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<blockquote data-quote="taliesin15" data-source="post: 4570467" data-attributes="member: 22058">I completely agree with Hussar about never spending more than 5 minutes with one or two players separated from the other players. The first thing I was going to say was keep these separations short--as DM you need to encourage the players to speak fast if and when you talk to the apart from the others in order to keep up the flow of your game.Now, way back in the Dark Ages, well before you were born, when I was your age playing D&amp;D (our faces all covered in acne, half of us wearing polyester shirts), laptops weren't around, and sometimes instead of separating the players for situations like this, the DM passed handwritten notes. I still do this with my players, even though we all have technology.As a matter of fact, here's a nifty DM trick if to employ if you are certain that such an encounter is going to take place: make notes for the players ahead of time. This is a good idea for all kinds of situations, in fact, since in real life different people see different things. One example--the player characters ride into a strange village of people from another culture. One player sees them gathered around a fire chanting, thinks they are casting a spell. Another player notices that some of the children in the village are bored and aren't really singing along with their parents. The PC Fighter notices none of them are armed. The Cleric or Druid in the party recognizes that they aren't casting a spell, but are instead singing a traditional song and ritual which is in essence a prayer to the gods to make their crops more fruitful in the coming year.And, by the way, I often will just tell everyone straight up what the other language speaker says if it is routine information, as someone else suggested.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="taliesin15, post: 4570467, member: 22058"] I completely agree with Hussar about never spending more than 5 minutes with one or two players separated from the other players. The first thing I was going to say was keep these separations short--as DM you need to encourage the players to speak fast if and when you talk to the apart from the others in order to keep up the flow of your game. Now, way back in the Dark Ages, well before you were born, when I was your age playing D&D (our faces all covered in acne, half of us wearing polyester shirts), laptops weren't around, and sometimes instead of separating the players for situations like this, the DM passed handwritten notes. I still do this with my players, even though we all have technology. As a matter of fact, here's a nifty DM trick if to employ if you are certain that such an encounter is going to take place: make notes for the players ahead of time. This is a good idea for all kinds of situations, in fact, since in real life different people see different things. One example--the player characters ride into a strange village of people from another culture. One player sees them gathered around a fire chanting, thinks they are casting a spell. Another player notices that some of the children in the village are bored and aren't really singing along with their parents. The PC Fighter notices none of them are armed. The Cleric or Druid in the party recognizes that they aren't casting a spell, but are instead singing a traditional song and ritual which is in essence a prayer to the gods to make their crops more fruitful in the coming year. And, by the way, I often will just tell everyone straight up what the other language speaker says if it is routine information, as someone else suggested. [/QUOTE]

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