Por que no los dos?
"But how were you able to make the casserole? Weren't you busy with the boss' plan?"
"Nah, let me go over the details of the plan and explain how I managed to fit casserole prep into my schedule."
What my players hear depends entirely on how well they roll. Nat 20? What do you know, the orcs just happen to be going over their plans. Nat 1? The orcs hear you. A passing roll, but just barely? You overhear one of them fart and 2 others laughing hysterically.
This is a situation with an element of luck and you're literally using luck to determine if they even succeed; why not incorporate the numbers in the roll to reflect the random nature of the game world's reality?
Fail but barely? You hear one of them say he needs to use the chamber pot and head towards the door.
Maybe for natural dice. A modified score is luck+skill.
It is strange that listening is a skill. But that skill isn't going to affect what you hear; only if you can hear something.
Nah, makes sense. I've got autism and I'm horrible at listening. If someone mumbles, or there's background noise, or they're far away, I have less ability to compensate than an NT. I have more difficulty holding a conversation in a club than anyone I've spoken to in a club.
My game is often based on my experience in corporateworld and my trauma there.
So like me having two meetings last weeks and having three casual discussion regarding same problem. Where we said almost word for word same thing and came to same conclusion.
They will hear the boss plan, and same plan next door. Because I am sure my players would by the third door complete misunderstand the plan making it wonderful when they look at their notes oh that was the plan.
As in you have them roll to see if the goons actually do discuss their plan for the 1000th time or not, or just to see what the juicy gossip is?
Both. I have a d100 table. Some things are just random nonsense like in the image. Other times its related information that could be useful, like a reference to a back door somewhere or mentioning a boss likes a particular magic item. Other times its more detailed stuff about their specific role in a plan so the party can get part of the picture but not all of it. But if you roll a 1 or a 100 then they actively describe a big part of the plan.
I love this idea! I may steal it if I ever DM.
I'm stealing this, great!
Is this table somewhere online? I would use it for sure.
Nah I made it up myself. It's just a lot of roll zones that have random nonsense with other zones having plot relevant details.
If it isn't campaign specific, would you be willing to post what you've got? I don't DM but looks like a lot of people wanna ~~steal~~ adopt your idea and it'd be nice to have something to build off of
I'd still drop the hint, but there's a complication (e.g they party has to wait longer, the goblin says it as they're about to open the door, or someone coughs and hides some important detail).
Sometimes I think DMs forget their players are trying to enjoy a game.
Not everyone has 8 hours a week to sit at the table. Let's get things going.
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.
Yeah. I just actively remind players of what their characters should know, because otherwise they never figure anything out.
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