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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pming" data-source="post: 8359307" data-attributes="member: 45197">Hiya![USER=42582]@pemerton[/USER] Well, black and red, obviously (black lion on red field). <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />As for "why not tell the players"...at what point does something change from "background fluff" to "important clue"? When running my games I do so with "I'm the DM. I'm Neutral and Fair...or at least strive to be". Because of that, I guess my 'failing' is that I don't point out what is or isn't "important for the PC's to remember for later". Hell, half the time even I don't know what's important yet! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />Because of this, Players in my game are expected (from my perspective) to always be paying attention. Making notes. Drawing maps. Asking questions...a LOT of questions. To help them remember 'stuff about the world', they need to actually engage with it. Meaning they need to "get into the setting, situation, and vibe of the moment". Players that sit down at my table and expect me to just feed them one crumb at a time as the gobble them up like some kind of crazed fantasy Pac Man so they can get to the end, fight the BBEG, and 'win' are in for a rude awakening. LOL!For example, if I say they see a small encampment around a large fire...a few hundred feet away. Maybe a dozen horses plus 3 wagons. And the sound of men singing along to some sort of wind instrument and drum. From that I'd expect my Players to either just leave...totally viable, but they may miss some info. If they do...not my fault. Or maybe they send the Monk/Druid/Ranger/Thief/whatever in to do some scouting. At which point I describe the crest and maybe let them make an Int Save to see if they recognize the language (unless they speak it). "They seem to be lightly armoured and armed soldiers... light horsemen probably. They have the standard of a red background with a black lion reared up facing left/west. They are singing some Keolandish song". Now they have info. A player may be keen to narrow down what they saw... "Do I know the Keolandish coat of arms? Is that it...red with a black lion"?  (me... [rolling some dice]...) ... "Yes, it is. You've seen it off and on all through your life, having grown up in the Yeomanry, though never in person".This is just normal play for us. Players ask questions about the world and situation, I fill them in. If they don't remember something specific, I usually allow some kind of roll to see of their PC remembers....but I'm not going to just ask out of the blue "Make an Int Save...." ..."Got a 19"... "You recognize the Keoland standard". No roll, just "This is what you see...". It's up to the players to do stuff with what I describe. If the Players don't even blink an eye when they see someone with a tattoo of a "black, '+' sign with wavy lines in stead of straight ones"... I'm not going to ask them to make any check or roll. When they get ambushed by Scarlet Brotherhood assassins and monks the next night...well...sucks to be them. (oh, for the record, my players wouldn't do that; if I mentioned a tattoo, they'd know it or they'd be asking questions or talking to NPC's to find out what that tattoo means...because, as I said, that's just how we role/roll <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> ).^_^Paul L. Ming</blockquote>

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