She’s a Mystery to Me: How Long To Keep Secrets and Clues From Your Players In Your D&D Game

3 Wise DMs

One of the beauties of TTRPGs is the ability to not just watch or read an amazing story, but to experience it… to create it. The mystery, the action, the climactic battle between good and evil; D&D gives us the ability to create our favorite stories.

One of the most important aspects of that, as the DM, is creating a level of mystery to the story that the players get the chance to uncover as they delve deeper into the adventure.

In this episode, Tony, Chris, and Dave discuss a listener question about the mystery that they’re planning on having last for 10 levels and ask, “am I being cruel by leaving them in mystery so long?”

4:05 3 ways it can go: 1) your plot twist becomes campaign defining, 2) players will rage quit, or 3) it falls flat.

4:55 Your campaign is not a novel.

7:30 New players might not even understand what they’re choosing when they’re still trying to understand the game mechanics.

9:40 If you have something to get through to the players: Repeat, Repeat, Repeat.

11:00 The difficulties of conveying the story in a spoken medium.

12:30 DM Tony discusses his difficulties in conveying lore-heavy campaigns.

14:08 What will the player’s choose? How this can affect the overarching campaign if its too set in stone.

16:25 New players might not be as new as you think with the advent of live-play games. But, then again, they might not remember what all the different dice are either.

19:05 DM Chris’ analogy of trying to teach something to someone and the lessons we can learn for in-game use. Listen for when the players begin to “parrot back” your plot drops.

23:50 The difference between YOUR reveal and THEIR reveal… tie the reveal to the characters. Matt Colville’s “A Tale of Two Campaigns” video.

28:40 For a campaign-defining mystery like “Mystara is dying,” there are infinite ways to create a breadcrumb trail for the players to pick up on.

35:55 Final Thoughts