E-mailing information to players does not work

[Jon_Dahl]

Well, I must say that I'm pretty upset right now.

One of my players wanted a druid of the Old Faith. That was fine. I sent him a 675-word introduction to the faith (this text was all written by me, no copy&paste) and also one secret of the faith, which his character's mentor had revealed to him. He replied to the e-mail and said that everything was clear.

Another player wanted to create a Seeker of the Arcane. I sent him a very short introduction to the society and also bios of two NPC contacts that he has in the society.

Now the druid's player claims that he has never heard of the druidic secret. I show him the e-mail and he says that he has completely missed that information. I feel like bursting. Your character's mentor has revealed just ONE secret to your character and you didn't even see it, even though you said that everything was clear. I felt like flipping the table over and going AAAAAARGH

The player of the Seeker of the Arcane can't remember the name of his character's other NPC contact. He said that the reason is that he couldn't print it out. Seriously, print it out? Your character has to remember names of TWO NPCs and you can't remember them because you don't have a printer at your disposal? I really had to stare him in the eye for a moment, just to make sure he wasn't pulling my leg.

Has anyone else have this sort of experience? That you e-mail information about the game to your players and it gets flushed down the toilet? Is this common? What should I do in the future? If someone wants to play a character who has to understand or remember A, B and C, what can I do as a gamemaster in order to make sure that it will work? Should I just ban all organizations and have orphan PCs with no contacts and memberships?

[AClockworkMelon]

There's nothing you can do as a DM to ensure that people care as much as you do about the world you've created other than to relax and realize that it's all vanity. They're going to refer to major villains as "that guy," they're going to mix up the races of their characters' adoptive parents, and they might even forget the names of their characters' gods. Maybe with time and exposure to your world that'll change, or maybe it wont. That wouldn't be a tragedy and it shouldn't get you worked up.

[Logic]

*snip*

Please don't take what I am about to say next as a criticism on your part, this is just how I do things, and thought you might like a suggestion for use in the future.

Go ahead and send the documents like you had before, but bold the names of the NPCs as well as a quick description up front (blond elf tall male loud annoying) before their slightly more detailed description.

Do the same bold technique for the secret. It is a little more conspicuous and at that point your players have little leeway in saying "I didn't notice."

"I can't remember" is unfortunately still a valid excuse.

[Jon_Dahl]

Please don't take what I am about to say next as a criticism on your part, this is just how I do things, and thought you might like a suggestion for use in the future.

Go ahead and send the documents like you had before, but bold the names of the NPCs as well as a quick description up front (blond elf tall male loud annoying) before their slightly more detailed description.

Do the same bold technique for the secret. It is a little more conspicuous and at that point your players have little leeway in saying "I didn't notice."

"I can't remember" is unfortunately still a valid excuse.

This is a very good idea. E-mails still may have hope after all.

[endoperez]

The players should put this information on their character sheets.

There's probably something like "Notes" in there somewhere.

Contact: Guy A
Contact: Guy B


Information: Druidic Secret (don't tell others)


That's a small, constant reminder that there's something like that the characters knows about it. The more interesting thing is the fact that character sheets will probably be seen by other players, and they'll hopefully be "Dude, your character knows a secret! Cool! What's it about?" and then he'll probably spill the beans.

[nedz]

I've had similar things happen.

I had a guy joining an existing campaign, so before the session I emailed him the houserules, campaign background etc. He designed a character and in a short series of email exchanges we ironed out the details. In my final email I described how he had joined the party. This allowed me to start him in media res without wasting too much game time.

Towards the end of the session, we tend to run over a whole weekend, I got the comment. "I've just read your last email and now I understand what's going on. I was a bit confused at first.". He had simply missed the email, and I hadn't realised.

There's not much you can do I'm afraid, other than give them a hard copy at the start of the session — but there's no guarantee that they will bother to read that either.

[hymer]

A lot is, of course, dependent on the player. I have one player who I consider notorious for not reading up on anything - rules, handouts, the lot. And this is not because he's dyslexic or anything like that. So the obvious solution is not to give him any handouts longer than two lines, and not having the session depend on him having read what I've sent him before it.
I have a heavy to industrial strength dyslexic player, too, who also needs special consideration. Whenever possible, I make sure he's not the only one with the handout if it's that important, I use short words and sentences if I expect him to get it - and I prefer to take him aside and read it to him.

But you know, most of my players read what they're supposed to read. Three of them even swallow anything I send them eagerly.

[geeky_monkey]

The average person spends less than 15 seconds reading an email.

