Never Split the Party? Going Against Conventional Wisdom

The Parting of Lot and Abraham

"Never split the party!" A phrase bandied about so much that it now surrounds us in the form of algorithmically generated t-shirts and Facebook memes. It's good advice for roleplaying game neophytes. For a game master, running an RPG group is enough work as is and splitting the players up won't make thing easier.

I agree novice GMs should avoid splitting the party when possible. But what about those of us with a few more campaigns under our belts? Or a few dozen more? There are some stories you can only tell by letting the player characters walk their own paths, at least for a while.

I often see "Never split the party" framed solely in terms of combat. I suspect that has to do with Dungeons & Dragons dominating the medium. But that's not to say its exclusive to RPG's very own 800 pound gorilla. A recurring issue with Shadowrun is the "Pizza Problem," some variation of the idea that while Decker characters cavort in cyberspace,

Convergence - A Warhammer Fantasy Role Play: A Rough Night at the Three Feathers Review

 

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The tavern is such a staple of fantasy roleplaying games that starting a campaign in one is a cliche at this point. But well before that introduction outstayed its welcome, published material for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 1st edition featured inns and taverns prominently. It makes sense, considering WFRP has always been standard fantasy at its core, though the gothic and British punk influences - with a healthy dose of dark humor - distinguished it immediately.

A Rought Night at the Three Feathers covers all those bases, a Graeme Davis penned, seven page adventure published in White Dwarf issue 94 and later reprinted in Apocrypha Now and The Restless Dead. Broadly there are some similarities to Jim Bambra's Night of Blood, even down to the naming conventions. Sharing the same basic premise, the module saw the adventurers retiring for the night only to get far more than they bargained for.

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Night of Blood might have been relatively complex for its short length but A Rough Night at the Three Feathers is far more experimental, by Davis' own description. Though no mutants are on the characters' trail this time, the adventurers end up embroiled in a murder mystery, a noble's entourage, another visitor's extramarital affair, and of course, a Chaos cult.

Now where did my coin pouch go...

The scenario sports seven plotlines unfolding over the course of a single night, most with multiple personalities involved. A few can play out fully devoid of player involvement or the motives are left unknown to the players. 

Experimental is certainly the word for Rough Night, which more than lives up to its name with such a short page count and time frame. On its face it seems daunting to run. Admittedly I had to read it over four or five times before running it myself.

Despite what one might think, the short length is why this scenario works at all. Seven plotlines is a lot to keep track of, in part because they intersect so much. Rough Night even recommends dropping a few if needed. A longer page count would require too much back and forth,