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Message: <blockquote data-quote="SWBaxter" data-source="post: 3061312" data-attributes="member: 27926">I use sort of a drill-down system; my main handout is a very broad overview of the setting, at most a page, and if anybody asks about specific elements I give 'em more detailed handouts... if I have them, sometimes I just have the player make up details that interest him. That's cool because it makes the players feel more involved in the campaign.There was a time when I went with very dense, wordy handouts - sort of my "1e DMG" writing phase. Nowadays, I try to capture the essence of a topic in a paragraph of about 100 words or so, and only expand as necessary. I find the latter works a heck of a lot better. IME players who want tons of detail are a minority, most are happy to start with a broad overview and then fill in the details as they go.Somewhat tangentially, another type of handout I use is a "what your character knows about..." cheat sheet. This is a one page description of some topic that the PC knows well but the player may not; things like the care and feeding of horses, what overland travel is like, the hierarchy of feudal nobility, day to day life of a peasant farmer, how a medieval smithy operates, religious festivals, etc. These are mostly for interest's sake, I write them up when the mood strikes me and find they help some players become engaged with the world. Got the idea from a Traveller message board and it's something that I use more in science fiction campaigns than fantasy, but still has some use.</blockquote>

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