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So I turn to the GamerNation for help once more...

Well in my most recent session of Star Wars one of my players did what players do best: That is to say his actions split the party.

This character has many reasons why he wants to chase this bounty hunter:
- This Bounty Hunter has screwed around with the party on many occasions before (recurring villain)
- The Bounty Hunter killed one of his crew
- The last surviving member of the is pissy that they aren't chasing the bounty hunter and getting revenge

So last session, in a social encounter with the last surviving member, the character agreed and the two took the ship and left. I ran the rest of the adventure without him, obviously and said that I would try and sort this out next session because I do want to do it justice.

So I wanted to turn to the GamerNation about splitting the party and ideas with how to do this well... I have one PC by himself and I'm kind of against running an individual session with him because I know if I do the others won't give a damn about what happens in that session. So here's the challenge... how do I let this PC have his little solo moment but still keep it memorable/relevant to the other PCs as I do want them present for his little adventure, otherwise it'll be like it never happened.

P.S. my player trolls these forums, so if you're reading this Justin I'm getting ideas from people smarter than I... how I apply them, well that's up to me

TFR

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"Sometimes you just wanna hug people, you know?"

- The Fat Raconteur

You could always roll up some NPCs that will help the solo player, like members of a crew or some goons he hired to help him. You could also give the other PCs some of the Bounty Hunter's mooks to control. It will keep them entertained as your Solo PCs has a lot of fun finishing his quest.

I don't know if this strategy would work for you and your group, but when my parties have split in the past, I've made sure that something relevant to my other PCs' personal missions has come up with the split party member(s) to keep them interested in the action that they aren't technically "there" for. So, if one of your other characters has some past with, say, Nar Shadaa, and that's where your separated player has to head to track down this bounty hunter, that may keep your other players interested in the action even if they aren't part of it.

I would also suggest that you keep the split short and sweet. You can do this by allowing your separated character to accomplish his/her goal relatively quickly (maybe the bounty hunter never figured she'd get hunted herself and so isn't trying to cover up her trail), or perhaps more interestingly, you can take advantage of the force's tendency to facilitate crazy, random happenstances and have the bounty hunter just so happen to move in the same direction as the rest of your party, allowing them to hook up again shortly as the bounty hunter plotline runs parallel to whatever plotline the rest of the party is following.

Finally, in general, the way I try to keep party splits interesting is by making what appear to be separate plotlines dovetail in the end to a single, overarching plotline that brings the team back together. I probably do this to my players too much, but it doesn't seem particularly inconsistent with the way the force works in the movies (and at least here the force serves as a nice justificatory mechanism for why everything combines so nicely!).

Intersection. Run the solo mission before the party mission. But have the party happen to go to some of the places the solo went but after the fact. Have the players have to deal with some of the aftermath. if the solo player gets in a tussle with authorities or gets the ship impounded have authorities come question the others as known associates. If there was a shoot out in the streets have that the talk of the town.

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May your feet move faster than the thing that is chasing you.

The Sunrunner Legacy- a Star Wars Roleplaying Campaign

Thanks for the input guys!

One of the ideas I had was that the Bounty Hunter is planning something, some move against the party and it is in the players interest to run and warn the PCs of what's coming. Perhaps he has called in a squad of Bounty Hunting friends...

More ideas, more juice!

TFR

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"Sometimes you just wanna hug people, you know?"

- The Fat Raconteur

Okay seeing as how some Of your players may be trolling,
I can Only say to make both sides of the story effect the other in a way that the other side would at least like to listen too. And make it entertaining.

My 2nd idea is slightly kooky and off the wall especially in a d20 game. . . . Give your players some narrative control.


A la give each player not participating in the storyline a few points, they can then use those points to impose truths about the scene and or influence actions of npcs. If they want to alter something in a way you think is outside of that npc's nature or drastically alters a scene make them roll to do so and if they fail the point is lost and no change or possibly the opposite change occurs. . . . . Just an idea.

Also never forget find good places to cut a scene and switch between the sides of your split party during the session. That way no one has to sit inactive for too terribly long.

If you want more specific help pm me some details and I'd be more than willing.

Oooh I do like how the party can choose the decision of NPCs... maybe not the bounty hunter himself but perhaps his "team" or likewise...

I may take you up on your offer.

Cheers!

TFR

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"Sometimes you just wanna hug people, you know?"

- The Fat Raconteur

I came up with that little narrative style addition while thinking of a response for this thread and seeing as how I will probably end up having this exact problem when my group gets elbow deep in a campaign I may have to start a new thread so we can all workshop this.

And I agree the bbeg can and should be off limits.

Have you already chosen how to deal with the group split?

It's awfully easy to want to "railroad" the party back together. I mean you don't want to seemingly reward maverick behavior in a team setting, nor do you want to stifle role play and creative expression.

How do the players think the situation should be resolved?

What I meant by this terribly written post was that you, as a DM, should create a few NPCs to either help or harm the Mavrick PC. These extra characters should be run by your other players.

Obviously a Bounty Hunter is going to have a few allies, so roll up a few mooks for him. Give these mooks to the PCs to run.

Maybe the Mavrick PC hears about the Bounty Hunter hiring a some mooks, well why doesn't he hire a few goons of his own? Let these goons be operated by the PCs.

The best way to make splitting up the party interesting is ensuring everyone at the table has something to do other than passively watch.

While doing this though, don't neglect the other PCs' characters. They are just as important as the Maverick's Character. Continue their story on as normal, perhaps rolling up a droid or a temp hire for the Maverick PC, so he feels like he is still participating in the main group.

There are two ways you can go about a split like this: Do a one session adventure that shows the Maverick's story and a one session story that shows the other PC's story OR flip back and forth between the two stories over the course of multiple sessions. My personal preference is for the latter because everyone loves their own character most, so minimizing the time away from their characters is best. I wouldn't keep focus on one side or the other for much longer than 20 minutes or so. This works out well for your situation because the Maverick PC is most likely going to have to hit up multiple worlds to eventually catch up to the bounty hunter. Try and plan cool scenes for each planet that involve more than "I walk into the Cantina, roll a gather information check, and leave."

There were 2 things I really wanted to happen when I decided to split the party:

1) I get to suss out why Boba Fett was after Bind (the bounty hunter I wanted revenge against) which in some way could affect the other members of the party meaning I have to go back to them, and

2) In an encounter with Bind it is interrupted by Boba Fett whom also is after Bind, not necessarily allied with me, but after him for his own business so I get to live one of my biggest Star Wars fantasies of fighting alongside Boba Fett, even if Boba Fett tries to stop me from interfering.

Another thing I wanted to do was to lure Bind to my presence by putting a fake bounty for particular members in the party which he's taken a strong interest to, luring him to me and I go for the strike.

But I'm sure whatever you come up with I'll be happy with, just as long as I get to accomplish at least something from splitting the party, I don't want to come back to the rest of the guys for no reason.

JustinBoy24, welcome to the boards.
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Kessel Base, The Rebel Legion

"The bad guys hardly ever quote Star Wars."
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