splitting the party

[tim01300]

Looking for some ideas on interesting/fun ways to split the party. I know it's something we try to avoid but for my currently situation I think it will be a good learning example. It's a group of anywhere from 4 to 6 PCs all level 1-2, some brand new players others more experienced. I'm looking for ideas that aren't just "the roof collapses, or the door slams shut; separating you"

Any ideas?

The dungeon is a very small crawl/ruins, simple plot of a wizard's ghost has asked the party to retrieve an item from the ruins of his old laboratory, which has been overrun by low lvl baddies over the years.

I don't intend to split them for a very long time, just a room or two.

[GreyBlack]

Looking for some ideas on interesting/fun ways to split the party. I know it's something we try to avoid but for my currently situation I think it will be a good learning example. It's a group of anywhere from 4 to 6 PCs all level 1-2, some brand new players others more experienced. I'm looking for ideas that aren't just "the roof collapses, or the door slams shut; separating you"

Any ideas?

The dungeon is a very small crawl/ruins, simple plot of a wizard's ghost has asked the party to retrieve an item from the ruins of his old laboratory, which has been overrun by low lvl baddies over the years.

I don't intend to split them for a very long time, just a room or two.

Don't. =D

In all seriousness, I wouldn't generally split the party unless absolutely necessary for some story reason. At level 1, the PCS will probably not be able to handle things well.

If you must, pits with slides are an effective means of splitting the party. Have them fall into a pit, they land in a room with a skeleton or two, then meet back out in the next room together.

[Cybren]

Splitting the party can be great fun! It can also be a 'death trap' but i think this point is oversold: the real hazard with splitting the party is just a logistical hassle. It helps in other systems, where there's a little less emphasis on making sure encounter difficulty is scaled to the parties level properly, but if you're running the right campaign with players in the right mindset, it can work.

Suggestions:

Try to keep the split groups close enough that they can find each other in a pinch
Don't contrive scenarios where they HAVE to split up, just present situations where it might be attractive to do so
Try to bounce back and forth between each group so that if they enter combat they both do so at the same time, so you can have one initiative list


If your game & group are amenable to it and you're REALLY worried about splitting up being too lethal, you might also want to try using a metagame resource by giving each group one "Meanwhile..." that they can save the other group from some hazard by shifting focus to their group and letting the one they saved figure out how they got out of the sticky situation

[SirNMN]

My Favorite is illusion, a wall springs up between them the others an actual wall would be to high level but illusions are lower level

[JBarca]

I'll just leave this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waa2ucfgVgQ)here.

But more seriously: I agree with the others. Avoid splitting the party, especially at low levels. It's asking for a death or six.

But if you really want to, then let the players do it. If the DM does it, then the party's synergies might be destroyed. So have two places to go, two tasks to complete, and a reason that they have to be done at the same time. A time limit works (Five minutes until X, and you need to do both Z and Y before then! Have Z and Y be a distance apart that precludes hurrying and doing both). Or enemies in communication, who will rush to the aid of the other or sound the alarm unless all are taken out simultaneously. Essentially, make the players decide to split and make it seem tactically sound at the time.

And then don't punish them for it, since you're forcing it.

[LTwerewolf]

Splitting the party leads to some people sitting there doing nothing. Not exactly fun for those people who don't even get the opportunity to interact with what's happening.

[Theobod]

I have had a dungeon crawl requiring simultaneous action be taken side by side to allow the other group passage. There were two entrances triggered by pressure plates that two medium creatures on each were able to open, the party of four split up into two synergistic teams and entered, every few minutes a door and lever combo would block the way of one of the parties and the lever would open a door in the other side of the complex. The party eventually met up at the boss chamber.
(Inspired by a dungeon from Skies of Arcadia)

Main bits to take away: keep the action going with back n forth, puzzles should be simple, fights short and not overly complex and overall drop CR by 1 or 2.

[ExLibrisMortis]

If it's advantageous to split the party, you might not have to force anything. Have a large area that needs to be searched quickly, and just let the players decide what to do. If the party stays in a bunch, the search takes too long, and opponents arrive and attack. If the party splits up, some PC finds the MacGuffin, well before the opposition gets there. If the party rogue does all the searching, taking 20 on every square, the enemy finds the MacGuffin and leaves before the party ever notices them.