Quote from: RPGPundit;540647It still doesn't solve your bigger problem: what have you done wrong that has made one player the "Star" in the first place, to the point that this player and this player alone is indispensable to your game?

That's a mistake, bub.

RPGPundit

That's right. Ergo, don't plot your games.

Quote from: RPGPundit;540647It still doesn't solve your bigger problem: what have you done wrong that has made one player the "Star" in the first place, to the point that this player and this player alone is indispensable to your game?

That's a mistake, bub.

I didn't really "do" anything. The player just happens to be among the most proactive and is playing one of the most iconic characters. He's not indispensable, exactly, except that the game just wouldn't be the same without him.

Quote from: Benoist;540658That's right. Ergo, don't plot your games.

I don't. I come up with a general outline, then wing it.

I understand having a personality be the most proactive and thus ending up with a sort of table dominance. The quickest way to manage that is, depending on context, have that character become involved in "a personal matter" and place them on their own Now Loading screen. The challenge is to motivate the rest of the players to do something proactive to engage with the world without that someone who normally runs point.

For example, you can say the party 'leader' finds themselves indisposed and must travel alone on a personal matter/quest. If the rest of the group insists on helping, have that PC just disappear one night of rest as if they decided to go on their own, and just radically up the tracking difficulty to find them again. Then run the game as normal, and hopefully the rest of the group has something they've been putting off that they want to now catch up on.

Keep track of you in-game calendar. When that lead player wants to come back in, see if you can do some solo sessions with them. If you want to have some fun, you can let some party members try out a new PC concept they've been fleshing out in the wings as a temporary ally. If you find the solo games still leave a discrepancy between your main table in-game calendar, and your sabbatical PC's in-game calendar, you have several options to remerge.

At this point I tend to favor running the groups separately with leaving a note or rumor about the whereabouts and status of the other group. That way the lead PC can choose to continue their quest and send a message to the main party, and vice versa -- thus no obligation on either part to rejoin together as a party. Basically let the players decide whether or not to regroup, and if so which quest to put on hiatus. The most exciting part of this is sometimes both will put things on hold and try to meet up in the center -- and it's even more fun if the messengers between get lost or confused. Sometimes this ends up as an additional quest altogether! Sometimes the advantages of separation and distance is creative chaos, helping players make the game even more immersive/dynamic!