RPT Newsletter #1,193 | What To Do When Players Miss The Clues?

[Stephan Hornick]

What To Do When Players Miss The Clues?
By Jonathan | To be published February 28, 2022

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1,193


Hello Sojourner!
This is Jonathan with www.sojournersawake.com.

Besides the common adventure in leaving town, delving into the dungeon, and slaying the monster to collect the reward, game masters can homebrew adventures involving mystery and discovery.

I enjoy stories of brave explorers who search out lost lands, grapple with dangerous relics, and solve murder mysteries.

But what do you do if the players roll low in their search?

Or what if the players fail to catch on to your crafty description and miss the clues?

Here are 3 methods you can start using to keep the game moving.

High Number Winner​

Players normally describe their character actions, and then the game master asks for a dice check to determine success.

However, when solving mysteries, the action can be thinking about the right solution.

To simulate this thinking action, I will call for a knowledge check from each player when they enter a specific location where the clue can be discovered.

The player with the highest dice roll “wins” the knowledge and can then take action or share with the team.

Example​

The sojourners arrive at the base of the mountain and set up camp.

The clue on how to enter lies before them as a riddle to answer.

This concept is foreign to the characters since they have been using physical keys to enter places.

So, the players use all of the usual techniques and find that this entrance is a mystery. The players indicate their characters “think” up the solution. I call for a knowledge check and grant the highest roll the clue.

Surprisingly, the brute PC, IronTooth, scores the highest number.

I describe to IronTooth words on the wall that look like markings in the party wizard’s journal.

Since the party previously missed this clue, I am still leaving the fate in the hands of IronTooth. How they proceed is up to them.

“Look” grunts IronTooth, “Quill has been writing on this wall.” and motions toward the writing.

Now the party has gained a clue.

High Number Winner can be used to simulate Knowledge recall and Discovering Clues.

Reward System​

Rather than placing your discoveries in fixed locations within your world, treat them as mobile rewards for the players when they succeed upon an encounter.

The sojourners scour the new planet.

After saving a young alien, the game master rewards with a discovery of a new language.

Each player gains experience with this skill.

After surviving the waterfall, the game master rewards with finding a new source of power at the bottom of the river and each player gains a magical resource.

After successfully negotiating with a hungry predator, the game master rewards with finding a ruined lore stone that tells each the history of this forgotten world.

Keep the discoveries mobile so you can reward your players at the opportune time, all the while keeping the story dynamic.

Connect the Dots​

You can use mysteries like the way you use monsters in your game: there can be many ways to solve the mystery.

Players search the manor for clues on who killed the lady of the house.

As game master, you have an idea as to who did it and how they did it.

But you keep the answer malleable for this reason: the players might generate a better idea.

Example​

The sojourners hear of the murder and decide to search the house up and down for clues.

They think the butler, chef, and coachman seem suspicious.

The players discuss amongst themselves and conclude each has a motive, but the coachman is most likely and could have hid the body in the garage.

The general vibe of the table is excited with this idea, so you decide to go along and connect the dots of the players' actions to the plot of the story.

This method is collaborative, so keep your story free-form with room to improvise.

* * *

If your gameplay depends upon finding a clue or making a discovery, then the game risks screeching to a halt if players fail to notice them, due to poor dice rolls, or from low participation.

Use these three tips to keep the gameplay moving:

• High Number Winner
• Reward System
• Connect the Dots

May your story continue!

 

[ExileInParadise]

Fantasy puzzles I seem to do very badly with.

Sci-fi puzzles I seem to do better with - I think it's easier for me to get my head into the sci-fi world than the fantasy world when it comes to this.

 

[JonGraHar]

Fantasy puzzles I seem to do very badly with.

Sci-fi puzzles I seem to do better with - I think it's easier for me to get my head into the sci-fi world than the fantasy world when it comes to this.

hmm, I think you are on to something there - every game master may do better at a certain kind of puzzle in a certain setting and is probably based on real world knowledge and confidence.

 

[bryan]

I think Highest Number is fantastic! What a simple, but great, GM solution.
With my kids, I've had them roll a "Strategy Check", when they're at an impasse and not sure how to think through a dilemma. Then I dole out a clue.
But I like "giving" it to one person — Highest Number eliminates the "what if they fail the check." Awesome!

 

[JonGraHar]

I think Highest Number is fantastic! What a simple, but great, GM solution.
With my kids, I've had them roll a "Strategy Check", when they're at an impasse and not sure how to think through a dilemma. Then I dole out a clue.
But I like "giving" it to one person — Highest Number eliminates the "what if they fail the check." Awesome!

eliminates risk of failure, exactly. I like the randomness of the check because even though the wizard has a +7 arcana, it turns out the humble hobbit solves the riddle.

