Never Split the Party: Difference between revisions
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''Clerics in the back to keep those fighters hale and hearty,
''The wizard in the middle, where he can shed some light,
''And you never let that damn thief out of sight...''
|'''Emerald Rose''', "Never Split the Party"}}
The reverse of [[Let's Split Up, Gang!]], this is when the whole party decides that they aren't going to split up under any circumstances. Sometimes it can be taken to indicate at least a minimal level of [[Genre Savvy|genre savvyness]], for example, in situations where splitting up means that one group will later have to go find the other group. It may be achieved by telling [[Commander Contrarian]] or [[The So-Called Coward]], "[[Fine, You Can Just Wait Here Alone|Fine, you can just wait here alone.]]"
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This trope is ''extremely'' common in [[Tabletop Games]] and related media, where splitting up the party can make the game a headache to run. Almost always, a split of any length will result in some players sitting around doing nothing because their characters are not present, not to mention an overworked gamemaster trying to track and manage different locations at once. For this reason, tabletop groups often won't split up even when it would be tactically advisable to do so from an in-setting standpoint—or, indeed, when they have no logical reason to continue sticking together whatsoever.
{{examples}}
==
* Zigzagged in [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ekp92w8EbJ8 the launch trailer] for ''[[Enter the Gungeon]]''. The four Gungeoners clearly ''want'' to stay together, but the trap-laden Gungeon has other ideas. At least they manage to get back together - and pick up [[Guest Star Party Member|the Cultist]] on the way<ref>Enforcing this Trope, as the Cultist is only available in co-op mode</ref> - before the huge level Boss shows up...
* During the ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'' [[Hetalia Bloodbath 2010|Bloodbath 2010]], Iceland had a feeling that something bad was going to happen and pleaded with Turkey to stay with them as it would be the safest. Of course, [[Funny Background Event|in the background]], the rest of the Nordics got kidnapped while Iceland was talking.▼
== Anime and Manga ==
▲* During the ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'' [[Hetalia Bloodbath 2010|Bloodbath 2010]], Iceland had a feeling that something bad was going to happen and pleaded with Turkey to stay with them as it would be the safest. Of course, [[Funny Background Event|in the background]], the rest of the Nordics got kidnapped while Iceland was talking.
==
* ''[[Knights of the Dinner Table]]'' has used this exact phrase occasionally, the most memorable being when they discussed ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' movies.
** The ''[[Dungeons
* One of the early [[DC Comics]] for ''[[Scooby Doo]]'' had a fictional story about aliens transforming into humans. This causes tension within the Mystery Inc. when Fred orders a split up. For once, they '''don't''' split up {{spoiler|As usual for the [[Scooby Doo]] and his friends, the aliens are fake.}}
== Fan
* This occurs for an extremely brief time in a [[Halloween Episode]] of [[Script Fic]] ''[[Calvin and Hobbes:
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== Films -- Live-Action ==
* In ''[[Horror Express]]'' the two British scientists ([[Peter Cushing]] and [[Christopher Lee]]) on a Trans-Siberian Express train tell everyone to stay in pairs for protection against whoever the film's monster has possessed.
* In ''[[Anaconda|Anacondas: Hunt for the Blood Orchid]]'', the boat guide, Bill, instructed the pharmaceutical scientists to NEVER separate from the group.
* The heroes eventually learn to stay together in ''[[Alien]]'' (Brett and Dallas both do so and they end up dying), so they have Parker and Lambert go together to collect oxygen tanks. Unfortunately, they still end up dying. Parker decides to attack the alien with a hook (which results in the alien easily overpowering him) and Lambert freezes up in terror (which makes her easy pickings for the Xenomorph).
== Live-Action TV ==
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'''Boy:''' No, we're staying together. Now come on. }}
* ''[[Red Dwarf]]'': "What the rush? You got some urgent dinner appointment you have to get to?"
* ''[[The Walking Dead (TV series)|The Walking Dead]]'': The protagonists fall victim to this trope after the Governor ruins their safe haven (a prison) and they are forced to evacuate. For example, Rick encounters a group of hostile survivors that rape women. Lizzie also kills her own sister. Glenn manages to escape the prison by himself, thank goodness (until he finds Tara, a survivor of the Governor's group anyway, after which they become a duo), but Beth is kidnapped by another group of survivors.
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* [[YouTube]] has several music videos of a song by Emerald Rose called [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waa2ucfgVgQ "Never Split the Party."]
{{quote|''Don't you know? You never split the party!
''Clerics in the back to keep those fighters hale and hearty,
''The wizard in the middle, where he can shed some light,
''And you never let that damn thief out of sight...'' }}
== Tabletop Games ==
* The trope gets its name from a joke amongst [[Tabletop Games|tabletop role-players]]:
{{quote|'''Q:''' How many ''[[Call of Cthulhu (tabletop game)|Call of Cthulhu]]'' players [[Light Bulb Joke|does it take to change a light bulb]]?
