In my last several sessions I've noticed that my PC's are missing out on a lot of the details of the story (such as NPC motivations, optional pathways to objectives, etc.) by not asking the right questions or not receiving the right information about a situation.

Let's go with an example: The big baddie is an Inquisitor who was a former member of their team turned bad, who has a personal vendetta against the group because he believes that they killed his family. I as the GM know that his family was slaughtered by the Empire and holofilm was forged to make it look like the party, but the PC's don't. The only thing they know is that one time he shouted at them, "You killed my family!"

Now obviously I take blame here, as I'm not setting up the story right and delivering the information the PC's should have. So my question is this: How do you as the GM give out information, NPC motivations, and backstory of any element to the PC's without outright telling the PC's the information? Do your NPC's open up to the party forthright, or with a few checks? Do those checks determine exactly how much the PC's learn?

Thoughts?

I would have a random NPC whisper something to one of the party members. The location doesn't matter, but it would be a secret meeting. The NPC can say, "I have information that a sizeable bounty is placed on your heads. If you don't give me x then I'll collect on it because I know where you are."

If that doesn't get their attention then nothing will. Once you have their attention then run it like a typical mystery by leaving clues of where to go to get information.

I like to leave datapads lying around for the party to find/be given/etc. They don't just say, "This is what's going on," they have information. That information could be a connection to who an NPC was before a disfiguring injury. It could be a journal with ramblings that make sense only when combined with other information. There are a lot of things you can do with "lost" datapads.

There are also the knowledge skills. Each time they're introduced to something new, roll X knowledge skill. Give them useful, yet indirect, information.

Contacts, contacts, contacts. This may be a holdover from Shadowrun, but seriously, a good network of contacts can pull up a wealth of information, for the right price, with a solid Streetwise check. If the players know they can call upon useful, helpful NPCs later in the adventure, They may be more willing to pay attention to who the NPCs are .

But in short answer form, as for handing out information or making the players roll for it, I do both. If I consider a piece of information crucial to advancing my story, then, without a roll, the player will discover it, learn it, be told it, whatever. If the information is a side benefit that could lead to an easier difficulty, a better reward, or cause an epiphany, they generally have to roll for it. Although sometimes slapping the players with the Epipha-Tree is really fun too.

Now obviously I take blame here, as I'm not setting up the story right and delivering the information the PC's should have. So my question is this: How do you as the GM give out information, NPC motivations, and backstory of any element to the PC's without outright telling the PC's the information? Do your NPC's open up to the party forthright, or with a few checks? Do those checks determine exactly how much the PC's learn?

This is a really important read: http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/1118/roleplaying-games/three-clue-rule

You may not be running a mystery, but the main issues are the same. Basically a good rule of thumb is providing 3 ways for players to get the information they need, and if the players have to have the information, then you find a way to present it so that it's unmistakable. You can do that off the cuff as needed.

An alternative is that you do not necessarily have to predefine all this background stuff. Instead, let the players inject things into the narrative, or use the dice to drive connections. This might be useful as an example:

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/188406-running-a-freeform-plot/

Make sure your remembering the golden rule that the Players are not the PC's and the PC's are not the Players. Don't sit there in the directors chair waiting for a Player to suggest something intelligent, or come up with the same cunning plan you had thought of. do 1 of 2 things:

1. write open beginnings to encounters, the NPC who provides the information could be in a bar, another customer in a shop, in line to go through customs etc. just have the information ready to go, then insert it into the actions and dice rolls of the PC's

2. Ask the most intelligent, most cunning, smoothest tongue to make a skill check. Tell them its for something else, say to negotiate with an NPC, or for valuable facts about the location. Instead of the Player coming up with the idea (which is fine when it happens, but doesn't always occur) then use the results to feed them the information. Let the PC be the one to have the idea.

And most importantly failure should not always mean the PC failed, don't require success on a check for the story to move forward. Its perfectly fine for failure to indicate the PC's took longer to find the info, but still found it . In this case Adv/Thr/Tri/Des change the quality of the information rather than the time it takes to complete the task.

Now obviously I take blame here, as I'm not setting up the story right and delivering the information the PC's should have. So my question is this: How do you as the GM give out information, NPC motivations, and backstory of any element to the PC's without outright telling the PC's the information? Do your NPC's open up to the party forthright, or with a few checks? Do those checks determine exactly how much the PC's learn?

This is a really important read: http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/1118/roleplaying-games/three-clue-rule

You may not be running a mystery, but the main issues are the same. Basically a good rule of thumb is providing 3 ways for players to get the information they need, and if the players have to have the information, then you find a way to present it so that it's unmistakable. You can do that off the cuff as needed.

An alternative is that you do not necessarily have to predefine all this background stuff. Instead, let the players inject things into the narrative, or use the dice to drive connections. This might be useful as an example:

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/188406-running-a-freeform-plot/

Whafrog that is some solid advice, with great articles to read and take from. I'll be referencing the article for my next session for sure.

I've got a lot to pull from here, now to both put it into practice and to practice. Having all these options (datapads, contacts, etc.) in my pocket will help, I just have to remember them.

In my last several sessions I've noticed that my PC's are missing out on a lot of the details of the story (such as NPC motivations, optional pathways to objectives, etc.) by not asking the right questions or not receiving the right information about a situation.

