Handouts are an important tool for building engagement and immersion in a game of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dungeons & Dragons. The theatre of the mind is most often the main tool a GM has at their disposal, with occasional augmentation from handouts and other tools to prompt the imagination furt𒅌her.
A good handout can take some time and energy to get right, so it is a tool to be used sparingly. Think carefully abou🔯t t𝔍he best moments to benefit from that added engagement: pulling people into a first session, bolstering interest in a slower scene focused on roleplay and investigation, or emphasizing the importance of a magic item.
Determine A Goal For Your D&D Handout
There are multiple reasons for wanting to present something in written form instead of reading it aloud, and eachဣ will have different design ✤priorities.
Presenting them in different ways ca🤪n also keep them fr📖esh and allow your players to make the best use of them.
|
Type Of Handout |
Document Format |
Utility |
|
Session Recap |
Digital document, saved to the cloud Physical logbook |
A session log is useful for keeping players not present every session up to date. You can do this by having the players keep an in-character journal or logbook. A physical logbook can provide better immersion, while a digital one allows all the players easy access to it. A physical logbook provides more challenges in organisation but can encourage players to be more studious in taking notes. You can format it similarly to a diary or calendar, and take inspiration from other forms of logbooks, such as visitor registrations, chess books, and plane or ship logs. |
|
Lore Document |
Clean paper handouts with one or two paragraphs |
Providing the players with a resource for looking up information can be more engaging than reading out sections of your own notes. Bullet-pointed handouts with the relevant details of a character, place, or item can be prepared ahead of a session and handed out to the player who passes a history check. This can also further the roleplaying as the player will be reiterating their perception of the most important details when explaining it to the other players. Encourage them to paraphrase the information you provide rather than repeating it verbatim. |
|
Plot Relevant Document |
Poster or contract written in the style of the setting |
A document found by the characters can be presented to the players as their characters would see it. This can be more immersive than describing the document's contents or reading it out loud. A good choice of document for this is one that the players will want to reference back to over time. An intercepted letter may contain references to places and people the players don't currently know but will be able to understand if they reread it later in the campaign. |
|
Puzzle |
Coded note Partially torn document Physical puzzle |
An investigative party may enjoy working to decrypt a coded message, or failing to solve it out of character may look for a way to help them solve it in character 🔥such as a friendly NPC or a decryption tool or spell. |
If preparing a damaged handout, have a second copy of the compl♓ete document, both for your own notes and in case the party uses a spell or effect to repair it.
Make Your D&D Handouts Part Of The World
A good way of making your world feel lived in is to not have everyone speak and w♚rite in the exact same way. Not a𓆉ll GMs are skilled at doing voices, so handouts are a good way to compensate.
If the handout is a document within the world, then have it formatted as the playerꦫs would find it.
Writing in ye olde English tis a goode option for handouts such as signs and posters, while contracts a💦nd formal doc𝕴uments, you can use a calligraphy font to give them that air of nobility.
Incorporating specific slang into a handout can both embellish the characters and provide valuable hints to the players. If you provide your characters a note written in Cockney Rhyming Slang, they might cotton on that they should investigate with the local Thieves' Guild.
Rather than looking unprofessional, tea stains on the paper can give your handout the appearance of old and weathered paper that seems authentic to a fantasy setting.
If you're planning for the players to find a partially burned note, then you can (carefully) singe parts of the handout using a small candle or lighter. Tearing the note up and giving the players fragments is another option, but only if they're the type who'd enjoy piecing it back together.
Handouts can also sprinkle in foreshadowing, hiding key clues under the players' noses. Using an invisible ink to encode a message on top of another document allows the same handout to serve multiple purposes over the course of a campaign.
A mixture of water and vinegar is less well-known than lemon juice and will blend well wꦛith yellow or brown paper.
Keep a contingency plan to reward players if they discover the secret message ahead of schedule.
Another interesting way of encrypting a handout is using a scytale: Write your handout on a narrow strip of paper wrapped around a cardboard or wooden tube.
Your players will only be able to decrypt it using a tube of the same size. They may receiওve the encrypted note and the scytale for reading it⭕ from related quests.
Handouts In D&D Don't Have To Be Written Notes
A big draw oꩵf letting the players physically interact with something instead of describing their characters doing it is that you can make use of that physicality. A physical puzzle box found in a charity shop can be much more engagin꧑g than describing a far more ornate item in the theatre of the mind.
You ca🗹n present to the party a seemingly mundane bauble and then have the player who interacts with it the most (either by fiddling with it or by holding onto it while other things are happening) gain some special insig☂ht on what turns out to be a magical or cursed item.
Some groups will respond better tꦛhan others to this method. The puzzle box example might click well for one player who enjoys solving it, but the other players may not enjoy sitting back and waiting for that to happen.
When one player is immersed in trying to solve the puzzle you've given them, create roleplay or skill-based tasks for the other players to engage in.