The Breakup Game – How Constant Splitting of the Party Can Lead to DM Burnout and What to Do About It

3 Wise DMs

Happy New Year! Just in time for our 2024 Season, Johnny at For Monster Kids has designed our newest logo, a beautiful homage to the legendary Dave Trampier… let us know what you think!

And for our first episode of 2024, we delve into a listener question regarding the players constantly Splitting the Party in their Curse of Strahd campaign and how that’s leading to DM Burnout. But, Splitting the Party is a gift to a DM, isn’t it? I mean, now you can really dial up the tension, right? In a dungeon, or a mansion, or a Keep, sure. But what about when the party is split up into three sections of the campaign world?!

In this episode, Tony, Chris, and Dave discuss strategies for dealing with players who constantly want to run, in essence, three separate games within a single session. Further, we delve again into the very real topic of DM Burnout and finish our Final Thoughts with some prescient wisdom from DM Thorin.

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1:25 Our shout out to Johnny Ott at For Monster Kids for our brand-new logo!

2:20 A listener question regarding the constant splitting of the party over the whole map is leading to DM burnout.

4:57 Splitting the Party leads to splitting the table into multiple 15-minute blocks. Is that fun?

6:10 It’s a Trap! The greatest Fantasy movies, novels, and TV series Split the Party but D&D is a game first and foremost.

12:50 D&D is a team sport.

13:45 A constantly split party? How running multiple side quest missions can help, if time permits. Also, have you Layeth the Smacketh Down, as The Rock would say?

16:00 Tying important details and clues to certain characters can entice the players to stick together.

18:20 The difference between being a player at the table and being an audience member.

19:40 Don’t even split up in Boston. Our experiences with Call of Cthulhu.

22:20 The power curve and the loss of fear in players. “We can take this!”

26:00 DM Burnout: The place where player agency and Expectations on your DM meet.

32:50 Putting it back to the players. Emotional Intelligence and Empathy at the table.

34:25 Encounter Charts that can warn players off certain plans.

35:45 Session Zeroes and consistent communication. Making sure everyone has the opportunity for fun, including the DM.

37:15 Things are going to happen: Strategies for dealing with side quests.

42:18 Final Thoughts, with a flashback to some prescient Final Thoughts wisdom from DM Thorin.