GM's Tip of the Week

Keeping information separated. It’s tricky to do as a GM; not only keeping information separate but keeping it threaded. Who knows what, where they learned it from – it’s enough to make anybody tear their hair out … but you also have to figure out how to pass specific pieces of information along, sometimes to specific players without anyone else catching on.

Some groups, you don’t have to do this; a group with a grasp on the difference between what they know (out of character knowledge) and what their characters know (in character knowledge) can be told anything and everything and can be counted on to keep separate who knows what, and communicate and otherwise pass on information as appropriate. If you have a group like this, treasure them; you got damn lucky.

Some aren’t so good. I suspect the truth is that a lot of players have trouble with that separation. In a live game, you can write and pass notes; ideally so the rest of the group doesn’t cotton on that there is stuff going on. In a forum based game, you probably have the ability to send private messages to players, or have a DM channel, or something. VoIP is hardest; unless you are using a virtual tabletop program that includes a chat function, you will have trouble passing notes unless your mapping program or virtual tabletop has a /tell function.

Otherwise, get an instant messenger. While I personally don’t suggest Skype, it is an option. As is Trillian Astra, Google Hangouts, AoL Instant Messenger, and a whole host of others. Most people probably have a google email account, which means they have access to Hangouts; that is probably the easiest means of passing notes in a virtual game you will find.

The part of this that’s /really/ handy? You have – ideally – an automatic record of the messages you’ve sent. . . assuming, of course, you sent them in text.