Handing out character secrets before the game
Give each player a secret their character knows about the upcoming adventure before starting the game. During the game, players can decide when and how to reveal the information they gained through the secret. Revealing a secret from the character’s perspective breaks up the monotony of the GM always delivering the lore. In addition, character secrets can make a character feel special and connected to the game world.
Connecting character secrets to the adventure
When we’re coming up with secrets to hand out before the session, we can think of different elements a character might have knowledge of. For example:
- A character might know (of) NPCs of the adventure, or have interacted with them previously.
- A character might have encountered a monster that’s coming up in the adventure before, giving them knowledge over strengths and weaknesses.
- A character might know (of) a location from the adventure.
- A character might know (of) a magic item which can be found during the adventure.
- A character might know (of) a villain of the adventure.
During our game prep, we can think through these options, and decide which one fits a particular character best.
Inspired by randomness
… or we let randomness inspire our preparation. Use the generator above to come up with different secrets each session. The generated secrets of course are a starting point, and need to be customized to fit the character and the adventure.
