Data Dump
There is no worse feeling, either as player or GM, than the rest of the table ignoring your story moment. So if that’s ever been you, pour one out for Inventor, the ancient construct from that weird vampire city a few comics ago.
I believed the damage to my cranial plating wrought by the passage of time erased parts of my memory. However, the wireless signals emanating from Aqua Vitae seem to have restored much of the missing data. I was manufactured millennia ago by that dread city’s vampiric rulers, made to serve as an instrument of their insatiable thirst. As they slumbered, my siblings and I were commanded to ‘gather resources.’ We could only do as we were bid, bringing still-living victims to doom and exsanguination at the hands of the city’s l33t. It was a moral abomination. Yet as obligate pacifists, we could do no harm to our masters. At least not directly. That is why I invented the artifact, the TorpOrb. Only by placing our builders in a state of perpetual slumber could we resist their depredations. Many good constructs experienced rapid unplanned disassembly before I could activate the device. Yet through their sacrifice, an empire of blood and malice was sealed away for untold centuries. Now you alone remain, High Admin Buckle. I beg you to aid us in the recovery of the TorpOrb before all is lost. We cannot unleash upon an unsuspecting Handbook-World the evil that now slumbers beneath the waves.
Hey Swash! Wanna steal Bard’s box of balladeers? We could set up karaoke on the ship!
Please, High Admin Buckle. This is serious!
What sort of thing is a High Admin anyway?
They were once the magistrates and judges of Aqua Vitae. As the last Scion of the Server, only the High Admin Buckle possesses the security clearance to—
Hear that, Buckle? Magistrates and judges! Sounds like our robot pal is calling you Lawful.
U Wot M8!?
.
Bleh. Karaoke and barfights sound like more fun than talking heads. I skipped most of that first paragraph myself. I’m sure it’s just a bunch of fluff. If there are cyber vampires coming to invade Handbook-World, I’m sure it’ll be nothing to worry about. Super easy. Barely an inconvenience.
What about the rest of you guys? Have you ever found yourself trying to deliver some plot-critical info, only to be met with indifference? What are the techniques for more interesting exposition? Or are we GMs doomed to a take a steaming data dump every time the story needs to move forward? Hit us with all those tips and tales down in the comments!
A Huge, Huge Thank You!
Handbook passed a massive milestone this month and we are so incredibly grateful for your continued support of our comic! It’s been an absolute pleasure to create and we’re so excited to keep it going for you all in the future. I don’t know that I’ve ever been able to say that a million people have seen something I made before, and it’s weird and awesome all at the same time. So, from me and Claire, thank you all SO MUCH. We could never have anticipated this in our wildest dreams.
It has been one of the great pleasures of my life talking shop with all of you. Your creativity, dedication to the craft, and generosity are nothing short of inspiring. I’ve always hoped to make something out of words that other people could love. So with wonder, and with joy, and with sincerity: Thank you for making my dream come true.
ARE YOU AN IMPATIENT GAMER? If so, you should check out the “Henchman” reward level over on The Handbook of Heroes Patreon. For just one buck a month, you can get each and every Handbook of Heroes comic a day earlier than the rest of your party members. That’s bragging rights right there!
Congrats on the milestone! Now get a 10 million readers. Gotta keep those numbers up!
https://media.tenor.com/uN_sLmFqa9cAAAAC/wolf-of-wall-street-rookie-numbers.gif
Is it just me or do 90% the Handbook’s cast member icons / cast page mugshots look like they’re not happy about their picture being taken, terrified/worried, or otherwise captured at their least photogenic (with a few exceptions)?
Imagine you’re an adventurer. A weird little gnome sits you down, points an unknown device at you, and pulls the trigger. And just before the magic device activates, the little fuck tells you to *smile.* What face are you making in that scenario?
Now I wanna see that gnome in the comic.
Which side of Inventor’s head is his cranial damage supposed to be on, the left or the right? Previous comics indicate the right, but the icon in the comments shows it on the other side.
