Player View

[ruhar]

I can think of one or two players who would be a little obnoxious trying to find out what was missing. As a player I'd be extremely curious not to mention it would kind of bug me something was missing. As a GM I also want it to look neat and nice. Blame undiagnosed OCD or whatever alphabet it would fall under. If LW can't or won't do it I can live with it. It's just a suggestion, which is what we're suppose to do as beta testers.

[Silveras]

I'm not trying to be hostile, or obtuse, but I am sure the nature of text exchanges isn't helping me avoid that.

[Dr_Automaton]

Curse you, written word! No worries, I was probably just reading too much into things (and made the mistake of peeking into a video game news comment thread earlier -- that's never a good idea).

[ruhar]

And trying to type on an iPhone doesn't help me either. I tried to select a smiley face last time and the buttons were too small. Darn buttons.

[DeckOfManyThings]

Originally Posted by Silveras

Thanks, but I can't really see any metagame applications.

And the signature example doesn't work.. I'd like to see some kind of actual issue that could occur.

As I see it, worst case:

The player knows there *could be* one or more additional details s/he does not have access to, because the missing numbered sections may or may not contain anything.

Her's an example:

Players see that they have sections 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, and 8 revealed. They notice they are missing section 5.

They stop playing the game and begin a discussion among themselves what 5 is, and why it's being kept from them. The game has devolved into an elaborate game of "What's My Line". They pester the GM to reveal 5 if they guess correctly. Dumb theories are thrown about for the rest of the night.

And it doesn't end there. "Snippet 5" becomes a running joke for the rest of the campaign. If ever the GM holds back ANY information, it's called "Snippet Five-ing Us". Eventually it stops being used in just the game, but begins to take a life of its own within the group.

Someone starts dating. Their friends ask if they have figured out their significant other's "Snippet 5" yet. At the wedding the entire best man's speech is about a list of the groom's Snippet 5's. Eventually the couple have a kid, and to mess with the group, they give them the middle name of Snippet 5. The kid then grows up in a world where he has to explain the origin of Snippet 5 to all his teachers, employers and friends. In spite of the weird name, they become successful and go into politics. Even though they changed their name years ago, the entire concept of Snippet 5 lives on with them. They run their campaign based on "revealing the snippet 5's that the government has been keeping from you."

They eventually become president, they now have enough power to pull the Game Master of his his old-folks home and brought before a grand jury. They demand to know what Snippet 5 was on that NPC their parents met so long ago.

The Game Master thinks long and hard, and finally says "Oh right, I remember now. Favorite color: Blue, NPC is more favorable to characters wearing blue or have blue eyes or involve blue things."

This may sound far fetched, but think about your gaming group. Seems more plausible now doesn't it?

(I admit, I am tired and should go back to bed.)

[Zaphod Beebledoc]

Originally Posted by DeckOfManyThings

(I admit, I am tired and should go back to bed.)

Yes. Yes you should!

[ruhar]

LOL
I've been in groups that Snippet 5 would go to the extreme outside of the game, a running joke. It probably drove the GM crazy, but we were crazy like that. hehehe

[ruhar]

I loved DeckofManyThings scenario so much I had to share with a group of friends I use to play with. They not only thought it was funny, but they could see themselves doing it and came up with more ideas of what they could do as players and GMs.

[bodrin]

Sit back and I'll regale you with a tale!

Over six years ago I began to run The Age of Worms AP from dungeon magazine.

In a module entitled The Spire of Long Shadows the Brave (?) heroes encounter a circular walled area that contains one structure. A temple dedicated to Kyuss the Wormgod.

The area before the structure is bare open ground, a 200' ft radius of bare open ground.

Multiple character deaths occurred in this bare open ground, a magic carpet was destroyed, assaults and tactical withdrawals executed. One player had on hand 7 characters, just in case! (The last one survived IIRC)

Here's the crux of the story. The term "6 weeks 200 feet" is still used in my traumatised group of players to describe a particularly difficult and frustrating task.

So a Snippet 5 saying is a likely outcome. Especially amongst RPG participants. Cantankerous as we are.

[Dakadin]

LOL DeckOfManyThings! I like the story even if the example is a bit over the top.

One thing that I just occurred to me that would be hard not to meta game. If NPC A has sections 1 and 3 revealed but NPC B has sections 1 and 2 revealed. If they know that section 3 is about enemies from NPC A, then they will know that they don't know NPC B's enemies.

But then again the section headings probably would give that away too.