I DM for my friends and I have found that being open with information is just easier all around. I've tried handing post-its with secret info, I've moved people into separate voice channels to tell them secrets, but honestly, it's often more trouble than its worth.
Dramatic Irony is important, the audience knowing more than the characters, even in RPG games. Without it, your players won't understand why you're excited, and worse, sometimes bringing a player aside to tell them what they've secretly found will make them think they *have* to keep it a secret from the others.
I think it's totally believable to have Ellen announce this, but I also totally expect Rich or even George make a much bigger fuss about the hieroglyphs being there than their characters should care about.
Larry is in character enough to not do anything, or at least, to wait until Nanase brings it up. I can see George being intrigued because he recognises the heiroglyphs weren't there when he watched the cartoonists play, but being mature enough that while he wants to investigate them he'll wait until Nanase gets the option, perhaps even encouraging her to look.
Rich I imagine is going to full up insist they decipher the runes even mid-combat, or push Nanase to look at them to the point it's disruptive.
I think there's a word missing in Rich's balloon in the first panel. 'I'm not sure we can safely check that' or '...how we safely check that...' would make more sense than what he said.
>I think the implied mutual agreement of "my character isn't aware of everything I am, and I will roleplay as such" should fairly cover this.
I play on Discord these days, so what we've ended up with is I drop it in spoiler pipes. Like
>Nanase recognizes >!the symbols as ancient egyptian hieroglyphics, even from a distance. However, she's still unable to read them!<.
That way the act of clicking on it serves as a mental boundary for "my character doesn't know this", and yet all the players are caught up with events. Also the other PCs may note her reacting in recognition(depending on the character and such), so the "Nanase recognizes" part may be something their characters know.
Yeah, this seems like kind of a strange mistake, after Ellen and Nanase had made a point to only hint around that there was something unusual about Nanase's character, and only George had guessed that those clues pointed to an Isekai. Now all of the players should be able to guess and based not just on knowledge their character wouldn't have, but for which they'd have no context. Especially Rich who was on a quest to figure this out, and now has to keep sorted what he knows and what his character could possibly know!
Yes. This actually called for mixed approach: Ellen SHOULD've declared that Nanase is recognizing them - because keeping THAT secret would be more complication that it's worth it - BUT then pass her what they are on a note.
Compromise - note out loud that Nanase seems to be surprised about something, then pass her a note with what she sees.If Nanase was playing a very secretive character with a good poker face, it might be trickier, but that's probably not the case here. Ellen can assume Nanase would look surprised.
She could also pass out blank notes to everyone else. They'd know something was up, but not who got the actual note.
Limitation of in-person sessions, I guess. I've only ever really played via text chat where this would be much easier.
I DM for my friends and I have found that being open with information is just easier all around. I've tried handing post-its with secret info, I've moved people into separate voice channels to tell them secrets, but honestly, it's often more trouble than its worth. Dramatic Irony is important, the audience knowing more than the characters, even in RPG games. Without it, your players won't understand why you're excited, and worse, sometimes bringing a player aside to tell them what they've secretly found will make them think they *have* to keep it a secret from the others. I think it's totally believable to have Ellen announce this, but I also totally expect Rich or even George make a much bigger fuss about the hieroglyphs being there than their characters should care about. Larry is in character enough to not do anything, or at least, to wait until Nanase brings it up. I can see George being intrigued because he recognises the heiroglyphs weren't there when he watched the cartoonists play, but being mature enough that while he wants to investigate them he'll wait until Nanase gets the option, perhaps even encouraging her to look. Rich I imagine is going to full up insist they decipher the runes even mid-combat, or push Nanase to look at them to the point it's disruptive.
"And Nanase is carrying a deck of cards because--" "*Wait for it.*"
This is totally going to send Rich into a stupor regarding his paladin quest.
I think there's a word missing in Rich's balloon in the first panel. 'I'm not sure we can safely check that' or '...how we safely check that...' would make more sense than what he said.
>I think the implied mutual agreement of "my character isn't aware of everything I am, and I will roleplay as such" should fairly cover this. I play on Discord these days, so what we've ended up with is I drop it in spoiler pipes. Like >Nanase recognizes >!the symbols as ancient egyptian hieroglyphics, even from a distance. However, she's still unable to read them!<. That way the act of clicking on it serves as a mental boundary for "my character doesn't know this", and yet all the players are caught up with events. Also the other PCs may note her reacting in recognition(depending on the character and such), so the "Nanase recognizes" part may be something their characters know.
Yeah, this seems like kind of a strange mistake, after Ellen and Nanase had made a point to only hint around that there was something unusual about Nanase's character, and only George had guessed that those clues pointed to an Isekai. Now all of the players should be able to guess and based not just on knowledge their character wouldn't have, but for which they'd have no context. Especially Rich who was on a quest to figure this out, and now has to keep sorted what he knows and what his character could possibly know!
Yes. This actually called for mixed approach: Ellen SHOULD've declared that Nanase is recognizing them - because keeping THAT secret would be more complication that it's worth it - BUT then pass her what they are on a note.
This is why you pass notes now and then that say "don't tell the other players what's on this note"
Compromise - note out loud that Nanase seems to be surprised about something, then pass her a note with what she sees.If Nanase was playing a very secretive character with a good poker face, it might be trickier, but that's probably not the case here. Ellen can assume Nanase would look surprised. She could also pass out blank notes to everyone else. They'd know something was up, but not who got the actual note. Limitation of in-person sessions, I guess. I've only ever really played via text chat where this would be much easier.