The player controls Alice. Beth, Charles and Doug are employees on patrol with Alice. Alice and team come to a four way intersection, and Alice realizes that the squad needs to spread out. As they don’t want to get too spread out, using an abundance of caution, they split into two groups. Alice and Beth go left while Charles and Doug head straight based on the right hand path being the least interesting.
Charles, being fairly intelligent for the trumped up lackey he is, less himself and Doug on a quick jaunt down the path. At the end of the alley, once they’re out of immediate range of Alice, they’re set upon by half a dozen blackguards of a truly mean nature. At the very beginning of the fight, Doug had his head staved in, which inspired Charles to fight with the rage of a thousand reindeer. After repelling his attackers, he checks Doug to find his skull a sunken mess. The trauma he just observed causes him to panic and try to find Alice, jumping at shadows all the way.
Alice and Beth also meet with assailants, but suffer no injury.
Charles hears the fight and moves to join in. He comes around the corner and encounters two of the enemy rushing at him. He fires his pistol, laying low Beth.
His trauma had caused him to mistake friend for foe.
When the team separated, the player was still controlling both groups. The challenge is that the non-players might be lazy, scared, hallucinating, or just dicks. A lazy npc will walk slower or not notice important items. Fearful actors might get turned around or jump at shadows. Hallucination will lead to all sorts of comedy. The dickish might get seperated from people they don’t like, shoot at friendlies, or sell out their companions.
At all points, as long as an actor has companions in line-of-sight, their will be a master and slave. The player themselves have mostly perfect control, within reason, however even then the actors will use common sense to prevent their vainglorious death. Unless it would make sense, no actor will volunteer to catch a bullet for another.
Peter's stuff.