D&D 5E DM forgets to mention and describe a plot point, how should that be addressed?(Storm King's Thunder:possible minor spoilers)

[imdeadagain]

If I have to remember plot point like that then I'm buggered, I have enough problems remembering to put on pants in the morning...

Apologise, explain, and gloss over it.

 

[The Human Target]

Yeah the real mistake was bringing it up in the first place.

 

[Uchawi]

It is a DM problem, for the love of whatever you hold sacred, don't reveal to the table that you missed something. They will be second guessing you from that point forward

 

[Jester David]

I'd start the next session with a flashback where the obelisk is observed. Just some small incidental scene and then back to the present where the PCs can realize it's gone.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

...for the love of whatever you hold sacred, don't reveal to the table that you missed something. They will be second guessing you from that point forward

As a DM that always admits errors I make, regardless of the players noticing them without me pointing them out or not, I can say that this is entirely untrue. Players will only second guess you if you appear to need to be second guessed, which is not necessarily the case if you appear to be open and honest about your own fallibility rather than appearing to insist that you are, unlike everyone else in the world, infallible.

Besides, the only way to be sure you never get caught hiding your mistakes - which is the situation in which trust/confidence in you as a DM is most grievously diminished - is to not hide your mistakes.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Yeah, this whole thing is pretty funny because to make that obelisk have any bearing on the adventure at all, the DM has to make it up (or read what other people have done to make it important)!

Or in other words... Your DM is worrying about having missed some window dressing.

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[machineelf]

Presumably these are minor spoilers for SKT.

We started Storm King's Thunder's the other day, and as we're wrapping up the session(we had defeated all the Orcs in the town), our (very new)DM casually mentions that we had completely missed a plot point because we never examined something that was in the town square and it was gone now. Immediately, we're just like "What are you talking about?" And he tells us that we never examined the obelisk that was in the town square. We all look at each other, and we're like "Um, what obelisk? You never told us about an obelisk?"

Turns out, because we took a different route(following the walls of the town) to go to the keep from the drawbridge on our first trip into town, the DM completely forgot to ever describe the obelisk any of the times we passed by it before the obelisk was taken. So we're telling him "Dude, that's not our fault, you never mentioned an obelisk, or really described the town square or town in general at all." My character spent a little time walking around the town in general before the attack on the town, so I would assume that I would have at the very least noticed a large obelisk in the midst of the town. So we're all just wondering what this thing is, that our characters technically don't know anything about at this point.

My question is, how would you think that a DM should address that? Do you retcon the scenario where the plot item should have been introduced? Do you find some other way to introduce it? Our DM told us that it wouldn't be an issue, but I'm just curious how this sort of thing would generally be handled.

First I'd say is go easy on him and cut him some extra slack. We were all pretty bad as DMs when we first started, and it takes a little while to develop the skill of it. Sure it sucks the the players, especially players with a lot of experience. But it's a necessary evil. Hopefully after a few sessions under his belt, a lot of things will go a lot more smoothly.

But yea, I'd ret-con it. When I've done similar kinds of things when I started to DM, I would apologize to my players and then tell them that they did see the obelisk when they passed through town square earlier (even though I forgot to mention it before). I'd describe it and sort of try to make a mini scene to try to pull them back into the narrative so the ret-con doesn't seem too disjointed. Hopefully if the DM has the right kind of humble attitude, admitting that he/she is new and learning and trying not to make goof-ups, then most players really won't mind. Hopefully in the group you have, neither the players not the DM are jerks to each other.

 

[Arial Black]

Ret-conning, which is basically changing the past but pretending it was the new way the whole time, is better presented as a flash-back scene.

We all make mistakes. I once had the party be a diplomatic mission to get a town onside when, unbeknownst to them, the Zhentarim had sent their own adventuring party/diplomatic team to get the town over to their side,

The entire conceit was that instead of fighting and winning, in this case attacking the other delegation was an auto-fail of the diplomatic mission no matter who wins the fight. Therefore neither side wanted to start a fight (although they really came to despise each other) but were happy to fight and make it look like the other side started it. Cue the intrigue!

As part of it, one of the enemy party was a traitor to the party's city who had sold them out to the Zhents. One of the things the party noticed about him was that no detection type spells detected anything about him; this was due to his Amulet of Proof Against Detection and Location.

Anyway, long story short, the party's swashbuckler-type got provoked into a duel with the Zhentish duelist type, and had his head cut off by his Vorpal Sword. Awkward! Never mind; his head grew back because of an item which gave regeneration as the ring (2nd ed), and the Zhent had lost a leg to our hero's Sword of Sharpness. I ruled that the head grew back and that he was unconscious until the healing from the ring (only) had got him back to full hit points.

Anyway, the party were spitting mad at this point and decided to do the old 'Scry & Die' trick: scry the baddies, teleport in, loaded for bear. I described the room the baddies were in, including the traitor. One player said that it was strange because we couldn't detect him before.

Crap! Totally forgot about the amulet! What to do? Can't really say, 'Er...no, he's not there...!' and have him there anyway when they 'ported in!

Thinking on my feet I ret-conned (without telling the players anything!) that the traitor had lent his amulet to the duelist on the grounds that the party would not detect the duelist and assume that the lost leg kept him out of action; when the party 'ported in the duelist was there, two-legged and thanking the evil cleric.

Whew!

 

[cmad1977]

If I were the DM AND the obelisk was important AND I'd totally forgotten it or the heroes somehow missed it I would probably do one of following.

1: id do the whole 'hey guys, my bad. I forgot to describe this important thing because of 'reasons'. Anyways you saw it and know this about it.

2: during the 'recap' I would describe how they saw the thing I forgot and learned stuff about it. Maybe a player or two will say 'I don't remember seeing that.' To which I reply 'really? Yeah you guys totally went through that part. It was after the thing'
Players have terrible memories an the things they DO remember sometimes aren't the important things.


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