Standing at a Crossroads

Ideally, every player wants to represent their character as a whole person, one with their own goals and motivations. But what does a GM do when those goals and motivations begin to diverge?

The first thing to do is to try and understand why the party's goals are seeming to diverge. If you are lucky, it is only an issue of appearances and the problem is just that the characters have slightly different focuses within the events that are taking place. If this is the case, there is very little that needs to be done, as the party's aim are really the same for different reasons. Example: Some members of the party are interested in performing good deeds, and others are focused on making money and setting themselves up in a position of power. Depending on the campaign these are still goals that can cause the party to work together, with minimal effort on the part of the GM.

The second most tenable set of events is that the different characters are finding things that interest them, things that they want to investigate further. Theoretically, this should be the standard. You want your players to be independent thinkers, who will use their characters to help flesh out the parts of the world that are interesting to them. In the case the GM should aim to try and give each character the spotlight time they need to investigate whatever it is that is drawing their interest, and ideally connect it to any ongoing plot where capable. Example: While in a dungeon to save a princess, one of the characters notices some ancient carvings depicting a lost civilization. That character becomes interested in discovering artifacts of that civilization. This can easily be accomplished and even used in the main plot as the enemies of the PCs find themselves holding up in ancient ruins, allowing the players to combat their foes while uncovering archaeological treasures.

The problem comes when the goals and motivations of the party begin to oppose one another. This can happen for a number of reasons, some good, some bad. In the best case scenario, the characters are simply evolving and that is causing friction or causing them to grow apart. In the worst case, it can be caused by jealousy among the players (usually a problem if your plots always tend to revolve around one player), or some other out of game issue. The responsibility of the GM in this case is to attempt to rectify the issue between the two players, so that it doesn't continue to negatively effect the game.

But what do you do when the characters are simply beginning to grow apart? This is a very difficult question, and an issue that can easily bring the campaign to a screeching halt. First what is often helpful is talking to each player individually, and finding out what the motivations of their character is, and where they see that taking the campaign. Once you have done this, it is likely that you will see how the group is diverging. If it is simply one or two characters that are having an issue with their motivations, it might still be possible to reconnect their interests into the campaign. This is one reason why it is an awful idea to play too far into the future, a GM should be able to react to changing interests of his players.

However, sometimes you will see a problem that is too big for the GM to solve, such as if the entire party is moving towards some action that one character is completely against. This tends to be a much bigger problem. For the most part, I like to let character to character conflicts resolve themselves, as it can lead to some very interesting roleplaying. But sometimes the issue is unable to be resolved through roleplaying, and the GM needs to be willing to step in and do what is needed to keep the game going. Most of the time, it will only take a talk from the GM to show the players how much of a problem their conflict is. Sometimes, it takes more drastic steps. If a problem is unable to be resolved the GM needs to be able to ask a character or (in the absolute worst case) a player to leave the campaign. This is the biggest call a GM can make, and one that is not to be made lightly. But a true GM recognizes that their first priority is to the game, and making sure that everyone has a good time, and in the immortal words of Mr. Spock, "The needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few."

The last, and frankly most difficult, issue to solve is when the party splits equally, and is unable to be reconciled. Which group does the story follow? Making this sort of decision is going to differ from GM to GM, but there are a few things to consider. First, ask yourself which of the stories are you, as the GM, most interested in? If you are not interested in the story, it will go no where, so you have to be on board with whatever choice is made. Secondly, is the group splitting because you have given an unfair amount of screen time to certain players? If so, it might be best to have the story follow the less exposed members of the group, to give them even time in the spotlight. And lastly, are both directions capable of accepting new characters in their storyline. This is important because if you make a decision, the players whose characters leave will need to be able to bring in new characters, and if the aim of the story is going to make that difficult to impossible, then that is something that you need to consider.

Splitting the party, and/or having to put aside an ongoing story is never an easy task for a GM, but it is much easier that having to rebuild a gaming group that is torn apart by dissension and boredom. It is the GMs responsibility to recognize the signs of problems with the group, players and characters alike, and to be able to make the necessary choice once the group does come to that crossroad.