How does your group determine the party leader?

It is only natural that a certain point a character who often is the most confident, has the most charisma (both with capital and not capital C), and displays an attitude to take responsibility for both the decisions the party takes and the consequences of those decisions, drifts toward a position of leadership because the others would rather ask their opinion or their approval rather than letting the crazed woods bitch, the spooky old man in red bathrobes or the shady sneaky rascal have a saying on serious matters.

I end up being the party leader because I'm the only one that knows the fucking rules, pays attention to the setting and sessions, and can actually converse like a regular human being. The rest of the party is just too autistic to handle the role.

When I play outside my group, I deliberately avoid taking a leadership position because I fucking HATE it and want someone else to do the work.

>leader
kek.

One of my friends has this super power called "not being retarded". he's usually in charge.

Sometimes he DMs instead. Usually ends bad.

Why wouldn't you have a party leader? You never get anything done if everyone just buggers off doing their own thing.

The one with the biggest weapon.

I always ended up being lead player in my old group cuz I was the dm's ride, so I was the only one there every session while the rest of the players would only show up sporadically.

I got so used to that I get bored nowadays whenever I'm not the one calling the shots. I joined a game over tts recently and its weird as fuck for me being the tagger along for once.

When I'm GMing, there's never really a party leader. PCs just take the lead when the situation is suited to their talents. Fancy ball? Listen to the noble. Trekking through the woods? Listen to the druid. Actually trying to establish a "leader" seems unnecessary and likely to cause player conflict. No one's playing to be bossed around.

I sometimes take a leader-ish role when I'm a player, just because I come up with plans quickly and am good at roleplaying with NPCs. But none of the other PCs ever have to listen to me; they can override me if they choose.

You don't need a leader to cooperate. I mean, maybe some people do, but I've never had a group where it was necessary.

In DnD the Rogue the Crowned Princess in disguise keeps forgeting the 'disguise' part and starts ordering us around. Otherwise the Paladin is, technically, the highest ranking member of our troop and so is the defacto leader.

In our older Pathfinder campaign it was the Cleric as the entire quest was theirs to start with.
The Druid, however, took over as shit started to hit the fan towards the end.

In Gamma World the Super-Genius Guide and the Self Important Alien constantly butted heads till the Guide was killed.
After that the Time Stranded Soldier smacked down the Alien and took over.
This was really the result of the Emotionally Manipulative Plant-Lady pulling their strings for some petty revenge as she was close friends with the Guide and saw the in-fighting as the primary contribution to her friend's death.
When all this came to light, she just got more overt about her actions and frankly we were all better off for it.
The Enslaved Crocodile Man and Killer Gynoid just wished everyone would just die so they could run free, leaving nothing but a blood-bath behind them.

My friends and I like actually roleplaying inter-party politics.
Hell, Gamma World ended up nothing but inter-party politics by the end.

We don't have a leader because we all understand what needs to be done. Everyone can play the face, we all understand how combat works, and we all get along. Having a leader or bickering over who is would just slow us down as a whole.

The closest thing we have to a leader is the mission giving NPC who also happens to sell us CAS and other goodies over the radio.

Given that I'm the only one who ever plays a 'take charge, kick ass' kind of character, everyone else just follows behind me. Happens consistently every game except for one, I think.

The player who's the best at leading makes characters who have a reason to lead.

I usually organically become team leader, as the rest of my group is very passive, and nothing gets done if I don't become the driving force.

It's kinda at the point where if I don't serve as a leader, things go haywire.

We rarely have any leader, and if do, it's mostly situational thing. Exept when our That Guy was promoted to leadership, but it was for one-shot game and keks.

It's always a fairly organic process, in my groups. We usually spend the first couple sessions sort of unsure as to the balance of power, so we mostly just work communally and take the lead of whomever is best suited to a given task. But after a couple sessions a dominant personality begins to emerge, and everyone rallies behind them if they're not a piece of shit.

Generally by character type. Competent and charismatic usually does the job.

My characters have been nudged into the position repeatedly for several years. It's only stopped recently, with another player trying out a more outgoing, charismatic character.

It's pretty great, really.

always the Diplomancer

either because he can diplomance, or because people fear that he can diplomance

we're probably not doing this right...

Never understood the need of a leader.
We do our own thing, we discuss, we cooperate.
When some schmuck try to make decision for the whole group without asking he get shot down.

I think having a "leader" is weird. Your character has values, desires. Why should he let someone decide for him?
If you say ok most of the time because the "leader" think like you, well, he's not really a leader. He doesn't make the call, you just don't disagree with him.

Depends on whose specialty is needed at the time.

Dealing with soldiers and such?
Send in the Fighter/Knight, as he's the one that can speak their language.

Dealing with the local thieves guild?
Send in the rogue, chances are he belongs to the guild or knows a guy in the guild anyways.

Dealing with the church?
Send in the cleric/paladin. No one else in the well versed enough in religious mumbo-jumbo to make heads or tails of what they're talking about.

Dealing with a Wizarding University or Guild?
Send in the Wizard. She's the one with the highest Int, so she'll know how to logic her way into getting us what we want and keep us from accidentally disrupting an experiment that could destroy the entire building.

Deal with Nobles?
Send in the bard. Chances are, he's either already the Queens/Duchesses/Countesses boy toy or will be by the end of the session anyways.

Currently? Me. The entire reason we're on a quest to slay a dragon is because I have beef with him.
In my other group there isn't one and it's terrible because everyone is doing there own thing and no one is doing anything about the edgy elven ranger and the 'lol random' wizard.

More or less how it happens in my groups.

Usually it's the talking guy, but I've had a few where a character with a really strong personality takes over instead.

It's pretty interesting seeing it happen, especially when the party is given equal attention.

I GM shadowrun and the party leader is our normal GM. Mostly because she is the only one of them that actually makes an effort of reading the rulebooks.

I drag everyone behind me because inevitably, I am the only one who made a character with actual drive, who doesn't either A) Look for the nearest tavern to whore and drink, or B) Look for the nearest tavern to brood incessantly.