D&D 5E narrative tools

[wellerpond]

I wanted to share with you two storytelling tools I recently added to my weekly game.There is a spellplagued guy in Helm's Hold by the name of Marcus.

Also known as "the messenger" he is somehow the conduit for messages from unknown people to unknown people in all languages ever spoken. Most of what he says is incomprehensible, but sometimes he has moments of lucidity. I use him to either give cryptic messages the players need to decode, or deliver premonitions, or hint at evil things they may need to deal with.

The other guy is a half-orc planeswalker named Trusk. A reluctant hero and second rate hero, he sometimes he pops up and asks for assistance, or he sometimes comes to the aid of the players. He can also get the players to a faraway location faster than overland travel.Since their influence is far and wide, I can bend them into any storyline I would like, either tangentially, or as a main plot arc. And when I am unsure how to connect the parts of the story, I use one of them to deliver the next seed. They've been a huge help!

Does anyone else have a go-to narrative mechanism like that?

 

[trentonjoe]

I have a "newspaper" . I plant seeds for adventure and recap sessions in it.

http://fayalweekly.weebly.com/

 

[nomotog]

The villain because spewing out guidance and/or exposition just makes my player hate and what to kill the character, so you know two birds.

 

[aramis erak]

I wanted to share with you two storytelling tools I recently added to my weekly game.There is a spellplagued guy in Helm's Hold by the name of Marcus.

Also known as "the messenger" he is somehow the conduit for messages from unknown people to unknown people in all languages ever spoken. Most of what he says is incomprehensible, but sometimes he has moments of lucidity. I use him to either give cryptic messages the players need to decode, or deliver premonitions, or hint at evil things they may need to deal with.

The other guy is a half-orc planeswalker named Trusk. A reluctant hero and second rate hero, he sometimes he pops up and asks for assistance, or he sometimes comes to the aid of the players. He can also get the players to a faraway location faster than overland travel.Since their influence is far and wide, I can bend them into any storyline I would like, either tangentially, or as a main plot arc. And when I am unsure how to connect the parts of the story, I use one of them to deliver the next seed. They've been a huge help!

Does anyone else have a go-to narrative mechanism like that?

Yes, but not one I use in D&D... (In Traveller, I've had a former PC with Psionic multiparsec teleport show up with wild information from time to time...)