No Leader in the Party

[Trasilor]

Seeking the advice of my fellow play-grounders...

In the game I am currently running, there are six PCs (Arcane Caster, Divine Caster, Skill Monkey, ranged martial and two melee martial) and none of them have taken the lead.

This leads to decision by committee which slows the game to a crawl.

"Do we attack or hide?"
"Which path should we go down, left or right?"
"What should we do next?"

To be fair, all the players are used to other players taking the lead (we have a fairly large social group of games - in the neighborhood of 12). I feel they are looking to me to railroad them through a story.

Have any of you ever had this with your games? If so, how was it resolved? :smallconfused:

[HighWater]

This is common, more so with beginning players (who simply don't really know what they can do yet) and players who are very used to the idea that the plot determines what actions they can take.

A quick and dirty solution: start counting down when it's taking too long. If they don't decide before you hit 0, have something bad happen.
Alternatively, if they have no naturel leader, have them elect a leader (perhaps based on ingame stats, Charisma preferably) who has to make the decision. Again, introduce a timelimit.

[Red Fel]

A quick and dirty solution: start counting down when it's taking too long. If they don't decide before you hit 0, have something bad happen.

This is a bit Darwinian, even for me, but there is some merit to it.

Ultimately, nature will take its course. If the party is growing increasingly frustrated with the delays due to committee, they will have to elect a leader, or alternatively one of them will volunteer as tribute for the position. If they don't seem to mind, then they're likely having fun; the frustration is only on your end. Vent it as every good DM does.

Mind you, time limits may be appropriate in some circumstances. The PCs might be in a race against time to stop something from happening - warn them that if they delay too long, they will miss their window. Similarly, there are places where it is extraordinarily unsafe to delay, such as the Underdark. If the party insists on dickering about there, roll periodic checks to see what hostile creatures notice the party's highly visible light source. (ProTip: In the Underdark, everything is hostile. Even the plants. And several varieties of rock.)

But yeah. Ideally, it will eventually take care of itself. Even if it doesn't, I wouldn't say you should arbitrarily start ticking down to calamities, but where appropriate, a little urging doesn't hurt.

[John Longarrow]

Having faced this a few times, you can talk to your players to see which of the following will work best for them;
1) They LIKE the concensus and individual approach. Let them run with "Rule by committie" even if it feels like they take longer than you would expect.
2) See if they want to elect a leader
3) See if they want YOU to determine a leader. This is normally by having character-driven quests that naturally lend themselves to one character running a portion of their adventures.

To give you a good example of item 3;
The cleric is given a quest by his temple to recover a relic. This should have the Cleric leading the party during this quest. Next you can have one of the martial characters receive a quest from his family to avenge their honor. During this arc their character should be the center of attention (and leader) for their arc.

This can work very well when the players are not comfortable being full time leaders.

[Falcon X]

Yeah, I played with a group for four years and they never elected a leader. It was frustrating as a DM, and I didn't do well to compensate.

I'll tell you, if I'd introduced a time limit, they would have complained a lot. They weren't the type who wanted to be pressured. But your group might be different. Bring it up to them and see what they think.

Some of the basic things I saw work:
1. More railroading - not the best answer, but it sure gets the job done.
2. Clarity - This is the biggest one. If people fully understand what's going on and how it effects them, they will more readily be able to make decisions. Spend time on detail. Perhaps do a published adventure where you are reading things off a page, just to see what they do.
3. Origin stories - Take one of the players who you think will be a good leader, maybe multiple of them, and do a one-on-one adventure with them from their childhood. Maybe it's when they get their first spell. Maybe it's when they spilled their first blood. Maybe it's when they decided they discovered that the natural world was more real to them than the city.
- The point is, go and show them their motivations. Give them stories of their young age that shape the way they make decisions.
4. Focus gameplay - Have each session tailor-fit to ONE of the characters. Force decision moments that only that character can or should make.

Also, read our host's articles on Play Theory: http://www.giantitp.com/Gaming.html

[Trasilor]

Having faced this a few times, you can talk to your players to see which of the following will work best for them;
1) They LIKE the concensus and individual approach. Let them run with "Rule by committie" even if it feels like they take longer than you would expect.
2) See if they want to elect a leader
3) See if they want YOU to determine a leader. This is normally by having character-driven quests that naturally lend themselves to one character running a portion of their adventures.

To give you a good example of item 3;
The cleric is given a quest by his temple to recover a relic. This should have the Cleric leading the party during this quest. Next you can have one of the martial characters receive a quest from his family to avenge their honor. During this arc their character should be the center of attention (and leader) for their arc.

This can work very well when the players are not comfortable being full time leaders.

I really like #3 - thank you. Each person gets their moment to shine and fulfill their own personal goal.