Splitting a party through plot

[Railak]

So I'm planning a campaign, and part of it is going to completely split up the party, like each member is going to be teleported to completely different places on the map. They likely won't know exactly where they are so they can't just be like I'm just going to start walking back to "___" town and everyone else doing the exact same because one person says that's what they are doing, metagaming mainly. Obviously the campaign has them coming back together.

So is this a bad idea, or can this work?

[Kayblis]

It can be cool if you make it quick, and end it before it gets boring. The biggest problem with splitting the party is having most of the group sitting around doing nothing for 3 hours as you play the game with one or two people.

If you're playing online and have a lot of free time, you could split the party at the end of a session and spend the next week making small 1 on 1 sessions with the players, so no one is just leaving the game to go actually play something. It's harder to do and takes more time than a normal session, but it's one way to make this splitting work.

[TheStranger]

Seems challenging from a meta perspective - you’d be running a series of solo adventures for as long as the party is split while the other players just kind of hang out, and some amount of metagaming is inevitable. But if your players are cool with it or you run separate individual sessions (probably the best solution if you can do it), it could work I think. Unless half the party decides to go back to the last town while the other half decides to press on to the next one or something. That’s actually kind of a tricky problem unless the different locations are actually set up so that everybody gets funneled to the same spot.

The other main challenge is that some classes are more able than others to deal with challenges on their own. The Druid, for instance, can turn into an eagle and fly to wherever he wants to be while still being ready for any encounters along the way. Meanwhile, the Fighter, with no ranks in any relevant skill, is completely lost until an obvious combat encounter happens (hopefully against an opponent that’s easily killed without magic, though, and with a few serendipitous healing potions before the next encounter). But if you design encounters according to the capabilities of each PC, you can work around that to some extent.

[Railak]

Yeah.. that's definitely a way to make it work.. hopefully making sure the split happens near the end of a normal session.. all but two people I can easily do over the next week, the last two will likely be the hardest for the one on one, they're brothers who don't really go anywhere without each other, also they kinda can only do things on our normal session day..

[Toliudar]

As others have said, as long as you can wrap up the individual sessions quickly, it's not too bad. There are vast disparities between classes regarding how well they can deal with situations on their own, but as long as you're tailoring each PC's experiences to their abilities, it's certainly workable.

[Batcathat]

Besides what's already been mentioned, it's probably wise to keep an eye on the in-universe time difference. Even if the individual sessions are about the same length, how long it's for each character could vary, which might make it harder to "sync up" everyone. Of course, if you keep things vague enough you can probably "cheat" a little in this regard to make things flow better.

[Kelb_Panthera]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6y4XYxhA-o

That's directed at the party generally but that's, in no small part, because it's a PITA for DMs too. I would advise that you tread very carefully and have a plan to keep things moving and cycle between players quickly. It's very easy for a split party to quickly devolve into a bored and/ or dead party.

[King of Nowhere]

my party split of its own proposition several times to scout more quickly. it can be done, as long as people are on it. it helps if the group is well established and everyone is friendly, because then they won't get bored even if they have to sit out and spend most of the session not playing.

regarding class disparity, it depends much more on the specific build than on tier, and surprisingly often the weaker classes can shine. the thing is, casters need to spend resources at every encounter. they soon start losing tools. melee classes, if they put effort in good defence so they won't take too many hits, can often endure more encounters than casters. a caster, though, can often go full nova on a harder encounter that a fighter may not be able to solo. of course, shapechange changes this perspective. and a druid can easily sustain many fights.
anyway, the point is, consider your players actual abilities, not generic tier assumptions.

[Vaern]

If each player is going off on their own adventure, you might go out of your ways to play these segments in one-on-one sessions, perhaps even online via Discord or something whenever one of them has the free time to run through their part. This way you're not necessarily forced to rush to get to the next player who's waiting his turn across the table.

[Railak]

Well, we don't play online, we all meet in person. The only two with "limited" days they can attend are my cousins who are still in highschool. Two others I live with and can do sessions with them whenever.. and then my other friend has no issues with coming over just about any day to hang or whatever. Originally I hadn't thought about hosting separate sessions for people, but since that was suggested it is the way I believe it will work best.
And I have ideas on how to keep the wizard and the flying one from ignoring the story element of what I intend for them to do while separated.