Quote Originally Posted by Talakeal View Post
Pretty sure I did exactly that, although I said it through an NPC.

Hmmm... maybe that is an issue? Players are so used to ignoring NPCs and skipping cut scenes in video games that they don't realize the GM is using them to convey vital information and helpful hints?
Yes, it is.

The problem is an out-of-character problem. Brian the player at the table can't think of other actions to declare for his character (in this case because he has misunderstood one of his tools).

And because "Brian forgot/misunderstood something" is a thing which is possible because Brian is an actual person with a meat brain which can forget or misunderstand things, and "Brian's character forgot/misunderstood something (without failing an explicit check to recall or understand)" is not because Brian's character is not a real being which can forget or misunderstand things, you start with out-of-character information every time.

Whenever the players' actions don't make sense, assume a disconnect in the player and fix it out of character, the gentle way of fixing it is "your character knows X, in light of that do you still want to do Y". It's gentle because it's not telling them what to do, either in DM voice or NPC voice, it's coming from within (their character knows a thing).

The two big things that will cause this are either the player has forgotten how a rule works or not anticipated a consequence which would be obvious to the character in the moment.