Hiding 'secrets' in homebrew campaign settings

[Maerok]

I'm curious on how to go about hiding secrets and other potential opportunities for a twist in a story within a campaign setting you make that someone else will use. And this is a rather meta question in terms of producing a self-contacted product.

For instance, in a campaign setting being developed the angels and demons make a secret pact that can be acted upon if certain conditions are met. Or if in a variant setting Elminster can be defeated easily in a tickle fight.

You want that to be sort of background information that could be used in a scenario based on that campaign. But you don't necessarily want players to know about it, but how do you go about it? If it's your own setting and you are the DM that is fine but if you distribute it then that's more of an issue. It's a matter of putting something that you don't want openly read into something that will be read.

I guess one idea would be to have a separate chapter of 'Super Secret Secrets' that players are not advised to read. Or placed numbers references throughout the campaign text leading back to a list of secrets.

[RandomNPC]

It's fun to play the goofy mode in Fallout New Vegas, but with a human storyteller it looses some of its luster unless the storyteller knows about it and understands why it's supposed to be funny, and has a grip on how to tell the scene.

For instance, fallout 2 has the bridge keeper from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. If you've never seen the movie, it's an odd bit of the game you don't understand. If you were a DM reading that to players and you didn't know the movie, you'd probably skip right over it, but to players who know about it, they'd love the encounter.

[Maerok]

Well I'm not sure if that's want I'm talking about. That's pop culture references most people should be aware of.

What I'm talking about is how to hide backstory and possible plot points from players within a campaign setting text.

[valadil]

I think your best bet is to include a GM's section of the documents. Explain that campaign secrets lie in there and the players will have a better time experiencing them in the game than by reading through them. I've played several games that do this and the players had no trouble respecting this sort of thing.

[Maerok]

Great. I know I wouldn't be able to filter out knowing that kind of stuff if I read it ahead of time, so I figure that'd be the way to do it.

[Savannah]

Basically two options that I see:

1. Include a DM section that is clearly labeled that includes the secrets.

2. Write vague ideas and rumors so that each DM can choose which (if any) are true in his/her version of the world.

In your case, sounds like the former is your best bet.

[Yora]

The problem with many published campaign settings is, that most are written entirely for GMs. But players want to read all the details as well, so they'll read them too.

Instead of making a Fantasy World Campaign Setting and a Fantasy World Player's Guide, people should instead write a Fantasy World Campaign Setting and Fantasy World Gamemaster's Guide.

Also, writers should not give away absolutely everything. One of the major reasons I lost interest in the Forgotten Realms was, that I, and many other people, knew the 100% undisputed truth behind everything, the mystery is completely gone. Instead I think that a setting becomes much richer if many of the big questions just are not answered. For example, Eberron never states what the Gods are and what they do. It's entirely left to the people within the world to form an oppinion about that, and so can the players from the perspective of their characters. In Dragon Age, you have many groups that interpret the same events in very different ways. Is trapping all mages in Towers and only letting them out on a leash a cruel and horrible practice, since they never did anything wrong, or is it an act of mercy and compassion, since it would be a lot easier and safer to simply kill every child with magical abilities and people are going through great efforts to find a way to allow them to live without being a deadly threat to everyone. By not giving an answer to that, writers can greatly improve any setting.

[Eldan]

For the one I have here on the forum (Etherworlds), I solved it basically like this:

I post the general knowledge, and a few semi-secret things, but all the really secret stuff I just don't post. Other DMs can, either, make up their own ideas about guild secrets or other things like that, or contact me personally.

I know it's a bit needlessly complicated, but I don't want my players to know and that is, really, more important than finishing the setting for other people.

[Strormer]

Most published campaign settings have what is called the "campaign" section, ie: "An Eberron Campaign" from Eberron Campaign Setting 3.5.
This section is really all for DMs, moreso than anywhere else in the text and players often skip this section because it doesn't interest them. The real truth is, though, if you write it they will read. That is, if it's out there someone, some player, will not only read it, but possibly memorize it. There are players out there who've never DM'd a game, but they have memorized the stats for a dozen of the most common monsters just because they want the meta knowledge. If you want the big giant secrets written out somewhere then just write a obvious DM only section and let the chips fall where they may.

[Lonely Tylenol]

The campaign setting I am working with has "Pazuzu Pazuzu Pazuzu" graffiti'd on numerous surfaces, such as tombstones, dungeon walls, church walls, and what not. They can usually be found by being creative about where you look; you know, upon reading the tombstones... Make a spot check. Or something to that effect. If they read it aloud, then Pazuzu is called, as per the normal rules.

However, Pazuzu isn't the same demon of high stature that he used to be, and it's all because of an aspiring artist who once came to rely on Pazuzu's help to become successful, and was one of the few to escape the Cult of Pazuzu; he was so irked by Pazuzu's arrogance that he swore to humble the demon. He set about the world, painting "Pazuzu Pazuzu Pazuzu" on the walls, ceilings, floors, pavements, and other surfaces of every place he visited. He started a worldwide whisper campaign by marking Pazuzu's name three times in graffiti all throughout the lands, and before long, people began to whisper Pazuzu's name everywhere, all at once. At first, Pazuzu welcomed his new customers with eagerness, taking this as an opportunity to spread his evil influences throughout the world; however, the volume of people calling his name (either out of earnest need for help, confused utterances of readers and passerby, or just people engrossed in the memetic value of the graffiti campaign) caused his power to spread incredibly thin, and he quickly became overwhelmed, draining his wish-like powers almost completely. It was in this way that Pazuzu, one of the high lords of the Abyss, was brought down by the language of one brilliant artist.

