I'm going to be starting a homebrew soon and I never tried this before; communicating information to only one player in the party. Let's say a player has a dream. Only they know what they dreamed. I want to give them the essence of the dream and let them decide if they will share none of it, some of it, a different version of it or all of it with the rest of the party. I plan to write the information on an index card and just hand it to them.
In another instance the party is split up. One player notices something in the town as he wanders around looking for a shop. I plan to write it on an index card and give it to him only.
In another instance the party enters a dungeon room. I plan to give each player an index card with something they notice right away. At least once I plan to count to ten and if they don't do anything I will bust in on them with the bad guys. One of the players, on their card will have a clue that they are about to be jumped. Did they share their clue in time? Or is the whole party surprised? Or did he at least draw a weapon and turn to face the right direction?
I think this could create some interesting inter-character play and I will get to sit back and watch.
I do this relatively frequently. For example, I give notes to folks that cast "detect magic". I may give other notes to those that have magic weapons that communicate with them. Lastly, (though this is not in order), I often hand a player a note if their character notices something that others don't. This gives those players a choice, which I think is important, of relaying, not relaying, or "adjusting" the information.
I disagree some with your third paragraph, not with the premise that some characters have different information than others, but that this is fun. If you have a limited amount of time to play per week/2 weeks/month -- do you want to spend a lot of that time writing notes? I recommend doing this for "important" things. then for less important things, just tell the player (and everyone else can "close their ears") as it were. You can't have a complete pattern though, as in "everytime Jane gets handed a note, she has detected an attack" kind of thing however.
TLDR: some amount of notes, that are important are useful. Don't take it to the logical extreme of notating everything.
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"An' things ha' come to a pretty pass, ye ken, if people are going to leave stuff like that aroound where innocent people could accidentally smash the door doon and lever the bars aside and take the big chain off'f the cupboard and pick the lock and drink it!"
You shouldn't have to create a whole reel of index cards, your players should be able to play to the narrative you're putting across. Don't go too overboard with handing out notes, otherwise you'll risk breaking immersion for the whole group as every so often they'll all have to stop whilst someone reads their latest index card.
Are your players meta-gamers? If you're telling Player X that they wake up to see an orc baring down on them with an axe, does Player Y, whose character is fishing for breakfast outside, say "For no reason I draw my sword and run back to the camp." I don't think notes are the solution, you just need to be strict as the DM and stamp that behavior out. If however you tell Player X there's an orc about to brain them whilst they sleep, roll initiative and then you move the narrative over to Player Y and they say, "I cast my line and take in the cool morning breeze. Life is good today.", you have a tense moment for the whole table unfolding! No notes are really needed here, and you're engaging all of the players despite their characters being in different situations.
I do use notes in my sessions though, it can be a really good way to add some intrigue. LMOP has a great scene where Glasstaff leaves behind a note from the Black Spider that the PCs can find. It gives them that first real look at the BBEG that they've only heard about up until then. My campaign started with Gundren Rockseeker sending each party member a letter asking for their help in Phandalin as an adventure hook.
You can also play around with the skills and abilities of your PCs. If you have a rogue in the party, have an NPC communicate to them using thieves' cant. In the LMOP campaign I mentioned above, Halia Thornton speaks to the party in the Stonehill Inn and taps her glass to send a message to the rogue in thieves' cant. I handed the rogue a piece of paper saying "Bring the Black Spider to me. Alive." The PC has decided not to share the message with the other members of the party, it's given her a great way to express her character in the game.
I think the trick is to keep any notes concise and relevant. Perhaps your dream could be experienced by the entire party, only each one has a slightly different experience of it you can relay to them using notes. That could well give you the chance to sit back and watch the party try and work out what everything means!
Let us know how your players respond to your notes, it'd be great to see how your ideas add to your game!
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Sir, the possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field is approximately 3,720 to 1!