If they need to know something don't bury it in a 675 word email.

Either send it seperately, or if you have to send it with the wall of text put it at the top of the email in bold.

[Jon_Dahl]

The average person spends less than 15 seconds reading an email.

If they need to know something don't bury it in a 675 word email.

Either send it seperately, or if you have to send it with the wall of text put it at the top of the email in bold.

First I sent 300-word e-mail and he replied to have understood it.
Then I sent another 300-word e-mail and he replied to have understood it.
Bolding is a good idea!

[GAThraawn]

First I sent 300-word e-mail and he replied to have understood it.
Then I sent another 300-word e-mail and he replied to have understood it.
Bolding is a good idea!

Understanding something is one thing, remembering specifically the information you want them to is another thing. Don't forget, while they may have forgotten the only relevant piece of information you gave them, as far as you are concerned, you don't know how much of the rest of the stuff they did retain. Human brains are tricky like that, especially if they don't know beforehand what they're supposed to remember. It's possible your druid remembers 500 of the 675 words you wrote him, which would be incredibly impressive if he only read it once or twice, just not the secret.
Maybe he read it at 3 in the morning, noted that the secret was important, and forgot about it the next day. If you've ever been involved in taking or grading standardized tests, you'll know that even the brightest and most dedicated minds forget things that they have been actively studying; and I doubt you want your players to feel like your D&D sessions are a standardized test.

In other words, it happens, there's tricks you can use to help people remember things, but don't take it personally if they don't. More likely than that they think your world is unengaging and boring, they probably just forgot.

[GnomeFighter]

I have a heavy to industrial strength dyslexic player, too, who also needs special consideration. Whenever possible, I make sure he's not the only one with the handout if it's that important, I use short words and sentences if I expect him to get it - and I prefer to take him aside and read it to him.

Sugestion for a dyslexic from a dyslexic... Bullit point the important bits. Explain verbaly and give him a bullit point summery as a reminder.

[Surfnerd]

You are not alone. As the old saying goes, you can lead a horse to water, but you will probably have to shoot it for being stubborn.....

I have an Obsidian Portal for my campaign, but really its just for me. I get the "Oh, thats awesome!" "I will check it out" "Oh really I'm going to get caught up".... I'm just glad it doesn't have a counter for traffic, then I'd know no one but me ever goes there.

I blog session synopsis and my two most avid readers are friends that don't even play in our group!!!!!

Thus in conclusion, Vulcan Mind Meld or Jedi Mind Meld(its new some sort of presidential magic). Its the only way to know for sure.

[Slipperychicken]

People are busy, not everyone has time to read an email, especially if it isn't formatted. I bet he skimmed the email, tragically skipping over the Druidic secret.

[Minitroll]

I personally think you should of bolded or made large that druidic secret. As for the names, he should of written them down, but I still forget name's sometimes in my campaign as a PC, so he's got a fair alabi. Sure, the druid should of read in more depth, but a few size, color and bold buttons could of relieved both sides of annoyance.

[valadil]

I have two hints.

If you want players to read the email, put rewards in there too. I send out XP and loot in email. Players never miss those emails.

Limit how much you write. I don't give anyone more than a single page. More than that and they'll put it off.

[Synovia]

Please don't take what I am about to say next as a criticism on your part, this is just how I do things, and thought you might like a suggestion for use in the future.

Go ahead and send the documents like you had before, but bold the names of the NPCs as well as a quick description up front (blond elf tall male loud annoying) before their slightly more detailed description.

Do the same bold technique for the secret. It is a little more conspicuous and at that point your players have little leeway in saying "I didn't notice."

"I can't remember" is unfortunately still a valid excuse.

A agree with this. If you send me something thats almost 1000 words, I'm going to just skim it unless you're Hemingway.

Either bold everything thats important, or break it down into a bulleted list.

[hymer]

@ GnomeFighter: Thanks, duly noted.

[GungHo]

How old are the players and what else do they have going on in their lives?

Sometimes people get afflicted with situational CRS. Sometimes people skim because they're in a hurry. If you asked me to tell you the last three things I read on this forum I probably couldn't tell you. It's not because I'm necessarily a fool... I just got interrupted 3 times while writing this post.

[Lord Torath]

If something looks hard to read, it is hard to read.

Put your most important parts up front, and repeat them at the end.

Try to keep your paragraphs short (2-3 lines, no more the 7-8 lines. Try to use short sentences and also use short words when you can. ("when you can" is better than "when possible")

Bullet points are a good idea, but don't include more than 6-7 points in one list.

