Splitting the Party 4.0

[HMS Invincible]

How often do you guys split the party up by taking half the party down one way and taking the other half the other way? The most I've ever done was letting the rogue or ranger go on ahead to scout out while the party waited around. Is there a good way to handle this without bogging down the game?

[ZeroNumerous]

Yes, the easiest way to handle it is to simply never split the party.

[Mando Knight]

The first rule of adventuring: never split the party. It even said so on the WotC site while they were touting 4E MM2.

If your party insists on doing so, however, I would suggest putting the leader and the defender in separate groups if the defender has methods of regaining HP, since defenders are the nice piece of juicy flesh standing between the mages and certain death, and the leaders tend to be secondary defenders.

[SSGoW]

if they split up for to long you should physically split up the group so they dont know what the other group is doing either by going to another room or setting up a time for each group to play (different days) but this would only work if they are split up for longer than a few rounds of course

[Thane of Fife]

As Mando Knight said, Never Split the Party. Now watch that until it's drilled into your head.

But in my, admittedly non-4e, games, I usually tried to split the players up for any significant party splitting. Access to a Gaming Console can make this more bearable for the players.

[Ninetail]

It's really not a good idea. Not only do you have one group of players bored and out of the game, not only do you as the GM have to split your attention and keep track of two different timelines, but with 4e's increased focus on teamwork, if it comes to a fight, a split party is probably toast.

If one player insists on going off on his own, deal with the majority of the party first and Mr. Lone Wolf as you have time. Give the majority of the party the majority of the attention.

If half the group insists on splitting up, well, then you've got a problem.

I usually ask my players out-of-game before starting a campaign to try to stick together as a group, so that everyone stays involved in the game (and so my work is easier). I'd suggest talking to your players out of game, first, if they keep splitting up.

If they insist on splitting up even so, it's up to them. I have no compunctions about any character deaths that may result.

[Elixia]

thats about as much as we do too, me (rogue) and the ranger so scout, take a head count then come back with a plan. by that time the half orc fighter i normally rat-arsed.

but out of game it doesn't effect the game that much, the fighter and cleric tend to rp among themselves when we go scouting and if combat breaks out, were normally in ear shot to get theyre attention

[Cyrion]

What they said- try to get the party not to split up for any significant period of time.

It's kind a self-reinforcing thing- every time they split up for a significant period of time and you have to deal with one group the other gets bored. When you spend time with the bored group to catch them up, the first group gets bored. Do that a couple of times, and they'll police themselves out of boredom.

If that doesn't work, either spend short amounts of time with each group so that while you try to keep each involved. If you're going to have to spend a large chunk of time with either or both, send one group out to get the pizza so they've got something to do and find something else for the other group to do while you catch up with the pizza group.

[Decoy Lockbox]

My gurps S-files games uses two DMs to facilitate splitting the party up. After all, its so much more suspenseful when each side thinks the other is in danger, but doesn't know where or what.

My D&D group has these two ground rules:
No Scooby-Doo
No Rambo