There’s something to be said for this. I tried dropping subtle hints for my players about faction machinations and it went nowhere. I was expecting them to put the pieces together, but I probably didn’t do a great job with the hints and they don’t care enough. So I started hitting them over the head with it. We’re all happier.
There’s some famous DM who said something like “you spend dozens of hours a week in your world, your players just drop in for a visit once a week”.
EDIT:
They suggested having a list of secrets that can be discovered during each scene. As long as the party does something reasonable to discover a secret, reveal it. ie, maybe it’s evesdropping in the gobbos playing cards, maybe it’s digging through the trash, maybe it’s Detect Thoughts, but have a bunch of clues on hand that you’re trying to give the players. That moves the story forward and rewards initiative.
I’m not criticizing having NPCs being realistic with off-plot antics. But at my table, that slowed down a campaign.
What I’ve found on both ends of the table is hints don’t work, because they’re subtle enough they could be anything. And lots of things are subtle that aren’t anything.
There’s something to be said for this. I tried dropping subtle hints for my players about faction machinations and it went nowhere. I was expecting them to put the pieces together, but I probably didn’t do a great job with the hints and they don’t care enough. So I started hitting them over the head with it. We’re all happier.
There’s some famous DM who said something like “you spend dozens of hours a week in your world, your players just drop in for a visit once a week”.
EDIT: They suggested having a list of secrets that can be discovered during each scene. As long as the party does something reasonable to discover a secret, reveal it. ie, maybe it’s evesdropping in the gobbos playing cards, maybe it’s digging through the trash, maybe it’s Detect Thoughts, but have a bunch of clues on hand that you’re trying to give the players. That moves the story forward and rewards initiative.
I’m not criticizing having NPCs being realistic with off-plot antics. But at my table, that slowed down a campaign.
What I’ve found on both ends of the table is hints don’t work, because they’re subtle enough they could be anything. And lots of things are subtle that aren’t anything.
Yeah. I just actively remind players of what their characters should know, because otherwise they never figure anything out.