Discord GM: How's this for a shake-up? Each of you are now on separate paths leading in different directions. All lead to the end, and some might converge. I want each of you to pick a room and wait for your turn of one-on-one roleplaying.
DM: Two-on-one.
Discord GM: Whatever. Let's get away from this table and get UP, get ACTIVE!
Rainbow Dash: Dibs on the entertainment room!
Twilight Sparkle: Can I stay here? I'd rather not move all these books.
Discord GM: That… works out perfectly.
Pinkie Pie: Guest bedroom!
Rarity: I'll wait in the dining room.
Applejack: Master bedroom for me!
Fluttershy: …I'm going to hide in the bathroom and you can talk to me through the door.
Discord GM: Aww, what are you so afraid of?
Fluttershy: EVERYTHING RIGHT NOW!!
If Fallout is Dragons is any indication, I'm a big fan of the one-on-one (or at least smaller-group) side session. Physical separation is along similar lines. You can get a lot more done when there are fewer people to interrupt, and, if both the GM and the player(s) are reasonably confident in their performance, you can have a real blast just acting at each other.
I agree, I do like smaller group or one-on-one sessions when you want to accomplish little side events. My online FOE game seems to embrace this during downtime at whatever town we happen to be at. It's great when your character has personal goals to accomplish outside the main narrative goals the team has set.
GM having to remind Discord she's going to be involved to...wondering if that's foreshadowing of how she'll try to get her game back when he goes too far.
Guest GM's jerk side is already showing. I can see this is going to end in hard feelings OoC.
In my experience, doing anything for only one player is a huge mistake unless you do it while everyone else is busy doing something else anyway. Private RP during normal session time leaves everyone feeling like they wasted most of the night waiting while someone else had fun.
Yeah, that's my feeling as well. It can be done well, but mostly if you schedule it between full group sessions so that people aren't spending most of their gaming evening faffing about doing anything but gaming.
From my experience, it will work out alright as long as you watch the time and keep these one-on-ones limited to just a few minutes. A good moment for them would be during a snack/meal break where everyone can rotate with the GM for their one-on-one and the other players can be filling their drinks, grabbing food, using the restroom (except the one Fluttershy's player called dibs on).
I'd argue that in small doses it can be a great experience. You can act in certain ways that you might not be able to when under a group scrutiny. Most of the girls (barring Fluttershy's player) seem into it (Twilight's maybe being a little inconvenienced).
I like how the GM is making sure that they're accompanying them to the microsessions so that the players feel safe when DM (Discord Manager)is around.
Keep it small & brief during group session. I often send notes (PMs, when running in text chat) to each player telling them what their character perceives about the scene that no one else does, prompting them to share the info. (If there's a puzzle, the important clues get split among at least two PCs this way.)
If you want to do extended 1-on-1s, side sessions outside of when everyone is gathered (and thus, the others aren't waiting on the scene) is the best time for this. Alternately, if life will be causing half or more but not all of your players to miss an upcoming game session, depending on where the narrative is that can be a good excuse for a side session with just those who are there. (In the game I am running now, we had two weeks where half the players would be absent one session and the other half the next. So I ran a session for each half, focusing on themes each half favored that the other half was not as engaged in, arranging the encounters to give the same XP.)
An example of what not to do: one of my GMs once split the party 3 ways just before running combat - 3 separate combats at once, one of which broke out the grappling rules that the GM then read up on and worked through at the table, sidelining (and mostly ignoring) everyone but himself and the 1 player involved for over an hour, within the first few sessions. (Predictably, the campaign went on to hemorrhage players before crashing to a halt.)
Another example of what not to do--the GM for a one-shot Shadowrun adventure had us split up to do some legwork for a job we picked up. He spent 40 minutes role-playing out the scene with the mage, having him interact, ask questions, and make several checks. When it then came to the rest of us, we each were allowed only one skill check and then just told what we find. No role-play, no followup questions... the team face didn't get much social interaction. That's sad! The session didn't last much longer past that incident.
If you're gonna split a team for one-on-ones, you gotta give everyone a fair share of the time.
Who to pick, who to pick.
Perfect way to choose.
Ennie menie minne mail.
Catch a pony by the tail.
If she hollows, string her up.
Ennie menie minne <b>you</b>.
Curiouser and curiouser... Now I am trying to come up with a way of how *I* would imitate Discord's Discording in-game for my players (and turning their PCs un-cooperative), *and* make it satisfying for the players.
The only similar example I remember, is when a PC got mind-enslaved by a dark wizard (or a vampire), and the player was instructed to subtly steer his party to the HQ of the Big Bad, so they could be captured.
End result: fellow players have a nice surprise when their friend's character KNEELS before the Big Bad and says "I have brought them here like you requested, Master."
Off-hand? Forced alignment change. The problem is if some of the players aren't into that, but so long as they are it works out OK.
Another possibility, however, is illusions. For instance, describing to the others what they're actually doing, but not to one player. Rarity for instance is told it's a diamond while the others are told it's a rock.
Of course, proper communication or a disbelieve can mess this up, so it's not exactly foolproof.
RD's not the only one who's section ain't quite right, if you look closely there's only actually 5 sections at the door, Fluttershy's somehow been thrown into a dead end somewhere along Pinkie's path...which wouldn't be a big deal, if not for the whole group first step...well, that and the fact that charging out 3 or so steps ahead of the group for that to work is more a Dash thing
Yep. Definitely. One-on-ones allow a lot more story flexibility and fun for everyone. Whether it's dealing with intrigue and personal goals or kidnapping a PC and turning 'em into a Macguffin for the rest of the party one-on-ones can allow for more diverse gameplay options. This becomes especially true when RL time restrictions come into play.
I want to say that one of the best moments in my FoE game was created from a one-on-one.