Reveal for GM

[AEIOU]

I'd like to request that you include reveal option for the GM when you add individual player reveals.

I keep running into situations where something has happened that the players know about...but they don't know about it. Yes, all the material in each Topic is GM info. Yes, I could add a note to the snippet stating that the party is peripherally aware of something. But adding a yellow bubble in front of the material would highlight that the party is aware of it but doesn't always know it.

For example:

• With Individuals, I'd like to mark that the person was seen by the party. Maybe the person was at the bar and again at the murder scene. It reminds me that they could make a connection.
  
• On the Storyboard, I'd like to mark the path the characters took without revealing it to them.
  
• In Encounters and Quests, I'd like to be able to denote multiple options/tactics and then highlight the one that I actually used for the encounter.

Other uses if someone didn't want to use the GM reveal as I describe could include flagging material for revision, highlighting important pieces, highlighting things that are out of the norm, highlighting skill check items, etc.... In other words, it can be versatile and non-specific for GM's to use as they please.

[Zaphod Beebledoc]

I can see a use for this, +1.

[pyremius]

Definitely agree with this.

Knowing choices used (or unused) can help quite a bit in improving continuity, and many times we want to leave it up to the players to notice (or not) the connections on their own.

[Dr_Automaton]

As long as it didn't muddy the interface too much, I could certainly get behind something like this. I try to track these things in my campaign journal, but it's easy to leave some of the seemingly insignificant details out in the interest of brevity. This could be really useful when used with the Game Session feature.

[ChrisRevocateur]

This sounds extremely useful actually. +1

[Grey Mage]

+1 to my mind

[Cornelius]

At first glance this seems useful, but as I think about it I wonder if it is really necessary.

With individuals: The situation you describe I would have in an encounter topic several snippets with information about the individual. I would make a link to the topic describing the individual in more detail. When the snippet is revealed to the players I know that they have the information, but not necessarily the information who the person is.

Storyboard: I would reveal all steps within the storyboard that the players used. the ones they did not use I would keep not revealed. So the steps in the storyboard that are revealed show the path the players took. The question is why would you not reveal the path the players took?

In Encounter topics I will reveal only the information the players received. All the options that they did not use are not revealed. If I had several options the one revealed is the one I used. The others are not revealed.

Flagging material for revision: You could use the Notes section for this. It is the area where you can place notes on revisions. You can use links or relationships to link it to the topic you need to revision. With relationships it will be shown when you look at the topic. Although I must agree that it would be useful here.

Flagging important snippets or those out of the norm: I am not sure I would use this. Although some information may be important it is up to the players to determine if they think it is important. If there is something that I need to know when I click on the topic I would probably add a snippet with this information. A snippet that will not be revealed to the players of course. I can use other fonts or make the information bold so it stands out for me as GM.

Highlighting skill check items: not sure what you mean by this. Can you give some example?

[AEIOU]

I really appreciate Cornelius' examination of my suggestion. We all think differently and have different approaches to gaming. And we are all trying to figure out how to use RW productively.

To clarify, my suggestion is for something very simple and versatile. I want something that is not disruptive and does not require extra steps -- click it and move on. If I'm in the heat of the moment, I don't want to interrupt my train of thought or the flow of ideas or the unfolding game.

The functionality is already planned for players -- so it requires very little (if any) new code but rather just one more user to account for.

Another really good use for this functionality is for those of us GM's that sometimes play NPC's alongside the party -- extra help, followers, key story NPC's, etc. I need to be able to track what they know which is quite possibly quite different from what the players know.

[Knightblde]

What about a three state reveal? For instance:

1 (grey) = not at all
2 (yellow) = aware, but not shown to players
3 (green) = shown to players

Alternatively, yellow could be something you plan to reveal to players.
Basically, it could be anything that you as GM wants it to be.

Then you wouldn't have to have a new account and you could give each player a different state.

This could be very useful.

[Zaphod Beebledoc]

This makes me think about how we are going to differentiate between the revealed information for different players once that feature comes online. Different colours for the reveal button?