Made a Bad DM Call. Help to resolve?

[KOLE]

(Zak, I know you check the forums sometimes, so if you see this, please skip for spoiler reasons. This doesn't involve any problems I have with you or other players, just a screw up I made.)

Story time, oh boy.

I DM for a D&D 5e group. For four of the five PCs, it's their first ever time playing 5e, for one of them it's their first time playing tabletops at all. Today was our latest session and it went, well, really badly. It was a bad week for everyone, I could tell. Two players seemed exhausted. One of them, my close friend, I knew was having a tough week on top of other tough weeks, and wasn't feeling it. Our rookie player shut down when I asked her multiple times to please quiet down after she'd start OOC conversations with the group which started to go over five minutes each and completely stopped the game in its tracks. I tried to be polite, but she barely talked IC or OOC the rest of the session. All this strained the other player who has been trying really hard to get into Role Playing his character but kept getting shut down by everyone not being very responsive. I couldn't keep my NPC voices straight which just stifled the whole darn thing. It was a bad session. I'm trying to shake it off. But all this contributed to what I think is a big mistake on my part.

Two characters in the party are what my homebrew world call "Dragonkin", a Kobold and a Dragonborn. I won't bore you with the full details of the significance of this as that's not the point of the topic. But suffice to say, their kind is rarer in this world than your average D&D world and some major plot points hinge on both their characters and their race as a whole. Both me and the players have been having a great time exploring this, dealing with being singled out, being different, ominous prophecies about dragonkind, etc.

I'd been planning on introducing a plot point in this session where a very specific profile of victims were being kidnapped from a large town and the group needed to investigate. They knew the primary profile was girls age 11-12, but they were intended to find out through investigations that a large number of Dragonkin had been vanishing as well. So far, so good. Our Kobold player had an unavoidable conflict and could only play half the session. I couldn't leave the character out of the session because of a variety of reasons. So I had a brilliant idea that the group would discover the second kidnapped group when their own Kobold is taken about half way through the session. It seemed like a no brainer: easy explanation for a character absence, nice plot twist and real motivation to pursue the story to save a PC. Problem is, session was taking much longer than it should have, for the aforementioned reasons of everyone not really being on their game. Still decide to pull Kobold nap scene right before player has to leave. Make the situation avoidable to not remove player agency; give chances to escape grapples before being hauled off. Kobold rolls badly and is whisked away. Great!

The plan: The rest of the party find their friend missing, realize this is connected with mysterious kidnappings. Need to investigate quick! NPC Ranger gives assistance to initial tracking of kidnappers (this was actually unintentional- NPC has originally been meant to be a Spy, but found Scout just fit character better at last minute.) They have a head start! This should mean pretty quick for the PCs getting to the bottom of the mystery and sneaking/fighting their way into the underground layer where Kobold PC and other victims are being kept. Next session should pick up a little before or right when PCs rescue Kobold, so the player won't miss any play time! I is genius!

What happened: party finds Kobold missing. Ranger gives them the trail. Rest of party decides since Kobold Player left, we should call it a night. "What a great cliffhanger! Yay!" Want to push it but can tell players are already in bad shape and forcing them forward will only make things much, much worse.



The TL;DR Version: Meant to explain player missing later half of the session by his mysterious kidnapping to kick off plot point. Party instead calls it a night. Will have to play next session either ignoring Kobold for at least first half of session or switching between solo Kobold and rest of Party throughout the sesh and giving Kobold plot dumps and chances to escape. Neither of these seem like fun options for anyone involved. I, the DM, split the damn party. In a major way.

What do? Tips for resolving this? Tips for making a split party session not a pain in the rear end?

[Ornithologist]

Well, you could try having the party catch up to the kidnappers wn route, at the top of the session. It's a minor dues ex, but easily smoothed over. Remember what can move at the speed of plot. Worst case you could give him a quick solo bit to slow the group down, Merry and Pippen style.

