Hacked!
This comic owes its existent to a comment thread. It was back here when Artificer was exposition dumping all over Swash and Buckle. We were talking getting your players the information they need to succeed. Of course the Three Clue Rule came up.
It’s 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.
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.
Rather than the Three Clue Rule, it’s really this latter piece of terminology that I’d like to talk about today. You see, I kept wondering what a Clue Hammer would look like. Today you’re finally seeing one in action. When the bad guys have no choice but to become GI Joe villains and explain their evil schemes, you might want to check over your shoulder. Because the spirit of the Great Detective is hovering nearby, and the power of BONK is about to manifest.
So what do you say, gamers? Have you ever been forced to put the plot in the mouth of an NPC? What collapse of communication or botched foreshadowing forced the maneuver? And in retrospect, how could you have handled it more elegantly? Tell us your tale of mystery, master pans, and oblivious amateur sleuths down in the comments!
Ahh, villainous monologuing! Is there any plot it can’t wreck? 😀
I’ve never had to do anything worse than the old “roll investigate to see if your character can put the pieces together” method. My players had found two separate clues that the weird old man wasn’t actually a werewolf, and instead was being framed. However, they ignored one of the clues and failed to recognize the significance of the other. Luckily, they succeeded the roll, and I didn’t have to resort to the clue by four.
I’ve certainly been on the player side of that situation a few times. And where things have usually gone wrong is that there’s too much happening at once… the clue gets recognised, but we’ve not correctly determined which plot thread it was important for.
It’s one of those cases where something can seem obvious to the GM with complete information, but less so to players lacking the big picture. It’s not just an RPG thing, of course… if you’ve ever played Codenames, you’ll know the frustration of people being unable to understand the blindingly obvious clues they’ve been given.
Of course, sometimes it’s just that the players have completely forgotten some critical detail that they did learn, but hasn’t come to mind. In our group, giving a relevant character an Intelligence roll to remember is the usual approach to that…
In regards to the alt-text, isn’t that what pinup polls and the other handbook are for?
I am reminded of Tom Exposition from the Glass Cannon podcast.
Also Garfield the Deals Warlock from the The Adventure Zone.
Sometimes it’s not a clue hammer, it’s a ridiculous joke NPC whos existence is defined by the PCs needing them to exist, or an in-joke manifestation.
Quest Giver probably falls into that category as well.
Pratchett’s Evil Lord Harry Dread comes to mind. The man was a traditionalist to the end.
He would always make sure to hire that one fat guard who would snore loudly outside the heroes’ cell with a big, obvious, easily-purloined brass keyring on his belt…the half-blind sentries who would fall for every paper-thin disguise…and the minions who were not QUITE too dumb to remember that The Big Plan exists, but dumb enough to need it explained to them over and over, in loud tones and in excruciating detail, by their one slightly-less-stupid colleague.
Had my PCs find a diary for someone they were tasked to track down, and they proceeded to NOT READ IT, just kept searching the room for other clues.
I’ve just had to tell them to roll for something they over looked, in nice games. Paranoia, you miss it, you suffer for it. Granted the sixpack of initial clones does make life easy to just carry on even if the clue hammer turned out to just be a rubber mallet whick handle was a barrel of loaded shotgun and one of the two sides is the trigger… oh I got better idea excuse me I neednto addd to my list of “OSHA noncomplant tools” for next time I get to run Paranoia… Gods I love it.
Honestly, I think I can be forgiven for leaving a major piece of the plot uninvestigated when the NPC I was supposed to interact with was also someone I needed to avoid to prevent me from blowing my cover.
On the DM side of things, I once had the two remaining foes in a coordinated mob fight telegraph that the fight was about to get a Round Two (talking is a free action):
A) “Use the thing!”
B) “Nuh-uh. Boss said to only use it in case of emergency.”
A) “Everybody else is dead or arrested– This IS an emergency!!!”
B) (proceeds to blow the Horn of Valhalla, summoning uber-tough reinforcements)
And yet, the PCs were so amused by the dialogue of the Team Rocket wannabes that they failed to shoot, stab, or bludgeon the last two mooks before five maxed-out 5HD barbarians from central casting showed up to ruin their day.
I wish I still had my foam “GET A CLUE” brick. They’d always realize they were being particularly dense when that bounced off someone’s head. Tootsie rolls also work. 1HP damage, but CANDY!
I’ll give the players several chances to notice a story thread and will usually present it in various ways to see if that will get their attention. But, if they are really just not paying attention to the game, then I will adjust the story arc to take that into account. Getting ambushed, stripped of their stuff and sold into slavery will usually make them pay attention (only did that once).
I like to think the vamps are actually saying (trademark) under their breath for those ™ symbols.
That is definitely a Clue Hammer, aka a Clue-by-Four, aka the Clue Bat, aka a Clue Brick…
“Have you ever been forced to put the plot in the mouth of an NPC?”
Nah. I don’t care if the PCs fail to follow my plot as long as they are following a plot. If they’re sitting around twiddling their thumbs complaining “there’s nothing to do” and still not paying attention to plot I bludgeon them about the cranium with a rolled up hardback GM’s guide.
Paladin: I know that EVIL monologuing is practically required, but this is ridiculous.
i favor the Nodwick approach of the Clue-by-four.
http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2012-01-08
Perhaps “Compel Monologue” is a class feature or spell?
The last adventure in which I was a player had something of an opposite problem. We managed to kidnap one of the top leadership from the bad guys and cast a Geas to have him explain what was going on to us. It very much short-circuited the investigation and deduction part of the game.
Some people in our group are a bit too savvy to let villains do a monologue without trying to coax a surprise round of the GM. But the clue hammer is typically some NPC nearby. Really smart-like, except a bit slow, they tend to reach the right conclusion (when it’s important to reach it) only after the PCs are done thinking and couldn’t solve the puzzle.
Alternatively, the clue hammer NPC can also be wise in determining the most likely correct answer among several candidates highlighted by the PCs. Really, the most loyal part of my characters is they are willing to admit the people in positions of power giving them quests are quite smart at piecing difficult clues together.
Shout-out to the GM who, after the party was at a loss of what to do, used a clue hammer NPC to lead us to the wrong conclusion.