You know the situation: the players have decided that splitting up is a good idea. Maybe they’re on a shopping trip, maybe they’re investigating a dungeon/mothership, maybe some of them were arrested.
What’s the best way to handle the situation outside of combat? How do you keep it interesting for the players, while moving the story forward?
Here’s a trick I saw on a let’s play a while back: have the players whose characters are not in the scene play NPCs.
How does it work? Do you have written briefing for every NPC? What about PC having secrets and agenda? I used NPC for guest players (You have to escorts an annoying merchant/prince•ss but they’llbe played by Billy•ie)
You can either give them unimportant npc, give them a brief beforehand or just let them go nuts and deal with consequences later (if you’re into letting players build the world). Which one you choose depends on your circumstances and especially your players