Pazuzu still comes when called--he is bound to by oath, after all--but having fallen from glory, he is capable of doing little more to aid those who call him than to grant minor boons and the like... Though this doesn't stop him from trying to subvert every request that he can.

[bloodtide]

Just make two copies.

1.Has the normal stuff.
2.Has the normal stuff plus secrets.

Your typing this all up on a computer right? So copy/paste is easy.

[Maerok]

Well another thing I was thinking of, I'm slowly plodding my way through developing a system (I'm always bogged down with the roll mechanics), is that the Secrets Chapter is divided up for PC use anyway. If your 'Lore' Skill meets a certain level then a PC can read that far into the Secrets Chapter.

[Altair_the_Vexed]

Publish the material with two sections, or even two books: Common Knowledge and GM Secrets. Don't duplicate the Common Knowledge stuff into the GM Secrets section.

It takes a deliberate act to open and read the GM Secrets section. As we all know, no-one worth playing with ever cheats at RPGs, that'd be lame.
Just as players can read the module you're planning to run if it's readily available to buy, they could read the GM Secrets section - but they'd know they were reading stuff from the Book of Forbidden Lore, and hopefully be suitably ashamed of themselves.

[Maerok]

I wouldn't call it cheating necessarily, just opening your presents before Christmas.

[Mnemnosyne]

Looking at this from a player's point of view, I honestly prefer to know everything so that I can determine what my character does or does not know. I'm pretty good at separating character knowledge from player knowledge, though, and I understand some people aren't. So yeah, a 'DM section' is a nice way of hiding the things that probably aren't commonly known, but thorough players like myself will read that stuff anyway.

The only thing I tend not to read are actual published adventures - I almost never read one of them, because of the off-chance that some future DM of mine may decide to run them. Beyond that, though, I want to know everything, because maybe I want my character to know about <secret thing>. It might make for a very interesting plot point or bit of backstory.

[Yora]

How many people in Eberron know what became of Kaius I.?
How many player know what became of Kaius I.? Pretty much everyone who knows just a single thing about Karnath.

It's as exiting as wondering what will become of that kid Anakin Skywalker.

[TheVileVillain]

I would suggest writing a separate booklet with a note that says not for players on the front (like the book of vile darkness).

[NichG]

7th Sea has, in its section on the Sidhe, approximately these instructions:

The Sidhe are very alien beings. People say all sorts of things about them. Here is a list of examples:

1,2,3,...

GMs: For the Sidhe, pick a number of things of this sort that are true, not necessarily referring to this list at all.

From a setting designer's point of view that kind of thing isn't so satisfying since its more random or up to the target GM than a true hidden secret to be discovered. In that case, I'd advise doing something like what Planescape does, which is to create a lot of leading questions in the setting materials that hint at the secret that you as the designer have created, but which don't have any real provable answer. A GM reading these things will say 'Neat, here's something I can do my own spin on and make the focus of a game/campaign!'. They might not do it your way, but even if they don't whatever they come up with will link together seemingly disparate things and seem like a eureka to the players who have also read the books when its finally revealed.

For example (genericish):

Section on Metropolis City: ... People have been disappearing from the upper class quarter of the city, something that has the rich and powerful sending the city's police out in force. But to date, despite these efforts, the police have been unsuccessful at discovering the cause of the disappearances. It seems that these nobles simply vanish from their own homes without a trace or any sign of entry.

Section on Lurnberg Town, 50 miles to the east: ... Strange flashes of light have been seen in the night northwards of Lurnberg on the slopes of the Grimvir mountains, but as these have been reported by farmers, beggars, and the like, not much attention has been given. With the sightings increasing, conspiracy theorists are flocking to Lurnberg to see if they can discover something.

Section on Grimvir Mountains: ... Craggy and inhospitable, only the stoutest frontiersmen make their homes here. There have been reports of recent earthquakes, though nothing of this has been felt even as close as Lurnberg.

And so on. A GM who reads all this might decide 'three unrelated plot hooks' or 'mad scientist lurking in the Grimvir mountains experimenting with teleportation to kidnap nobles who denied him funding'

[Bagelz]

its already been mentioned but i'll add my vote:
if its not for players eyes, don't put it in the same document. Add a footnote that says see section 6.3 in the DM's document for more detailed information.

I find its far too easy to skim over the sections labeled "DM's eyes only" and gain meta information. Its much easier for me not to read a different document than not to read a section in a document that has already peaked my interest.

[Maerok]

Trail of Cthulhu did it a bit like NichG was saying: just sort of left open strings and some options for the origin of the Old Ones.

That kind of falls in line with my 'let the GM do their thing' aspect of design.

I'm hoping to finally get this system out of my skull by January.

[Gnoman]

One way to do it is to provide relatively massive amounts of information about the world (a wiki is a very good way to do this.) There's plenty of potential plot hooks that can develop, for example, from a three-way succession war three centuries before the current game (just as a few examples, noble houses could be trying to regain their social positions that were lost because they backed the wrong side, heirloom weapons of fantastic power were lost on the field of battle and now have been recovered, the tombs of fallen kings and princes await plundering.) However, few players are going to do much more than skim the section on the "Three Emperor's War" unless they have a specific reason to. If the setting is a popular one, adventure writeups and bits of backstory can be retroactively added to the setting as well (with tweaking, of course.)