Split the group

[BraidsMamma]

Hi... I've thougt about an episode involving parts of the crew waking up in custody.. ometing like Detained, Bounty och The cutche... as the same time as one part of the crew plays their episode in prison then other part of the group is on the ship and tries to get ther friends back.... have you ever tried this kind of double plot nad how did you do it?
I've thougt about splitting the grour into two seperate groups playing the episode during different acatons and then bring them together to finish it with all of them together.
Have you ever tried this?
Excuse by bad english.. I'm VERY tired.

[Dan Stack]

For a while I tried physically separating the players but then I eventually decided I would just let them all sit together and "cut" back and forth between the two groups, trusting them not to let their knowledge dictate their actions. It generally works well and keeps the players interested.

[Roger Stenning]

I did just that a while back using another gaming system (and in another genre to boot). It was DAMNED hard work, and at the end of it, I felt like I'd had a workout with the Royal Marines tag wrestling team

Still, if you can pull it off, I hope you enjoy it - be warned, though: You'll need to be virtually a functional schizophrenic in order to do it

Have fun

[Owen E Oulton]

It's a gambit I've used on occassion, but then I have a good gaming group - as Dan points out, if your gaming group isn't up to the challenge it can be a disaster.

You'll have to make certain that the two sub-groups only pass information when they have an open comm-link. Ask that the players whose characters aren't currently in play step away from the table if they want to have a conversation or pass notes.

I find it helps to keep an eye on how long you go before switching focus. If you leave it too long, the other half of the group will get bored and fidgety. I find it helpful to change focus on a minor cliff hanger - the characters open the door to the alien complex's power plant and... you switch to the other half of the group. Of course, you do have to remember where you left off.

Since by design, half the group is just sitting there half the time, it's especially important to make sure you have plenty of snacks, to keep them busy stuffing their faces.

[KillerWhale]

I agree with Dan and Owen; I've done this on several occasions, especially in the 4 last episodes of our season (and campaign): switching focus is an excellent tool to keep the players interested - and if you're evil, you can switch focus just as the subgroup finds some important discovery or some disaster happens - that keeps them wanting more.

The real challenge is to get something to do for all players. Switching focus at the right moment is essential to that end. They can lose interest so you need to come back quickly with something new.

For that reason, in these sessions, I tend to allow player communication even if they have no comlink - players can exchange ideas, etc. That helps involving all players even if only a subgroup plays and helps keeping players interested. I also reason that PCs, if only for the accompanying crew, could have ideas the players might not have on their own; that simulates that "extra PC knowledge of the universe" the players may not have on their own (because, well, they live in our world )

[Tobian]

It depends on how seperated you want to make the groups. One of the nice things about trek is it's quite easy to spread people round the place and still have them freely communicating to one another, but then as with any genre, sometimes you want to seperate the group.

I ran a session a few years back where I (experimenting in of my earliest forays into GMing) had the players take part in a battle simulation, like theone in 'peak performance'. I had it take place in an old junk yard, where the players had to run round and collect parts and spares to fix up some beaten up old ships (and even some shenanigans beaming over and sabotaging each others ships!). I had to keep them in 2 totally seperate groups, mostly because of the tactics part and it ended up as a lot of fun, but it was a huge pain in the backside to run! if I'd had 2 GM's running it then it would have been fine, but just me, it proved to be too much of a problem and I haven't ried anything like that again!

Separating the groups for too long can be very frustrating for the players who aren't getting the attention at that point.. They chat, get loud annoying and it slows down both sides of the gameplay. Sending them into another room is only an option if you can.. and even then they just get bored.. in another room! We've found the longer players go without being 'entertained' the more disruptive and slower the game runs in general, however sometiems it is a neccessary evil for dramatic reasons.

One thing i did which worked well in the last adventure I wrote, where, playing at my friends house, I didn't have a 'spare room' to send people in: I made up a number of story cards, which dealt with what that player was seeing, so that the others wouldn't know what i'd said.. it worked quite well for dramatic set pieces, rather than just scribble out a note on the fly...then you can pass notes back and forth, if needed.. Ok so the other players know something is happening, but not what, and if they are mature enough they won't act on that information.

[Ineti]

Originally posted by Dan Stack
For a while I tried physically separating the players but then I eventually decided I would just let them all sit together and "cut" back and forth between the two groups, trusting them not to let their knowledge dictate their actions. It generally works well and keeps the players interested.

This is essentially my thoughts and experience as well. Physically separating the groups into separate rooms never worked for me; the group I wasn't with at the time tended to lose their game focus and it was often hard to get it back. Much easier to have everyone in the same room.

[redwood973]

We had a scheduling problem once. Few members of the group wanted to change the session to a different night, which the other half (and I) could not do. So, using ICONs' Planetary Adventures Vol. One: Ghosts of the Past, I ran half the group on our regular Saturday night while our co-narrator (which are nice to have by the way, lets me play every now and then ) ran the other half the night before.

The next week we wrapped it up, half the group at the dinning room table the other half at a sofa table in the basement family room. We (co-narrator and I) got together previously and compared notes to make sure we were on the same page previous to this. While the previous week we had to fudge contact with the other group, this second week members were using cell phones to contact the other group (unexpected, but cool).

It was fun, but I wouldn’t recommend doing it very much. A lot of work involved. Making sure both groups were engaged was a bit of an issue. In Ghosts of the Past the planet bound group is the focus of the adventure. So I had the shipboard group track down some engineering and power problems, and do some planetary survey stuff from orbit. They got into some of the good parts for their group, but they really didn’t get involved with the adventure until the next week.

There are one or two adventures out there that I have seen that would work well for a divided group. If I have time this weekend I will see if I can find them and direct everyone to them (unless anyone already has examples ready to suggest).

[T'lara]

Have done that more than once, that is a tactic I rarely have used. I even had 2 different game days when I did the split. I agree with everyone that it is hard work. I do not split my groups unless I have to. 3 times in 13 years of gaming. The other side should be able to sit in the room and hear what is going on and not go off on player knowledge. Then keep them in the same room. Also if your gaming place is big enough to seperate them if not you do not have a choice. Some like the split I know and some don't. I am a don't.

NOTE: I am probably just making a huge assumption so if I am wrong ignore this part please. If you are doing this because you have a Twink then I think yes you have to or slam the player down and tell them to grow up or find another way to deal with it. In my 13 years of Storytelling I have only had to do it 3 times because someone/or a group was twinking and not seperating player and character knowledge in situtations like that. If you have a twink put him in the captured group try neautrilizing him. Twinks give us all more work than what we need. Just way the Pro's and Con's.