Splitting the Party (For Fun!)

[DragonBaneDM]

Hey gang!

First up, MegaD crew starting Inverted Pyramid, git outta here.

Second! I'm working on the intro skill challenge for my new adventure I do in a campaign with rotating DMs, so I came here to throw some spaghetti at the wall and see what you guys think. The party's average level is around 10 right now, so I'm trying to turn over a new leaf and ramp up the challenge since we're entering a new tier.

So here's what I did. Entrance chamber to our MegaDungeon got all shook up and totally reformed by an earthquake. It's now a collection of different pits that DMs can open/close on their whim. I'm starting with 4 different pits open, each of which leading through a remarkably similar mini-dungeon that all open out the same place, an underground town of revenants that's going to be the homebase for the true adventure. Once two PCs enter through one path, the entrance closes up/collapses.

Question 1: Is that too hamfisted/fiat-ish? This group is pretty guilty of "Trust the portal!" mentality. If they're able to blast open/invest resources into opening a path back up, do I let them?

The paths are set to have varying difficulties, with The Path of the Innocent being comically easy (there's soft moss at the bottom of the pit that cushions your fall!) and the Path of the Beast being comically (I hope?) hard (There's a waterfall going down the pit that you're trying to grip onto during an earthquake). 2 PCs can go into each. The idea is that "time is sick" in the MegaDungeon right now, and it's because of these two mischievous demigods that recent earthquakes have woken up. So these four paths are magical reflections of each other, a theme I'm going to explore more in the longer dungeon that comes later.

The rooms that I have finished so far are:

The initial pits themselves (Strength saves and Acrobatics checks ahoy)
A quick combat built for 2 PCs varying from Easy to Deadly.


After that my ideas include:

A portal puzzle with some sort of riddlemaster in the middle of each (one legged blind kobold > winged kobold > dragonborn mage > dragon). (Oo, or maybe some sort of brain-worm going through metamorphosis to a big moth with book pages for wings?)
Some sort of complex trap, probably an infernal engine that the miniparties have to keep from exploding using skill checks.
Some kind of gemstone/matching puzzle. No idea what to do with this one, it's my weakest idea so far. Q 2: Any ideas what I could do with this idea/instead of this idea?


I like the idea of the paths being able to interact with each other along the way. For example, before the combat in Path of the Beast (the hardest path) that group will find an altar with blood on it and the names of the other three paths. Quick Religion check shows them that if they spill their own blood (let's say 5 HP worth?) they can teleport a monster from another path and add it to their own. The Path of the Auger (2nd easiest) will be able to swap the places of two other PCs after the Portal Puzzle room. The Path of the Innocent can send a Superior Healing Potion to one of the paths after solving the Infernal Engine Room. Path of the Sentinel (2nd hardest) can swap one of the PCs on their path with someone else on a different path.

I don't want the minidungeon/intro crawl to last for more than a session, so I'm thinking 4-5 rooms, only one of which is a fight, in total ending with a big combat where everyone's back together and squaring off against this necromancer who's trying to brainwash revenants right outside of the town they'll be staying in.

It's experimental and ambitious. DMs: What kind of steps would you take to make sure this is fun and stays organized? We play online, so I'm not too worried about saying "Okay you finished your combat, hang out for a bit while the other groups wrap up!" Players: What sort of encounters/challenges do you think would be cool/fun to see in varying levels of difficulty?

Thanks in advance everyone!

[Buttermilk]

Hey

I think the idea of the different path difficulties will be amusing. However, what most DMs (Including myself) will tell you is that splitting the party tends to make the game less fun for the party members. The problem is that there is only one DM and several players, so if you cannot be DMing to them as a group, the players who are waiting for their turn are going to be bored to death.

My advice for you, if you care to take it, is that you would need to make this dungeon enough fun that it counteracts the split party. The time in which each player is actually playing needs to be enough fun for them to wait for while the other players are playing. This would be really hard, although I don’t know how great of a DM you are. This idea definitely has potential, and you may be able to pull it off, but it may leave you with a bored and effectively uninterested party.

An alternative might be to have the PCs have to retrieve multiple items (Such as gems to open the door of the dungeon to escape) and go down each path. This would keep the fun dynamic and contrast of the paths, while allowing each player to experience each, and each player to be playing continuously. Also, the party may choose to split up to get the task done quicker, which they will only do if they are okay with waiting, at least so long as they’ve been playing the game for a bit. If not I would recommend you keep them away from splitting the party, which I do even with my very experienced party. Good luck, and remember to cater to the players.

Hope this helped, Matt

[MaxWilson]

I think the idea of the different path difficulties will be amusing. However, what most DMs (Including myself) will tell you is that splitting the party tends to make the game less fun for the party members. The problem is that there is only one DM and several players, so if you cannot be DMing to them as a group, the players who are waiting for their turn are going to be bored to death.

On the other hand, some of the best DMs will tell you that they love splitting the party because it enables advanced pacing techniques as you cut back and forth between the various parties. See e.g. http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/33791/roleplaying-games/the-art-of-pacing-part-5-advanced-techniques

You definitely need a plan first though for how you're going to manage things at the table, before you split the party. At minimum, read the linked article series and decide whether that's a technique you'd be interesting in learning.

[Beechgnome]

One way to split the party and have it work is to give the others players something to do or more specifically, monsters to control.

I ran a planar adventure where all four party members had to go through different planar portals then find a way back.

It could have been a pacing disaster. But I followed the advice on this board and came up with my own plan.

Each player had already created a back-up character, so when, say, player A's Halfling thief ended up in Mechanus, he met Player B's dwarf barbarian. Then I gave Player C and D the bad guy foils (A very rules-heavy paladin and wizard, in this case). Voila, instant adventure.

(For added fun, each original PC got sent to the plane representing the opposite of his or her alignment. So the thief went to Mechanus, the charlatan Bard ended up in Acheron, the gnome cleric went to Hell and the vengeance paladin went to Ysgard.) Everyone who didn't have PCs in each setting got to be bugbears, frost giants and devils. It was great fun. So maybe find something for the player's to do in a similar manner... Just make sure they understand that it's not PvP, they are just getting to play some good monsters for a bit.