Using notes is a wonderful tool that can help with immersion and with giving a passive spotlight to different players. There is a warning that some of the information isn't really necessary to keep so hidden from everyone. There's also a risk of teaching your players to withhold information. You're giving them personalized information, insinuating that it's only for them by giving them a note, and then waiting to see if they share.
Let's say a player has a dream. Only they know what they dreamed. I want to give them the essence of the dream and let them decide if they will share none of it, some of it, a different version of it or all of it with the rest of the party. I plan to write the information on an index card and just hand it to them.
This is a great case where a note, or taking the player aside, works wonderfully. The information can, in no way, be interpreted by anyone but the dreamer. This also works with Insight rolls, generally I just get up and whisper into the person's ear what they catch rather than a note.
In another instance the party is split up. One player notices something in the town as he wanders around looking for a shop. I plan to write it on an index card and give it to him only.
This can be helpful if it's story related and you are running a game of intrigue, otherwise it's not entirely necessary. The player enters a shop catching sight of a shadowing figure rushing out the back door and then sees the shop keeper dead in the back room. The shadowy figure is only for the player to know since the rest of the group isn't there. However, the wares of the shop, the dead shop keeper, and the potential clues left behind are things the whole party can know after entering the shop. Some information doesn't need to be on a card.
In another instance the party enters a dungeon room. I plan to give each player an index card with something they notice right away. At least once I plan to count to ten and if they don't do anything I will bust in on them with the bad guys. One of the players, on their card will have a clue that they are about to be jumped. Did they share their clue in time? Or is the whole party surprised? Or did he at least draw a weapon and turn to face the right direction?
This is poor form in my opinion. When players enter a dungeon it is assumed that each and every one of them are on alert for dangers and treasures. Your idea to funnel that information through one or two players really takes that concept and tosses it in the bin. Passive perception is gated behind a note card, combat surprise is contingent on whether the player can, or wants, to share with their party, it's possible to get messy quickly.
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It's also going to be a lot of work on your part, all those note cards for a session, it could be a book. You have enough on your plate already, NPCs, encounters, player actions, combat, traps, shop wares, quest lines, etc. Do you want to show the importance of communication? Do you want to increase the intrigue of your game? Do you want to create inter-party relations? I'd look into what you're trying to accomplish with these notes and figure out if there's an easier way of accomplishing it.
As always though, it's your table, do your thing! Maybe you've found a trick that will really entertain your table, maybe not. You'll never know until you try.
I'm going to be starting a homebrew soon and I never tried this before; communicating information to only one player in the party. Let's say a player has a dream. Only they know what they dreamed. I want to give them the essence of the dream and let them decide if they will share none of it, some of it, a different version of it or all of it with the rest of the party. I plan to write the information on an index card and just hand it to them.
In another instance the party is split up. One player notices something in the town as he wanders around looking for a shop. I plan to write it on an index card and give it to him only.
In another instance the party enters a dungeon room. I plan to give each player an index card with something they notice right away. At least once I plan to count to ten and if they don't do anything I will bust in on them with the bad guys. One of the players, on their card will have a clue that they are about to be jumped. Did they share their clue in time? Or is the whole party surprised? Or did he at least draw a weapon and turn to face the right direction?
I think this could create some interesting inter-character play and I will get to sit back and watch.
Do y'all see any pitfalls with this?
I do this relatively frequently. For example, I give notes to folks that cast "detect magic". I may give other notes to those that have magic weapons that communicate with them. Lastly, (though this is not in order), I often hand a player a note if their character notices something that others don't. This gives those players a choice, which I think is important, of relaying, not relaying, or "adjusting" the information.
I disagree some with your third paragraph, not with the premise that some characters have different information than others, but that this is fun. If you have a limited amount of time to play per week/2 weeks/month -- do you want to spend a lot of that time writing notes? I recommend doing this for "important" things. then for less important things, just tell the player (and everyone else can "close their ears") as it were. You can't have a complete pattern though, as in "everytime Jane gets handed a note, she has detected an attack" kind of thing however.
TLDR: some amount of notes, that are important are useful. Don't take it to the logical extreme of notating everything.
