I just saw a blog post by @Judd:
I’d rather get my players into the mix with information at hand so they can make interesting, informed and meaningful decisions. … when I find myself actively hiding something from the players it is often a mistake. – Subtlety is over-rated
In a similar vein, taking the example from Judd’s post: if the players arrive in that town where something is subtly off, I say: “People look at you and then avert their eyes. A mom pull her kids closer and hushes them. The beardly dude is closing the windows as you approach. The only one who is not afraid seems to be the temple servant wearing the Pazuzu plague mask and waving at you exuberantly. There is definitively something off in this town.” Subtlety doesn’t work. Also, point out people.
Pointing out people and the things they do helps players answer the next question which is “what do you do?” If you just give players a creepy atmosphere, then they go shopping and do long rests, and have a drink at the inn, suitable creeped out for sure, but there’s nothing to actually do about it, so they don’t. They just take it stoically. People running up to players asking for help is also an immediate kicker, even if I find that this usually doesn’t work so well because players don’t care.
It usually works better if players talk to the mom, the dude with the beard, or to the plague mask wearer, hear their story, and then they get asked to help. Now they know the story, they spend five minutes talking to people, and they start to care.
#RPG
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I’ve found that I could successfully get more and more subtle with my players (successfully) over the years and that was such a delight to discover. But yes, when we first started out I had to be pretty bl– Waiddaminit. “Had to”? It depends on what the purpose is. I’m not steering them, just portraying a world. If they wanna explore subtle things, they can and do. ♥
– Sandra 2022-01-18 19:39 UTC
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Yeah, with the same players over the years, I did notice a change. My guess is they learned to know me. If the guard is smug, then something is up, because whenever that happened in the past, it was never because Franz beat Wilhelm at darts, there was always more to it. And so players at least in my case learn to read how the mind of the ref and thus the world itself works, in a way.
– Alex 2022-01-19 07:52 UTC