[RPG] How to tell your PCs about something that only one of them senses

gm-techniquessystem-agnostic

I'm trying to determine the best way to deal with keen observers vs. unaware back-seaters. Maybe there's really nothing to do though.

Ex 1. A rogue loots a corpse but doesn't want to split the gold. How does he let me know he's looted the corpse without announcing it and having all the other players hear him? Sure the PCs didn't hear him announce it, but the players did and they'll react in some way (i.e. it'll spark their reaction to do the looting next time, or they'll hold a grudge).

Ex 2. My group is travelling through the woods and the Ranger asks if she can make a check to see if there are nearby goblins. Rolls high enough to determine that there are some that have been there recently. No one else would have noticed. Do I just tell the Ranger, or do I tell the whole group because it's likely what the ranger is to do anyways.

Ex 3. My players meet a Dragon yet only one of them speaks Draconic, and the dragon doesn't speak Common. Maybe the player would want to translate only half truths to the party, so how can I tell just him.

I don't want to be pulling players to the next room every 3 minutes, so I'm just trying to figure out what other DMs do, or if they mostly let this stuff slide. You don't need to respond to each example, but some guidance to this type of situation would be helpful.

Best Answer

There are two ways of doing it:

Open

Simply speak the information aloud. All players must trust that the others are not going to use out of character information to make decisions. That is, everyone's characters must act as if they don't know that the rogue has kept gold to himself.

Closed

Pass the information only to the player that knows it. In old times the GM and players passed each other pieces of paper with information, questions and actions. Nowadays, it's easy to text the player and GM.

Which one should be used

It depends a lot of the group dynamics. If all of the players trust each other and do not metagame, the open method not only it's faster, but also entertains all players with more information, which usually makes the game itself more entertaining.

At the end of the day, it's wiser to find a comfortable middle ground for your group. There are many situations in which passing notes simply don't pay. If the information is not very important, or if it's likely that the player will share the information right after receiving the note, delaying the game don't make sense. On the other hand, if the information is so important that it's very difficult to everyone to just ignore it and imagine how their characters would react without knowing it, it may be a good time to hide it.

I usually play 80-90% open, and 10-20% closed, but as I said, it really depends a lot of the group dynamic.