[Shuruke]

As a DM your master of time and space

Maybe the place their being taken isn't far

Maybe it only happened short while ago


How I'd do this

Have kobold player say 3 separate skills they'd like to use to try to leave trail

Athletics to have signs of struggle

Deception to go limp n play dead then spring to life to leave tracks

Etc

Then do a skill challenge for the players at beginning of session letting kobold describe the scenes they come up to during the tracking
Granting advantage on ones kobold did well on
https://youtu.be/GvOeqDpkBm8

Above is a guy I like to watch hope it helps


Don't let it get to u
And don't be scared to apologize
Also during apology don't make excuses or justifications

In the end dnd is for fun
Every session say hello to everyone and have everyone say
"Lets have fun"
Because when you say it and remind yourself mentally to forget the stress and drama its easier

Not sure how long your sessions are but try having an intermission Every 2 hours for 15 mins

Do this before starting as well gives everyone time to settle and chat a little.

Try ending session with 15 minutes for chatting to.

It really helps those who want to talk and be social, and it also can help stop the side tracking with just small reminder of

We have the break After this combat
Or
Can you hold that till the intermission I want to give what your saying more of my attention but right now we are doing x

Don't be snooty just be friendly about it and remember

DND is for fun and meant to be a way for people to get together.

[Quertus]

The problem you asked about: have the player play the NPC Ranger. Done.

The problem you didn't ask about: why did you shut down OOC conversations? Now, if it wasn't game-related, that's one thing. But rookies should be ****ing *encouraged* to talk OOC about the game, not shut down for it.

Getting the other player to roleplay is another issue. IMO, the best answer under your control is a diverse array of NPCs to talk to. The other best answer is, well, a diverse array of PCs to talk to, and a reason to talk to them in character.

[geppetto]

The easiest answer would probably be to get the player to show up a half hour early and give his character a chance to escape. Then when everyone else comes they can be heading down the tracks looking for him and run across him heading back up their way. Its a little bit anti-climactic for the party but the kidnapped player gets back into the action quickly with a little scene where he got to be cool escape guy.

[Man_Over_Game]

There's a few decent ideas people brought up that you could mesh together. Rather than having the Kobold be out of the game for a long time, have him put up a fight during his kidnapping. He is a "hero" after all. Maybe the kidnappers didn't get far, and the Kobold is constantly keeping them distracted using a bunch of skills.

Have the Kobold make several Ability checks to slow down/distract the kidnappers, and maybe have the kidnappers also have some other problems that are preventing them from moving quickly (too many hostages, too much loot, lost a few men, they were drunk, etc) that allows the main party to catch up to the Kobold in the first moments of the new session. The better the Kobold does, the less time he's out of the group.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Maybe instead of having the thrust of the session being the PCs getting to the kobold, you make that part easy and then the challenge becomes getting out with him and the other victims. Like, a bit before the PCs arrive the kidnappers went out to take another target, leaving behind just like a token guard that the PCs can easily take out or maybe even the kobold can overcome on his own before they get there. But once they've gotten everyone free and such, the kidnappers return with their new hostage. Now the PCs have to fight their way through them to both save the new hostage and get out, but they're all grouped up again.

[Thinker]

I don't believe that it is a problem that you split the party. Switch back and forth between them until they meet up again.

[Man_Over_Game]

I don't believe that it is a problem that you split the party. Switch back and forth between them until they meet up again.

One particular problem is that splitting the party is pretty inefficient as far as who gets to play during the session.

If 1/4 players are split up into two groups (1/4 and 3/4), and you're bouncing between them:

When you're playing with the 1/4 group, 3 people are not playing.

When you're playing with the 3/4 group, 1 person is not playing.

Spending 5 minutes with the solo player results in the other 3 spending 5 minutes twiddling their thumbs. Or a total of 15 minutes of wasted time. Keeping the party together ensures that everyone is able to play at all times. For some, I feel like splitting the party is fine (especially with narrative-focused groups with a lot of spare time), but if a group only meets up once a month for 6 hours, they'd want to get to the good stuff as soon as possible.

[Thinker]

One particular problem is that splitting the party is pretty inefficient as far as who gets to play during the session.

If 1/4 players are split up into two groups (1/4 and 3/4), and you're bouncing between them:

When you're playing with the 1/4 group, 3 people are not playing.

When you're playing with the 3/4 group, 1 person is not playing.

Spending 5 minutes with the solo player results in the other 3 spending 5 minutes twiddling their thumbs. Or a total of 15 minutes of wasted time. Keeping the party together ensures that everyone is able to play at all times. For some, I feel like splitting the party is fine (especially with narrative-focused groups with a lot of spare time), but if a group only meets up once a month for 6 hours, they'd want to get to the good stuff as soon as possible.

