reduces boredom, even if done with D&D games.

Checking with your Players first, is always wise.

[Psyren]

Splitting the party tends to work better in modern or futuristic settings because everyone can turn on their phones/comlinks/helmet feeds and thereby pseudo-experience whatever is happening to the part of the group that's somewhere else and potentially even offer helpful advice or snarky commentary - which is particularly useful because that's what players at a table who are watching other players go through a scene are likely to do anyway if they're still paying attention, so you might as well have it be in character.

This - I definitely noticed the difference in Starfinder. Not only do you get commentary through the communicator, but when the rest of the party can see what the scout sees they can even roll. When the Operative comes across a funky magic rune for example, they might scratch their heads, but then the Mystic back at camp who made his roll suddenly starts getting very excited.

Which is not to say you can't do this sort of thing in D&D/PF too, but it tends to come online much later, e.g. permanencied Telepathic Bond and crystal balls and the like.

[RNightstalker]

Usually never a good idea. If I as the DM do it, it could be as a divide and conquer thing. If the players do it, I let them get into a little trouble to encourage party cohesion in the future. There are already enough moving parts during one meal; to try and start cooking a second or third at the same time is above my pay grade.

[ErdrickOfAliaha]

Star Trek adventures by Moebious(sp) deals with it very well. Typically each player creates their "main" character and two "red shirts". When they sit down they pass one red shirt to the left and the other to the right. When the scene moves somewhere your main character is unable to be, you bust out one of your red shirt alts. Security, medical and engineering crew members can have an excuse to be pretty much anywhere. Also, you can resolve a scene in multiple locations simultaneously, and share "momentum"(game mechanic) between the groups if they're cooperating to complete the same task.

[Psyren]

Usually never a good idea. If I as the DM do it, it could be as a divide and conquer thing. If the players do it, I let them get into a little trouble to encourage party cohesion in the future. There are already enough moving parts during one meal; to try and start cooking a second or third at the same time is above my pay grade.

The problem is that many games actively discourage sticking together. For example, if you have some party members that are really bad at sneaking, keeping the whole group together just means everyone fails that section. For the player who actually invested in stealth and other scouting abilities, that just feels bad to play.

The same is true of exploration. If you have two party members that are decent at searching for stuff - say, a secret door, or the right book in a library, or a hidden key etc. - then having them both comb the same rooms just means the group as whole is taking longer than it needs to to find your plot thread. And when you're looking at a map (even a partially revealed one), it's easy to see what is left unexplored and how much slower it feels for the whole group to search one room at a time. This too ends up feeling not fun.

[Mechalich]

The problem is that many games actively discourage sticking together. For example, if you have some party members that are really bad at sneaking, keeping the whole group together just means everyone fails that section. For the player who actually invested in stealth and other scouting abilities, that just feels bad to play.

The same is true of exploration. If you have two party members that are decent at searching for stuff - say, a secret door, or the right book in a library, or a hidden key etc. - then having them both comb the same rooms just means the group as whole is taking longer than it needs to to find your plot thread. And when you're looking at a map (even a partially revealed one), it's easy to see what is left unexplored and how much slower it feels for the whole group to search one room at a time. This too ends up feeling not fun.

Splitting up the group is also simply a natural part of how stories function. If the characters are important enough to be present at all, they are presumably important enough to operate independently when necessary. It's not for nothing that, in most video games with a party structure there's only one important character and everyone else is part of an interchangeable bullpen of followers who accompany that single character on their adventures, or the game simply pretends everyone is present even if you never actually use the extra characters in your battle party (Persona's a great example of the latter).

Table-top RPGs exist in a nearly constant tension between the story needs for character distribution and the largely out-of-game issues with actually splitting up the party at a physical table (D&D and certain combat-heavy games also have mechanical issues regarding splitting the party because it screws with the action economy, but that's less common).