'''A:''' All of them. '''Never Split the Party!''' }}
* In more dungeon-crawly games, splitting the party screws with the [[Game Master]]'s balance (i.e. two [[Player Characters]] stumbling into a fight tuned for five). Plus nothing spells headaches like a GM trying to run two games at the same time, one on each half of the table. The inverse, [[Let's Split Up, Gang!]], is lampshaded in many RPG groups as "... we can ''take'' more damage that way."
* Wizards of the Coast (the publishers of ''[[Dungeons
* Most ''[[White Wolf]]'' STs in any kind of hacky-slashy situation will cackle with glee if the party is split up simply because they know that they will be eating character sheets for dinner when the PCs split up in a combat situation.
** The exception is those running ''[[Trinity Universe (game)|Adventure!]]'' who ''love'' it when the party splits up, because dramatic editing rules assure that the split party will rejoin up at exactly the right moment. Chase scene? A car with the rest of the party comes flying out of a side street, sideswipes one of the pursuing cars, and open up tommy-guns on the others. Fight scene? They swing in on a chandelier with sabres! Shoot out? One of the masked gun-men ''is'' the absent member of the party, and the moment the major villain unmasks himself, so too will the "henchman".
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* ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'' averts this in most cases, only allowing you to have between one and three of your party members (your party can reach nine or ten characters in the first game and eleven in the second) in play at a time, but it doesn't let you transition to the next area unless your three party members are close enough to the transition point.
* ''[[Baldur's Gate]]'': [[Most Annoying Sound|You must gather your party before venturing forth.]]
* Most multi-player [[Beat'Em Up]] games rigidly enforce this trope. ''Ultimate Alliance'' and ''[[X
* In the first ''[[Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles]]'' game, no matter where the players go, the camera stays with the party's chalice, a magical device that dispels the [[Deadly Gas|miasma]] that covers the world. There's nothing preventing any of the players from wandering offscreen, but they will die within a few seconds without the chalice's protection, forcing the party to stay together.
** If your character dies and becomes a ghost, however, being already dead, you can wander wherever you damn well please. Not that you'll be able to see where you're going if you're not the one with the map, though.
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== [[Web Comics]] ==
* The perils of this are a major theme of a
* In strip [http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0436.html #436] of ''[[Darths and Droids]]'', the players manage, somehow, to fail at this completely and get split into four groups, despite the fact that they only have three players present.
* ''[[Penny Arcade]]'' highlights the concept in their ''[http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2011/11/28 Conflux]'' arc, noting that game masters will [[Divide and Conquer|often split the players' party]]. [[Large Ham|Tycho]] notes that they can instead force the players [[The Chessmaster|to split ''their own'' party]].
* In ''
== Web Original ==
* Referenced in [[The Spoony Experiment|Spoony's]] riffing of the ''[[Dungeons
** Also mentioned by him when reviewing [[Mazes and Monsters]], when the party, surprisingly enough, decides to split, he repeatedly chants 'don't split the party.' Naturally, something bad happens to the characters shortly thereafter.
* Several stories of the [[Whateley Universe]] have this, usually in Team Tactics class. Caitlin's biggest gripe with the other teams is splitting up, it gets to the point that when Team Kimba choose names for their tactics, splitting up and tackling tasks separately is deemed 'the anti-Caitlin'.
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* ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]''
** Beast Boy turns into an octopus and grabs everybody before they split up. He then explains the trope to the team, adding the bit where the funny guy (and strangely [[Black Dude Dies First|not the black guy]]) goes first. He's right.
{{quote|'''Beast Boy:''' Split up? Split up?! [[Genre Savvy|Did you not
** Not to mention that, being a kids' show and trying to get kids to work together, many episodes rely mainly on the fact that, without all five members, the rest of the team can't beat the bad guy. A few of the many examples include "Final Exam" (Robin), "Divide and Conquer" (Cyborg) and "Every Dog Has His Day" (Beast Boy).
* Also a frequent issue in ''[[Captain Planet]]''. By now the kids should ''know'' that they'll need the Captain eventually, and all five of them must be together to summon him. Doesn't stop them from splitting up to try to save the day with their individual powers.
* In ''[[Yin Yang Yo!|Yin Yang Yo]]'', the heroes were transported into an old horror movie. When Yo sugests spliting up, Yang points out why that's a bad idea by telling a random dude from the movie 'We have to split up!' The random dude agrees, runs off-screen, and is horribly killed, thus proving Yang's point.
* ''[[Johnny Bravo]]'' [[Dumbass Has a Point|of all people invokes this]] during a crossover with [[Scooby
{{quote|'''Johnny:''' ''(to Freddy)'' There's a monster out there and you want us to ''split up?!''}}
:: The crossover also references the old joke theory that Fred always went with Daphne because they were off making out while Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby did all the work.
* Actually used in ''[[Scooby
* The ''[[A Pup Named Scooby-Doo]]'' episode "Dog Gone Scooby" has the group stick together for once while they search for Scooby who ran away. It helps that whenever Shaggy would hear Scooby's name, he's start crying.
* Attempted in ''[[My Little Pony:
== Real Life ==
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[[Category:Narrative Devices]]
[[Category:Team Shuffle Tropes]]
[[Category:
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