I GM a weekly game that gets ~1.5 hours per week. That's about 6 hours per month, less greetings and farewells. We split the party on a semi-regular basis. In practice, the people who don't have the spotlight will chime in about the situation or will plan what they want to do when it comes back around to them. I rotate around after each challenge or important bit of content and it seems to work well.

[Man_Over_Game]

I GM a weekly game that gets ~1.5 hours per week. That's about 6 hours per month, less greetings and farewells. We split the party on a semi-regular basis. In practice, the people who don't have the spotlight will chime in about the situation or will plan what they want to do when it comes back around to them. I rotate around after each challenge or important bit of content and it seems to work well.

I guess I'm used to Shadowrun, which had several things that split the party up (hacking, scouting via the Astral Plane, and real-time all had different time rates and were treated separately) so I guess I have some bad experiences with splitting the party.

I like the concept, but I also hate making people wait.

[KillianHawkeye]

I would say you treat it like a TV show would, and employ a time skip.

The party kobold has been kidnapped, and a friendly tracker has already identified the trail. Great, now skip to them arriving at the kidnapper's lair. Having already snuck to or into the place, they can get into a quick fight to rescue their friend, and then the real challenge will be fighting their way out (possibly with other hostages) now that the base is on full alert.

[DMThac0]

First and foremost: When your next session begins address the previous one's shortcomings. Make it brief and concise, address the issues you feel you made mistakes on, and address the issues you want to improve on.

"Last session was kind of a flop. It seems we were all distracted and not fully invested in the session, it happens. I feel I came off as too harsh to you (player who shut down), I apologize. We're here to forget about the real world, just have fun and goof off. I just ask that we keep it to a minimum and try not to overshadow what's going on at the table."

I've said almost exactly that before, and it's helpful to everyone since it lets the table know you're aware. I'd also suggest getting everyone to the table about 30 min before you actually plan to play, this allows for that table talk while setting up. You just go about putting your maps, DM screen, dice, minis, and whatever other tools you use together and let them talk and settle in. This has been immensely helpful at my table since I have a bunch of energetic players who are very good at causing distractions.

---

As to the party split, take all the information you have been given and figure out what feels best for your story.

I enjoy using a split focus when the party separates, I use it to create tension with the narrative. Focus on the larger group first, give them all the details they need about the missing player, where they are, what's going on, what they've learned, etc. Then, as they start to formulate a course of action you say "and we'll get back to that", and start to give your other player his/her information. Give them information on how they're bound, how many kidnappers they see, what type of transportation is being used, the terrain, all the important information to allow them to formulate a plan. Then ask the kidnapped player what they want to do.

Give the kidnapped player time to try a couple ideas on how to escape, if they succeed all the better. After they try two or three things to escape, assuming they fail each one, explain how the kidnappers are reacting to the player. Explain what they are trying to do to subdue the character, what the attitude is like with the kidnappers, any visible results from the attempts. Then transition back to the other group, there should be no more than about 10 minutes max before this transition. Give the group about 10 minutes to act, find traces of the kidnappers or the escape attempts, etc.

The goal is to either have the group catch up to the kidnappers or have the kidnapped player return to the group in the first 30-45 minutes of the game. Switch between the groups at a moment of tension or uncertainty, this way they feel invested and impatient to get resolution. It's a very powerful tool to keep the players' attention on what's happening in the game.

[Velaryon]

I don't think the OP's mistake is as bad as it probably felt in the moment. The session was already headed south because everyone was already having a bad day, so they seized on an easy stopping point. I don't think it will be a problem next session.

The mistake, if there was one, wasn't in separating the party but in pushing forward with the game when the players weren't into it. It might have been better to just say "hey guys, it seems like no one's heart is in the game tonight. Why don't we just break out a board game and pick this up next time?" Most of us have been there before - it happens, and it's not necessarily a reflection on your game at all.

As for what to do about it next time, a lot of others have been giving good suggestions. Personally, I like the idea of having the kobold player start ~30 minutes earlier than the others, and having them either get out on their own or at least establish what's going on with them before having the others pick up the game. Then as long as the separation doesn't last too long, everything should be fine. If you need to have the kobold player involved before their character's rescue is completed, just let them play the NPC Ranger for a little while.