Always Split the Party

“Never split the party” is player advice, not DM advice. In D&D and other party-focused fantasy adventure TTRPGs, the DM should always be trying to split the party. OK, not always. But more often than most people think.

For the players, it is a sound tactical rule of thumb. But players should also understand that splitting the party may allow them to accomplish something that is worth the risk.

Both players and DMs should understand that splitting the party – when adjudicated well – is fun.

It’s Actually Hard to Cut Too Fast

I believe many DMs assume that a sequence of actions should continue until they reach their natural conclusion. I’ve gradually come to the opposite conclusion; that the DM should cut as soon and as frequently as possible, as soon as the player(s) currently “on screen” provide an opportunity.

If there is an opportunity to cut from one group of characters to another, I take it, almost every time. Every time there is a die roll… or a player pauses for a moment to think about what they are going to do next… or I just need a few minutes to think about how to adjudicate something unusual… I ask myself, “is there any reason not to cut back to the other PC(s) right now?” When I started asking myself this question, and cutting much more frequently, it didn’t really feel any different than PCs taking turns in combat, which is a form of spotlight-sharing most players are comfortable with already. 

If you're not cutting between scenes at least this manically, you're going too slow; animation by Picassotrigger8

It’s also a good tool to remind players of the importance of time; a lot of party splits in my games occurred because players wanted to do A, B, and C in different locations, and I would tell them something like “you only have time for one of those things, unless you’re going to split up to get them all done.” I also use party separation as a common deal to offer players; “you can all try to flee together here, but it’s going to take a roll, and you may fail; alternately, you can flee without a roll, but you’re going to have to split up.”

Fast cutting doesn’t work all the time; when a player wants to get into a longer, more granular situation (like an important (but not dangerous) social interaction) I prefer that the whole group be there, because it can get really hard to find good places to cut. But it has been a great tool for me, and it really makes me appreciate the core conceit of the adventuring party, where even when PCs split, there’s a strong magnetism pulling them back together. I’ve played in some modern-setting RPGs that lack that presumption, and even though I’m usually interested in what the other players are up to, it's kinda brutal to sit through long stretches where my character is offscreen. I haven’t had that problem in party-oriented games.