Heya, running my first campaign! I’m just starting to get the hang of things, and I’m wondering if it would be smart to add something like a ‘cutscene’ for the players—but not the characters. The idea I had is that after the session ended, there would be a scene showing the group of Bad Guys discussing their next move and what the world will be like once they start to change it. I want to be able to give more background info to the players, but not the characters, as this would just be me briefly talking w/o any character interaction. I trust them not to meta-game and use the knowledge to their advantage. Is this a smart or creative move, or should I refrain from doing it?
My general experience is that long periods of non-interactive exposition (whether they be cut scenes or anything else) are annoying for players, but brief scenes are fine.
Cut scenes are generally ok as long as they are short, serve a purpose, and do not take away player agency.
I am uncertain about giving away the plans of the bad guys.
It takes a bit of experience to keep what you know separate from what your PC knows.
If you really want to give them a hint, let them overhear somebody talking about the bad guys - bar maid, guards on a break, a thief that plans to break in..etc.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
If you’re going to do it, keep it really short. Most people (and I don’t know you, so maybe this doesn’t apply) are not as good writers as they think, nor as good actors as they think. Delivering an extended monologue, and keeping everyone’s interest, is especially difficult. But beyond that, I find many players will just kind of tune this stuff out. I often find, as a DM I am constantly reminding players “that’s what person A said three weeks ago when you talked to them.” Similarly, I find my DM reminding me of such things. This feels like adding on another layer of that kind of exposition that players often don’t track.
The questions comes down to, "how much exposition is too much exposition?" Simple cutscene exposition works best at the start of a campaign where you can just dump some lore on the players to get them situated in your world and to give them enough info to get the ball rolling. It's like priming the pump, so to speak. But once the campaign is underway you have to trust the players to guide the story. But there some ways to provide some hints and some nudges during play without just monologueing the plot outline.
So how do you provide cutscene info without doing a cutscene?
Let's say the bad guys are spying on the party. Don't use a cutscene, tell the player with the highest passive perception that they notice someone following them and eavesdropping on them. Let's say the bad guys have set up camp in a town, and they're planning to ambush the party when they arrive there. Rather than just say that, as the players are leaving the last town maybe they pass someone coming up the road. That person hails the party and says, "Say, you folks ain't heading over to Other Town, are you? Heads up, cuz a bunch of bandits have holed up there, makin' life hell and settin' traps everywhere. That's why I left." Exposition is always delivered better by an NPC than straight from the DM.
Or maybe you need a more creative method. My party doesn't have any smart characters. Highest Int is 12, no wizard, no bard, no sage. So the characters occasionally have dreams during long rests that contain some clues or insights into the overall plot. There is a logical source for these dreams, though the players haven't yet discovered it. And it forces the players to discuss these dreams in-player, which is always nice. Sometimes a dream is a premonition. Sometimes it's lore that won't be recognized as useful until later. I type the dreams ahead of time so I can send them as a text at the table without missing a beat. And they're short, just a paragraph or two, so that player won't be holding up the party to read it.
Look at the players and their backstories. Someone must have something in their character build that could grant them insight into the enemy's actions. Thieves guilds have spies that can share info with the rogue. Temples have divination spells to share info with the cleric. The druid might say, "A little birdy told me."
However you choose to do it, lore dumping is best done in-game, a little bit at a time, rather than above table in extensive monologues.
Heya, running my first campaign! I’m just starting to get the hang of things, and I’m wondering if it would be smart to add something like a ‘cutscene’ for the players—but not the characters. The idea I had is that after the session ended, there would be a scene showing the group of Bad Guys discussing their next move and what the world will be like once they start to change it. I want to be able to give more background info to the players, but not the characters, as this would just be me briefly talking w/o any character interaction. I trust them not to meta-game and use the knowledge to their advantage. Is this a smart or creative move, or should I refrain from doing it?
Some DMs do this kind of thing all the time, some don't. If you think it's what works for you and your group, give it a try.
pronouns: he/she/they
My general experience is that long periods of non-interactive exposition (whether they be cut scenes or anything else) are annoying for players, but brief scenes are fine.
Cut scenes are generally ok as long as they are short, serve a purpose, and do not take away player agency.
I am uncertain about giving away the plans of the bad guys.
It takes a bit of experience to keep what you know separate from what your PC knows.
If you really want to give them a hint, let them overhear somebody talking about the bad guys - bar maid, guards on a break, a thief that plans to break in..etc.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
If you’re going to do it, keep it really short. Most people (and I don’t know you, so maybe this doesn’t apply) are not as good writers as they think, nor as good actors as they think. Delivering an extended monologue, and keeping everyone’s interest, is especially difficult.
But beyond that, I find many players will just kind of tune this stuff out. I often find, as a DM I am constantly reminding players “that’s what person A said three weeks ago when you talked to them.” Similarly, I find my DM reminding me of such things. This feels like adding on another layer of that kind of exposition that players often don’t track.
I hope so! i was hoping to do one for an intro to my first one-shot
I do agree you should focus on the players, but hey, you are telling a story too.
The questions comes down to, "how much exposition is too much exposition?" Simple cutscene exposition works best at the start of a campaign where you can just dump some lore on the players to get them situated in your world and to give them enough info to get the ball rolling. It's like priming the pump, so to speak. But once the campaign is underway you have to trust the players to guide the story. But there some ways to provide some hints and some nudges during play without just monologueing the plot outline.
So how do you provide cutscene info without doing a cutscene?
Let's say the bad guys are spying on the party. Don't use a cutscene, tell the player with the highest passive perception that they notice someone following them and eavesdropping on them. Let's say the bad guys have set up camp in a town, and they're planning to ambush the party when they arrive there. Rather than just say that, as the players are leaving the last town maybe they pass someone coming up the road. That person hails the party and says, "Say, you folks ain't heading over to Other Town, are you? Heads up, cuz a bunch of bandits have holed up there, makin' life hell and settin' traps everywhere. That's why I left." Exposition is always delivered better by an NPC than straight from the DM.
Or maybe you need a more creative method. My party doesn't have any smart characters. Highest Int is 12, no wizard, no bard, no sage. So the characters occasionally have dreams during long rests that contain some clues or insights into the overall plot. There is a logical source for these dreams, though the players haven't yet discovered it. And it forces the players to discuss these dreams in-player, which is always nice. Sometimes a dream is a premonition. Sometimes it's lore that won't be recognized as useful until later. I type the dreams ahead of time so I can send them as a text at the table without missing a beat. And they're short, just a paragraph or two, so that player won't be holding up the party to read it.
Look at the players and their backstories. Someone must have something in their character build that could grant them insight into the enemy's actions. Thieves guilds have spies that can share info with the rogue. Temples have divination spells to share info with the cleric. The druid might say, "A little birdy told me."
However you choose to do it, lore dumping is best done in-game, a little bit at a time, rather than above table in extensive monologues.
Anzio Faro. Protector Aasimar light cleric. Lvl 18.
Viktor Gavriil. White dragonborn grave cleric. Lvl 20.
Ikram Sahir ibn-Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad. Brass dragonborn draconic sorcerer Lvl 9. Fire elemental devil.
Wrangler of cats.