"An' things ha' come to a pretty pass, ye ken, if people are going to leave stuff like that aroound where innocent people could accidentally smash the door doon and lever the bars aside and take the big chain off'f the cupboard and pick the lock and drink it!"
You shouldn't have to create a whole reel of index cards, your players should be able to play to the narrative you're putting across. Don't go too overboard with handing out notes, otherwise you'll risk breaking immersion for the whole group as every so often they'll all have to stop whilst someone reads their latest index card.
Are your players meta-gamers? If you're telling Player X that they wake up to see an orc baring down on them with an axe, does Player Y, whose character is fishing for breakfast outside, say "For no reason I draw my sword and run back to the camp." I don't think notes are the solution, you just need to be strict as the DM and stamp that behavior out. If however you tell Player X there's an orc about to brain them whilst they sleep, roll initiative and then you move the narrative over to Player Y and they say, "I cast my line and take in the cool morning breeze. Life is good today.", you have a tense moment for the whole table unfolding! No notes are really needed here, and you're engaging all of the players despite their characters being in different situations.
I do use notes in my sessions though, it can be a really good way to add some intrigue. LMOP has a great scene where Glasstaff leaves behind a note from the Black Spider that the PCs can find. It gives them that first real look at the BBEG that they've only heard about up until then. My campaign started with Gundren Rockseeker sending each party member a letter asking for their help in Phandalin as an adventure hook.
You can also play around with the skills and abilities of your PCs. If you have a rogue in the party, have an NPC communicate to them using thieves' cant. In the LMOP campaign I mentioned above, Halia Thornton speaks to the party in the Stonehill Inn and taps her glass to send a message to the rogue in thieves' cant. I handed the rogue a piece of paper saying "Bring the Black Spider to me. Alive." The PC has decided not to share the message with the other members of the party, it's given her a great way to express her character in the game.
I think the trick is to keep any notes concise and relevant. Perhaps your dream could be experienced by the entire party, only each one has a slightly different experience of it you can relay to them using notes. That could well give you the chance to sit back and watch the party try and work out what everything means!
Let us know how your players respond to your notes, it'd be great to see how your ideas add to your game!
Sir, the possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field is approximately 3,720 to 1!
Never tell me the DC.
Using notes is a wonderful tool that can help with immersion and with giving a passive spotlight to different players. There is a warning that some of the information isn't really necessary to keep so hidden from everyone. There's also a risk of teaching your players to withhold information. You're giving them personalized information, insinuating that it's only for them by giving them a note, and then waiting to see if they share.
This is a great case where a note, or taking the player aside, works wonderfully. The information can, in no way, be interpreted by anyone but the dreamer. This also works with Insight rolls, generally I just get up and whisper into the person's ear what they catch rather than a note.
This can be helpful if it's story related and you are running a game of intrigue, otherwise it's not entirely necessary. The player enters a shop catching sight of a shadowing figure rushing out the back door and then sees the shop keeper dead in the back room. The shadowy figure is only for the player to know since the rest of the group isn't there. However, the wares of the shop, the dead shop keeper, and the potential clues left behind are things the whole party can know after entering the shop. Some information doesn't need to be on a card.
This is poor form in my opinion. When players enter a dungeon it is assumed that each and every one of them are on alert for dangers and treasures. Your idea to funnel that information through one or two players really takes that concept and tosses it in the bin. Passive perception is gated behind a note card, combat surprise is contingent on whether the player can, or wants, to share with their party, it's possible to get messy quickly.
---
It's also going to be a lot of work on your part, all those note cards for a session, it could be a book. You have enough on your plate already, NPCs, encounters, player actions, combat, traps, shop wares, quest lines, etc. Do you want to show the importance of communication? Do you want to increase the intrigue of your game? Do you want to create inter-party relations? I'd look into what you're trying to accomplish with these notes and figure out if there's an easier way of accomplishing it.
As always though, it's your table, do your thing! Maybe you've found a trick that will really entertain your table, maybe not. You'll never know until you try.