If you make it look easy to read, your players are more likely to remember what you want them to.

[Sutremaine]

The player of the Seeker of the Arcane can't remember the name of his character's other NPC contact. He said that the reason is that he couldn't print it out. Seriously, print it out? Your character has to remember names of TWO NPCs and you can't remember them because you don't have a printer at your disposal?

Tell him to write it out on a piece of paper. If he's that reliant on electronics, maybe it never occurred to him.

Did you provide any other details about the contact but the name? If the contact has a random fantasy name (or even a regular name) and a little yellowy dog that they like to take everywhere possible, I'm more likely to remember them even if the name slips my mind. I'm really bad with names.

[Thajocoth]

I wouldn't remember them either...

But I would create a cheat sheet with the few important details of what was in that e-mail. If it's that long, then a lot of it is likely obvious or fluff. The important parts I'll actually need should fit in list form on an index card.

In one campaign I played in, the party's psion would routinely take out an index card that listed everyone we knew & how we knew them, referring to the card as his character's memory.

I, personally, don't want to memorize things to play. I want to just play. There's a reason I've been leaning towards barbarians... Planning? Tactics? Nope... HULK SMASH! (or intimidate). I also do not like playing anything normal. I refuse to play humans entirely, and don't like dwarves, elves, etc... Even an orc or a minotaur are a bit too normal. Maybe an intelligent humanoid ooze creature or at least a naga or something... I'm still waiting to play my 4e character I made, Grizz, the Bugbear Barbearian. His backstory has plenty of people a DM could use if they wanted to, but they all fit on an index card I can keep with me (and most of their names mean "bear" in various languages).

Short version: Keep in mind who your players are. Some people want a heavy roleplaying memorize everything type of game. Some want a break from thinking.

[NichG]

To follow up on memory stuff. Memory comes from connecting things to other things you know. So you remember a secret if, when reading it, you understand why it is a secret and why it is important. If the secret is just 'EGTHZ is the magic word' then you'll forget it, because it has no connection to anything else so it just tends to get lost.

Same for contact information. If the information is 'Name 1 is in place name 2' you'll forget it. I've forgotten things like the name of my character's parents, which I myself determined and wrote down, because after character generation it never came up until at one point I wanted to make a comment about it and realized I'd forgotten. It wasn't connected to anything actually in-play.

So if you want someone to remember something, tie it in to things they already know. Make sure its relevant to something they not only know, but care about in some way. Its hard to do this before play even begins, which may be what you ran into. In this case I'd suggest having a 'pilot' session before doing any of this background stuff, where you establish the world, the party, big NPCs, etc in the minds of the player. Then send this stuff out before session 2, making sure to link it to things in session 1.

[hiryuu]

I have an Obsidian Portal for my campaign, but really its just for me. I get the "Oh, thats awesome!" "I will check it out" "Oh really I'm going to get caught up".... I'm just glad it doesn't have a counter for traffic, then I'd know no one but me ever goes there.

I blog session synopsis and my two most avid readers are friends that don't even play in our group!

I have this same problem. Everyone is interested, tangents are at almost nil, and everyone is tripping over themselves trying to get to game on time - but only one player actually bothered to read my e-mails.

Actually, this is kind of a funny story. Here is the e-mail I sent:

Here's the deal: I'd like to try running a nWoD game, either off and on or full on.

What I'd like to do is have people start out as mortals/Hunter Tier 1 to Tier 2 types with minimal knowledge of the supernatural; some is ok (and the Occult skill is perfectly fine (talk to me, I have a specialties list)), but for the most part, the supernatural is unknown because A) Clarke's Law and B) I've said it before: in this "setting," the books are all lies and any knowledge you have of how the canon setting "works" is not how it works. As time goes on, the nature of things will hopefully be slowly peeled away and movement up tiers and even templates will occur. This will be a heavy RP/investigation type game, and I am looking for normal people. Police officers, investigators, and other such "situation pokers" are ok. I'd like a short write up of friends and family and the sorts of thing your character does on their time off. If you have trouble, contact myself or (other player) who can help you.

Places of inspiration for the theme and tone of the setting I'm going for include:
Twin Peaks (TV series)
The Addams Family (TV series/films)
Persona (video game series)
Blue Velvet (film)
X-Files (TV series)
Ray Bradbury Theater (TV series)
Ink (film)
SCP Series (internet meta-fiction)
The Machinist (film)

...hopefully that's enough.

The game will take place in the fictional town of Fort Coral, based on a combination of Ft. Myers and New Orleans, a once proud tourist community now wracked with extensive hurricane damage and surrounded by urban decay, degenerating into a small town as time passes.