Ideally this issue should be alleviated in the game design by having all the characters maintain a minimum level of competence at things they are expected to regularly do all the time and simply specializing beyond that, but this sort of design limits the game to a specific operational niche - everyone is a commando, or everyone is a ninja, or everyone is a dimension-hoping wizard, etc. - and that impacts a game's market viability.

[Tvtyrant]

The real issue for me is that now half of the group are going to sit there doing nothing (which means playing mario kart or pulling out phones or whatever.) I would probably do the Final Fantasy thing and add in temporary characters for all of the people if the party split is long term.

[Calthropstu]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PUMCIn2swTU

[Mendicant]

The real issue for me is that now half of the group are going to sit there doing nothing (which means playing mario kart or pulling out phones or whatever.) I would probably do the Final Fantasy thing and add in temporary characters for all of the people if the party split is long term.

Well that's the thing--people also don't play when they're not up in initiative order, or if there's a scene or encounter that they don't contribute much too. The latter could be chalked up to bad GMing or game design, but to some extent I think that's inevitable.

What I'm most interested in is finding out if there are games where interspliced scenes are the norm or at least done elegantly, so that while the party is split at the story level the players are all involved and taking turns relatively rapidly.

[Lacco]

What I'm most interested in is finding out if there are games where interspliced scenes are the norm or at least done elegantly, so that while the party is split at the story level the players are all involved and taking turns relatively rapidly.

Amber Diceless does this as far as I remember.

It also includes a great advice regarding the split scenes: wait until there is a turning point, dangerous situation or something urgent in the scene, then turn to the other player with "Meanwhile..."

And as soon as one player contacts the other, do the same - but wait for tense situation on receiving side to connect the call.

I used to do this to players in Shadowrun. Each player had his own ringing tone. One of them got into trouble and needed to call for reinforcements. As he started dialing, I switched to the other group, which was doing legwork - and when they blew a roll for Negotiation and were in mexican standoff with opposing Intimidate rolls, I played "Welcome to the Jungle".

The player whose commlink had this as ringing tone went pale.

The player who called originally never stopped watching the scene as he knew his call could get to them at any time.

One call and so much tension... try it out. Wait for a cliffhanger and then switch.

[Great Dragon]

Amber Diceless does this as far as I remember.

In addition to Shadowrun, Both Star Wars and Star Trek RPGs can do this.

Although, I don't remember if there is any specific advice on doing what you posted, in these.

[Gamer92131]

Star Trek Adventures has a great system for players being able to run a supporting character in a circumstance where their character isnt where the narrative is currently being told. Its one of many things I like about the system.

[Lacco]

In addition to Shadowrun, Both Star Wars and Star Trek RPGs can do this.

Although, I don't remember if there is any specific advice on doing what you posted, in these.

No, there isn't. However, as firm fan of Blackjack's school of Shadowrunning I can say that Shadowrun this works absolutely perfect - basically, whenever I have the chance to GM Shadowrun, I enforce splitting of groups via short deadlines, which in combination with "He's in a call"; "They are not available" and "Meanwhile... + trouble on the other side of line" creates the feeling of tension and fast-paced action.

The players will often watch the other groups just to be sure they don't miss the moment when their call finally gets through.

[farothel]

This is actually one of the few things a PbP game (no matter what the system) is better at then a regular tabletop game. You can easily put things in spoiler tags for the different parts of the party and keep up two (or three) conversations at the same time in the same thread, so there's no need to jump back and forth.

[sktarq]

Games that have a more "narrative" type structure generally seem to work better for this. And this is less a matter of the SYSTEM used than how the GM runs the system but some are easier for a GM to run in this manner

WoD for example. (besides having strong social divisions where certain characters don't really belong whilst having others be invisible, in Spirit-realms, in Dreams, the Hedge, etc where not everyone belongs) is pretty easy to run this. Shadowrun CAN be very good at this too.

Major reasons it works is because it can be easier to avoid long time blocks (esp because combat is rare at most tables) and hop back and forth.

Also games where travel time is moderate...Where a separated party can reassemble in a couple hours is far easier to deal with...and key to remixing the subparties on a regular basis. (which makes the group still feel like one party). This is another reason modern setting tend to work better.