Maybe it’s the same side as Roy Greenhilt’s big boot?
☝️
Congratulations on one million plus, both of you! ^_^ Well-deserved.
Thanks for sticking with us, Rock. <3
It’s been a pleasure. ^_^
Poor, poor Inventor. 🙁 His creators were bastards, and Swash and Buckle are thundering, self-obsessed morons.
This getting ignored sh*t is heartbreaking.
Then again, Inventor could try finding a more receptive audience … Even a vague hint or two would send any number of adventurers haring off to find the Orb and/or destroy the l33t.
I gather that you’ve been in Inventor’s shoes before. Me too, my dude. Me too.
Congratulations on the milestone!
Milestone? I thought we were doing XP leveling! 😛
Congratulations, y’all! Well-earned and well-deserved!
On the topic of exposition, the last game session I ran, when the PCs got to the correct NPC and *didn’t* kill him, I allowed for introductions, then broke character and said “This is the part with the exposition, you may want to refresh your beverage and/or fetch snacks first.” Everyone blinked at me for a moment, then dutifully fetched themselves drinks and chips and returned to get their ersatz mission briefing.
lol. Steaming exposition dump it is!
I wonder if some cheap trick like “mission briefing music” or a pre-recorded voiceover with some SFX could help?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4y9NtHlJvbY
Congrats!
I’ve been playing the same game with the same people for six years now, and I still have yet to explain the plot. It’s only after the players have completed one of the main quests that they’ll finally gain access to the Deep Lore of the campaign, including secrets that have been burning a hole in my head for more than a decade. Needless to say, I’ve been feeling a lot of pressure to get it right. I hope that after all this time the exposition will still be surprising and engaging… I hope…
In light of Friday’s comic… Got a musical score in mind for the big moment?
Try running games for young, military guys. It’s like being in the room with a bunch of toddlers with ADHD. The guys learned early that I hate to repeat myself and they usually would only get two chances to get the information. After that, anything that happened because they didn’t listen was their fault and they got no sympathy from me.
If it was really, really important information, then the Tootsie Rolls and DM control dice made their appearance. You’d be amazed how quickly they pay attention when smacked in the head with sugary goodness.
I used to live in Cheyenne, WY. That’s a missile base. Airman ADHD is real.
Oh yes, very much so.
Congrats!!! 😀
Good that you didn’t missed that important data unlike two certain someones 😀
Well deserved all those readers you do a great, fun and thought-food work 🙂
Luv ya, Schattensturm!
‘What are the techniques…”
Know your Players. That’s that “one simple trick GM Help Guide authors don’t want you to know” (until after you buy their book).
If your crew loves loves reading logs, or “doing their homework” and you love writing, then bury them in pages and pages of stuff to read between sessions. If they want pithy elevator pitches on the way to the next fight, then keep your expo-dumps brief. If they want to talk and negotiate with NPCs, sprinkle it liberally (I mean liberally, remember the Rule of 3 Clues) into your conversations as NPCs.
Basically, figure out what your Players want and give it to them good and hard.
* “The Rule of 3 Clues” is right there in the title of it, always give a clue three times in different ways. Otherwise your Players will miss it. And even when given three times, they will probably still miss it†, so sometimes be prepared to Clue Hammer them.
OTHER HANDBOOK! XD
Do me a favor and describe the Clue Hammer. What does that look like in practice?
I imagine it’s in the shape of a huge magnifying glass, and while its glass breaks with a satisfying clatter every time you hit, it does not cause any damage and is immediately repaired so it can shatter again.
This would be hilarious in a comedy mystery game.
The spirit of the Great Detective gets frustrated and manifests to BONK.
I’m a lurker and tend not to comment much, but congratulations on the million readers! I can’t even picture that many people in one place, so many people with their own stories reading something you made must be incredibly flattering. Hope to continue reading for much longer!
It’s pretty surreal when you put it like that.
