Super Secret Side Stories

[Crake]

So this has been a staplemark trait of my games as of late; players doing their own thing on the side (typically while away from the table). This has ranged from mundane stuff that the player wanted to get done that simply did not involve the other players, to nefarious ploys against the other players to steal their soul (that literally happened once).

One example of this was in my last game where players who wanted certain things for themselves (namely either crafting materials to make magic items, or needing to go to locations or perform rituals to gain various templates) would go do those things on their own. Naturally the game was very open world, and there was no specific "plot" to keep the characters constantly together as a group, they only grouped together when they needed/wanted to. Some of the things that happened was the mage going around and befriending four fey (one which she happened to have already been friends with), one for every season, to gather gifts from them to make herself a half-fey. Another player traveled to the edge of a naturally occuring adamantine razor cliff to meditate and consume adamantine (literally ate it) to gain the mineral warrior template.

More recently, I've been running a bit more of a traditional game, so there hasn't been AS much time for solo side stuff, especially since they travel a lot, but in the little time the players have managed to spend in cities, they have all (mostly) gone and done their own things, such as the vampire in the party going and preying on mortals, and getting herself into trouble with vampire hunters (which came back to the whole party and they all had to sort it out, great fun), the elf assassin investigating magic item shops and pondering stealing from them (but ultimately deciding not to) and the fairy posing as a little girl... going and playing in the park. :smallsigh:

I have been wondering recently though, how often do other DMs do this kind of stuff, and what does it typically involve for you? How do players view this kind of thing? I've had some players complain that they're disadvantaged due to having less free time away from the table to do things? What do you guys think about issues like that?

[ArcanistSupreme]

My table really enjoys it for the most part. Two of my four players really get into role playing, and this gives them a way to grow their character and really be in the spotlight without taking away from the group if they did it during a normal session. Heck, even my least role playing-inclined player really enjoyed his solo session, and it really inspired him to want to develop his character more.

Mostly we do the solo stuff for stealth missions, the kind of thing where you can't bring along the clumsy wizard who banned illusion or your full-plate wearing buddy. But we've also done side quest stuff like getting special materials for a new sword or confronting a rival from the backstory. It's a lot of fun and often allows for more focused storytelling that isn't (as) constantly interrupted by Monty Python references and sexual innuendos.

I did, however, just run into a similar problem with my group. All of the members except one are busy for the next couple of weeks, and we both have time to get together to do some side quest stuff he wants to do. But now I have to figure out a meaningful reward that doesn't put him ahead of the rest of the party (this group refuses to play without even one person, so they are always the same level and have roughly the same amount of gear). Maybe property within the city? A flavorful and fun but not necessarily powerful magic item? I want to reward him for his time and character development, but I don't want the others to feel like they were punished for being busy. :smallfrown:

[Crake]

I did, however, just run into a similar problem with my group. All of the members except one are busy for the next couple of weeks, and we both have time to get together to do some side quest stuff he wants to do. But now I have to figure out a meaningful reward that doesn't put him ahead of the rest of the party (this group refuses to play without even one person, so they are always the same level and have roughly the same amount of gear). Maybe property within the city? A flavorful and fun but not necessarily powerful magic item? I want to reward him for his time and character development, but I don't want the others to feel like they were punished for being busy. :smallfrown:

The main reward I gave my players was the relationships that they built with the NPCs. Mind you, the NPCs in the first example I mentioned were those from an adventuring guild that the players joined, and thus were designed to be roughly on par with the players at all times (the players took them on quite a few of their adventures, so you could almost have called them secondary party members). They were powerful enough that having them as a really close friend was quite beneficial to the players. Additionally, you could quite easily just let the memories of the session be a reward in and of itself. Not everything needs to have a direct benefit after all.