 

[Gedece]

When I put a puzzle, I think about who put it there and for what reason, and that helps narrow down which type of puzzle might work. For example, I once had a wizard lair accesible from a dungeon, and the puzzle was a physical one that had no instructions. It was a passcode the wizard used to enter his place from the dungeon, so what's the use of putting instructions or guidelines when he already knew them?

It actually worked pretty well, and the party figured it out, but it took some time and they actually enjoyed discovering the rules and then figuring it out.

 

[Stephan Hornick]

As I expected, several GMs have problems coming up with good puzzles.
Maybe this helps:

Did you already see this post on Campaign Puzzles by Philip. It shows how a long puzzle can merely be a side quest for the campaign without interrupting the flow.
In this description of a wall piece jigzaw puzzle, I show how the problem-solving can be shifted from player to PC under a time constraint that lets the player prioritize and become creative on methods to solve it in time.
And you can find some newsletter tips from Johnn (from #005 back in December 1999!) on the topic of how to make good puzzles here.
Then there is a dungeon exploration puzzle, I laid out for my players, basically having them explore and giving them pieces of the pathways but later having them notice that it is not a 2D puzzle, but a 3D puzzle. That was fun!
And finally, I created a magnificient puzzle (if I may say so myself) of a dwarven, mechanical entrance way to an ancient tomb.
I may tell you how it goes if you contact me via PM, as I don't want to spoiler my players here.
Basic Aspects though are influenced by:

• The right statue of the dwarven king at the right place (which was deliberately placed somewhere else (at a fountain of virtue) where it made some kind of sense, but the PCs later found a statue of virtue that would have made more sense there)
• An observant PC noticing in which direction the statue pointed, when placed there.
• A mechanism only accepting the right weight of the statue to give access to a rotating mechanism of the elevation on which the statue could now "dance".
• Runes that tell a story on pillars at the entrance place, My way of illustrating some more dwarven culture. Some of them can be pushed in in accordance to an old song of that time.
• Traps and hints thereof. Others who had tried to circumvent the traps and somehow succeeded.
• Some lyrics of an old dancing song the king liked.
• An ancient dwarven dance that only our bard knew of.

A part of my puzzle was very much influenced by The Five, a dwarven riddle door:

But mostly, I was struck by the following link which explained and showed how we need small steps and progressive exploration and progressive access to a next level and something to do for each player and for each PC and team work and the right hints at the right time, even before you begin puzzle time:
A great site on Door Puzzles in General (Game Design): https://dungeonvault.com/dnd-door-puzzles/

 

[jleewatts]

I am not sure if this fits, but I sent my PCs to Sharn to track down information. And while there, they were attacked by Rashasas during a air boat ride, harassed by the City Guards and advised that they only had 48 days until the prophecy came true. So, they jumped town without doing any investigation.

They get the Flamekeep and discover that they have to stop the creation Forge in the Mournlands and they they had been to that site previously (about 8 levels ago) and they had not explored all of the facility. They also learn that they need to speak with someone who knows that creation forges and he is back in Sharn.

So, now they are scrambling to get back to Sharn, speak with two contacts there, get a sky-high to quickly get back the Whitehearth before further damage can be done to the Silverflame that us holding an Overlord in prisoned.

They are just now putting together clues that I have been handing out over the last two years of the campaign. And some of those, I do connect the dots for them via an NPC or two.

 

[JohnnFour]

From RPT GM Patrick:

I generally will give the players the clue, regardless of the rolls they make.

HOWEVER, the roll determines how accurate the information is.

Say the clues states they need to look for a wand in a mage's tower. On a high roll they may get the type of wand and the name of the mage.

On a low roll, they would figure out there's a wand in a mage's tower, and they're connected somehow, but not get the type of wand or the correct mage tower.

I do the same thing with most of my lore or knowledge type rolls. Any roll gets some sort of knowledge, but a low roll will give them kind of a wild goose chase a bit, while a very high roll will give them highly detailed information.

This provides two things. One, it will lower the chance of Metagaming and disregarding information from a low roll, since there's always some truth in what they find.

It also takes away from the "you don't recall anything about it" response, which in my opinion is boring.

 

[Stephan Hornick]

@JohnN, please continue posting what other GMs send you on these topics. That is great!
Also, great way to go about clues.

 

[Gedece]

Well, a way to drop a missing or misinterpreted clue to the player is actually dropping it. We know that players don't like people running away when combat is going badly. But we can make a curious maneuver, the inverse fail forward. This time the fail forward is used by the lieutenant of the Bad Guy, and yeah, he gets to run away, but he loses something that was tied to his belt in the process. And that something can be the missing clue but written in a different way, as if the boss sent him something the way the LT understood or he took notes his own way.

And if they gain something, they might not care that much about the guy running away.