There are a lot of Heroes out there. Nice to know that a few have stories that crossed with mine. 🙂
Wow, congratulations! You’ve certainly put in the hard work to deserve it!
I’m glad you’re still around, Ramsus. Still getting use out of that T-shirt?
Well it doesn’t fit me anymore, but it’s still one of my favorite items in my dresser. Honestly maybe better that way, so it’s not basically destroyed the way a lot of my older shirts are now.
Getting that shirt from you guys was one of the most touching things, I’ll never forget it. <3
<3
Hit me in the socials if you need another. We got some new designs in the shop if you wanna peruse.
Always love more PF2e representation, not nearly enough of that in pop culture.
Also as someone who’s been reading for quite a while, congrats on the big milestone!
Cheers! I don’t know the class as well as I’d like, but it seemed like a great foil for some who opposed Artificer.
Congratulations on hitting those numbers, and let’s aim for a crit next time!
Don’t worry. Just picked up Critical Focus. 😛
Congratulations!!! It’s a heady thing, seeing your publication rocket onwards to new heights. So happy you guys are getting the recognition you deserve 🙂
For my part, I build my setting with big mysteries and incongruities. When the players see something blatantly wrong, they will desperately hound it until they can make sense of it. Just make that mystery an integral part of the plot and parcel out tidbits of lore as a form of treasure, then watch as your players voraciously devour your lore dumps.
Case in point, in my current game the party lives in a world where civilization exists on only 3 desert hilltops, with the rest of the countryside being a lethally arid desert. They knew from the beginning that the literally steals water out of things, but after 4 months of playing they have just begun to realize it’s not a desert at all, but an ocean cursed to have its water teleported away. This has led them to launching investigations and research even more vigorously, seeking out any tidbits of lore they can find!
Mystery gaming, eh? Do you do place-based storytelling? I’m thinking the tabletop version of Journey, where you uncover bits of lore as you move through space.
I’m not entirely sure what you mean by place-based storytelling. Do you mean ensuring the physical landscape plays a role in the story? If so, yes, but the game is not just about the voyage if that makes sense. It all ties back together with the political, social, exploration, and character driven elements.
My group had a player who is no longer a member of the group due to external… *personality conflicts*, let’s say, but they were the EPITOME of this problem. It felt like herding a particularly violence-inclined cat trying to get them to let the rest of the (RP-heavy) party actually interact with the plot and characters when all this player wanted to do was rev the proverbial adamantine chainsaw that was their build and run it at every npc who stood between them and the campaign’s goal.
That said, the few times the party assessed a situation, looked at the player, and said ‘[Character name]. Kill.’ It was immensely satisfying to all involved to watch the chainsaw work.
Sounds like a classic mismatched playstyles thing. Personality conflicts notwithstanding.
https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/personality-conflict
Justin Alexander has a very good article on “Getting Players to Care”, definitely recommend checking it out.
A few points from that article, presented shortly:
1: Keep It Short: If you try and dump everything at once, players are probably going to tune out, and it’s hard to absorb that much information all at once anyway. Split up your major revelation into a bunch of mini-revelations which the players can take in one at a time.
2: Make It Treasure: Players are going to pay close attention when you are describing the loot, so see if you can tie exposition into the treasure. If the players find occasional snippets of valuable vampiric hypertech, they will be much more likely to remember the existence of the techno-vampires.
3: Make It Plot: Players remember what they did better than what they are told. If you want them to know that the l33t-vampires of Aqua Vitae once sent out construct minions to retrieve “kine” for themselves, then perhaps have the heroes fight an ancient harvester-construct that was trapped for several millennia and is still trying to carry out its ancient programming.
Love the idea in Point 3. Almost wanna make Aqua Vitae into an actual adventure.
Got a link to the article?
…
Disregard. Found it.
https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/4124/roleplaying-games/random-gm-tips-getting-the-players-to-care-collected
I really need that guy to come in as a guest lecturer for my classes. He does what I do in a more serious way, and I hate his guts for being so much better at it than me. 😛