The characters I received were:

A slightly "off" FBI/VASCU agent with some minor psionic abilities related to investigation (not exactly what I asked for, but...[sarcasm]No, please. Don't take abilities that let me feed you information in the investigation heavy game[/sarcasm]. He's 50% Dale Cooper, 50% Fox Mulder. SCORE!)

An Addams. Well, "van Buren," but he lives in a creepy house in a creepy swamp in a creepy orange grove and has a creepy family. They're disturbingly wholesome and awesome (SCORE!)

And then: "ex-marine sniper, uses smg" is the entirety of his backstory. His character sheet has all his dots in Firearms, Brawl, and Weaponry. Intimidate, Animal Ken (Big Dogs). All mental dots in Medicine. He did bother to indicate that his old unit is in town and they hang out on the weekends.

And an ex-Army Airborne sniper. His backstory is a four-page gear list (with prices listed and what websites he bought them from!). He has no family or friends, use a post office box to get his mail, and squats in a warehouse that has closed-circuit cameras that uplink to a cloud server that broadcasts motion changes to his phone. He hunts rats and fishes in the river, foraging for all his food, and has trapped his warehouse out the rear end. He has a couple decent hooks in his two-sentence backstory, so it's workable.

I re-sent the e-mail, just to double check and asked if those were the characters they wanted. They sent be back some confirmations. Those last two waited until the day of the game to tell me they'd never seen any of the media listed as inspirations. Once game got underway, they told me they did not know this would be a heavy investigation game. That last guy actually deliberately went the other way when I threw hooks directly related to his backstory at him.

I think from this point on I am just going to add "no ex-[military branch] anything" to my list of PCs that will not be approved.

T_T

[JoshuaZ]

hiryuu, it sounds there like some of your players just didn't want to play the sort of game you were intending. I'm puzzled though by their not at least looking at some of the media. Maybe when they said they weren't familiar with it you could have pointed to say the SCP list which is at least online?

It seems like this varies a lot by players. My players are fine with emailed info. The most serious issue I've had is a background issue in the first session; the players were supposed to have made characters with a connection to a specific noble family in a 3.5/PF game, and one player had a backstry that worked fine except that they thought the family was the imperial royal line- so it took a few minor adjustments to get it to work.

[Saph]

If you want players to read the email, put rewards in there too. I send out XP and loot in email. Players never miss those emails.

If only. Every time I send out XP in emails, I get the following conversation:

Player: "Did we get XP for last week?"
Me: "Yeah, I sent an email."
Player: "How much did I get?"
Me: "I don't know, check the email."
Player: "Did we level up?"
Me: "I don't know, check the email."
Player: "Could you just tell me?"
Me: "I did, in the email."
Player: "I can't find it, could you tell me again?"

So I go back and look up the email and tell them their XP value, and they write it down. Within a couple of weeks they've lost the piece of paper and the whole conversation repeats again.

[valadil]

If only. Every time I send out XP in emails, I get the following conversation:

In my games, those players don't level.

[hymer]

@ Saph: Suggest to your players they keep their XP total in a file on their computer, so they can copy/paste it over when they see the mail. One guy actually got huffy when I (politely) berated him for not keeping his records straight. Apparently, it was the finding of his character that tripped him up, somehow.

[Saph]

Oh, it's not a big deal. More of an amusement really.

I just find it hilarious that players will spend hours picking through books and databases for the best possible feats and alternate class features for their character, but can't be bothered to figure out when they level up.

[hiryuu]

hiryuu, it sounds there like some of your players just didn't want to play the sort of game you were intending. I'm puzzled though by their not at least looking at some of the media. Maybe when they said they weren't familiar with it you could have pointed to say the SCP list which is at least online?

I did. Even offered to lend DVDs, send links to synopses and theme ideas, or send files. If they weren't interested in playing that sort of game, I'd have been happy to alter things - I even tried a few times to inject a few more combat scenarios into it (and ones in which being a sniper/sharpshooter type would let them get the drop on the enemies), which those last two players actually outright attempted to avoid or flee entirely, rather than, say, do what their PCs were good at.

If they didn't want to play that game, they could have just said something (especially when I asked for confirmation if this was okay, and got back "yes" several times). There was literally just no communication despite repeated attempts by me to open dialogue.

[SoC175]

Is this common?

Absolutely.

What should I do in the future?

Learn to live with it

what can I do as a gamemaster in order to make sure that it will work?

Get used to remind him regularly