Split up PC's

[Toboo]

So currently I'm running a lovecraftian GURPS campaign, all my PC's are realistic normal human beings,( for the most part) a crooked cop, a mob boss, a flapper girl, an up and coming black musician and a slightly paranoid paranormal investigator. A lot of these characters have little reason to work with each other, in fact, most of them have reasons to not want to be near some of the other characters, so what I have been doing is having them being split up in sessions, whether its alone or with a few other people, this creates mystery of some players knowing things others don't, I do plan to have times where they'll all be working together, but I definitely don't want it to be all the time. There's only one problem, a lot of the players are getting bored/irritated when they have to sit out during other people's sessions, any suggestions on how to solve this, making each session quick so the players don't get bored waiting, have some of the players put together small campaign for simpler RPG's they can play in the meantime like dungeons and dragons? There are probably a lot of GM's that are more experienced dealing with PC conflict than me so I would like to hear some good input.

[arconom]

Video Games.

[robkelk]

Originally Posted by arconom

Video Games.

Only useful if you have enough video games to go around and the people playing them aren't so loud that they interrupt the roleplayers.

Could the players whose characters aren't in the spotlight play some of the NPCs? That would keep the players involved, but some players aren't comfortable playing any character but their own.

[Aneirin]

It is difficult. Many see roleplaying as a group activity, and the group element has been removed. Some groups like this, it sounds like yours may not. Aside from scheduling one on one sessions for people, or buying compartmentalized mind so you can run three different games at once, people will be bored.

Could always look for reasons why they need to work together (though situations like this can be why its better to go over pc creation as a group)

If you invite all the players round and most of the time they are playing something else it could lead to the group drifting away (or worse, mire focused on what they have made leading to campaign death!) Spot lighting as npc's is possible...but needs trust that players won't meta game (especially if a npc has important knowledge, and if they don't they may be boring to the pc's as they aren't there character)
Going to quick may also leave everyone unsatisfied as they don't get enough spit light.

If you want to run the pc's seperately, only way I can see it working is running a different session for each pc and having a joint session when needed.

[Purple Haze]

Start a new game making sure the players create characters that want to stick together.

A party that splits in two more than briefly is a pain in face-to-face games. More or protracted splits quickly doom the game.

[Nymdok]

Im not a big fan of splitting the party, and I do it very rarely, but there are some things that can help ease it.

This isnt a stroy problem per se, its a player problem. The most important thing is that they have something to do.

Points - At the end of one parties 'set' Award a few CP. my players always LOVED anguishing over how they would spend their points.

Research - Give them something campaign relevant that they can read and discuss. Alot of gaming just isnt gaming. Its talking about whats going on in the game.

Zombie Dice/Car Wars - The great thing about Zombie Dice/Car Wars is that its small, requires virtually no room to play and the games are over quickly. They are also social enough that you dont loose players to the digital allure of the internet etc.

Go get lunch - Seems a cop out, but sending part of the aprty out for Grub to bring back is a useful way to get rid of them for a short time so you can work the other set.

These are short term solutions. Long term, just split the games up until the story reaches a place where you can bring them together.

Nymdok

[Mailanka]

Originally Posted by Toboo

So currently I'm running a lovecraftian GURPS campaign, all my PC's are realistic normal human beings,( for the most part) a crooked cop, a mob boss, a flapper girl, an up and coming black musician and a slightly paranoid paranormal investigator. A lot of these characters have little reason to work with each other, in fact, most of them have reasons to not want to be near some of the other characters, so what I have been doing is having them being split up in sessions, whether its alone or with a few other people, this creates mystery of some players knowing things others don't, I do plan to have times where they'll all be working together, but I definitely don't want it to be all the time. There's only one problem, a lot of the players are getting bored/irritated when they have to sit out during other people's sessions, any suggestions on how to solve this, making each session quick so the players don't get bored waiting, have some of the players put together small campaign for simpler RPG's they can play in the meantime like dungeons and dragons? There are probably a lot of GM's that are more experienced dealing with PC conflict than me so I would like to hear some good input.

For each session, note who will be playing. Send out an invitation to everyone, but note who will be playing and who will not, and for the latter, remark that attendance is optional, and that they'll just be watching.

Then run the session only for the pertinent players. Anyone else who comes knows they're coming as an audience, not as participants.

I do this when I run "downtime" sessions, or when I've split players up in such a way that they cannot meaningfully interact with one another (like in a recent session where the party split three ways to participate in three different battles).

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by robkelk

Could the players whose characters aren't in the spotlight play some of the NPCs? That would keep the players involved, but some players aren't comfortable playing any character but their own.

This works better if the NPC is a throw-away character, or an Ally, or otherwise doesn't have secrets from the players. I firmly believe all players should compartmentalize knowledge, but that doesn't change the fact that many people don't like Spoilers, and some people may honestly try to compartmentalize but just aren't very good at it.

That said, this is my favourite tactic in a combat scene because it has less risks than in a roleplay scene - giving away the enemies combat abilities usually isn't a big "spoiler", although you still have to watch that in a Horror game.

[Mark Skarr]

Well, it’s always going to happen. At some point part of the party will want to do A, and part will want to do B.

It’s really not that big a deal. Just make sure that everyone knows it’s going to happen. If it’s something that won’t take a long time we’ll pull someone off to “the room of DOOM” (aka my bedroom) and go through what happens in there.

Also, try to keep up with pacing. If each character is in their own area, let them go for a little while then change focus to another player. I like to do it when something interesting happens as it increases tension. Depending on your play schedule, you might want to focus on each, individual player for about 15 minutes or so, before moving on to the next one. Groups of characters get more time as there are more of them.

But, your ultimate goal is to get them all together so they can work as a group, for the most part.

As for firewalling, we have a few players who are really bad at it. The rest of the group is great, so we’ve begun making sure that the players with the problem don’t know what’s going on. They get upset, but it’s the only way to be sure.

Now, if they were metagaming to advance the plot instead of try to short-circuit it, we wouldn’t have a problem with it. Me, I actively look for ways to use my Player Knowledge to advance the plot, even if it puts my character at a disadvantage.

Me: “Yeah, I know that reading aloud from the book is going to be disastrous, but my character doesn’t, and, hey, it sounds like it would be fun!”

[Toboo]

Wow I didn't expect all these helpful answers so quickly. Just to clear things up them being split up, is my doing at this point due to the fact the It's a horror campaign, and it's hard get the feeling of horror when you got a team of 5 guys, now when were talking about a chubby black man and a 16 year old girl, that's a different story. One thing I'm thinking is having them play a simpler RPG(not hard to find an RPG simpler than GURPS) with a GM being rotated around as needed, the adventures would be nonsensical and the players would be ridiculous but it would just be a small thing to keep them interested, as well in the roleplaying/tabletop mood. I saw a free RPG by the name of Broken Urthe, it even has a big ruined city generator complete with the contents of every building and randomly generated loot and monsters, I was thinking I could let them romp around the city, possibly facing monsters so weak the players completely destroy it, or so powerful it would squash the players like bugs, kinda like a rougelike I guess, does anyone know if broken urthe is any good though.
EDIT: also when it comes to not having players not know things other players do, I don't enjoy that because I'm afraid of them meta gaming(because I know they won't) it's the effect it has on the players of them actually wondering in real life what the other players know that they don't.