One of the players in my Friday night game is also the Dungeon Master of a separate game with a different group of players.  Over the past few weeks a couple of us from my group have been giving him some pointers and advice for running his game.  One of the topics that came up recently was the multitude of resources available to his groups’ paragon-tier characters, in particular their ability to gain information about the world around them.  We talked about how various skills, attributes, powers, and rituals could reveal information that could potentially undermine the DM’s story, plans, and plot arcs.  That led us to discussing ways to give PC’s “some” information, and reward their investigations, but avoid giving out too much and potentially ruining the story.  The following are a few of the points we discussed.

Truth

The first step in managing information is making sure there is some degree of uncertainty.  I like to establish early in the campaign the nature of truth and the accuracy (or lack thereof) of the information the characters acquire.  Even at the very beginning of a new campaign I try to be very clear differentiating between what the PC’s know with certainty, what they have second-hand knowledge of or is generally believed by the public, and what is purely in the realm of rumor and speculation.  This immediately sets the tone in the players’ minds that information comes in varying degrees of accuracy.  A sort of “buyer beware” mentality usually ensues.

Lying

With PC’s who have high interpersonal skills such as Diplomacy, Insight, and even Perception it may be difficult to impossible for an NPC to outright lie to them.  When people are trying to hide information from an interrogator they usually try to just alter certain facets of the truth while keeping most of the story honest and intact.  As a DM remember this; just because a PC thinks he’s being lied to, he doesn’t necessarily know what specifically is being lied about, let alone what the truth actually is.

Perspective

When giving out information one of the most important things to remember is to consider the source.  As a DM I think not just in terms of what an NPC knows or doesn’t know, but also how that knowledge may be colored by the character’s own viewpoint and perspective.  I like to ask myself a few questions about the information source:

• Does the source have a reason to lie to the PC’s?
• Has the source been lied to, or mislead?
• Has the source made assumptions about what it “knows”?
• Is there any language barrier between the source and the PC’s?
• Does the source use terms, expressions, or references that the PC’s don’t understand?
• How intelligent is the source?

All of these things color the information that the PC’s receive and may change the usefulness of the information gathered.  Even when using rituals like Speak With Dead it is important to remember that the caster isn’t speaking to the departed soul, but with the body itself.  The corpse takes on the role of a “recording device” unable to make assumptions or to speculate about the meaning of anything it witnessed.  It simply “plays back” information as it was witnessed, impartially and objectively. 

Source

All of the above points still need to be considered even when the PC’s are gaining information from a non-interactive source, such as an old tome, dusty scroll, or carved hieroglyphs.  Not only should you consider the original author’s perspective but also the author’s intent.  There is plenty of room for misinterpretation in old documentation, consider the following:

• The PC’s are translating the original text from a “dead” language.
• The author’s frame of reference is out of date or antiquated.
• The author intentionally used code, metaphor, or symbols in the text.
• The author may not have had first-hand information.
• The author had a bias or agenda in the way the information was presented.
• The author intentionally lied to save face, or rewrite history.

All of these could lead to uncertainty and questioning of the information the PC’s have acquired.  Ideally the characters should develop a policy of always double-checking the intelligence they have gained, especially when you consider the existence of illusionary magic and a world inhabited by several species of shape-changer.

Conclusion

One last point on information management.  Never lie about anything that “the DM tells the players”.  When you (as DM) give information directly to the players it should always be accurate and truthful.  Use the above techniques to produce “gray areas” such as when the characters have gained information from NPC’s, research, or even based on their own speculations.  Remember, as DM you do not need to confirm or deny anything.  If there is some gray area in what you are telling the players let them know this.  Use phrases such as:

• “According to rumor…”
• “Legend has it…”
• “Popular opinion states…”
• “It’s commonly believed that…”

Remember you never want the players to stop trying to acquire information by undermining their trust in the DM and the intel they gain.  Under ideal circumstances the players should trust 90% of what the DM tells them, leaving just a little room for doubt or at the very least they get in the habit of taking the information with a grain of salt.  I virtually never “lie” to players but, I want them to always remember that information is usually biased and oftentimes easy to misinterpret and manipulate.  I may not lie to the players but I also don’t correct their assumptions and speculation, after all it should always be up to the characters to determine how useful information is and what they should do with it.

The adventurer who believes everything he is told is a dead adventurer.  One who trusts his resources but double-checks his facts, lives to see the next tier.