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

[ThakTheManApe]

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.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

Here is what I would do as a DM:

Admit my error, apologize for not realizing it sooner (note: the apology is not because I feel the DM actually owes an apology, but because "Oops, sorry about that" has a preferable impact when compared to "Oops."), and work together with my group to determine the best possible way to proceed forward whether that means retcon, rewind, proceed forward without change, or some other thing I've not thought of.

 

[Satyrn]

Yeah, it doesn't matter what y'all do. If retconning works then go with that if y'all are fine with it.

I'm sure there's plenty of other ways to handle it, too, though. Not that I know what specifically since I know nothing of this adventure. It might suffice to just have an NPC tell y'all what you need to know. Or the DM can just tell the players what their characters need to know and you move on. Whatever.

I'm sure all of you together can come to a solution. It really doesn't matter what you do, whether in-game or out-of-game, whether it's retconning or even restarting, if it works for you guys it's a good, right decision.

 

[Satyrn]

Me, specifically, I've done the "Well crap, I've forgot to describe something" thing. I did the out of game solution of just telling the players after the fact. I guess that's retconning, but I thought of it more as "well, it didn't matter to the story until now."

 

[ccs]

Oops & an apology - same reason as AaronOfBarbaria.

Then I'd have an NPC come running on scene shouting about how "It's gone, they took the obelisk!" After that I'd be able to describe it, ask for any knowledge/history/ etc checks and re-introduce the skipped element to a degree.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

I don't see what the big deal is. So you didn't notice an obelisk, because you were distracted the few times you walked near it. No big deal.

The scenario where nobody notices the obelisk shouldn't play out significantly differently from the scenario where somebody notices the obelisk and decides to ignore it.

 

[happyhermit]

It would probably have been best for everyone if the GM had not mentioned the obelisk afterwards. No immersion would have been bothered nor curiosities raised and it isn't as if the adventure would have been any less fun without that obelisk or with that obelisk in another location, or if you failed to notice it.

 

[pukunui]

[MENTION=6873334]ThakTheManApe[/MENTION]: The thing is, that obelisk is actually meant to have been taken before the adventure even starts. Unless your DM changed it, there shouldn't be an obelisk for the PCs to notice at any point in the adventure. So your DM didn't really make a mistake by not mentioning it before.

 

[Rya.Reisender]

I have a DMing style where I just don't tell my players everything that's around them just because they walk past it. Instead, I tell them what they see when they specifically ask for it. So luckily, I can mostly rely on my players reminding me to tell them.

So for me it would probably go like (assuming Obelisk not stolen yet):
DM: "You are traveling past this and that."
Player: "I wanna look around, anything interesting to see nearby?"
DM: "Oh yeah, you see an Obelisk."

 

[transtemporal]

He's actually done the DM equivalent of painting himself into a corner but now that it's done, I think he just has to commit to it and roll with it.