RPG Talk: Oh Boy, They Just Split the Party

One of the banes of GameMasters' existences is the concept of splitting the party. But let's be fair. Unless we're talking about horror games, this strategy, especially at higher power levels, can be a sound one. You cover more territory in less relative time. More PCs are active at any given time. And if they can handle themselves, the Player Characters shouldn't be in too much trouble, or at least, don't think they will be. The REAL problem with splitting party is a GameMaster problem. We hate it because it's harder to juggle multiple groups and make sure players get their due. It plays havoc with finely tuned encounters (you set it up for 4, but only 1 or 2 face it). And if handled badly, what is supposed to be a time saver, turns into more boring down time for players. Meant to deal with player impatience, it actually creates more. But it need not be that way. Here are two cinematic options to speed up play while you deal with split party soup:

The Back and Forth
If they want to split up, well that's fine, but use it to keep the momentum up. Keep going back and forth between groups as if they were all together. Make the action as simultaneous as possible. The worst possible situation is when one group is experiencing the game in short combat rounds) and the other in long, free-form social interactions. I say, fudge it. If running a round of combat takes a minute, then allow for one minute of conversation on the other end. When the two groups meet up again, it all somehow took about the same time (probably in the journey there). There are really two ways to play it. Either you match the action - fights break out at both ends, or there's a tense trap being disarmed, or negotiations get tense - OR you use the split to create tension by contrasting one group being in jeopardy while the other one wastes its time bargaining with a blacksmith or something.

Going back and forth, as tightly as possible, keeps the energy up and does allow players to cover more ground. It may seem counterintuitive, but there are situations where a character is just useless - the dumb fighter facing a puzzle, for example - so why not allow them to wander off, clear other rooms, etc. while the brainier characters do that? If there's no "other room" accessible, and you see them getting bored, flip a trap wall and split the party yourself. You might be glad you did (and not a bad way to give a player a crucial clue if that puzzle is causing headaches).

The Wild Goose Chase
Now, it may be that characters split off from the party for no good reason. It's not covering more ground, it's not helpful, and it's basically because they selfishly like to run their own subplots. I'm not saying that's always bad, but it can be. If a player is hogging your attention, forcing you to improvise elements that weren't prepared, and putting the other players on standby, you might not want to indulge them any further. In such situations, I recommend the very cinematic Wild Goose Chase option. Essentially, you let the character disappear for however long (but not too long), and then have them return to the party with a tale to tell. The ball is in their camp: Ask the player to tell the group what happened while he was away. No rolls, but also no changes to the status quo (no damage, no treasure taken, no mission completion). If it's too outlandish, the other PCs may assume they're lying or exaggerating. Either way, you can fold the story into your canon and let it influence what happens next. The attention hog gets their moment, you don't waste time crafting a sub-adventure for them. Everybody wins. You can also complicate things by IMPOSING a small change of status quo (a bit of damage, an item found, a clue received), something to inspire the story told and possibly help the story going forward.

And there's of course no reason you can't mix and match these two options. The person who splits from the prepared adventure is on narrative-only mode. When you switch to them, you propose cues which they respond to, but there are no rolls, no stats, just "story". The conceit being that this is how they'll tell their tale when they rejoin the group.

If the point of splitting the part is to 1) save time and 2) keep players from being bored, then you have to run it with those goals in mind. You can't (1) create sub-scenarios that retard the main action, and you can't (2) make players sit around doing nothing!