And that's very understandable. The moment something jumps up from the bushes, its best if the fighter is right there and if the mage is far away and out of danger. It's even better if everyone can take an attack on the first round, killing it quickly.
However ... people do, occasionally, have to go to the bathroom. People get distracted as they journey along a road, they lose sight of the potential danger when mile after mile has to be trekked. Petty disputes arise between people, with sore feelings and a strong desire not to walk within fifty feet of each other. People have to stop and retie their packs, or sort through for some food. Mounts get stubborn and upset, and burrs have to be pulled out from under their saddles. There are a hundred ways in which a party gets split apart - in the real world, that is.
Take a hike with five or ten other people sometime, in the Rocky Mountains say (which are right by me). Warn them about bears and cougars, about watching their footing and about not wandering off the path ... and then set out through some dense bush for ten miles. See how long it takes for the group to drift apart.
I remember being nine, and being on just such a hike with one hundred other boys, as we walked down from the cub camp where we'd been, to the parking lot where the cars were. The whole walk was, I think, four miles. I can remember, at one point, being all by myself, with others behind me and others far ahead, too far away to be heard. I remember relishing that walk, all by myself, amid the mountains and the sounds of the forest.
But suggest to a party that they're too far apart to hear one another as they strike out in the wilderness, and they will soundly protest. I've had players protest against their characters going off to be alone behind a bush so they could pee. "I'm not shy," they'll say. "Manners were less important," they'll say. "Nobody cared about people shitting in front of them," they'll say.
It's that marvellous picture of the public toilets in Ostia, Rome, that is always used to prove the point. "If the Romans weren't shy, why would we be?" Well, how can you argue with that?
I have a rather funny image of player characters marching to the side of the road and standing in a circle while one has a really, really bad movement - protected, of course, in case anything attacks. Of course, depending on the quality of the last inn, it might be a really wide circle ...
If a party expects to stop as a group every time one member gets a stone in their shoe, or stops to remove snags from their sword scabbard, or thinks to dip their hand into the little stream dribbling from the nearby rocks, the party is going to move awfully slowly. What normally happens is that the point sets the pace, with others stopping, dealing with their particular issue and then running to catch up again. If, on the other hand, everyone stops, then there's no need to catch up to the pace, is there?
As far as the party refusing to walk together, on account of that tiff I mentioned earlier, well ... every party knows they never have arguments, right? No, they get along perfectly happily, never wanting to be more than five feet away from their good friends, practically clutching one another as they march down the road together.
There's no desire for most DMs to challenge that. By the principles the game is played by, we're not allowed to point at two of the party members and say, "You and you, you're angry at each other right now." There's no privilege for it. I might be able to make a point that when the thief and the monk have a moderate dispute at the table, their characters separate for a time - but frankly, I'm usually looking up things at that point and I've learned to tune out table disputes. If they go on past my needing to get ready, its a good opportunity to leave the room and pee. And no, not everyone comes with me ... but my residence isn't the wilderness, is it?
Whatever the reason, and whatever the argument, it is patently ridiculous for the party to think it can remain in the pictured formation above every minute of the day. The chance of them all being within 5' of each other at any given moment is pretty nigh zero. It is a point that will be disputed violently by players - until they understand it's normal - but a point worth the DM fighting for. Here's why:
It makes an ambush by the enemy effective. It makes the wilderness truly dangerous. It forces players to rely on their own abilities, and not on those of their companions. It provides opportunities for personal bravery. It creates greater moments of drama, as the players hear a scream, and then silence, from behind the rock where Bunkle the Dwarf went to shake his fig. The battles are fought more haphazardly, with the party not being able to rely on the same, boring tactics repeated over and over again. Depending on the environment, they have to improvise. Particularly when it's the thief, the mage and the bard trying to decide what to do about the fighter who just went around the corner ahead, and is now gone ...
Do not let your players push you around. The game is more than the world surrounding their 'perfect' order ... dismantle their order and watch your game get better.
