Giving hints

[BloodyAx]

I have a single PC campaign, and the player has not yet caught on to the little "hints" in descriptions that are made to let a clever character get an advantage. I generally get more and more obvious about the hint until they catch on, trying to get them to recognize this thing next time. Do you think this is a bad idea? It can be good because it teaches them to catch on, but it can be bad because they may depend on you and not feel any adverse effect from not catching on. I'd like to year people's opinions.

 

[Crothian]

can you give an example? I'm not entirely sure what you ar ehinting at that he isn't getting.

 

[BloodyAx]

Lets say that the character is at a large hill with cliffs on each side, with a cave near the top of one cliff. The obvious way of entering the caves within is to take follow a party of monsters to the secret enterence. The clever way to enter is to use their Rope of Climbing to make their way, step by step, up the cliff with the cave. I may hint in the description "There are scattered ledges large enough to stand on, and places where you could tie a rope to, if you could only reach them." If the character doesn't take the hint, I would make it more and more obvious until I finally tell them to take a closer look at their inventory.

 

[Bad Paper]

I have a single PC campaign

This alone will get you into trouble.

the player has not yet caught on to the little "hints" in descriptions that are made to let a clever character get an advantage

Sometimes this is a role-playing issue. I have a PC in a campaign that had the absolutely stupidest player ever, until we realized that at least some of it was very astute role-playing, geared particularly toward frustrating the DM. I'm not saying that this is your issue, but if you are getting clearly exasperated, then some of that could be secretly feeding the player's delight.

 

[BloodyAx]

I know that's not the case, because after some sessions, I point out what I was doing, and the player is clearly embarassed at how dense they were being.

 

[Nail]

IME, it's mostly a problem with there being one player. I may be a smart player....but I sure as heck aren't all the time. As I always tell my students: brainstorming a problem out-loud, with several others, practically always reveals a solution to the problem.

 

[Crothian]

Hints are good, and now the player knows s/he missed them hopefully that won't happen as much in the future

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

You know, you might actually get some better suggestions in the General forum, rather than here in the rules-specific one.

That's where most people ask their DMing style questions.

 

[BloodyAx]

thanks all, and i will move it to the general forum.

 

[shilsen]

As I posted in your other thread on the topic:

I personally don't take that approach. Once I describe a scenario adequately, I leave it up to the playerss to decide what their characters do. And if they decide to take an approach which isn't the most clever or ingenious, so be it. They are running the characters after all, so they should react as the players see fit, not based on any predetermined ideas I have of how they should act. At most, I will provide character information based on the given PCs and their skills/abilities, but I will definitely not be hinting that something is the smart thing to do.