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Message: <blockquote data-quote="delericho" data-source="post: 6738695" data-attributes="member: 22424">The thing is, that's potentially useful information - if it means there is a deposed king somewhere that the PCs can ally with, or a disloyal faction, or... well, something.IMO the problem is less that they provide information of this sort, but rather that, very often, it's just background lore that never goes anywhere.Yeah, it's the flip-side of the above: the issue is less that the adventure provide that information, but more that it's useless information in too many cases. You get told that Brenda the barmaid has a husband and four children back home and an abiding love of pumpkin pie... but absolutely none of those things have any relevance to anything that's happening. And, yeah, the DM can use that to make up some links if the PCs start asking questions, but the DM could just as easily make up those links without that information being given at all.But the biggest problem, IMO, is that you tend not to get a paragraph of useless information that can be safely ignored in most cases. Rather, you get a paragraph of mostly useless information with one crucial detail embedded in it. And, of course, that one crucial fact isn't highlighted in any way - it's just one more statement amongst several. Which makes it harder to prep (since you have to read the whole thing carefully) and harder to run (since you can't see the crucial detail at a glance).Assuming that the purpose of these things is to be used, rather than just read, adventure designers would do well to bear that in mind. Indeed, they could do worse than to just put this is a clue! in big, bold letters beside the important point.</blockquote>

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