Also in social/guano supernatural stuff seems to hold non-involved players attention more that combat deliberation and dice rolling...at least at the tables I run at so there is less phone/mariokart/random acts of cooking.

[JeenLeen]

I've seen it work well in play-by-post, where it doesn't mean one player's scene is holding up others' fun (assuming the GM is up for responding to multiple scenes.)

In real life, I've rarely seen it work well. I can see some examples where it makes sense, as noted in earlier posts, but it usually seems problematic. I think it's easiest in combat-light games, or at least ones where combat doesn't take a long time. (Or, really, no one Thing takes a lot of time, so it's easy to shift attention back to other players.) And when they can work together in some sense from a distance, a la telepathy or modern tech.

[Anxe]

I think the scifi side has already been explained well, but another good system that's more on the fantasy side is Blades in the Dark.
The party can get split up, but the players away from the action can still interact through flashbacks.
Like if the wimpy character runs into combat while they're alone. The buff character can use a flashback and say, "I knew Wimpy would run into trouble, so I lent him my +5 weapon, just in case." As long as it doesn't break continuity, it's fine. Then Buff and Wimpy both participate. I'm keeping it simple in this example. There's more involved options as well.

[Lacco]

I've seen it work well in play-by-post, where it doesn't mean one player's scene is holding up others' fun (assuming the GM is up for responding to multiple scenes.)

In real life, I've rarely seen it work well. I can see some examples where it makes sense, as noted in earlier posts, but it usually seems problematic. I think it's easiest in combat-light games, or at least ones where combat doesn't take a long time. (Or, really, no one Thing takes a lot of time, so it's easy to shift attention back to other players.) And when they can work together in some sense from a distance, a la telepathy or modern tech.

It can work out, but it takes some practice, inprovisation skill and preparations. You need to have a sufficient list of complications ready and keep switching at any point where they get too far into future.

I'd give example, but it would be rather long and confusing... most probably. But I'm willing to provide it if I get enough volunteers who want to try it out.

[Bohandas]

Part of Paranoia involves sneaking away from the party to privately make contact with secret societies

[Lacco]

Part of Paranoia involves sneaking away from the party to privately make contact with secret societies

Secret societies? There are no secret societies in the Alpha Complex, Citizen! And even if there were any, participation or even knowledge of secret societies is treason!

Also: sneaking away and privacy...? Mutant traitor! ...BZZT...ZAP!

Oh, I love the idea behind Paranoia.

[Bohandas]

I think the scifi side has already been explained well, but another good system that's more on the fantasy side is Blades in the Dark.
The party can get split up, but the players away from the action can still interact through flashbacks.
Like if the wimpy character runs into combat while they're alone. The buff character can use a flashback and say, "I knew Wimpy would run into trouble, so I lent him my +5 weapon, just in case." As long as it doesn't break continuity, it's fine. Then Buff and Wimpy both participate. I'm keeping it simple in this example. There's more involved options as well.

That's a really cool concept

[RNightstalker]

The problem is that many games actively discourage sticking together. For example, if you have some party members that are really bad at sneaking, keeping the whole group together just means everyone fails that section. For the player who actually invested in stealth and other scouting abilities, that just feels bad to play.

The same is true of exploration. If you have two party members that are decent at searching for stuff - say, a secret door, or the right book in a library, or a hidden key etc. - then having them both comb the same rooms just means the group as whole is taking longer than it needs to to find your plot thread. And when you're looking at a map (even a partially revealed one), it's easy to see what is left unexplored and how much slower it feels for the whole group to search one room at a time. This too ends up feeling not fun.

I can agree to a point. There's a difference between a Rogue saying "I'm gonna scout out the next room/hallway" vs. "I'm gonna go scout out the next dungeon while y'all finish your buying at Ye Olde Magicke Shoppe."

[darkrose50]

That game is called Total Party Kill (TPK RPG).