Let's go with an example: The big baddie is an Inquisitor who was a former member of their team turned bad, who has a personal vendetta against the group because he believes that they killed his family. I as the GM know that his family was slaughtered by the Empire and holofilm was forged to make it look like the party, but the PC's don't. The only thing they know is that one time he shouted at them, "You killed my family!"

Now obviously I take blame here, as I'm not setting up the story right and delivering the information the PC's should have. So my question is this: How do you as the GM give out information, NPC motivations, and backstory of any element to the PC's without outright telling the PC's the information? Do your NPC's open up to the party forthright, or with a few checks? Do those checks determine exactly how much the PC's learn?

Thoughts?

Why not leave it to the end? Why not reveal this at the last encounter? Let it stirr... it will be more juicier that way. And they'll go: "Ohhh...".

Always keep them informed through other means. Make sure they get the info that you find crucial.

2. Ask the most intelligent, most cunning, smoothest tongue to make a skill check. Tell them its for something else, say to negotiate with an NPC, or for valuable facts about the location. Instead of the Player coming up with the idea (which is fine when it happens, but doesn't always occur) then use the results to feed them the information. Let the PC be the one to have the idea.

Do be sure to explain this might happen before applying it, however. Some players have real issues with their characters being narrated for them. Depends on the player. Just have to explain that this is a collaborative story, etc.

After years of GMing, I've found that feeding the Players information can be one of the hardest parts of running a game. My buddy is currently running a D&D game, and while we're having fun, I'm fairly certain not a single one of us has the slightest clue what our quest is. There's a king, and some lost city, and some elemental stones, and hags, and a nefarious half-elf who might be the king's son. I have no idea how these parts fit together. I really want to approach my friend with some advice, but I don't know that I have that much to offer.

Because, let's face it, reading your players a page and a half of exposition will shut their brains off right then and there. Sending them to your blog or Obsidian Portal site works about as well.

I have actually found that starting a session with a cutscene works pretty well. Basically I type up a script of dialogue between several NPCs (often the villains), with a little bit of "stage direction" at the beginning or the end, print up a few copies, each with one character highlighted, and hand them out. I read the narration, while the players read the dialogue. I keep it nice and short, to give some idea of the events happening around the players.

Another trick you might try is to run a short encounter with the players each controlling an NPC. If your story involves an Imperial exploration crew unleashing some ancient evil from a Sith Temple, have the players be a group of stormtroopers and an officer. They blast some local savages, open the tomb, and then some shadowy force comes out and slaughters them all. Play the combat, but have them lose fast. Then we open on the PCs doing whatever they do before getting hooked into the quest.

In your particular case, perhaps the scene could open with the Inquisitor kneeling before his superior, who tells him that the evil renegades (the PCs) who killed his family are on the Planet X, and now is his chance to seek revenge. When the Inquisitor leaves, another superior comes forth. "You are certain he has not become suspicious? It would be most unfortunate if we had to write off this investment..." So you get to reveal some backstory without being too clunky.

This also allows you to introduce characters before the PC's even meet them, and hopefully introduce a sense of dread. Think about this: in the original triliogy, Luke Skywalker doesn't actually meet Darth Vader until their duel on Bespin. He's told stories about him, he sees him briefly across a hangar bay, killing his mentor, and he encounters him in a dogfight (but even then, he doesn't really know who the TIE ace behind him is). But when they duel, we forget that. It feels like a battle destined to happen, like they've been mortal enemies all this time.

Good luck!

I have actually found that starting a session with a cutscene works pretty well. Basically I type up a script of dialogue between several NPCs (often the villains), with a little bit of "stage direction" at the beginning or the end, print up a few copies, each with one character highlighted, and hand them out. I read the narration, while the players read the dialogue. I keep it nice and short, to give some idea of the events happening around the players.

Another trick you might try is to run a short encounter with the players each controlling an NPC. If your story involves an Imperial exploration crew unleashing some ancient evil from a Sith Temple, have the players be a group of stormtroopers and an officer. They blast some local savages, open the tomb, and then some shadowy force comes out and slaughters them all. Play the combat, but have them lose fast. Then we open on the PCs doing whatever they do before getting hooked into the quest.

I love that idea! I've been adding in more scene setting at the beginning of my sessions, but this would be awesome!

Right now the group is playing through the Chronicles of the Gatekeeper. I'm fitting in my villains where they best fit, but the Inquisitors have taken a backseat to most of it. I read in a post that the Inquisitors need to be mysterious and not in your face. I've tried to have an Inquisitor battle almost every session, and I think I'm going to stop that. I'll start dropping in some tidbits of information, starting the next time they infiltrate an Imperial base.

Why not leave it to the end? Why not reveal this at the last encounter? Let it stirr... it will be more juicier that way. And they'll go: "Ohhh...".

My intention with sharing his information was to let the PC's and the players know his motivations. Plus, I've got a bigger reveal coming when they meet their final objective, so I'm ok with giving away this information.

If you are playing with 5 people in a maybe noisy space many of the players probably can't hear clearly what you are trying to convey anyway, and are themselves thinking ahead waiting to get a word in edgewise, and missing important information for that and other reasons. Just be aware of this and don't get frustrated if the players first reaction is to reach for a weapon or some other direct response. In a worst case sometimes it seems like the player can act directly now, or they could ask a question, get half an answer with a hint and 30 minutes later it's their turn to ask the follow-up question.

I generally try to take notes and write up the adventure's high points later for people to review. Usually half of it is full of blanks and question marks, because I'm following along half a paragraph behind missing more information for that reason too. Sometimes I'm amazed we catch any clues.